to represent ψ.. . . for Messalina: there is a gap in the text after the end of Book 6. Books 7 to 10 are missing, as well as part, perhaps as much as half, of Book 11, covering events from AD 37 to the beginning of 47, thus constituting all of Caligula’s reign and about half of Claudius’. The text resumes in midsentence and we soon see that at issue is the downfall of Valerius Asiaticus. He was a wealthy Gaul, from Vienne in Gallia Lugdunensis, who despite his provincial origins went on to hold two consulships. He was a close confidant of the emperor and accompanied him on the expedition against Britain. The chief agent in his downfall was Valeria Messalina, Claudius’ third wife. Messalina was determined to kill two birds with one stone, and simultaneously brought down Poppaea Sabina, mother of Nero’s second wife of the same name and reputedly the lover of Messalina’s favourite, the pantomime actor Mnester. Messalina claimed that Poppaea and Asiaticus had committed adultery. The accusation was launched by the sinister Publius Suillius, now returned from exile, and orchestrated by Lucius Vitellius, who has already made an appearance in Book 6.
Suillius: a notorious informant, first mentioned at 4.31 (ad 24) as an exquaestor of Germanicus, convicted of bribery and later enjoying the friendship of Claudius.
Britannicus: the son of Claudius, born, according to Suetonius (Claud. 27.2), twenty days after Claudius came to power.
Gaius Caesar’s: Caligula. His assassination would have been covered in the earlier missing books.
Crispinus: first husband of the daughter of Nero’s second wife Poppaea Sabina, Rufrius Crispinus was implicated in the conspiracy of Piso in AD 65 and committed suicide the following year (see 16.17).
Poppaea: the wife of Publius Cornelius Scipio, described at 13.45 as the great beauty of her age.
sons: the reputation of Suillius’ sons matched their father’s. Marcus Suillius Nerullinus (13.43) was accused of extortion; the Suillius Caesoninus mentioned at 11.36 because of his sexual vices is probably also a son.
Scipio: Publius Cornelius Lentulus Scipio could claim distinguished ancestry but also had an accomplished career of his own, as consul in 24 and probably governor of Asia in about 36/7.
Britain: Asiaticus had presumably participated in the expedition of AD 43.
laws: Claudius’ passion for legal proceedings is confirmed by Suetonius (Claud. 14).
Gaius Silius: as consul-designate he was entitled to speak first. He will reappear as the final lover of Messalina (11.12, 27–35).
Cincian law: introduced in 204 BC, this measure, among other things, prohibited the receipt of payment by advocates. It was revived by Augustus in 17 BC, but it had clearly once again fallen into abeyance.
Cossutianus: Cossutianus Capito was another active accuser of the period, a vigorous opponent of the philosopher Thrasea Paetus. He was banished for extortion in Cilicia but restored through the intervention of his father-in-law, Nero’s favourite, Tigellinus.
Clodius . . . Curio: these were strange precedents, no doubt seen as such by Tacitus. Publius Clodius Pulcher, tribune in 58 BC, was the bitter enemy of Cicero, and was killed in a street brawl with Milo. Gaius Scribonius Curio, ally of Clodius and tribune of 50 BC, was bribed to support Caesar during the late 50s, having previously opposed him.
I noted above: the last mention of Parthian affairs, in Book 6, saw Mithridates established in Armenia and Artabanus restored to the throne of Parthia. Under Caligula, Mithridates was summoned to Rome and arrested, and Armenia fell again under Parthian influence. Events are obscure following the death of Artabanus: Parthia was torn by civil war between his sons Gotarzes and Vardanes (a third brother, Artabanus, had been murdered). Once again Tacitus abandons his annalistic scheme in dealing with the Parthians. In chapters 8–10 he summarizes events from AD 42 to 48, then the narrative breaks off, to resume at 12.10.
three thousand stades: about 350 (modern) miles, an apparently impossible claim.
six years: the revolt must have begun in AD 36.
Arsacids: the ruling dynasty of Parthia; it lasted from the middle of the third century BC to about AD 230.
same consulship: Lucius Vitellius and Claudius himself. Their names would have appeared in the missing section.
Secular Games: confusion arose over the appropriate year for these games, since there were two possible cycles, one of 100 years, another of the Etruscan 110 years. Augustus applied the latter, Claudius the former, using the Varronian foundation date of 753 BC as the starting point. Suetonius (Claud. 21.2) claims that Claudius deviously recalculated the date although he believed that the Augustan calculation had been correct.
Domitian: Domitian’s celebration of the games would have been recounted in the final section of the Histories, now lost. For Tacitus’ possible responsibilities in the celebration, see the Introduction.
Game of Troy: it was on this occasion celebrated in the Circus games, which had been included in the Secular Games by Augustus in the celebration of 17 BC.
Lucius Domitius: this is the first mention in the extant Annals of the future emperor Nero, who had lived with his aunt when his mother Agrippina was exiled by Caligula (see note to p. 266). Nero was presumably reunited with Agrippina on the accession of Claudius, when she was recalled from the exile imposed by Caligula. Their activities after the recall up to this point are uncertain.
Germanicus: the potency of Germanicus’ name had been largely instrumental in securing the accession of his son Caligula, and to some degree that of his brother Claudius.
Junia Silana: (see 13.19) probably the daughter of Marcus Junius Silanus (3.24) and sister of Junia Claudilla, wife of Caligula; her death is recorded at 14.12.
young men: because they were subject to patria potestas, sons were not allowed to borrow money without the consent of the head of the house. To get around this, they secured loans that would be repaid (with interest) on the death of the father.
spring water: Claudius constructed two major aqueducts, the Anio Novus and the Aqua Claudia.
new alphabetic letters: Claudius had long had an interest in the shortcomings of the Roman alphabet and wrote a book about it (Suetonius, Claud. 41.3).
Cadmus: by tradition, Cadmus brought the Phoenician alphabet to Greece, as related by Herodotus 5.58.
three letters: Claudius introduced a reversed digamma ╛ to distinguish the consonantal v from the vocalic u, and a half H ├ to represent the sound between u and i; both of these are attested in inscriptions. The third was an antisigma to represent ψ.
college of soothsayers: these were the haruspices, who practised the Etruscan art of divination. As a result of Claudius’ proposal a college of sixty members was established.
one person of royal descent … Italicus: he was a Roman citizen, but it was clearly thought that the Cherusci would receive him as though he had been a hostage or a refugee.
Flavus: see 2.9.
Sanquinius: see note to p. 186. His appointment as legate of Germany would have been covered in the missing books.
Corbulo: this is the first extant reference in the Annals to Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, probably the most distinguished general of the reigns of Claudius and Nero. He was consul in 39, half-brother of the reprobate Suillius (see note to p. 215) and saw service in Germany and as governor of Asia. After sterling work in the East he was summoned by Nero to Greece in 67 and committed suicide to avoid execution.
triremes: these belonged to the Rhine fleet (Classis Germanica) established by Drusus, who cut a channel for it from the Rhine to the Zuyder Zee.
Frisian tribe: the revolt of the Frisians in AD 28 is covered at 4.72.
west of the Rhine: Rome did not again try to occupy the territory east of the lower Rhine.
Curtius Rufus: consul of 43, he is identified by some with Quintus Curtius Rufus, the historian of Alexander the Great; he may, however, have been the historian’s father.
financial loss: presumably the reference here is to the wear and tear on the legionaries’ clothing, for which they themselves had to pay, without any compensating opportunity for booty.
vision: the same story is told by Pliny the Younger (Ep. 7.27.2–3), who adds the information that Curtius would die in Africa while serving as governor (the date is unknown).
Gnaeus Nonius: otherwise unknown. Claudius was frequently the target of attempted assassinations (Suetonius, Claud. 13.1). In the period after his accession he would not even enter the Senate House without an armed guard.
paying their respects: these refer to the public morning receptions held by the emperor. Claudius had his visitors searched (Suetonius, Claud. 35.1).
a gladiatorial show: responsibility for public entertainments fell to the praetors, and the measure of Dolabella would have represented a significant change in procedure.
an age qualification: the formal establishment of minimum ages for the magistracies was enacted in the Lex Villia Annalis of 180 BC.
lex curiata: de imperio, a law passed by the curial assembly, the comitia curiata, bestowed imperium on the consuls and praetors.
Brutus: the first consul of the Roman republic, traditionally in 509 BC.
The first elected quaestors: elected in 447 BC. Tacitus is the only authority to provide this date.
legislation of Sulla: the Lex Cornelia, carried in 81 BC, increased the number of quaestors and made them members of the Senate.
Aulus Vitellius: the son of Claudius’ staunchest supporter, Lucius Vitellius, and destined to reign briefly as emperor in 69.
227a The following two chapters cover one of the most celebrated events of Claudius’ reign, the admission of Gallic notables to the Roman Senate. Claudius held the office of censor, which provided him with the opportunity to expand the membership of the Senate. We have an opportunity here to compare Tacitus’ account with the public record, since the speech of Claudius in favour of the measure has survived on a bronze tablet at Lyons, discovered there in the sixteenth century (http:// www.thelatinlibrary.com/claud.inscr.html). In the tradition of ancient historiography, Tacitus has recast the speech; it is shorter and less rambling than the original.
‘Long-haired’ Gaul: Claudius had himself been born in Lugdunum (Lyons) in Gallia Lugdunensis, one of the three imperial provinces that made up Gallia Comata, translated here as ‘Long-haired’ Gaul.
citizenship: leading individuals of federate tribes could hold Roman citizenship, but without senatorial rank.
Before the emperor: Tacitus here recounts the debate held in the imperial council, a group of the emperor’s close advisers.
Alesia: the scene of the siege in 52 BC of Vercingetorix by Julius Caesar, and of Caesar by the relieving Gallic forces (Caesar, Bellum Gallicum 7.68–84).
Capitol: the text is very corrupt here, but the reference is clearly to the capture of Rome and the siege of the Capitol by the Senonians after the battle of the River Allia in 390 BC.
convened the Senate: Claudius had been unable to convince members of his council and accordingly presented his arguments to the Senate, as a relatio or formal motion for a vote.
Clausus: see 4.9.
Alps: Caesar granted citizenship to the Gauls north of the Po in 49 BC.
real peace: the claim is remarkable and seems contrary to historical facts.
settling our legions in colonies: colonies were established throughout the empire to provide for veterans but also as a way of spreading Romanization, largely through intermarriage.
the Balbuses: Lucius Cornelius Balbus from Cadiz received citizenship through Pompey. In 40 BC he became the first foreigner to obtain the consulship, but anomalously, since he remained an equestrian. His nephew of the same name was the first foreign-born Roman to earn a triumph.
the Spartans and the Athenians: Claudius has in mind the relationship between the Spartans and Messenia, and Athens and her confederacy.
Etruscans: there was a tradition that the Etruscans, led by Lars Porsena, occupied Rome after the expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus.
Samnites: the disaster of the Caudine Forks occurred in 321 BC, when Roman troops were compelled by the Samnites to pass under the yoke.
a shorter time than that against the Gauls: 59–50 BC; there had in fact been shorter conquests and in the speech that has survived in the record, Claudius stresses the stubbornness of their resistance.
Aedui: the passage is ambiguous. It is not clear if they were the first among many to receive the privilege on this occasion, or by what process the rights were bestowed (probably by adlectio, or special appointment, one of the tasks of the censor). The supposed brotherhood of the Aedui and the Romans was of some antiquity; in his Gallic War, Caesar alludes to it having been frequently recognized by the Senate (Bellum Gallicum 1.33.2).
treaty: the date is unknown, but they were federate (foederati) in the period of the Gracchi (Livy, Per. 61).
patricians: it was necessary to maintain the numbers of the patricians, much diminished during the civil wars, since they alone could hold certain religious offices.
‘Greater’: the hundred greater houses were supposedly established by Romulus, and by tradition the ‘Lesser’ houses were added by Tarquinius. Only Tacitus ascribes this latter role to Brutus.
Lex Saenia: in Res Gestae 8.1, Augustus refers to increasing the number of patricians during his fifth consulship (29 BC). Saenius was consul in the previous year (30 BC).
census-purification: the formal ceremony (lustrum) was conducted by the censors at the end of their term.
the count of the citizens: the Augustan census figures of 28 and 8 BC were 4,063,000 and 4,233,000, indicating a considerable increase in population by Claudius’ reign, testimony no doubt to the order and stability brought about by the imperial system in its early days.
an incestuous marriage: Tacitus is alluding to Claudius’ later marriage to his niece Agrippina.
