Nero Aug. (IV), Cornelius Cossus Cossi F. Lentulus. (A.D. 60 = a.u. 813 =
Seventh of Nero, from Oct. 13th).
Caesonius Paetus, P. Petronius Turpilianus. (A.D. 61 = a.u. 814 = Eighth
of Nero).
P. Marius Celsus, L. Asinius Gallus. (A.D. 62 = a.u. 815 = Ninth of Nero).
C. Memmius Regulus, L. Verginius Rufus. (A.D. 63 = a.u. 816 = Tenth of
Nero).
C. Lecanius Bassus, M. Licinius Crassus Frugi. (A.D. 64 = a.u. 817 =
Eleventh of Nero).
A. Licinius Nerva Silanus, M. Vestinus Atticus. (A.D. 65 = a.u. 818 =
Twelfth of Nero).
[Sidenote: A.D. 61 (a.u. 814)] [Sidenote:--1--] While this sport was going
on at Rome, a terrible disaster had taken place in Britain. Two cities had
been sacked, eight myriads of Romans and of their allies had perished, and
the island had been lost. Moreover, all this ruin was brought upon them by
a woman, a fact which in itself caused them the greatest shame. Heaven
evidently gave them in advance an indication of the catastrophe. At night
there was heard to issue from the senate-house foreign jargon mingled with
laughter and from the theatre outcries with wailing: yet no mortal man had
uttered the speeches or the groans. Houses under water came to view in the
river Thames, [Footnote: Compare Tacitus, Annals, XIV, 32 ("visamque
speciem in aestuario Tamesae subversae Coloniae").] and the ocean between
the island and Gaul sometimes grew bloody at flood-tide.
[Sidenote:--2--] The _casus belli_ lay in the confiscation of the
money which Claudius had given to the foremost Britons,--Decianus Catus,
governor of the island, announcing that this must now be sent back. This
was one reason [Lacuna] [Footnote: It would seem natural to supply "for the
uprising," as does Reiske.] and another was that Seneca had lent them on
excellent terms as regards interest a thousand myriads that they did not
want, [Footnote: The meaning of this phrase ( [Greek: achousin]) is not
wholly clear. Naber purposes to substitute [Greek: aitousin] ("that they
were asking for").] and had afterward called in this loan all at once and
levied on them for it with severity. But the person who most stirred their
spirits and persuaded them to fight the Romans, who was deemed worthy to
stand at their head and to have the conduct of the entire war, was a
British woman, Buduica, [Footnote: Known commonly as Boadicea.] of the
royal family and possessed of greater judgment than often belongs to
women. It was she who gathered the army to the number of nearly twelve
myriads and ascended a tribunal of marshy soil made after the Roman
fashion. In person she was very tall, with a most sturdy figure and a
piercing glance; her voice was harsh; a great mass of yellow hair fell
below her waist and a large golden necklace clasped her throat; wound
about her was a tunic of every conceivable color and over it a thick
chlamys had been fastened with a brooch. This was her constant attire. She
now grasped a spear to aid her in terrifying all beholders and spoke as
follows:--
[Sidenote:--3--] "You have had actual experience of the difference between
freedom and slavery. Hence, though some of you previously through
ignorance of which was better may have been deceived by the alluring
announcements of the Romans, yet now that you have tried both you have
learned how great a mistake you made by preferring a self-imposed
despotism to your ancestral mode of life. You have come to recognize how
far superior is the poverty of independence to wealth in servitude. What
treatment have we met with that is not most outrageous, that is not most
grievous, ever since these men insinuated themselves into Britain? Have we
not been deprived of our most numerous and our greatest possessions
entire, while for what remains we must pay taxes? Besides pasturing and
tilling all the various regions for them do we not contribute a yearly sum
for our very bodies? How much better it would have been to be sold to
masters once and for all than to ransom ourselves annually and possess
empty names of freedom! How much better to have been slain and perish
rather than go about with subservient heads! Yet what have I said? Even
dying is not free from expense among them, and you know what fees we
deposit on behalf of the dead. Throughout the rest of mankind death frees
even those who are in slavery; only in the case of the Romans do the very
dead live for their profit. Why is it that though none of us has any
money,--and how or whence should we get it?,--we are stripped and
despoiled like a murderer's victims? How should the Romans grow milder in
process of time, when they have conducted themselves so toward us at the
very start,--a period when all men show consideration for even newly
captured beasts?
