THE EXPEDITION INTO GREECE.
A.D. 65
Nero becomes more depraved and abandoned than ever.--Nero appears on
the public stage.--Estimation in which players were held.--Action of
the Senate.--Theatrical excitements.--Humiliating demeanor of the
emperor.--Rewards and honors conferred upon Nero.--The Olympic
games.--The plain.--Rules.--Preliminary arrangements of the Olympic
games.--Various contests and spectacles at the Olympic games.--Nero
sets out for Greece.--His retinue.--Nero's progress through
Greece.--Crowds of auditors.--Nero is received with great
applause.--The crown of olive leaves.--Ceremonies.--Sacrifices and
festivities.--Nero at Olympia.--His chariot race.--Nero receives the
prizes.--Nero sends despatches to Rome.--His plan for cutting through
the Isthmus of Corinth.--Breaking ground.--The golden pick-axe.--Helius
calls upon Nero to return to Rome.--Nero returns.--His train.--His
prizes.--His voyage.--Danger of shipwreck.--Journey to Rome.--His
triumphal entry into Rome.--His proceedings.--He continues the training
of his voice.--The _Phonascus_.--Public performances.--Pecuniary
embarassments.--Bessus's story.--Nero sends to Egypt for the
treasure.--His disappointment.--The dream.
As the excitement which had been produced by the discovery, real or
pretended, of Piso's conspiracy, and by the innumerable executions
which were attendant upon it, passed away, Nero returned to his
usual mode of life, and in fact abandoned himself to the indulgence
of his brutal propensities and passions more recklessly than ever.
He spent his days in sloth, and his nights in rioting and carousals,
and was rapidly becoming an object of general contempt and
detestation. The only ambition which seemed to animate him was to
excel, or rather to have the credit of excelling, as a player and
singer on the public stage.
Not long after the period of the conspiracy described in the last
two chapters, and when the excitement connected with it had in some
measure subsided, the attention of the public began to be turned
toward a great festival, the time for which was then approaching.
This festival was celebrated with spectacles and games of various
kinds, which were called the quinquennial games, from the
circumstance that the period for the celebration of them recurred
once in five years. A principal part of the performances on these
occasions consisted of contests for prizes, which were offered for
those who chose to compete for them. Some of these prizes were for
those who excelled in athletic exercises, and in feats of strength
and dexterity, while others were for singers and dancers, and other
performers on the public stage. Nero could not resist the temptation
to avail himself of this grand occasion for the display of his
powers, and he prepared to appear among the other actors and
mountebanks as a competitor for the theatrical prizes.
Performers on the public stage were regarded in ancient days much as
they are now. They were applauded, flattered, caressed, and most
extravagantly paid; but after all they formed a social class
distinct from all others, and of a very low grade. Just as now great
public singers are rewarded sometimes with the most princely
revenues,--not twice or three times, but _ten_ times perhaps the
amount ever paid to the highest ministers of state,--and receive the
most flattering attentions from the highest classes of society, and
are followed by crowds in the public streets, and enter cities
escorted by grand processions, while yet there is scarce a
respectable citizen of the better class who would not feel himself
demeaned at seeing his son or his daughter on the stage by their
side.
In the same manner public sentiment was such in the city of Rome, in
Nero's day, that to see the chief military magistrate of the
commonwealth publicly performing on the stage, and entering into an
eager competition with the singing men and women, the low comedians,
the dancers, the buffoons, and other such characters, that figured
there, was a very humiliating spectacle. In fact, when the time for
the quinquennial celebration approached, the government attempted to
prevent the necessity of the emperor's actual appearing upon the
stage, by passing in the Senate, among other decrees relating to the
celebrations, certain votes awarding honorary crowns and prizes to
Nero, by anticipation,--thus acknowledging him to be the first
without requiring the test of actual competition. But this did not
satisfy Nero. In fact, the honor of being publicly proclaimed victor
was not probably the chief allurement which attracted him. He wished
to enjoy the excitement and the pleasure of the contest,--to see the
vast audience assembled before him, and held in charmed and
enraptured attention by his performance; and to listen to and enjoy
the triumphant grandeur of the applause which rolled and
reverberated in the great Roman amphitheaters on such occasions with
the sound of thunder. In a word it was the vanity of personal
display, rather than ambition for an honorable distinction, that
constituted the motive which actuated him.