Ostia: Claudius’ presence at Ostia, Rome’s port city, may have been connected to issues of the grain-supply.
incredible: Tacitus’ admission that the events to be described will seem unbelievable makes his account all the more credible, although the motives of the participants remain baffling.
an actor: Mnester. Tacitus alludes again, a few chapters later, to the affair between Mnester and Messalina (11.36); Dio gives a livelier account, claiming that the adultery was encouraged by Claudius, and that all the bronze coins bearing Caligula’s image were melted down to be used by Messalina to make statuettes of Mnester (Dio 60.22.3, 28.3). According to Suetonius (Cal. 36), Caligula had earlier been his lover.
Callistus: he had been a freedman of Caligula, who switched his allegiance to Claudius and was almost certainly involved in Caligula’s assassination. He was a libellis, in charge of petitions. He was noted for his prodigious wealth.
Narcissus: he was ab epistulis, in charge of correspondence, the most powerful and most obstinately loyal of the Claudian freedmen.
Appius: the murder of Appius Junius Silanus occurred in 42 (see the note on 4.91).
Pallas: he had been a slave of Claudius’ mother Antonia. He was a rationibus, in charge of finances.
Titius, Vettius, and Plautius: lovers of Messalina; Titius Proculus (see 11.35), Vettius Valens (11.31, 35), and Plautius Lateranus (11.36).
Turranius: he had been appointed to the office on the death of Augustus, thirty-four years earlier. He was now in his nineties (Seneca, De Brevitate Vitae 20).
Lusius Geta: the praetorian prefect and colleague of Rufrius Crispinus. It was usual for one of the prefects to accompany the emperor on his travels. Lusius would go on to be prefect of Egypt.
Vettius Valens: mentioned as a lover of Messalina in the above section. He was an eminent physician (Pliny, NH 29.1.8).
Vibidia: Vestals had the right of access to the emperor, and were entitled to intervene on behalf of the convicted. Claudius was of course supreme pontiff (Pontifex Maximus), which would make a Vestal intervention doubly appropriate.
Largus Caecina: he had been Claudius’ colleague in the consulship of 42, six years earlier.
Silius’ father: the condemnation of the elder Silius in AD 24 is recounted at 4.18–20.
Nerones and Drusi: Claudius was a Nero through his paternal grandfather Tiberius Claudius Nero and a Drusus through his grandmother Livia, whose father had been adopted by Livius Drusus.
Suillius Caesoninus: almost certainly one of the two sons of the delator Publius Suillius Rufus (see 11.2).
Plautius Lateranus: see 11.30; he would return to the Senate in 55 (13.11) and later join the Pisonian conspiracy of 65 against Nero (15.49, 60). His property was confiscated and supposedly given later to the Christian Church, preserving his memory in the name of the Lateran cathedral. His uncle was Aulus Plautius, commander of the expeditions against Britain.
Lepida: she was the cousin of Agrippina the Younger and great-niece of Augustus. Her first husband was Valerius Messala Barbatus; her second husband, Gaius Appius Junius Silanus, was brought down through the instigation of Messalina, and relations between mother and daughter would not have been especially warm.
It was . . . consequences: the manuscript text of the final sentence of this section is hopelessly corrupt.
Lollia Paulina: granddaughter of Marcus Lollius, consul of 21 BC, former wife of Caligula. Her extravagance in jewellery is noted by Pliny (NH 9.117).
Aelia Paetina: she had previously been married to Claudius and had borne him a daughter, Antonia.
Gnaeus Ahenobarbus: see 4.75.
Lucius Silanus: born about 26/7, great-great-grandson of Augustus, Lucius Junius Silanus accompanied Claudius to Britain; he went ahead to Rome to report the victory, and was awarded triumphal honours.
Junia Calvina: a woman of great charm (Seneca, Apoc. 8.2), married to Lucius Vitellius, brother of the later emperor.
resign his magistracy: Suetonius (Claud. 29.2) reports that Silanus resigned on 29 December.
Eprius Marcellus: consul of 62 and 74, a notorious accuser who amassed great wealth (see 13.33, 16.22, 28, 29).
escorted: the Latin deducere (to escort) was often used essentially to mean ‘marry’, after the practice of accompanying the new bride to the house of her husband.
Palatium: the reference here is to the imperial residence that stood on and took its name from the Palatine Hill.
mind of a censor: the censors had the task of supervising public morality; Claudius assumed the office in 47 and took his duties seriously. Vitellius acknowledges his special talent for the role, and observes that it was entirely proper that such an individual should have a wife.
at the whim of the Caesars: notoriously, Tiberius Claudius Nero had divorced Livia as a favour to Augustus (see note to p. 10), while within living memory Caligula had obliged the husbands of Livia Orestilla (variously named) and Lollia Paulina to divorce their wives (Suetonius, Cal. 24) to make them available for himself.
decree: the decree allowing marriage between a man and the daughter of his brother (it did not apply to the daughter of his sister) remained in force until the fourth century, when it was possibly abolished by Constantine.
Calvina was banished: she was recalled some ten years later, after the death of Agrippina, and lived into Vespasian’s reign.
laws of King Tullus: Tullus Hostilius, Rome’s third king, prescribed expiatory rites for Horatius after he killed his sister.
Annaeus Seneca’s: this is the first reference in the extant books of the Annals to the famous writer and philosopher, who will play a prominent role from now on until his death in 65. He had been exiled to Corsica in 41 on the charge of being the lover of Caligula’s sister, Julia Livilla.
Mammius Pollio: as consul-designate he was called upon first to give his opinion on a question, but was not obliged to limit his remarks to that question.
the Parthian representatives: their mission was referred to at 11.10, and it is to be supposed that the lapse in time is accounted for by their journey.
Augustus . . . a king: on the death of Orodes III in about AD 6, the Parthians requested Rome to provide a king. Augustus sent Vonones, father of Meherdates.
Gaius Cassius: Gaius Cassius Longinus, consul in 30, appointed governor of Syria in 44. He was an eminent legal scholar and author of several books on civil law. Banished by Nero, he was recalled by Vespasian (see 13.41, 48; 14.42). He was the brother of Lucius Cassius Longinus (see 6.15).
the Cassian family: Gaius Cassius, the assassin of Julius Caesar, had played an important role in defending Syria against a Parthian invasion after the defeat of Crassus at Carrhae in 53 BC.
Acbarus: see note to p. 210.
Carenes: presumably satrap of Mesopotamia.
Adiabeni: located in northern Assyria. Meherdates had clearly advanced a considerable distance.
Izates: he had probably become king early in Claudius’ reign. He was a key player in the endless dynastic disputes in Parthia.
final battle: Nineveh (Ninos) was not far from Gaugamela, site of the last battle between Alexander and Darius, in 331 BC.
Vologaeses: Vologaeses I seems to have been on the throne as early as September 51. He proved to be a powerful opponent, and plays a key role in Tacitus’ account of Parthian affairs. He reigned until his death in 79/80.
Mithridates of Bosporus: he is to be distinguished from Mithridates of Armenia (11.8). His kingdom was located in the Crimea and along the north coast of the Black Sea. He had ruled part of it under Caligula, and it was extended by Claudius in 41. He was removed in 46 because of doubts about his loyalty, to be succeeded by his brother Cotys (probably covered by Tacitus in now missing chapters).
Didius: see 12.40, 14.29; consul in AD 39, he was governor of Moesia from 44, and later of Britain (52–7). He had a distinguished career, and won triumphal honours.
Achaemenes: founder of the Achaemenid Persian dynasty and great-grandfather of Cyrus. The genealogy claimed by Mithridates was highly dubious.
Mithridates . . . taken to Rome: he remained at Rome until the accession of Galba, when he was put to death as a supposed accomplice of Nymphidius (Plutarch, Galba 15).
Junius Cilo: he clearly enjoyed imperial favour; later governor of Bithynia, he was prosecuted for extortion but acquitted through the intervention of Narcissus. He received higher insignia than Aquila, whose role seems to have been more substantial.
Lucius Volusius’ sister: Volusia, sister of Lucius Volusius Saturninus, the consul of AD 3 (see 13.30). Lucius died in 56 at the age of 93; inscriptions reveal that he held a number of positions, including that of governor of Dalmatia. He was city prefect at the time of his death (Pliny, NH 7.62).
Calpurnia: ‘of great distinction’ to distinguish her from the courtesan Calpurnia mentioned at 11.30. She was allowed to return from exile after Agrippina’s death (14.12).
Lollia’s case: see 12.1; Dio (60.32.4) adds the detail that Lollia’s head was brought to Agrippina, who identified it by the teeth.
Cadius Rufus: governor of Bithynia 43–8, he was expelled from the Senate after conviction but later restored by Otho.
Sohaemus: he had been appointed king by Caligula, and presumably died in this year.
Agrippa: ‘Herod’ Agrippa was given territories by Caligula which were enlarged by Claudius. He had in fact died in 44, some five years earlier than the events described.
pomerium: the consecrated ground constituting the sacred and religious boundary of the city of Rome.
those who extended the empire: the reference is to Claudius’ victories in Britain in 43.
Palatine Hill: the pomerium of Romulus was drawn along the base of the Palatine Hill.
temple of Consus: the altar of Consus was located between the Palatine and Aventine and uncovered only during certain festivals.
ancient curiae: traditionally the original meeting place of the parishes of the Roman people (curiae). It lay somewhere between the Septizonium and the temple of Jupiter Victor.
Titus Tatius: according to tradition, king of the Sabines.
patricians of the Claudian family: a distinction is made with the plebeian Claudii Marcelli.
Attus Clausus: see 4.9.
a law was passed: Domitius’ father was dead and Domitius was consequently sui iuris (not subject to the jurisdiction of a third party); hence a formal law was needed for the adoption.
Augusta: Agrippina was the first woman so honoured while her husband was alive. Livia, and possibly Antonia, had received the title during their own lifetimes.
a colony: the future city of Cologne, founded as Colonia Agrippiniensis at Ara Ubiorum. The colony was very successful, with considerable privileges granted to the town’s original inhabitants; it enjoyed a later prosperity that was much resented by other German communities.
Vannius: see 2.63.
Vibilius: in AD 19 he was responsible for the expulsion of Catualda from his kingdom (2.63). Now he was giving the same treatment to Vannius.
Vangio and Sido: Sido was still in power in AD 69 when he fought on the Flavian side along with Italicus, who had succeeded Vangio.
Palpellius Hister: consul in AD 43.
Britain: Caligula’s planned invasion of Britain and Claudius’ actual invasion, and the subsequent advance of the Romans north and westward under the first governor, Aulus Plautius, would have been covered in the lost books of the Annals. At this point Tacitus once again violates annalistic principles, as he often does when dealing with military campaigns. Although at 12.25 he introduced the narrative of AD 50, he now goes back to AD 47, and then covers events in Britain up to 54.
Publius Ostorius: Publius Ostorius Scapula was consul in AD 59; he succeeded Aulus Plautius in Britain in 47. He was forced to commit suicide under Nero in 66 (see 14.48).
Trisantona: Trisantona is reconstructed from a very corrupt reading in the manuscripts. As emended, it is taken to refer to the River Trent, although certainty is not possible.
Iceni: they would play an important role in later history when Boudicca, the widow of their king, led a major rebellion.
allied troops: the auxiliaries; the legions were involved in the expansion of Roman territory, and only auxiliaries were available to deal with the unrest.
prize of honour: this refers to the ‘civic crown’; see the note to p. 106.
Decangi: the name is uncertain (the manuscript gives Cangi). They were located in North Wales.
legionary camp: at Gloucester.
Camulodunum: Colchester; local resentment over the establishment of this colony fuelled Boudicca’s rebellion.
Caratacus: one of the sons of Cunobelinus, an important British king (Shakespeare’s Cymbeline), he would presumably have been mentioned in the missing books of the Annals, since Dio (60.20.1) speaks of his involvement during the early stages of the invasion. He fled west to Wales after the death of his brother and achieved heroic status (Welsh ‘Caradoc’).
Caratacus’ wife and daughter: in Britain, as in Germany, it was common for families to accompany warriors to the battlefield.
Cartimandua: she was a steadfast ally of the Romans, and reigned until AD 69. Her name appears in the manuscripts as Cartimandus in the Annals and Cartimandua in the Histories (with minor variants in both cases); the reading Cartimandus may well be correct, but it is by the latter feminized spelling that she has long become familiar.
eight years: presumably AD 51, the year in which an arch was dedicated in Rome to celebrate the victories over the Britons.
forefathers: she was great-granddaughter of Augustus. In addition she was granddaughter of Drusus and daughter of Germanicus, two men associated in the popular imagination with northern conquests.
Syphax: king of Numidia, paraded in the triumph of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus in 201 BC.
Perses: king of Macedonia, paraded in the triumph of Lucius Aemilius Paulus in 167 BC.
Sugambri: they had been defeated by Tiberius in 8 BC and the remaining elements of the tribe had been moved to the west bank of the Rhine.
Manlius Valens: he survived the defeat and commanded a legion some years later (in 69) and, remarkably, became consul as late as 96.
Venutius . . . already mentioned: he evidently appeared in the now-missing chapters.
legion: the employment of a legion testifies to the seriousness of the situation.
before his time: Nero had passed his thirteenth birthday. The toga virilis was not normally conferred before the fourteenth.
twentieth year: Gaius and Lucius Caesar received the same prerogative. Private citizens could hold the consulship at 32 if they were nobiles.
‘Prince of the Youth’:as elsewhere, Nero here followed the precedent of Gaius and Lucius (see 1.3).
triumphal dress: the vesta triumphalis was worn not only by those awarded a triumph but also by senior magistrates on important occasions, and then by the emperor (see 13.8). Caesar was entitled to use it at public events and it was worn by Caligula at the dedication of a temple and by Nero in receiving Tiridates (Dio 44.4.2, 6.1; 59.7.1; 63.3.3). In Nero’s case the privilege derived presumably from his proconsular imperium.
‘Domitius’: the point of the insult is that by addressing Nero by his old family name, which would have been legally given up when he entered the Claudian family, Britannicus ignores his adoption.
Burrus Afranius: Burrus came from Vasio in Narbonese Gaul and served as procurator, although an inscription from his home town supports Tacitus in speaking of a distinguished military service.
daughter . . . of men: Agrippina was daughter of Germanicus, sister of Caligula, wife of Claudius, and mother of Nero.
Vitellius: this is the last reference in the Annals to the familiar Lucius Vitellius, and he presumably died shortly afterwards.
his brothers: Tiridates and Pacorus, rulers of Media (see 12.50, 15.2).
the Albani: they appear in 6.33 as the allies of Pharasmanes. Nothing is known of the war alluded to.
Casperius: some years later Corbulo sent Casperius on a mission to Vologaeses (15.5).
Ummidius Quadratus: consul, possibly in AD 40, he succeeded Gaius Cassius as governor of Syria, where he died while still in office, probably in 60.
meeting of his staff: the staff meeting (consilium) would involve the legate and senators and senior military officers (including, one assumes, Casperius, although he is not mentioned). As governor of Syria, Ummidius had jurisdiction over the procurator of Cappadocia.
Helvidius Priscus: the mention of the name without qualification might seem to suggest that he is the famous Stoic who became son-in-law of Thrasea Paetus. But that Helvidius did not apparently acquire the quaestorship until the reign of Nero (Scholia in Juvenalem 5.36), while legati of legions were normally of at least praetorian rank. It is possible that the Helvidius of this section is a different person and was introduced more fully in one of the missing books.
Tiridates: he had in the meantime regained Armenia. The last events have jumped forward in time and belong to AD 54. The next section returns to events in Rome in 52. Parthian affairs resume in 13.6.
Furius Scribonianus: nothing more is known of him except that he was the son of Marcus Furius Camillus, who as legate of Dalmatia had joined the unsuccessful conspiracy against Claudius in AD 42. Camillus was survived by his wife, Vibia. Her conduct was much criticized by Arria, the wife of one of the other conspirators, who chose to die along with her husband (Pliny, Ep. 3.16.2).
senatorial order: a similar scrutiny of the senatorial rolls had taken place four years earlier.
It was decided: the senatus consultum Claudianum remained in force until the time of Justinian, although the penalties were reduced by subsequent emperors.
Barea Soranus: a distinguished Stoic, Quintus Marcius Barea Soranus was perhaps acting out of character on this occasion and perhaps under pressure from Agrippina. He was put to death in AD 66.
Arcadian: Virgil in Aeneid 8 associated Evander, king of the Arcadians and father of Pallas, with the future city of Rome. The connection between the Pallas of antiquity and the freedman of Claudius is a piece of obsequious fiction.
honour: Claudius’ words were reflected in the official decree that marked the event (Pliny, Ep. 7.29.2, 8.6.4).
Felix: Antonius Felix was the freedman of Claudius’ mother Antonia. He was sent as procurator to Judaea, and St Paul was famously tried by him, some time after 52 (Acts 24). He was recalled by Nero and escaped prosecution through his brother’s influence.
broke out after: there is a gap in the manuscript at this point. It would probably have contained a reference to Caligula’s order that his effigy be placed in the temple in Jerusalem (see Tacitus, Hist. 5.9.4).
Ventidius Cumanus: he served in Judaea from 48 to 52.
Galileans . . . Samaritans: Tacitus’ account of these events differs markedly from that of Josephus, who does not refer to any division between the two procurators (AJ 20.5.3, 6.1). It may be that Tacitus has confused events and that Felix was on the staff of Ummidius while Cumanus was procurator.
Antiochus: Antiochus IV Epiphanes was created king of Commagene by Caligula, then possibly dismissed by him. He was apparently restored by Claudius and given part of Cilicia in addition. He supported Vespasian but was removed in AD 72, on suspicion of collaboration with the Parthians.
the Fucine lake: located in the Apennines, east of Rome, this was the third-largest lake in Italy. With no natural outlet it frequently overflowed, and plans to drain it were mooted by Julius Caesar, and finally brought about by Claudius. The undertaking took eleven years, involving a tunnel beneath Monte Salviana that in places had to be hewn through solid limestone. The project needed constant maintenance and further work under Trajan and Hadrian. The lake was permanently drained in the nineteenth century.
Narcissus: Dio (60.33.5) reports that he diverted funds for the project, then deliberately caused the collapse to cover up his misbehaviour.
sixteen: in January 53 Nero had in fact just passed his fifteenth birthday and was in his sixteenth year.
Octavia: after Nero’s adoption by Claudius, Octavia became his sister, and he had to be adopted by another family before he was legally allowed to marry her.
Rhodians: they originally won their freedom by serving Rome in the Mithridatic and Macedonian wars. They lost it in AD 44 for crucifying Roman citizens (Dio 60.24.4).
Statilius Taurus: consul in AD 44, son of the consul of the same name of AD 11 and close associate of Augustus.
Tarquitius Priscus: despite his expulsion at this time from the Senate, he reappears as governor of Bithynia, and must presumably have been readmitted to the Senate, probably under Nero, in whose reign he was convicted of extortion (see 14.46).
judgements made by his procurators . . . himself: this passage is one of the most discussed of all the Annals. The difficulty is that we are not sure which procurators are at issue here. The title could refer to a wide range of offices from the governor of a small district (from Claudius on, the term was preferred to the previous praefectus) to the steward of one of the emperor’s private domains. Under Claudius, these private procurators assumed more of a public role and were accordingly granted jurisdiction in disputes.
Egypt: from the outset of the imperial period, Egypt had special status. Although a major province, it was governed by an equestrian with the rank of prefect.
class struggle: there had been intense competition between the senatorial and equestrian orders for control of the courts from 122 to 80 BC.
Sempronian proposals . . . Servilian laws: the Sempronian proposals refer to the bills of Gaius Gracchus in 122 BC, the Servilian laws to the measures of Servilius Glaucia in 106.
Gaius Oppius and Cornelius Balbus: these were Caesar’s close friends and financial agents in Rome when he was away in Gaul. They represented him in his dealings with Pompey.
the Matii, the Vedii: Gaius Matius is well known for a frank and exemplary letter written to Cicero after the murder of Caesar (Ad Familiares 11.28). He is coupled here with Publius Vedius Pollio, who had a dark reputation for extravagance and cruelty.
Xenophon: inscriptions reveal that Gaius Stertinius Xenophon pursued a highly successful military career in addition to gaining a reputation as one of the most renowned doctors of the time (see 12.67).
those same islanders’ services: the Coans had remained faithful to Rome in the wars against Antiochus the Great (ended 189 BC) and Perses (ended 168 BC) and had protected Roman citizens during the depredations of Mithridates in 88 BC (see 4.14).
the Macedonian king: Andriscus, in 148 BC. He claimed to be the son of Perses.
Aristonicus: he had claimed the kingdom of Pergamum after it was bequeathed to Rome (see 4.55).
Antonius: Marcus Antonius Creticus, the father of the famous triumvir, who was given a command against the pirates in 74 BC and died in 71.
the Greeks founded Byzantium: it was founded in 657 BC, probably by Megareans. Chalcedon was founded seventeen years earlier.
inferior: Chalcedon was established on the eastern shore of the Bosporus, while Byzantium was located on the western.
wars in Thrace and the Bosporus: it may be that the Byzantines are referring to the events covered in 4.46–51; for the Bosporan wars, see 12.15–21.
younger Antonia: Tacitus is in error here. Domitia was the daughter of the elder Antonia (for similar confusion, see note to p. 161).
Nero: Domitia had taken in Nero at the age of 3 after the death of his father and the exile of Agrippina (Suetonius, Nero 6).
. . . nothing to fear: the meaning of this passage is far from clear, and the translation is based on the following interpretation of Woodman: if Nero came to power, Narcissus would have the same grounds for accusing Agrippina as he had for accusing Messalina, namely, ambition for power, and would accordingly have to be silenced by Agrippina. If Britannicus succeeded, he, as the new emperor, would owe nothing to Narcissus, and might put him to death as the man who brought about his mother’s death.
Britannicus: in Suetonius (Claud. 43), it is Claudius who makes the display of affection to Britannicus. Tacitus might have preferred a version which showed a freedman rather than Claudius taking action.
Locusta: she would supposedly be called into service again to abet the murder of Britannicus (see 13.15). She was put to death by Galba (Dio 64.3.4).
Halotus: he survived Nero, and was appointed to an important procuratorship by Galba (Suetonius, Galba 15).
reward: Xenophon and his brother Quintus Stertinus between them left an estate of thirty million sesterces (Pliny, NH 29.18).
blocked with guards: the parallels between the deaths of Augustus and of Claudius are striking and it is difficult not to suspect that the tradition about Agrippina influenced the accounts of Livia, who also reputedly blocked the roads with guards (see 1.5).
father’s generous distributions: Claudius had promised each praetorian 15,000 sesterces.
The first death: the language is reminiscent of the opening of Tiberius’ reign and the announcement of the death of Agrippa Postumus (1.6).
Junius Silanus: consul in AD 46, criticized by Dio (61.6.5) for his avarice in governing Asia.
mature age: Silanus was 40.
great-great-grandson: Silanus was the grandson of the younger Julia.
Publius Celer: he was later indicted for misconduct in Asia; his case was postponed until he died of natural causes (see 13.33).
Helius: he was later left in charge of Italy during Nero’s absence in Greece. He was put to death by Galba.
related above: see 12.57, 65.
lictors: these were presumably assigned to her in connection with her priesthood.
priesthood: Livia had similarly been granted a priesthood in the cult of the deified Augustus.
deification: Claudius’ temple was begun by Agrippina, but not completed until the time of Vespasian.
cultural pursuits: Suetonius (Claud. 41) enumerates Claudius’ literary achievements, including a history and an eight-volume autobiography.
Caesar: Cicero claims Atticus said that Caesar had no match among Latin orators (Brutus 72, 252).
his coming principate: the format laid out by Nero with its careful division of powers and responsibilities is very close to that prescribed by Augustus.
payment or gifts: Claudius had earlier fixed the fee that pleaders could command (see 11.7) and the relationship of the Neronian law to Claudius’ measure is unclear.
quaestors-designate: Domitian (Suetonius, Domitian 4) is said to have reimposed this obligation, but it had perhaps never in practice disappeared. The Life of Lucan (anonymous, possibly by Suetonius) claims that the poet, when quaestor, arranged to put on a show ‘according to established tradition’.
so that Agrippina could be present . . . her hearing: Nero would later claim (14.11) that she tried to enter the actual chamber.
Gnaeus Pompey: born in 106 BC, he received his first command in 84, when he was actually 23, but had already served under his father in 87.
Caesar Octavianus in his nineteenth: in 44 BC. In the Res Gestae (1.1), Augustus refers to assuming military command at the age of 18.
Agrippa and Antiochus: Marcus Julius Agrippa was the son of Julius ‘Herod’ Agrippa (see note to p. 246). Originally granted Chalcis by Claudius, his territories had subsequently been enlarged by both Claudius and Nero. For Antiochus IV of Commagene, see note to p. 262.
Aristobulus: the son of Herod of Chalcis, whose kingdom he subsequently acquired. After his reign Armenia seems to have been incorporated into the empire by Vespasian.
Sohaemus: Josephus (AJ 20.8.4) states that he was made king of Emesa in Syria in this year (ad 54). He was later a supporter of Vespasian.
triumphal dress: see note to p. 254.