He consequently disregarded the honorary awards which the Senate had
decreed him, and insisted on actually appearing on the stage. His
first performance was the reciting of a poem which he had composed.
The poem was received, of course, with unbounded applause. Afterward
he appeared on the stage in competition with the harpers and other
musical performers. The populace applauded his efforts with the
greatest enthusiasm, while the more respectable citizens were
silent, or spoke to each other in secret murmurs of discontent and
disapproval. There were a great many rules and restrictions which
the candidates in these contests were required to observe; and
though they were all proper enough for the class of men for whom
they were intended, were yet such that the emperor, in subjecting
himself to them, placed himself in a very low and degraded position,
so as to become an object of ridicule and contempt. For example,
after coming to the end of a performance on the harp, he would
advance to the front of the stage, and there, after the manner
customary among the players of that day, would kneel down in an
imploring attitude, with his hands raised, as if humbly soliciting a
favorable sentence from the audience, as his judges, and tremblingly
waiting their decision. This, considering that the suppliant
performer was the greatest potentate on earth, officially
responsible for the government of half the world, and the audience
before whom he was kneeling was mainly composed of the lowest rabble
of the city, seemed to every respectable Roman, absurd and
ridiculous to the last degree.
Nevertheless, the fame of these exploits performed by Nero as a
public actor, spread gradually throughout the empire, and the
subject attracted special attention in the cities of Greece, where
games and public spectacles of every kind were celebrated with the
greatest pomp and splendor. Several of these cities sent deputations
to Rome, with crowns and garlands for the emperor, which they had
decreed to him in honor of the skill and superiority which he had
displayed in the histrionic art. Nero was extremely gratified at
having such honors conferred upon him. He received the deputations
which brought these tokens, with great pomp and parade, as if they
had been embassadors from sovereign princes or states, sent to
transact business of the most momentous concern. He gave them
audience, in fact, before all others, and entertained them with
feasts and spectacles, and conferred upon them every other mark of
public consideration and honor. On one occasion, at a feast to which
he had invited such a company of embassadors, one of them asked him
to favor them with a song. The emperor at once complied, and sang a
song for the entertainment of the company at the table. He was
rapturously applauded, and was so delighted with the enthusiasm
which his performance awakened, as to exclaim that the Greeks were,
after all, the only people that really had a taste for music; none
but they, he said, could understand or appreciate a good song.
The most renowned of all the celebrations of the ancient Greeks were
the Olympic games. These games constituted a grand national
festival, which was held once in four years on a plain in the
western part of the Peloponnesus, called the Olympian Plain. This
plain was but little more than a mile in extent, and was bordered on
one side by rocky hills, and on the other by the waters of a river.
Here suitable structures were erected for the exhibition of the
spectacles and games, and for the accommodation of the spectators,
and when the period for the celebrations arrived, immense multitudes
assembled from every part of Greece to witness the solemnities. The
spectators, however, were all men; for with the exception of a few
priestesses who had certain official duties to perform, no females
were allowed to be present. The punishment for an attempt to evade
this law was death; for if any woman attempted to witness the scene
in disguise, the law was that she was to be seized, if detected,
and hurled down a neighboring precipice, to be killed by the fall.
It is said, however, that only one case of such detection ever
occurred, and in that case the woman was pardoned in consideration
of the fact that her father, her brothers, and her son had all been
victors in the games.
The games continued for five days. The general arrangements were
made, and the umpires were appointed, by the government of Elis,
which was the state in which the Olympian plain was situated. There
was a gymnasium in the vicinity, where those who intended to enter
the lists as competitors were accustomed to put themselves in
training. This training occupied nearly a year, and for thirty days
previous to the public exhibition the exercises were conducted at
this gymnasium in the same manner and form as at the games
themselves. There was a large and regularly organized police
provided to preserve order, and umpires appointed with great
formality, to decide the contests and make the awards. These umpires
were inducted into office by the most solemn oaths. They bound
themselves by these oaths to give just and true decisions without
fear or favor.
The festival was opened, when the time arrived, in the evening, by
the offering of sacrifices,--the services being conducted in the
most imposing and solemn manner. On the following morning at
daybreak the games and contests began. These consisted of races--in
chariots, on horseback, and on foot,--the runners being in the
latter case sometimes dressed lightly, and sometimes loaded with
heavy armor;--of matches in leaping, wrestling, boxing, and throwing
the discus;--and finally, of musical and poetical performances of
various kinds. To obtain the prize in any of these contests was
considered throughout the whole Grecian world as an honor of the
highest degree.
The period for the celebration of these games began to draw nigh, as
it happened, not long after the time when the deputations from
Greece came to Nero with the compliments and crowns decreed to him
in token of their admiration of his public performances at
Rome,--and it is not at all surprising that his attention and
interest were strongly awakened by the approach of so renowned a
festival. In short he resolved to go to Greece, and display his
powers before the immense and distinguished audiences that were to
assemble on the Olympic plains.
He accordingly organized a very large retinue of attendants and
followers, and prepared to set out on his journey. This retinue was
in numbers quite an army; but in character it was a mere troop of
actors, musicians and buffoons. It was made up almost wholly of
people connected in various ways with the stage, so that the baggage
which followed in its train, instead of being formed of arms and
munitions of war, as was usual when a great Roman commander had
occasion to pass out of Italy, consisted of harps, fiddles, masks,
buskins, and such other stage property as was in use in those
times,--while the company itself was formed almost entirely of
comedians, singers, dancers, and wrestlers, with an immense retinue
of gay and dissipated men and women, who exemplified every possible
stage of moral debasement and degradation. With this company Nero
crossed to the eastern shore of Italy, and there, embarking on board
the vessels which had been prepared for the voyage, he sailed over
the Adriatic sea to the shores of Greece.
He landed at Cassiope, a town in the northern part of the island of
Corcyra. Here there was a temple to Jupiter, and the first of Nero's
exploits was to go there and sing, being impatient, it would seem,
to give the people of Greece a specimen of his powers immediately on
landing. After this he passed over to the continent, and thence
advanced into the heart of Greece, playing, singing, and acting in
all the cities through which he passed. As there were yet some
months to elapse before the period for celebrating the Olympic
games, Nero had ample time for making this tour. He was of course
everywhere received with the most unbounded applause, for of course
those only, in general, who were most pleased with such amusements,
and were most inclined to approve of Nero's exhibiting himself as a
performer, came together in the assemblies which convened to hear
him. Thus it happened that the virtuous, the cultivated, and the
refined, remained at their homes; while all the idle, reckless,
and dissolute spirits of the land flocked in crowds to the
entertainments which their imperial visitor offered them. These men,
of course, considered it quite a triumph for them that so
distinguished a potentate should take an active part in ministering
to their pleasures; and thus wherever Nero went he was sure to be
attended by crowds, and his performances, whether skillful or not,
could not fail of being extravagantly extolled in conversation, and
of eliciting in the theaters thunders of applause. The consequence
was that Nero was delighted with the enthusiasm which his
performances seemed everywhere to awaken. To be thus received and
thus applauded in the cities of Greece, seemed to satisfy his
highest ambition.
It has always been considered a very extraordinary proof of mental
and moral degradation on the part of Nero, that he could thus
descend from the exalted sphere of responsibility and duty to which
his high official station properly consigned him, in order to mingle
in such scenes and engage in such contests as were exhibited in the
ordinary theaters and circuses in Greece. It is however not so
surprising that he should have been willing to appear as a
competitor at the Olympic games: so prominent were these games above
all the other athletic and military celebrations of that age, and so
great was the value attached to the honor of a victory obtained in
them. There was, it is true, no value in the prize itself, that was
bestowed upon the victors. There was no silver cup, or golden crown,
or sum of money staked upon the issue. The only direct award was a
crown of olive leaves, which, at the close of the contest, was
placed upon the head of the victor. Everything pertaining to this
crown was connected with the most imposing and peculiar ceremonies.