Arrius Varus: almost certainly to be identified with the distinguished later supporter of Vespasian.
imperial fasces: these were the fasces borne by the twelve lictors assigned to Augustus in 19 BC and retained by his successors. They were wreathed with laurels for victories won under his auspices.
Gnaeus Domitius: he had been dead some fifteen years.
Roman knight: trials in the Senate did not exclusively involve juries of peers; there are several instances of knights being tried in the Senate.
consulship: Claudius had assumed the consulship at the beginning of his reign and Nero followed his example.
Acte: she came from Asia, survived Nero, and was one of the loyal women who buried his remains (Suetonius, Nero 50).
Marcus Otho: the future emperor. Suetonius (Otho 2) indicates that he was now 23 years old.
a consular family: Marcus Otho’s father, Lucius Otho, was consul in AD 33.
Annaeus Serenus: he was a close younger friend of Seneca, prefect of the vigiles; he died along with some of his officers through eating poisonous mushrooms at a banquet (Seneca, Ep. 63.14; Pliny, NH 22.96).
resignation oath: on resigning office, a higher magistrate took an oath that he had done nothing against the law.
fourteenth year: the birthday would be an important one, since at that age Britannicus would adopt the toga virilis.
the festal days of Saturn: the Saturnalia were celebrated in Nero’s day from 17 to 23 December, a period of licensed merry-making and possibly the precedent for the Christmas festivities.
previously tested: Suetonius (Nero 33) reports that he tried it first on a kid, which survived for five hours, then, after improvements, on a pig.
other young nobles: Suetonius (Titus 2) claims that the future emperor Titus was among them, and became ill through eating the poison.
Campus Martius: in the Mausoleum of Augustus.
Claudian bloodline: he was the last male born into the family. Nero was a Claudian by adoption.
the established practice of their ancestors: there was an ancient Roman custom of burial by night. It survived into the imperial period in the case of those whose family could not afford lavish ceremonies or who had died prematurely.
the military watch: the praetorians attached to her quarters on the Palatine.
Germans: see 1.24.
morning-callers: presumably those who followed the traditional ritual of greeting Nero each morning took the opportunity to visit her.
noted above: see 11.12.
Sextius Africanus: consul in AD 59, a descendant of Titus Sextius, legate of Nero in Gaul.
Rubellius Plautus: son of Rubellius Blandus and Julia, granddaughter of Tiberius; he was later exiled and put to death (14.22, 59).
Domitia: sister of Domitia Lepida (see note to p. 235) and Nero’s father Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus. Crispus Passienus had divorced her to marry Agrippina. Suetonius (Nero 34) and Dio (61.17.1) claim that Nero later had her poisoned to get possession of her property.
Paris: see 13.27; Nero put him to death in AD 67 as a professional rival (Suetonius, Nero 54; Dio 63.18).
Fabius Rusticus: a protégé of Seneca the Younger, much admired by Quintilian (10.1.104) and regarded by Tacitus (Agr. 10) as the most eloquent of the moderns as Livy was of the ancients (see 14.2, 15.61). He appears along with Tacitus and Pliny in the will of a wealthy Spaniard, Dasumius, drawn up in AD 108. He published a history in 83/4, of which little is known.
Caecina Tuscus: Suetonius (Nero 34) and Dio (63.18.1) say that he was the son of Nero’s nurse and afterwards became prefect of Egypt, and was banished in the last year of Nero’s reign for using his master’s bath.
Plinius: Pliny the Elder wrote a history of the later Julio-Claudian period (see 15.53). The history was mentioned by Pliny the Younger (Ep. 3.5.6) and by the elder Pliny himself (NH, Preface 20).
Cluvius: he had been a consul and assumed the role of Nero’s herald in the theatre (Suetonius, Nero 21; Dio 63.14.3). He was a historian, but the scope of his history is uncertain; all of Tacitus’ specific references to him relate to the reign of Nero.
she was to refute them: Agrippina’s refutations come under three broad headings. She begins by questioning the credibility of Silana and Domitia. Then she asks if there is any evidence that she has tried to win support either among soldiers in Rome, or governors in the provinces or even among members of the imperial household. Finally she points out that if Britannicus were to reign she could hardly expect the same tolerance for her occasional indiscretions that she might hope from a son.
her Baiae estate: according to Dio (61.17.2), it was the prospect of acquiring her estates at Baiae and at Ravenna that led Nero to put Domitia to death.
grain-supply: the office of prefect of the grain-supply (praefectus annonae) was an important one, often leading to the praetorian prefecture. Faenius became involved in the conspiracy of Piso, where he did not acquit himself well (see 15.68).
Arruntius Stella: otherwise unknown. He may have been the father or grandfather of the poet Lucius Arruntius Stella of Padua (Patavium).
Claudius Balbillus: he may well have been the son of the astrologer Thrasyllus. Seneca (QN 4.2.13) speaks of his refined literary tastes.
Publius Anteius: he is identified in an inscription as legate of Dalmatia in 51 and must at one point have held the consulship. He seems to have been involved in some sort of shady trafficking in property that had legally been confiscated by the state but not collected. The precise nature of his operations is unclear. He took his own life in AD 61 (see 16.14).
kept back: Tiberius had similarly postponed the departure of legates after appointment. Anteius is identified later as an intimate of Agrippina and his loyalty may have been suspect for that reason.
Cornelius Sulla: he was consul in AD 52; see 12.52. He had close family links to the imperial family through Antonia the Elder and Octavia, sister of Augustus, and was married to Claudius’ daughter; see 15.53.
joined the judges in expressing his opinion: Burrus was not a senator, and he must be assumed to be sitting as an assessor in a case that the princeps is holding in private.
games: a cohort of the praetorians was normally charged with keeping order at the games. The next chapter shows that the experiment of removing them was not a success.
a member of the senatorial order: Montanus would have the right to the senatorial toga either through inheritance or through adlection by the emperor.
a violent attack: Suetonius (Nero 26) and Dio (61.9.3) say that Montanus was defending his wife from an attack.
recourse: there is no known law granting such power, although Dio (56.13.7) refers generally to measures taken by Augustus to acknowledge the rights of patrons regarding freedmen. Such powers of relegation without the authority of a magistrate would seem to be a relic of ‘paternal authority’ (patria potestas), with the freedman being regarded as part of the family.
Campanian coast: the most desirable part of Italy, lying 107 Roman miles from Rome. Such a place of exile would hardly constitute a hardship.
tribes: freedmen seem to have shared in the corn-dole since the republic (Dio 39.24.1) and were probably enrolled in tribes for that reason.
cohorts conscripted in the city: i.e. the vigiles, the city fire service.
equestrians: under Tiberius, the privileges of knighthood were limited to the freeborn of three generations, but the rule had been much relaxed.
senators: the Vitellian brothers were all senior senators, yet sons of an equestrian who was probably the son of a freedman (Suetonius, Vit. 2.1); Pliny (Ep. 3.14.1) mentions a contemporary case of the praetorship being held by the son of a freedman.
formal act: a distinction is drawn between formal manumission, either in an appropriate public ceremony or by enrolment in the census of citizens, and the more private emancipation through a verbal statement in front of a witness or in a will.
chain of servitude: informally manumitted slaves were subject to a number of disabilities, such as the right to make a will, but had certain Latin rights, with the status of ‘Junian Latins’.
freeborn: the legal compendium known as the Digest (12.4.3) preserves this case, and records that Paris bought his freedom, and, after the later determination that he was freeborn, successfully claimed to recover from Domitia the sum paid.
Antistius: praetor in AD 62, when he was exiled and almost executed for libel (see 14.48–9; 16.14, 21). He was exiled a second time in 70 (Tacitus, Hist. 4.44.3).
the authority of praetors and consuls: the issue at stake seems to have been the habit of tribunes intervening in a case before the praetors or consuls and transferring jurisdiction to themselves.
bring in from Italy: the force of this rule is unclear; perhaps consuls and praetors were given exclusive rights to determine when a civil case could be transferred to the court in Rome.
Lucius Piso: grandson of the notorious Gnaeus Piso (see note to p. 12) and son of Lucius (previously Gnaeus) Calpurnius Piso (see 3.17, 4.62). He was consul in AD 57.
in their own homes: the tribune’s home was open to those who wished to invoke his assistance, but his intervention had to take place in public.
public records: registration of fines at the aerarium had to take place before the sentence could be imposed.
the power of the aediles: magistrates had a general coercive power to distrain and to levy fines.
Helvidius Priscus: since he is now tribune he can hardly be the legionary legate from five years previously (see note to p. 259).
Obultronius Sabinus: put to death by Galba in AD 69 (Tacitus, Hist. 1.37.3).
prefects: as imperial officials they would not be subject to the intervention of the tribunes.
various forms: during the republic the treasury had been under the quaestors, until 45 BC, when it was placed, possibly as a temporary measure, in the hands of the aediles. Augustus gave jurisdiction to two men of praetorian rank, with the title of prefects, appointed by the Senate.
Nero selected: Nero did not revert to the Augustan system of leaving the choice to the Senate.
timbers: Tacitus refers snidely to previous historical accounts, perhaps including that of Pliny, who refers to the enormous larch beam worked into the amphitheatre (NH 16.200) and may have included it also in his general history. Suetonius (Nero 12) mentions that the amphitheatre was built of wood, and completed in a year.
four per cent sale-tax: a duty of 4 per cent was imposed on the purchase of slaves by Augustus in AD 7. Dio (55.31.4), who seems to say it was 2 per cent (the manuscript text is disputed), says that it was used to pay for the fire service (vigiles).
oppressing their subjects: the sentiment is that the lavish shows were funded by embezzlement in the provinces and so were themselves a source of corruption.
decree of the Senate: the decree is mentioned by the Jurists; it also extended responsibility for the murder of a wife to the household of the husband and vice versa, while those sold in the meantime were reclaimed and the price had to be made good by the seller.
ovation: Aulus Plautius’ ovation was held when he returned from Britain in AD 47 (Dio 60.30.2) and Claudius is said to have paid him the special honour of riding in the procession at his side (Suetonius, Claud. 24). Tacitus presumably covered the event in the missing books.
foreign superstition: this is a general term, but there was a later belief that Pomponia was a Christian, based in part on Christian inscriptions referring to a Pomponius Graecinus and Pomponius Bassus.
Julia: she was the granddaughter of Pomponia, the daughter of Atticus, which suggests a possible relationship to Pomponia Graecina. Her death was presumably recorded in the missing section of Book 11.
found guilty: he was expelled from the Senate but restored later through the influence of Tigellinus, his father-in-law.
a few old men: it is hard to believe that people still living could remember the consulship of Augustus and Corvinus (31 BC). Perhaps the claim should be taken loosely to mean that people would remember Corvinus, who lived some forty years after his consulship.
Aurelius Cotta: probably the son or grandson of Cotta Messalinus; see note to p. 65.
Haterius Antoninus: consul in 53.
Lucullus and Pompey: the reference is to successes against Tigranes I in the Third Mithridatic War (74/3–63 BC).
Syria: the legions in question were Legio III Gallica and VI Ferrata.
Germany: no legion from Germany is known to have taken part in Corbulo’s campaign. Legio VI Scythica was sent from Moesia, not Germany. It is possible that a legion was sent from Germany to make up the strength of Legio X, from which a detachment was sent to Corbulo.
under canvas: up to this point Tacitus has dealt with the preliminaries of the campaign. Without any transition the army is encamped in northern Armenia ready to move in the next campaigning season. The chronology of the campaigns is uncertain. Tacitus seems to put all the events covered in 13.34–41 in AD 57–8, and when he resumes the narrative at 14.23 the year is seemingly AD 60. Thus it is not certain where the campaign of AD 59 belongs.
outside the rampart: Polybius (6.38.3) notes that this punishment was levied in his own time (second century BC). Frontinus (Strategemata 4.2.3, 7.2) speaks of Corbulo’s strict discipline.
Pharasmanes: see note to p. 202; Radamistus had fled to him after escaping from Armenia.
a Roman debacle: he has in mind the defeats of Crassus and Antonius.
Cornelius Flaccus, and . . . Insteius Capito: Cornelius, who must have been a legionary legate, is otherwise unknown. Insteius is presumably the centurion mentioned in 13.9.
prodigy: an eclipse of 30 April AD 59 is mentioned by Pliny (NH 2.180) as having been seen by Corbulo in Armenia (see 14.12), but the Tacitean description here does not suit an eclipse.
Quintus Pomponius: consul at the time of Caligula’s assassination, he almost lost his life for calling for the restoration of the republic (Josephus, AJ 19.4.5). His gesture presumably gave Suillius the grounds to make a charge against him, forcing him to join the rebellion of Camillus Scribonianus.
Sabina Poppaea . . . Valerius Asiaticus: see note to p. 215.
Lusius Saturninus: he is listed as a consular victim of Claudius by Seneca (Apoc. 13.5).
Cornelius Lupus: he is another victim mentioned by Seneca (Apoc. 13.5). He was proconsul of Crete and Cyrene under Tiberius, and was consul in AD 42.
his son and granddaughter: the son would be Marcus Suillius Nerullinus, consul in 50 (see note to p. 215), the granddaughter probably the daughter of another son, Caesonius.
murder law: the Lex Cornelia of Sulla imposed the penalty of deportation and loss of property, for which death was later substituted under certain circumstances. This case was celebrated—the Life of Lucan (see note to p. 272) says that the poet wrote specimen speeches for both the prosecution and defence. Octavius Sagitta tried to obtain a remission of the sentence twelve years later (Tacitus, Hist. 4.44).
his friendship with Sejanus: none of the accounts of Sejanus mentions friendship with Titus Ollius.
a son: Suetonius (Nero 35) claims that Nero ordered the son’s slaves to murder him while fishing. There is also a tradition that Nero stabbed him ([Seneca], Octavia 744–7).
marriage: Tacitus in the earlier Histories (1.13) follows a different version found also in Suetonius (Otho 3), Plutarch (Galba 19.106), and Dio (61.11.2) that Nero had already begun his affair while Poppaea was married to her first husband Crispinus, and that her marriage to Otho was merely a front to facilitate Nero’s meeting with her, a situation complicated when Otho fell in love with her, as a consequence of which he was exiled. Tacitus may here be correcting his earlier view with a more plausible scenario.
Lusitania: this province was normally governed by a man of praetorian rank, but Otho had held nothing higher than the quaestorship, and was at this time only 26.
civil war: Otho stayed in his office for ten years (58–68) and led the way in placing his support behind Galba.
Cornelius Sulla: see 12.52, 13.23.
sent to the Senate: Nero had confirmed the authority of the Senate over the Italian communities (see 13.4).
town council: in Italy these usually consisted of 100 local citizens, who tended to be substantial property-holders.
brothers Scribonius: Rufus and Proculus; for a while they were at the same time governors of Upper and Lower Germany respectively. Nero summoned them to Greece in 67 and compelled them to commit suicide (Dio 63.17.2).
prescribed number of gladiatorial shows: in Rome, Augustus had laid down the rule in 22 BC that there should be no more than two public gladiatorial shows in any year, and that they should involve no more than 120 gladiators. This number was further reduced by Tiberius, although relaxed by Caligula. The numbers prescribed for Italy are not known.
Thrasea Paetus: this is the first allusion in the extant Annals to the famous Stoic victim of Nero. Consul in 56, he was a native of Padua and husband of the daughter of the famous pair, Caecina Paetus and Arria (see note to p. 260). The Annals break off in the account of his suicide.
port-duties :the portoria were import levies imposed at the frontiers of the empire and also of provinces or groupings of provinces. Here they are made to stand for the whole class of indirect taxes. Nero remarkably seems to be contemplating a Bismarckian free-trade area within the empire. The consequence would not have been totally benign. Since 167 BC Italy had been exempt from direct taxes and abolition of indirect taxes would have obliged the rest of the empire to shoulder the entire financial burden of its operation.
‘fortieth’ and ‘fiftieth’: nothing further is known of these 2.5 per cent and 2 per cent taxes, presumably two fictitious levies imposed by the publicani.
Sulpicius Camerinus: consul in AD 46, he was put to death, along with his son, by the freedman Helius during Nero’s absence in Greece.
Pompeius Silvanus: consul in 45 and at one point governor of Dalmatia.
To that point . . . Germany: the last treatment of events in Germany belongs to AD 50 (12.28). The events covered here must have begun before 58 and the account stretches over several years.
Paulinus Pompeius and Lucius Vetus: commanders of Lower and Upper Germany respectively. Paulinus (see also 15.18) was consul possibly in AD 54, and was the father or brother of Pompeia Paulina, wife of Seneca. Lucius Antistius Vetus (see 13.11) was consul in 55.
sixty-three years earlier: Drusus died in 9 BC. Vetus may have been sent to Germany in 55 and have been replaced in Rome by a suffect consul.
Dubius Avitus: he served as legate of Aquitania, and held the consulship in AD 56.
some people . . . senators’ seats: Suetonius (Claud. 25.4) tells the same story but relates it to the Claudian period, and identifies the ambassadors as Parthians and Armenians. The privilege of a seat among the senators had been granted to the Massilians from an early period. Augustus forbade access of foreign ambassadors into the orchestra (Suetonius, Aug. 44.1), a prohibition that seems to have been lifted.
Cheruscan uprising: this was the rebellion of Arminius that led to the Varian disaster in AD 9. Tiberius commanded in Germany for two years after that, and Germanicus in AD 13–16.
small portion of the plain: Boiocalus’ words here are bitter and ironic. He is suggesting that the area to be taken by the Romans for their animals was enormous, and that they would happily use land to graze their animals while the people starved.
Usipi: these may be identical to the Usipetes (see 1.51).
Curtilius Mancia: he seems to have succeeded Lucius Vetus after the latter had served for only one year.
burning trees: Tacitus may have misunderstood a process described by Pliny (NH 31.73), where evaporation was accelerated by burning wood.
Ruminal tree: the fig tree under which, traditionally, the she-wolf had suckled Romulus and Remus. It was located originally in the Lupercal on the Palatine and was translated miraculously by Attus Navius, augur of Tarquinius Priscus, to the Comitium, opposite the Senate House (Pliny, NH 15.77).
the fiendish act: the abrupt announcement of the plan to murder Agrippina comes as something of a surprise. She has been absent from the Annals since 13.21.
her triumph-celebrating forebears: in fact, only Poppaea’s maternal grandfather, Poppaeus Sabinus, had been granted triumphal insignia, for victories in Thrace under Tiberius.
reveal the insults . . . arrogance and greed: the logic seems to be that as long as Poppaea was in competition with Agrippina Nero would regard her attacks against his mother as simply intended to undermine her position.
Otho: she had been married first to Rufrius Crispinus, by whom she had a son (see 11.1, 13.45). After her divorce she married Otho.
Marcus Lepidus: Marcus Aemilius Lepidus had been the husband of Agrippina’s sister Drusilla, and was executed by Caligula in 39 for alleged involvement in the conspiracy of Gnaeus Lentulus Gaetulicus.
Misenum: at 4.5 it is revealed that there were two fleets off Italy, at Ravenna and Misenum, and one off Gaul at Forum Iulii (Fréjus).
tutor: probably in the sense of accompanying Nero to his classes. He had clearly prospered in the emperor’s service; command of the fleet at Misenum was an important position.
Quinquatrus: the fifth day after the Ides, a festival of Minerva, celebrated 19–23 March.
at Baiae: the topography of Tacitus’ account of Agrippina’s final days is hopelessly confused and has eluded explanation.
Crepereius Gallus: an equestrian from the Roman colony of Antioch.
Acerronia: sister of Gnaeus Acerronius Proculus, proconsul of Achaea some time after AD 44.
sealed up: Acerronia’s possessions and papers would be put under seal so that nothing could be removed pending the execution of the will.
loyalty: the revelation of the loyalty of the guard to Agrippina is hardly unexpected, given that she had ensured that the middle ranks be recruited from her supporters.
a centurion of the marines: in the Roman fleet a trierarchus had naval command. The centurio classicus commanded the marine soldiers on board.
dining couch: adding insult to injury, Agrippina was cremated on a dining-room couch instead of the traditional funeral bier.
Chaldeans: the astrologer who made the prediction was the son of Thrasyllus (6.22).
joint rule: this would have been constitutionally impossible for a woman in Rome, and Nero is clearly trading on the resentment felt about Agrippina’s patent desire for indirect power.
bursting into the Curia: a considerable exaggeration. Agrippina had sought only to listen to meetings of the Senate (13.5).
deputations: on Agrippina’s attempt to meet the Armenian deputation, see 13.5.
Seneca: for Seneca’s help in writing Nero’s speeches, see 13.3, 11.
public prayers: supplicationes were originally days of fasting in times of distress. Images of the gods were placed on a couch and a table with food was set up before it.
unfit for public business: dies nefasti were those on which the praetor could not pronounce judgement in the law courts. Her birthday was 6 November.
tribes: the divisions of the Roman people as instituted by King Servius. He established four city and twenty-six rural tribes. Their number was later raised to thirty-five.
Capitol: the victorious general would mount the Capitol during a triumph, a tradition contributing to the irony of the present situation.
Horse-racing: chariot-racing had long been a popular form of entertainment in Rome, but the charioteers were normally professionals, in contrast to the Greek tradition, in which chariot-racing was an admired aristocratic activity.
Vatican valley: Pliny (NH 36.74) says that Caligula had already begun to construct a circus there.
on the stage: there was a social stigma attached to the acting profession in Rome, despite the distinction of a small number of individual actors, such as the Roscius defended by Cicero. Actors were held in high regard by the Greeks.
‘Juvenalian Games’: the first trimming of a young man’s beard had traditionally been the occasion for a private family celebration. Nero made it the basis for a public festival. After Nero, chariot-races and animal shows replaced the theatrical performances.
the actor’s art, whether Greek or Roman: in Greece there were adaptations of scenes from Greek tragedy, performed solo, with musical accompaniment (Suetonius, Nero 21). Roman practice was probably recitations from the Latin tragedies.
‘Naval Pond’: Augustus constructed a lake on the far side of the Tiber to stage a mock naval battle (RG 23).
‘Augustiani’: the claque at imperial performances; their disorderly conduct caused much trouble (see 13.25, 28; Suetonius, Nero 20.3).
men . . . proficiency in composition: these included the epic poet Lucan, who soon showed up Nero to the extent that he was barred from any more public recitals.
Nuceria and Pompeii: Pompeii was settled after the Social War in 89 BC, Nuceria under Augustus.
I noted above: Livineius is not mentioned in the extant chapters of Tacitus, and his expulsion from the Senate must have appeared in one of the lost books.
Senate: the Senate had retained responsibility for Italy under the empire with the consuls acting as its agents. Nero promised on his accession to maintain that tradition (see 13.4).
associations: collegia could include any association, ranging from political clubs to burial societies, and they were often the centres of public unrest. Julius Caesar banned all but the ancient collegia, but it is likely that many were set up under the guise of burial associations.
Pedius Blaesus: he was restored by Otho ten years later.
Cyrene: the city housed a temple to Aesculapius the god of healing, with an attached medical school.
Acilius Strabo: consul in 71.
Apion: he was the last king of Cyrene, dying in 96 BC and bequeathing his kingdom to Rome.
Marcus Servilius: consul AD 35, a famous advocate and historian, much admired by Quintilian. He may have been one of Tacitus’ sources for the reign of Tiberius.
Quinquennial Games: these were intended to be held at the end of each lustrum, or five-year period. Called the Neronia (Suetonius, Nero 12.3), they combined three types of contest: chariot-races, gymnastics, and music.
on their feet: Plautus (Aulularia 719, Poenulus 1224) refers to a seated audience, and the practice presumably predates him.
a praetor presided over them: during the republic, public games were staged by the aediles. Augustus shifted responsibility to the praetors.
decuries: the list of jurymen was divided into classes called decuriae, originally a group of ten, although that meaning was gradually lost. Augustus established four decuries of judges; Caligula added a fifth. The word should not be confused with the quite distinct term ‘decurion’, a local town official.
Etruria: Livy (7.2) reports that when Rome was afflicted by a plague in 365 BC, Etruscan actors were brought to the city to perform in order to appease the divine anger.
annexation of Achaea and Asia: Greece (Achaea) was incorporated by Rome after the defeat of the Achaean League and the destruction of Corinth in 146 BC. Asia was organized from the kingdom bequeathed to Rome by Attalus III, who died in 133.
personal wealth: magistrates had been personally responsible for putting on games, and this had led to much corruption during the republic, when recompense was sought from the provinces that the magistrate later administered.
pantomimi: they performed through dance and gesture, without spoken parts, and usually performed scenes from tragedy. Mimes generally performed scenes from low life with much recourse to buffoonery. Tacitus tends to use the two terms interchangeably. They were expelled in AD 56 (see 13.25).
sacred competitions: the Neronia are ranked as the equal of Greek contests held at religious festivals in honour of a god.
comet: Seneca (QN 7.17.2) mentions this comet and reports that it took away the bad reputation of comets.
Rubellius Plautus: see note to p. 280; Tacitus seems to suggest that his ancestors were inclined towards Stoicism.