The leaves from which the garland was made were obtained from a
certain sacred olive-tree, which grew in a consecrated grove in
Olympia. The tree itself had been originally brought, it was said,
from the country of the Hyperboreans, by Hercules, and planted in
Olympia, where it was sacredly preserved to furnish garlands for the
victors in the games. The leaves were cut from the tree by a boy
chosen for the purpose. He gathered the leaves by means of a golden
sickle, which was set apart expressly to this use. When the time
arrived for the crowning of the victor, the candidate was brought
forward in presence of a vast concourse of spectators, and placed
upon a tripod, which was originally formed of bronze, but in
subsequent ages was wrought in ivory and gold. Branches of
palm-trees, the usual symbols of victory, were placed in his hands.
His name and that of his father and of the country whence he came,
were proclaimed with great ceremony by the heralds. The crown was
then placed upon his head, and the festival ended with processions
and sacrifices and a public banquet given in honor of the occasion.
On his return to his own country, the victor entered the capital by
a triumphal procession, and was usually rewarded there by immunities
and privileges of the most important character.
At length the time arrived for the celebration of the Olympic games,
and Nero repaired to the spot, following the vast throngs that were
proceeding thither from every part of Greece, and there entered into
competition with all the common singers and players of the time. The
prize for excellence in music was awarded to him. It was, however,
generally understood that the judges were bribed to decide in his
favor. Nero entered as a competitor, too, in the chariot race; and
here he was successful in winning the prize; though in this case it
was decreed to him in plain and open violation of all rule. He
undertook to drive ten horses in this race; but he found the team
too much for him to control. The horses became unmanageable; Nero
was thrown out of his carriage and was so much hurt that he could
not finish the race at all. He, however, insisted that accidents and
casualties were not to be taken into the account, and that inasmuch
as he should certainly have outran his competitors if he had not
been prevented by misfortune, he claimed that the judges should
award him the prize. Greatly to his delight the judges did so. It is
true they were bound by the most solemn oaths to make just and true
decisions; but it has been seldom found in the history of the world
that official oaths constitute any serious barrier against the
demands or encroachments of emperors or kings.
When the games were ended Nero conferred very rich rewards upon all
the judges.
These successes at the Olympic games, nominal and empty as they
really were, seemed to have inflamed the emperor's vanity and
ambition more than ever. Instead of returning to Rome he commenced
another tour through the heart of Greece, singing and playing in all
the cities where he went, and challenging all the most distinguished
actors and performers to meet him and contend with him for prizes.
Of course the prizes were always awarded to Nero on this tour, as
they had been at the Olympic games. Nero sent home regular
despatches after each of his performances, to inform the Roman
Senate of his victories, just as former emperors had been accustomed
to send military bulletins to announce the progress of their armies,
and the conquests which they had gained in battle; and with a degree
of vanity and folly which seems almost incredible, he called upon
the Senate to institute religious celebrations and sacrifices in
Rome, and great public processions, in order to signalize and
commemorate these great successes, and to express the gratitude of
the people to the gods for having vouchsafed them. Not satisfied
with expecting this parade of public rejoicing in Rome, he called
upon the Senate to ordain that similar services should be held in
all the cities and towns throughout the empire.
During the visit of Nero to Greece, he engaged in one undertaking
which might be denominated a useful enterprise, though he managed it
with such characteristic imbecility and folly, that it ended, as
might have been foreseen, in a miserable failure. The plan which he
conceived, was to cut through the Isthmus of Corinth, so as to open
a ship communication between the Ionian and the AEgean seas. Such a
canal, he thought, would save for many vessels the long and
dangerous voyage around the Peloponnesus, and thus prevent many of
the wrecks which then annually took place on the shores of the
Peninsula, and which were often attended with the destruction of
much property and of many lives.
The plan might thus have been a very good one, had any proper and
efficient means been adopted for carrying it into execution; but in
all that he did in this respect, Nero seems to have looked no
farther than to the performance of pompous and empty ceremonies in
commencing the work. He convened a great public assembly on the
ground. He entertained this assembly with spectacles and shows. He
then placed himself at the head of his life-guards, and, after a
speech of great promise and pretension, he advanced at the head of a
procession, singing and dancing by the way, to the place where the
first ground was to be broken. Here he made three strokes with a
golden pick-axe, which had been provided for the occasion, and
putting the earth which he had loosened into a basket, he carried it
away to a short distance, and threw it out upon the ground. This
ceremony was meant for the commencement of the canal; and when it
was over, the company dispersed, and Nero was escorted by his guards
back to the city of Corinth, which lay at a few miles' distance from
the scene.