Marcian water: the water of the Aqua Marcia aqueduct was of the highest quality, praised by Pliny (NH 31.41, 36.121) and Frontinus (De Aquis 91), which makes Nero’s behaviour all the more outrageous. The aqueduct was constructed by Lucius Marcius Rex in 144–140 BC, and restored and expanded by Agrippa and Augustus.
After the destruction of Artaxata: Tacitus resumes his narrative from 13.41. This section covers the campaigns of AD 59–60.
foreign blood: Corbulo did not expend any Roman lives in the battle.
Red Sea: this generally can mean the modern Red Sea or the shore of the Persian Gulf. The modern Red Sea can be ruled out here. It is hard to see that there could be a route between the shore of the Persian Gulf and the Caspian that did not cross through Parthian territory, and it has been argued that an allusion to the Caspian is required here.
Tiridates: the brother of Vologaeses and the Parthian candidate for the throne of Armenia.
control: this should not be taken to suggest annexation, but rather a temporary military occupation.
Tigranes: he was the nephew of Tigranes IV, great-grandson of Herod the Great, and great-grandson (Tacitus is casual in referring to him as grandson) of Archelaus, last king of Cappadocia (see note to p. 202).
Pharasmanes: see note to p. 71.
Polemo: Polemo II; see note to p. 79.
Antiochus: Antiochus IV; see note to p. 262.
Puteoli: a colony of Romans had been established at Puteoli as early as 194 BC, and Augustus settled new colonists there. It has been argued that the colonists then existed as a separate community and that colonial status was now given to the rest of the inhabitants.
different maniples: the custom of settling veterans from the same legion together had perhaps been abandoned in Italy because they might pose a threat if their former commander chose to rebel.
three extra candidates: Augustus had on one occasion been presented with four extra candidates and he had allowed all to hold the office. Nero solved a similar problem by moving three directly to legionary commands (by this time legionary legates had normally already held the praetorship).
civil courts: these are the ordinary praetors’ courts. Nero’s measure discouraged frivolous appeals by requiring that one-third of the amount at dispute in the case had to be placed on deposit.
Vibius Secundus: otherwise unknown. His brother, Vibius Crispus, was consul possibly in AD 61, and in 74 and 83.
Mauretania: the former kingdom had been divided into two provinces by Claudius.
as I noted above: at 12.40.
Veranius: he probably succeeded Didius in 58, but died in office within the year.
Paulinus Suetonius: first mentioned here by Tacitus, but we know from other sources that he had already been governor of Mauretania. He probably held the consulship before going to Britain but his tenure has not survived in the record. He certainly held a consulship in AD 66.
Druids: these had been known to the Romans since Caesar’s campaigns in Gaul.
slaves: these would presumably have been on the staff of the imperial procurator, who would have had responsibility for collecting taxes.
Claudius: the temple was supposedly decreed during his lifetime (Seneca, Apoc. 8).
whole fortunes: the reference might be to unspecified charges exacted from the population by the priests. It is perhaps more likely that the hardships were suffered by the priests themselves, since priesthoods in the Roman world did impose heavy financial burdens on the holders.
Thames estuary: Colchester is in fact quite distant from the Thames estuary.
Catus Decianus: known only from this passage. From as early as the reign of Augustus (notably in Judaea after Herod’s death) procurators had taken temporary command of troops.
Petillius Cerialis: this is the first mention of the distinguished commander who fought for Vespasian (to whom he was related) in the civil war, suppressed the revolt of Civilis and became governor of Britain. He was consul in AD 70 and 74.
Ninth Legion: the Ninth would probably have been based at Lincoln.
Londinium: the earliest historical reference to London, which became an important commercial centre from the beginning of the Roman presence in Britain. It was an open town without defences or garrison.
the sacrifice of a single town: London was unfortified, and Suetonius lacked the troops to enable him to meet the Britons in the open.
the Fourteenth Legion: based at Wroxeter (near Shrewsbury). The Twentieth was based at Gloucester.
location: the site of Boudicca’s last battle has been the subject of much antiquarian debate, with rival locations ranging from the outskirts of Prestatyn to King’s Cross Station (Platform 9). The most likely spot is near Mancetter, on Watling Street, in the Midlands.
some reports: Tacitus may have drawn upon his father-in-law, Agricola, who served on this campaign. The figure could also have been recorded in the memoirs of Suetonius Paulinus.
Poenius Postumus: as prefect of the camp he would have been in temporary command in the absence of the legate. He is otherwise unknown.
Julius Classicianus: the increasingly public role of the procurator within imperial provinces made it inevitable that there would be occasional tensions between him and the governor. Classicianus’ tombstone is preserved in the British Museum.
Polyclitus: nothing is known of the previous history of this individual, but his rapacity is noted in the Histories (1.37.8, 2.95.4). He was left in charge at Rome, along with Helius, when Nero made his trip to Greece.
‘peace’: it is likely that Suetonius was replaced because of his repressive policies, and that Tacitus’ sneer against Petronius is unjustified.
Domitius Balbus: otherwise unknown, and no other Domitius seems to have the cognomen Balbus.
Antonius Primus: he later recovered his senatorial rank and was placed in command of a legion in Pannonia by Galba. He played a significant role in Vespasian’s victory. He is mentioned frequently in Tacitus’ Histories.
Asinius Marcellus: consul in AD 54; see 12.64.
Asinius Pollio: see note to p. 8.
Cornelian law: one of the laws passed under Sulla in 81 BC to prevent the falsification of wills.
city prefect: the exact scope of his jurisdiction in the Neronian period is not clear, but he would presumably not have been bound by administrative procedure that would have slowed down action in the praetorian courts.
Pedanius Secundus: consul of AD 43. The city prefect always held consular rank.
Gaius Cassius: see 12.12.
the senatorial decree: this is presumably not the decree of AD 57, which simply extended an already established penalty; see 13.32.
every tenth man . . . with the club: decimation; see note to p. 105.
Cingonius Varro: consul-designate in AD 68 (Tacitus, Hist. 1.6); he was put to death by Galba as an accomplice of Nymphidius.
Quintus Volusius: see 13.25.
Trebellius Maximus: consul, possibly in AD 56. He was governor of Britain in 63–9, for which he is scorned by Tacitus, and still alive in 72, when his name appears in the list of Arval brethren.
Memmius Regulus’: see note to p. 184.
oil: this was provided free of charge in Greek gymnasia.
I have already mentioned: see 13.28.
Tigellinus: this is the first mention in the extant Annals of Ofonius Tigellinus. He had modest origins, the son of an exiled Agrigentine. He was brought up in the homes of Lucius Domitius, husband of Agrippina, and Marcus Vinicius, husband of her sister Livilla, was suspected of adultery with both, and exiled in AD 39, living afterwards as a fisherman in Greece. He inherited a fortune, returned to Rome, probably in 41, and bred racehorses, which presumably provides his connection with Nero, with whom he formed a close bond. He became praetorian prefect after the death of Burrus and was ultimately put to death by Otho.
tribune: by virtue of his tribunicia potestas Nero could exercise the constitutional powers of the tribune, one of which was the power of veto.
traditional manner: see note to p. 65.
permitted the division: it was the prerogative of the presiding consul to refuse to put any motion to the Senate if he disapproved of it.
Aulus Vitellius: the future emperor, consul in AD 48 (see 11.23).
Fabricius Veiento: the son (perhaps adopted) of Didius Gallus, governor of Britain, he was three times consul under the Flavians, and gained a reputation as an informer under Domitian. He was highly regarded by Nerva.
Codicils’: it was not uncommon for individuals to vent their spleen against their enemies in supplements to their wills, and it seems that Fabricius’ libels took the form of satires of such attacks.
trafficking in imperial privileges: Veiento was accused of receiving money from third parties to enlist his aid in influencing the emperor in their favour.
Burrus: Tacitus is the only source to cast doubt on the claim that Nero poisoned Burrus (see Suetonius, Nero 35.5, Dio 62.13.3).
fourteenth year: he had been appointed tutor to Nero in AD 49, and Claudius had died in 54.
great-great-grandfather: his grandfather Germanicus had been adopted by Tiberius, and Tiberius by Augustus.
granted Marcus Agrippa retirement: Agrippa at one point withdrew from public life, no doubt largely out of pique over the advancement of Marcellus, and based himself at Mytilene.
Gaius Maecenas: he may have retired because of his brother’s involvement in a conspiracy (Suetonius, Aug. 66) or because of Augustus’ involvement with his wife, Terentia (Dio 54.19.3).
glittering decorations: i.e. his distinguished ancestors.
far-flung investments?: Seneca supposedly had major investments in Britain and his recall of a large loan caused much distress (Dio 62.2.1).
beneath your greatness: Seneca argues that the envy felt towards himself does not affect the emperor.
Vitellius: Nero seems to be saying that Seneca should assume that Nero would be as generous as Claudius had been in his treatment of Vitellius, and that Nero should be able to expect Seneca to serve him as Vitellius had served Claudius.
Volusius’ long-lasting thrift: see note to p. 245; at 13.30 he was said to have gained a fortune honourably.
Faenius Rufus’: curiously, Rufus is not referred to again until AD 65 (see 15.50).
Plautus: for Rubellius Plautus, see 13.19.
Sulla: for Faustus Cornelius Sulla Felix, see 12.52, 13.47.
conflict of interest: Burrus owed his initial appointment to Agrippina (see 12.42). In 55 Agrippina was accused of plotting to make Plautus emperor and it was Burrus who had prevailed on Nero to give her a hearing.
name of the dictator: it seems unlikely that the name of the dictator Sulla, who held office in 82/1 BC, carried much weight a century and a half later.
Drusus as a grandfather: Rubellius Plautus was the son of Rubellius Blandus and Julia, daughter of Drusus, the son of Tiberius.
Stoics: this is the first reference by Tacitus to the notion that Stoicism could be a source of opposition to the emperor. Many of his opponents were indeed Stoics, but it is unlikely that there was a formal Stoic resistance.
ahead of the centurion: the reference is cryptic, but we discover in the next chapter that the centurion had been sent to execute him.
Lucius Antistius: consul in AD 55; see 13.11. He would be put to death in 65, along with Plautus’ widow, Pollitta.
Coeranus and Musonius: apart from a brief mention in Pliny the Elder, Coeranus is otherwise unknown. Gaius Musonius Rufus was a famous equestrian Stoic, friend of Pliny the Younger and teacher of Epictetus. He was exiled on suspicion of involvement in the Pisonian conspiracy (15.71) and returned to Rome after Nero’s death (Pliny, Ep. 3.11.5).
‘Why, Nero <. . .>’: some of the text is missing, but the joke can be recovered from Dio 62.14.1, where Nero comments that he had not realized that Plautus had such a big nose.
her father’s name: Octavia was the biological daughter of Claudius; Nero could claim to be a Claudian only by adoption.
recalled: there is almost certainly an error in the text as transmitted in the manuscript, since it states that Nero recalled Octavia. This is contradicted in the next chapter where Octavia is still in Campania and Poppaea fears a change of heart on Nero’s part. The emendation making such information a rumour is accepted here. It provides a basis for Poppaea’s concern.
Agrippina’s banishment by Tiberius: the elder Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus, was similarly banished to Pandateria.
Julia: Julia Livilla, daughter of Germanicus, was banished in AD 41 for suspicion of adultery with Seneca (see note to p. 239). The implication here is that she was also sent to Pandateria.
strength of age: in fact, Julia Livilla was only 23 at the time of her banishment.
wedding day: see 12.58.
maidservant: Acte.
twentieth year: this is a mistake. She was born on 13 February AD 41, and was thus older than Britannicus.
sister: technically, Octavia had been adopted by another family to make her marriage to Nero possible; thus she was not strictly his sister.
the Germanici: Octavia refers to Drusus, brother of Tiberius, and to his son Germanicus, who inherited his posthumous cognomen.
Doryphorus: he held the post of a libellis, probably as successor to Callistus.
Gaius Piso: he gave his name to a famous conspiracy against Nero in AD 65, and Seneca was associated with him (15.60). The text suggests that he had not yet initiated his conspiracy and it is not clear why an association with him should have aroused suspicion.
Meanwhile: the account of eastern affairs is resumed from 14.26, where it had been carried down to the end of AD 60. Tacitus describes the final settlement with Parthia in some detail because of its historical significance. The military and diplomatic events are very complex.
a foreigner: Tigranes did have a connection with the royal house of Parthia, but it was remote and offset by his years in Rome (see 14.26).
unbroken: the treaty of friendship signed in 20 BC had never been formally broken.
Monobazus: hereditary king of Adiabene. According to Dio (62.20–3), he took part in the siege of Tigranocerta and gave hostages to Corbulo after the agreement with Tiridates.
a council meeting: it is not clear what the composition of the meeting would have been. It is perhaps influenced by the idea of the princeps’ council.
same father: Vologaeses’ mother was a Greek concubine.
Pacorus: Vologaeses’ brother, first mentioned here, ruler of Atropatene.
Verulanus Severus: see 14.26; he would later be consul, probably in AD 66.
Vettius Bolanus: consul AD 66, governor of Britain 69–71, proconsul of Asia about 78–80.
the province: this must presumably be Syria, although it had not actually been invaded.
Caesennius Paetus: see 14.29. In spite of his disastrous handling of the Armenian campaign he went on to serve as legate of Syria under Vespasian in AD 70–2.
Funisulanus Vettonianus . . . Calavius Sabinus: Funisulanus is recorded in inscriptions pursuing a successful military career under Domitian. Calavius is unknown.
Arsamosata: presumably near Paetus’ headquarters, the winter quarters of Legio VI, some fifty miles from Melitene on the River Arsanius. Dio (62.21.1) says that the camp was at Rhandeia.
Caudium and Numantia: in 321 BC Roman soldiers were trapped by the Samnites in the pass of the Caudine Forks and forced to go beneath the yoke; spears were held in an archway and defeated troops were obliged to march under it in a humiliating display of submission (Livy 3.28). In 137 BC the Romans under Hostilius Mancinus surrendered at Numantia in Spain.
no Roman would enter Armenia: Dio (62.21.1) claims that Paetus promised that Nero would give Armenia to Tiridates.
forty miles: a daily march of forty miles would be remarkable, double the normal rate.
to Syria: Corbulo seems to have feared that the Parthians would launch a cavalry invasion of Syria.
trophies: setting up a pile of captured arms as a victory memorial was customary.
Lucius Piso . . . Paulinus: Lucius Piso was consul with Nero in AD 57 (see note to p. 284); Ducenius Geminus was consul at an unknown date and city prefect under Galba; for Pompeius Paulinus, see the note to p. 299.
public revenues: strictly speaking the vectigalia were indirect taxes, such as harbour dues, but the word seems to be used here generally of all income entering the state treasury from taxation.
annual gift: emperors regularly made gifts from their personal fiscus (which drew its revenues from sources that might arguably have been considered public). The reference to an annual grant is unusual and not easily explained.
were allotted praetorships: the praetors were elected generally as praetors, but the specific offices to be held were assigned by lot. Even in the drawing of the lots, men who had fathered children were given an advantage.
Julian laws: these laws, of 18 and 8 BC, barred a man from office if convicted of bribery of juries or electors, and required a candidate for office to deposit money as a guarantee against corruption.
Calpurnian resolutions: Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi, when tribune in 149 BC, introduced the first permanent court to try cases of extortion in the provinces.
formal motion: a member of the Senate had the right to speak outside the business at hand on any motion that was deemed to be in the public interest. But it was at the discretion of the presiding consul to decide whether that motion should be formally put before the house.
gymnasium: see 14.47 for its dedication.
earthquake: this preceded the major eruption that destroyed Pompeii in AD 79. Seneca (QN 6.1) refers to the same event under the year 62 rather than 63. The correct date is uncertain.
Vestal Virgin: there may have been only six of them, a small enough number to make the death of any one worth mentioning.
daughter: she was born on 21 January. This was the first time that the title of Augusta was granted to an infant.
rite of Actium: to celebrate his victory at Actium, Augustus had founded Nicopolis and instituted quinquennial games there. This was appropriate in a Greek city, but Nero was to extend the practice to Italy.
his priesthood: Pliny (NH 30.16–17) claims that Tiridates was a Magian, who refused to travel by water, although he later did overcome his scruples to come to Rome (Dio 63.7).
the leading men: a body of leading citizens with no constitutional position, who constituted the friends of the princeps.
Gaius Cestius: consul in 42, he became legate of Syria in 65.
Marius Celsus: consul in 69.
Tetrarchs: originally the ruler of one-quarter of a country, at this period generally the ruler of a small state in the East.
Pompey: the Lex Gabinia of 67 BC conferred on Pompey power equal to that of the proconsuls.
Lucius Lucullus: he had advanced on Tigranocerta in 69 BC; his journey is vaguely described by Plutarch (Lucullus 24.2–4).
prefectures: Pliny (NH 6.27) indicates that Armenia was divided into 120 praefecturae.
Tiberius Alexander: an Alexandrian Jew, nephew of Philo of Alexandria, procurator of Judaea under Claudius (Josephus, AJ 20.100), and later prefect of Egypt. He renounced Judaism and assisted Vespasian in his bid for the principate, and supported Titus in the Jewish War.
Vinicianus Annius: he may well have been the son-in-law of Corbulo. His father (see 6.9; Dio 60.15), brother (see 15.56) and he (Suetonius, Nero 36.1) all seem to have been involved in conspiracies.
watch: the night was divided into four watches, with the leading centurion responsible for their observation.
surrender his sword: it was not normal to enter the presence of the emperor while armed.
Latin rights: the chief effect of these rights was to confer citizenship on anyone who had held office in a town that held them.
the seating of the Roman knights: Livy (1.35.8) reports on special seating areas for knights and senators in the Circus from Rome’s earliest period and Dio (55.22.4) suggests that the equites sat separately in the Circus from the time of Augustus. Possibly before Nero they sat in groups and it was only later that seats were actually reserved for them; on the ‘fourteen rows’ in the theatre (see 6.3 and note to p. 92).
Roscian law: this law in 67 BC reserved the fourteen rows behind the senators in the orchestra of the theatre. But it was limited to the theatre and did not address the seating of the Circus.
Juvenalian Games: see note to p. 311.
Neapolis: although located in Italy, Naples was founded by Greeks and retained much of its Greek inheritance. The theatrical performances followed the Greek pattern, not the Roman.
Torquatus Silanus: Decimus Junius Torquatus Silanus was consul in AD 53; see 12.58. He died in 65, according to Dio (27.27.2).
Agrippa’s lake: this was a reservoir that stored water for Agrippa’s Baths (Ovid, Ex P. 1.8.38; Frontinus, De Aquis 2.84).
raging fires: Rome had been subject to continuous fires from the time of the first recorded one after the sack of the city by the Gauls in 390 BC. The crowded nature of the city, with multi-storey buildings containing much flammable material, made fires inevitable.
at Antium: the fact that Nero was not in Rome at the time of the fire is an argument against his being responsible for it.
building of his . . . the gardens of Maecenas: Augustus took up residence on the Palatine Hill, and established it as the location for later emperors (hence the English ‘palace’). Maecenas bequeathed his gardens on the Esquiline to Augustus. Nero built a residence in the valley between the two, the socalled domus transitoria, which would be rebuilt as the Golden House.
rumour: Suetonius (Nero 38.2) and Dio (62.18.1) treat the story of the performance as a fact.
five days: Suetonius (Nero 38) says that the fire lasted six days and seven nights. An inscription (CIL 6.826) mentions nine days. The second outbreak might have lasted for three days.
named after him: Suetonius (Nero 55) says that the name was to be ‘Neropolis’.
fourteen districts: in 7 BC Augustus reorganized the city of Rome and divided it into fourteen districts, identified by numbers.
a few ruined and charred vestiges of buildings were all that remained: this is clearly an exaggeration. The Capitol (see 15.44) and the Forum, to judge from the subsequent references to the intact Curia, which was located there (16.27), seem to have been more or less undamaged, and the Circus was functioning again in the following year (see 15.53).
the Senones . . . the city: the Gauls burned Rome on 19 July 390 BC.
years, months, and days: from 390 BC to AD 64 is 454 years, or 418 years + 418 months + 418 days.
a palace: the Golden House, covering the Palatine and Esquiline and the area between them, a luxury country-house-type residence, with extravagant works of art and clever mechanical devices. It was never completed.
Lake Avernus: in 37 BC Agrippa had joined this to the Bay of Naples to provide a safe harbour. A canal connecting it to Rome would have been an enormous undertaking.
height limits: attempts by Augustus to limit the height of buildings seem to have been unsuccessful, to judge from complaints on the matter in the time of Tiberius (Seneca, Contr. 2.9).
rock from Gabii or Alba: much of the stone used at Rome came from Gabii on the Praeneste road and Marino on the Alban lake.
Sibylline Books: see note to p. 191.
ritual feasts: sellisternia involved the propitiation of the goddesses at formal banquets set before their images. Gods reclined (in lectisternia); the goddesses were seated.
shameful offences: charges of cannibalism and infanticide are familiar from writers of the second century ad, and this passage suggests that the belief that such practices were common among Christians had taken a firm hold as early as the Neronian period.
Christians: the manuscripts originally read Chrestiani and were corrected to Christiani by a later hand. Chrestiani may possibly be the form by which early Christians were known, perhaps through confusion with the Greek chrestos, ‘worthy’ or ‘good’.
the procurator Pontius Pilatus: the rank of procurator for equestrian governors of small provinces was a Claudian innovation, and here Tacitus is being anachronistic. We know from an inscription that Pilate governed as prefect.
those who confessed . . . because they were arsonists: Tacitus says that, on the evidence of those who confessed, others were arrested, more because of who they were than because they were arsonists. The very strong implication is that the first group, unlike the second, did in fact confess to arson, although some commentators argue that they confessed to being Christians. The fire may have been accidental, but some Christians might have thought it was the destruction by fire that was expected to mark the second coming (as promised in the Book of Revelation) and might consequently have helped it along. They could have been the ones adding to the flames on the grounds that they were ‘under orders’ (see 15.38).
Acratus and Secundus Carrinas: little else is known of Acratus (see 16.23). Carrinas is probably the son of a rhetorician executed by Caligula (Dio 59.20.6).
gladiators: gladiators were trained in schools, both state and private. The establishment at Praeneste was presumably an imperial institution, to judge from the military guard.
Spartacus: see note to p. 133.
a stable peace: the conflict with Parthia had come to an end and the temple of Janus was soon to be closed.
comet: Tacitus mentions only one other comet of Nero’s reign (see note to p. 314), following the exile of Rubellius Plautus.
Gaius Piso: exiled by Caligula (Dio 59.8.7), Gaius Calpurnius Piso was recalled by Claudius, under whom he held a consulship (date unknown). He was the object of a contemporary panegyric (the Laus Pisonis).
Annaeus Lucanus: the poet Lucan, author of De Bello Civili on the civil conflict between Caesar and Pompey; nephew of Seneca. He was 26 when forced to commit suicide.
Claudius Senecio: he has been earlier identified as a henchman of Nero (see 13.12); the others on the list are known only from this passage.
Faenius Rufus: see 13.22, 14.51. In AD 62, he was appointed joint prefect of the praetorians with Tigellinus.
Volusius Proculus: he was not actually mentioned in the account of Agrippina’s murder but it was organized by his commander at Misenum, who presumably had a number of subordinate assistants.
detested abode: the allusion is clearly to the Golden House (see 15.42), but it can not yet have been ready for occupation and in fact Nero at the time was living elsewhere (see 15.55).
Lucius Silanus: he was the son of Marcus Silanus (the ‘golden sheep’, see 13.1) and nephew of Decimus Silanus (see 15.35), and thus the only living male descendant of Augustus other than Nero.
Gaius Cassius: the famous legal scholar (see note to p. 241), Gaius Cassius Longinus was uncle of Lucius Silanus through Cassius’ marriage to Junia Lepida.
Ceres: the festival of Ceres was held 12–19 April. Games were held in the Circus Maximus on the last day.
Salus . . . Ferentinum: the text is uncertain here, but it seems that Tacitus was referring to a single temple but was not sure about the deity’s name. The town is almost certainly Ferentinum in Etruria.
another marriage: Tacitus suggests cryptically that Piso intended to marry Antonia should the conspiracy be successful and should he be appointed as successor.
betrayal: Plutarch (Moralia 6.505) gives a variant explanation that the conspiracy was betrayed by a careless comment from an indiscreet conspirator.
Gardens of Servilius: their precise location is uncertain, but Nero went there on a later occasion (Suetonius, Nero 47.1) when contemplating flight to Ostia; thus they must presumably have lain in that direction.
Epaphroditus: he was a libellis to Nero and later assisted his suicide, and was executed for so doing by Domitian (Suetonius, Domitian 14.4).
Annaeus Seneca: his possible role in the conspiracy is uncertain. Dio (62.24.1) presents him as a ringleader. Tacitus leaves the question of his involvement open.
Glitius Gallus: he was perhaps connected to Corbulo through the latter’s mother, first married to a Publius Glitius Gallus.
Annius Pollio: probably the son of the Annius Vinicianus mentioned at 6.9, and hence brother of Vinicianus Annius (15.28).
Germans: Batavians, who, from Augustus to Galba, made up the personal bodyguard of the imperial family.