Nothing more was ever done. Nero issued orders, it is true, that all
the criminals, convicts, and prisoners in Greece, should be
transported to the Isthmus, and set to work upon this canal; and
some Jewish captives were actually employed there for a time; but,
for some reason or other, nothing was done. The actual work was
never seriously undertaken.
In the mean time, Nero had left the government at Rome in the hands
of a certain ignoble favorite, named Helius, who, being placed in
command of the army during his master's absence, held the lives and
fortunes of all the inhabitants at his supreme disposal, and, as
might have been expected, he pursued such a career of cruelty and
oppression, in his attempts to overawe and subject those who were
under his power, that a universal feeling of hostility and hatred
was awakened against him. Things at last assumed so alarming an
attitude, that Helius was terrified in his turn, and at length he
began to send for Nero to come home. Nero at first paid no attention
to these requests. The danger, however, increased; the crisis became
extremely imminent, so that a general insurrection was anticipated.
Helius sent messengers after messengers to Nero, imploring him to
return, if he wished to save himself from ruin;--but all the answer
that he could obtain from Nero was, that, if Helius truly loved him,
he would not envy him the glory that he was acquiring in Greece;
but, instead of hastening his return, would rather wish that he
should come back worthy of himself, after having fully accomplished
his victories. At last Helius, growing desperate in view of the
impending danger, left Rome, and, traveling with all possible
dispatch, night and day, came to Nero in Greece, and there made such
statements and disclosures in respect to the condition of things at
Rome, that Nero at length reluctantly concluded to return.
He accordingly set out in grand state on his journey westward,
escorted by his body-guard, and with his motley and innumerable
horde of singers, dancers, poets, actors, and mountebanks in his
train. He brought with him the prizes which he had won in the
various cities of Greece. The number of these prizes, it was said,
was more than eighteen hundred. On his way through Greece, when
about to return to Rome, he went to Delphi, to consult the sacred
oracle there, in respect to his future fortunes. The reply of the
Pythoness was, "_Beware of seventy-three._" This answer gave Nero
great satisfaction and pleasure. It meant, he had no doubt, that he
had no danger to fear until he should have attained to the age of
seventy-three; and as he was yet not quite thirty, the response of
the oracle seemed to put so far away the evil day, that he thought
he might dismiss it from his mind altogether. So he repaid the
oracle for the flattering prediction with most magnificent presents,
and pursued his journey toward Rome with a mind quite at ease.
The ships in which he embarked to cross the Adriatic on his return
to Italy encountered a terrible storm, by which they were dispersed,
and many of them were destroyed. Nero himself had a very narrow
escape, as the ship which he was in came very near being lost. To
see him in this danger seems greatly to have pleased some of his
attendants, for so imperious and cruel was his temper, that he was
generally hated by all who came under his power. These men hated him
so intensely that they were willing, as it would appear, to perish
themselves, for the pleasure of witnessing his destruction; and in
the extreme moments of danger they openly manifested this feeling.
The vessel, however, was saved, and Nero, as soon as he landed,
ordered these persons all to be slain.
On landing he gathered together the scattered remnants of his
company, and organizing a new escort, he advanced toward Rome, in a
grand triumphal march, displaying his prizes and crowns in all the
great cities through which he passed, and claiming universal homage.
When he arrived at the gates of Rome, he made preparations for a
grand triumphal entry to the city, in the manner of great military
conquerors. A breach was made in the walls for the admission of the
procession. Nero rode in the triumphal chariot of Augustus, with a
distinguished Greek harpist by his side, who wore an Olympic crown
upon his head, and carried another crown in his hand. Before this
chariot marched a company of eighteen hundred men, each of them
carrying one of the crowns which Nero had won, with an inscription
for the spectators to read, signifying where the crown had been won,
the name of the emperor's competitor, the title of the song which he
had sung, and other similar particulars. In this way he traversed
the principal streets, exhibiting himself and his trophies to the
populace, and finally when he arrived at his house, he entered it
with great pomp and parade, and caused the crowns to be hung up upon
the innumerable statues of himself which had been erected in the
courts and halls of the building. Those which he valued most highly
he placed conspicuously around his bed in his bedchamber, in order
that they might be the last objects for his eyes to rest upon at
night, and the first to greet his view in the morning.