Pompeia Paulina: she was probably the sister of Pompeius Paulinus, legate of Upper Germany in AD 56 (see note to p. 299) and daughter of an identically named equestrian from Arles (Pliny, NH 33.143).
a long work: given the time constraints, it seems unlikely that Seneca could have composed at any great length. The work has not survived. It may have been destroyed by Nero.
Statius Annaeus: otherwise unknown, but his name suggests that he was a client of Seneca, probably his former slave.
Athens: the allusion is to the famous death of Socrates.
of his own accord: presumably Scaevinus is urging Faenius to take the initiative and confess before he is accused.
Statilia Messalina: reputedly rich, clever, and beautiful, the granddaughter of Titus Statilius Taurus (see note to p. 132); she became Nero’s third wife. She had reputedly been married four times previously.
poem: carmen here probably refers to part of a poem. The reference may be to De Bello Civili 3.635–46, involving a sea-fight in which one of the participants is wounded by a grappling iron and bleeds to death.
Pompeius . . . Domitius: these men were presumably tribunes of the praetorian guard, but no other information on them is available.
Novius Priscus: consul of AD 78.
Glitius Gallus . . . Egnatia Maximilla: their place of exile was Andros, where an inscription records them as patrons and benefactors.
Rufrius Crispinus: he had once been praetorian prefect, removed by Agrippina (11.1, 12.42). He was exiled to Sardinia.
Verginius Flavus: a teacher of rhetoric mentioned by Quintilian (Institutio Oratoria 7.4.40).
Caesennius Maximus: philosopher and friend of Seneca (Seneca, Ep. 87.2).
grain-rations: soldiers had payment for rations deducted from their pay. The grant of free rations represented a de facto pay-increase.
Petronius Turpilianus: he had been consul in 61 and afterwards governor of Britain (see 14.29, 39).
Cocceius Nerva: the future emperor. At this time he would have been about 33.
Nymphidius Sabinus: he played an important role in the events of 68. After Nero’s death he was put to death by the soldiers of Galba, who claimed that he was plotting to make himself emperor. Plutarch (Galba 9) says that Caligula was a boy when Nymphidius was born and that his father was actually a gladiator.
Junius Gallio: born Annaeus Novatus, he was adopted by Junius Gallio (see 6.3). Consul in 55, he had earlier refused, when governor of Achaea in 51/2, to listen to the charges of the Jews against Paul (Acts 18: 12–16). He was forced into suicide in 66. His accuser Clemens is otherwise unknown.
Julius Vindex: Vindex, governor of Lugdunensis, initiated a major rebellion against Nero in 68, which was crushed by Verginius Rufus.
records of the Senate: the notion of a consul-designate proposing the worship of a living emperor in Rome is remarkable and it may be because of this that Tacitus uniquely cites his own scrutiny of the acta senatus.
Anicius Cerialis: he committed suicide in the following year (ad 66).
Quinquennial Games: see note to p. 313. Suetonius (Nero 21.1) claimed that although Nero got the year right, he moved the day forward.
a poem: Dio (62.29) reports that the poem was part of his Trojan epic.
he entered the theatre again: he entered the theatre again: after first performing as a poet, Nero returned to the theatre to perform as a lyre-player. Suetonius (Vit. 4) reports that Nero left the theatre and came back only in response to a popular demand, conveyed to him through Vitellius, to return to perform on the lyre.
Vespasian: Titus Flavius Vespasianus, the future emperor. Apart from an allusion to his frugality (see 3.55), there is no other reference to Vespasian in the extant Annals, but he would presumably have appeared in the missing section on Britain and the Jewish rebellion (after the extant Book 16). Suetonius (Vesp. 4.4) and Dio (66.11.2) both tell this story, Suetonius adding that he was effectively banished frowm the centre of activity until his appointment to handle the Jewish rebellion.
the normal Roman practice: Pliny (NH 7.187) in fact states that cremation was not an old Roman custom but an expedient adopted to dispose of corpses after wars and that it only later made its way to Rome.
the Mausoleum of the Julii: the Mausoleum of Augustus, in the Campus Martius (see note to p. 278).
state funeral: Pliny (NH 12.83) claims that more spices were burned at Poppaea’s funeral than the annual produce of Arabia.
the bust of Gaius Cassius: see notes to pp. 135 and 155; mere private possession of the busts of Brutus and Cassius was not in fact illegal, and their birthdays were celebrated by people with republican sympathies (Juvenal 5.36).
Calpurnius Fabatus: he survived until the time of Pliny the Younger, who married his granddaughter Calpurnia and wrote to him on a number of occasions.
Lucius Vetus: Lucius Antistius Vetus, consul in 55 at the same time as Nero (see 13.11), supporter of Rubellius Plautus (see 14.48). His daughter Pollitta is called Antistia at 14.22.
on equal terms: on principle, freedmen were prohibited from bringing criminal charges against their patrons and could be punished for doing so.
a principal heir: Suetonius (Nero 32.2) reports that Nero enacted legislation that the estates of those who had omitted the emperor should go to the emperor’s private fiscus and that even the lawyers who had written up such wills should be punished.
amongst the couriers of the tribunes: an interesting piece of evidence that not only the magistrates but also their assistants were assigned reserved seats in the theatre.
Maius . . . Germanicus: Nero himself bore those names, and it is unnecessary to see here an honour intended for his adoptive father and his maternal grandfather.
disaster in Lugdunum: Seneca (Ep. 91.14) reports that Lugdunum was burnt down in the hundredth year since its foundation as a colony, that is, in AD 58, and Nero’s gesture may belong to some seven years after the event.
I have already mentioned: see 14.48–9.
nobody would witness Anteius’ will: Roman law required that a will be witnessed by seven individuals, all Roman citizens.
In this case: Tacitus’train of thought in this section is far from clear.
prefect of the praetorian guard: he had been removed through the intercession of Agrippina (see 12.42).
consular insignia: he appears to have been the first praetorian prefect to have been so honoured, although at 11.4 he is recorded as having received the lesser praetorian insignia.
calling in the debts: Lucan was known to be wealthy (Juvenal 7.79) and it appears that his estate was not confiscated after his death.
forged: the reasoning is not totally clear, but Tacitus seems to be saying that it was believed that Nero had forged this part of the will to justify one death and to bring about another.
Not long afterwards . . . Gaius Caesar: Dio (59.25.5b) has a different version, claiming that in AD 40 Nicius (sic) Cerialis and his son Sextus Papinius were arrested and tortured and that the son turned informant. Note also that Seneca (De ira 3.18.3) says that Papinius was tortured on a whim, not through a judicial process.
‘arbiter of good taste’: ‘ the phrase arbiter elegantiae should not be taken as an official title but rather perhaps a humorous self-reference. It is largely on the basis of this passage that this Petronius has been identified with the Petronius who composed the Satyricon, which some have associated with the ‘depravities’ mentioned in the next chapter.
as I have noted: see 14.12.
divine honours were decreed to Poppaea: Tacitus does not mention the apotheosis in his account of Poppaea’s funeral (16.6). She is identified as DIVA (goddess) on Neronian coinage, and Dio (63.26.5) mentions that Nero consecrated a temple to her.
Capito Cossutianus: Tacitus earlier recorded the accusations made against him by the Cilicians (see 13.33), but without mentioning any role by Thrasea.
the customary oath: the oath to maintain the acts of the princeps was taken in 1 January of each year.
prayer-offerings: prayers for the well-being of the state were taken on 1 January, and for the well-being of the princeps on 3 January of each year.
attended diligently: under the republic, senators were fined for non-attendance. Enforcement had become lax, though restored by Augustus and Claudius. It appears that it had been allowed to lapse again under Nero (see also 16.27).
Gaius Julius Caesar and Marcus Cato: Cato of Utica led the republican opposition against Caesar.
stiff and gloomy: the morose airs of the Stoics were notorious. Suetonius (Nero 37.1) makes Thrasea’s gloomy expression the only charge against him.
the acts of the deified Augustus and Julius: it is perhaps to be expected that the acts of Tiberius and Caligula were not included in the oath (Dio 59.9.1, Suetonius, Claud. 11), but the omission of Claudius is surprising.
Tubero and Favonius: Cicero represents Quintus Aelius Tubero, opponent of the Gracchus brothers, as austere to the point of rudeness (Brutus 31.117, Pro Murena 36.75). Marcus Favonius, an admirer of Cato of Utica, had a similar reputation.
the rivals . . . flourish: the fall of Gaius Cassius was described at 16.7–9. He is assumed to represent the famous Cassius of the late republic, and Thrasea is thus depicted as emulating Marcus and Decimus Brutus.
Barea Soranus: see note to p. 261. He was consul in 52, but the date of his governorship of Asia is not known.
the harbour of Ephesus: notoriously prone to silting up because of the mud deposits of the River Cayster.
Tiridates: he journeyed from Parthia with a large retinue and met Nero in Naples, to be accompanied from there to Rome.
king-like: no irony need be intended. Tacitus’ reference is to the arbitrary behaviour of an eastern king.
Rusticus Arulenus: Tacitus records (Agr. 2.2) that Lucius Junius Rusticus Arulenus was put to death under Domitian for his biography of Thrasea, and that the books were burned. Pliny (Ep. 1.14.2) thought highly of him and was a friend of his brother.
futile: the tribune’s veto could be overridden by the tribunician authority of the princeps.
civilians, their swords not concealed: ordinary citizens were strictly prohibited from bearing arms (see 4.21, 11.22). On this occasion they even displayed them openly.
Curia: the Curia could mean whatever building the Senate happened to use for their session. Here it almost certainly refers to the official location, the Curia Iulia built by Augustus. It seems to have survived the great fire, since it is recorded as having burned down in the time of Titus.
quaestor: the emperor seems to have had two personal quaestors, paralleling the quaestors who served proconsuls in the provinces. Their duties, beyond bringing imperial messages to the Senate, are obscure, but in this case the task was to read out the emperor’s speech. Tacitus probably held this office (see the Introduction).
Helvidius Priscus: this is the first certain mention of the famous Stoic in the extant Annals, unless he is the person of that name at 12.49 and 13.28 (see notes to pp. 259 and 285). He was married to Thrasea’s daughter Fannia. Following his exile (see 16.33), he became praetor and was banished a second time (and executed) under Vespasian. There is a detailed account of him at Tacitus, Hist. 4.5.
Paconius Agrippinus: another distinguished Stoic, possibly the son of the Marcus Paconius who may have been brought down after the fall of Sejanus (see note to p. 130). His modest demeanour at the time of his trial was acclaimed in antiquity.
Curtius Montanus: although required to retire from public life (see 16.33), he played a prominent role in the Senate after the accession of Vespasian.
worldwide peace: on the termination of military action in Armenia, Nero closed the temple of Janus, a symbol of peace throughout the empire (Suetonius, Nero 13.2).
father: the action of his father Marcus Paconius is not recorded and may have appeared in the missing section of Book 5. Suetonius (Tib. 61.6) reports that Tiberius imprisoned him and forgot about him, but on being reminded put him to death.
consuls’ tribunal: consuls presided over trials in the Senate and their curule chairs were set up in a prominent place, at either side of the princeps.
altar: it has been suggested that the Senate was meeting in the temple of Venus (see 16.27), but it may be that an altar of Victory was attached to the Curia.
Publius Egnatius’: Dio (62.26.2) reports that he was well rewarded for his role in these events. He did however pay later, when in 70 he was exiled (see Tacitus, Hist. 4.10, 40; 40.4).
the Stoic sect: we know from Juvenal (3.117) that he was educated at a famous school of philosophy at Tarsus, said to have surpassed even Athens and Alexandria.
Cassius Asclepiodotus: Dio (62.26.2) informs us that he returned from exile under Galba.
five million sesterces: the smallest sum mentioned exceeds the minimum senatorial census, and the rewards paid to the accusers would almost certainly have exceeded the one-fourth of the property of the condemned to which they were entitled by law.
quaestor: each consul had attached to him a quaestor, who would be the appropriate person to convey the sentence to the accused, since the consul presided at the trial.
Demetrius: he was much admired by Seneca, exiled by Vespasian (Suetonius, Vesp. 13; Dio 66.13.3). The Cynics in many ways were the precursors to the Stoics and had been somewhat eclipsed by them, but were starting to regain some of their ground.
Arria’s: her mother had volunteered to die along with her husband Caecina Paetus, involved in the rebellion of Scribonianus in 42. The younger Arria lived and later, under Domitian, went into exile along with her daughter, both returning under Nerva.
young man!: it is not clear whether these words were addressed to the quaestor (the minimum age was 25) or Helvidius. The latter, however, seems to have been a plebeian tribune ten years earlier (see note to p. 285) and he must now have been at least 37.