As soon as he became established in Rome again, he began to form new
plans for developing his powers and capacities as a musician, in the
hope of gaining still higher triumphs than those to which he had
already attained. Far from giving his time and attention to the
public business of the empire, he devoted himself with new zeal and
enthusiasm to the cultivation of his art. In doing this it was
necessary, according to the customs and usages in respect to the
training of musicians that prevailed in those days, that he should
submit to rules and exercises most absurd and degrading to one
holding such a station as his; and as accounts of his mode of life
circulated among the community, he became an object of general
ridicule and contempt. In order to strengthen his lungs and improve
his voice he used to lie on his back with a plate of lead upon his
chest, that the lungs, working under such a burden, might acquire
strength by the effort. He took powerful medicines, such as were
supposed in those days to act upon the system in such a manner as to
produce clearness and resonance in the tones of the voice. He
subjected himself to the most rigid rules of diet,--and gave up the
practice of addressing the senate and the army, which the Roman
emperors often had occasion to do, for fear that speaking so loud
might strain his voice and injure the sweetness of its tones. He had
a special officer in his household, called his _Phonascus_, meaning
his voice-keeper. This officer was to watch him at all times,
caution him against speaking too loud or too fast,--prescribe for
him, and in every way take care that his voice received no
detriment. During all this time Nero was continually performing in
public, and though his performances were protracted and tedious to
the last degree, all the Roman nobility were compelled always to
attend them, under pain of his horrible displeasure.
As Nero went on thus in the career which he had chosen,--neglecting
altogether the affairs of government, and giving himself up more and
more every year to the most expensive dissipation, his finances
became at length greatly involved, and he was compelled to resort to
every possible form of extortion, in order to raise the money that
he required. His pecuniary embarrassments became, at length, very
perplexing, and they were finally very much increased by the
extraordinary folly which he displayed in giving credence to the
dreams and promises of a certain adventurer who came to him from
Africa. The name of this man was Bessus. He was a native of
Carthage. He came, at one time, to Rome, and having contrived, by
means of presents and bribes which he offered to the officers of
Nero's household, to obtain an audience of the emperor, he informed
him that he had intelligence of the highest importance to
communicate, which was, that on his estate in Africa, there was a
large cavern, in which was stored an immense treasure. This treasure
consisted, he said, of vast heaps of golden ingots, rude and
shapeless in form, but composed of pure and precious metal. The
cavern, he said, which contained these stores, was very spacious,
and the gold lay piled in it in heaps, and sometimes in solid
columns, towering to a prodigious height. These treasures had been
deposited there, he said, by Dido, the ancient Carthaginian queen,
and they had remained there so long, that all knowledge of them had
been lost. They had been reserved, in a word, for Nero, and were all
now at his disposal, ready to be brought out and employed in
promoting the glory and magnificence of his reign.
Nero readily gave credit to this story, and inasmuch as in the
exuberance of his exultation he made known this wonderful discovery
to those around him, the tidings of it soon spread throughout the
city, and produced the most intense excitement among all classes.
Nero immediately began to fit out an expedition to proceed to
Africa, and bring the treasure home. Galleys were equipped to convey
it, and a body of troops was designated to escort it, and suitable
officers appointed to proceed with Bessus to Carthage, and
superintend the transportation of the metal. These preparations
necessarily required some time, and during the interval Bessus was
of course the object at Rome of universal attention and regard. Nero
himself, finding that he was about to enter upon the possession of
such inexhaustible treasures, dismissed all concern in respect to
his finances, and launched out into wilder extravagance than ever.
He raised money for the present moment, by assigning shares in the
treasure at exorbitant rates of discount, and thus borrowed and
expended with the most unbounded profusion.
At length the expedition sailed for Carthage, taking Bessus with
them,--but all search for the cavern, when they arrived, was
unavailing. It proved that all the evidence which Bessus had of the
existence of the cave, and of the heaps of gold contained in it, was
derived from certain remarkable dreams which he had had,--and though
Nero's commissioners dug into the ground most faithfully in every
place on the estate which the dreams had indicated, no treasure, and
not even the cavern, could ever be found.