[Sidenote:--4--] "But, to tell the truth, it is we who have made ourselves
responsible for all these evils in allowing them so much as to set foot on
the island in the first place instead of expelling them at once as we did
their famous Julius Caesar,--yes, in not making the idea of attempting the
voyage formidable to them, while they were as yet far off, as it was to
Augustus and to Gaius Caligula. So great an island, or rather in one sense
a continent encircled by water, do we inhabit, a veritable world of our
own, and so far are we separated by the ocean from all the rest of mankind
that we have been believed to dwell on a different earth and under a
different sky and some of their wisest men were not previously sure of
even our exact name. Yet for all this we have been scorned and trampled
under foot by men who know naught else than how to secure gain. Still, let
us even at this late day, if not before, fellow-citizens, friends and
relatives,--for I deem you all relatives, in that you inhabit a single
island and are called by [Footnote: Reading [Greek: chechlaemenous](van
Herwerden).] one common name,--let us do our duty while the memory of
freedom still abides within us, that we may leave both the name and the
fact of it to our children. For if we utterly lose sight of the happy
conditions amid which we were born and bred, what pray will they do,
reared in bondage?
[Sidenote:--5--] "This I say not to inspire you with a hatred of present
circumstances,--that hatred is already apparent,--nor with a fear of the
future,--that fear you already have,--but to commend you because of your
own accord you choose to do just what you ought, and to thank you for
cooperating so readily with me and your own selves at once. Be nowise
afraid of the Romans. They are not more numerous than are we nor yet
braver. And the proof is that they have protected themselves with helmets
and breastplates and greaves and furthermore have equipped their camps
with palisades and walls and ditches to make sure that they shall suffer
no harm by any hostile assault. [Footnote: Corruptions in the text emended
by Reiske.] Their fears impel them to choose this method rather than
engage in any active work like us. We enjoy such a superabundance of
bravery that we regard tents as safer than walls and our shields as
affording greater protection than their whole suits of mail. As a
consequence, we when victorious can capture them and when overcome by
force can elude them. And should we ever choose to retreat, we can conceal
ourselves in swamps and mountains so inaccessible that we can be neither
found nor taken. The enemy, however, can neither pursue any one by reason
of their heavy armor nor yet flee. And if they ever should slip away from
us, taking refuge in certain designated spots, there, too, they are sure
to be enclosed as in a trap. These are some of the respects in which they
are vastly inferior to us, and others are their inability to bear up under
hunger, thirst, cold, or heat, as we can; for they require shade and
protection, they require kneaded bread and wine and oil, and if the supply
of any of these things fails them they simply perish. For us, on the other
hand, any root or grass serves as bread, any plant juice as olive oil, any
water as wine, any tree as a house. Indeed, this very region is to us an
acquaintance and ally, but to them unknown and hostile. As for the rivers,
we swim them naked, but they even with boats can not cross easily. Let us
therefore go against them trusting boldly to good fortune. Let us show
them that they are hares and foxes trying to rule dogs and wolves."
[Sidenote:--6--] At these words, employing a species of divination, she
let a hare escape from her bosom, and as it ran in what they considered a
lucky direction, the whole multitude shouted with pleasure, and Buduica
raising her hand to heaven, spoke: "I thank thee, Andraste, [Footnote: Not
much information is preserved regarding this indigenous goddess of
Britain. Reimar asserts that she is practically identical with Boccharte,
Astarte, or Venus.] and call upon thee, who are a woman, being myself also
a woman that rules not burden-bearing Egyptians like Nitocris, nor
merchant Assyrians like Semiramis (of these things we have heard from the
Romans), nor even the Romans themselves, as did Messalina first and later
Agrippina;--at present their chief is Nero, in name a man, in fact a
woman, as is shown by his singing, his playing the cithara, his adorning
himself:--but ruling as I do men of Britain that know not how to till the
soil or ply a trade yet are thoroughly versed in the arts of war and hold
all things common, even children and wives; wherefore the latter possess
the same valor as the males: being therefore queen of such men and such
women I supplicate and pray thee for victory and salvation and liberty
against men insolent, unjust, insatiable, impious,--if, indeed we ought to
term those creatures men who wash in warm water, eat artificial dainties,
drink unmixed wine, anoint themselves with myrrh, sleep on soft couches
with boys for bedfellows (and past their prime at that), are slaves to a
zither-player, yes, an inferior zither-player. Wherefore may this
Domitia-Nero _woman_ reign no more over you or over me: let the wench
sing and play the despot over the Romans. They surely deserve to be in
slavery to such a being whose tyranny they have patiently borne already
this long time. But may we, mistress, ever look to thee alone as our
head."
[Sidenote:--7--] After an harangue of this general nature Buduica led her
army against the Romans. The latter chanced to be without a leader for the
reason that Paulinus their commander had gone on an expedition to Mona, an
island near Britain. This enabled her to sack and plunder two Roman
cities, and, as I said, she wrought indescribable slaughter. Persons
captured by the Britons underwent every form of most frightful treatment.
The conquerors committed the most atrocious and bestial outrages. For
instance, they hung up naked the noblest and most distinguished women, cut
off their breasts and sewed them to their mouths, to make the victims
appear to be eating them. After that they impaled them on sharp skewers
run perpendicularly the whole length of the body. All this they did to the
accompaniment of sacrifices, banquets, and exhibitions of insolence in all
of their sacred places, but chiefly in the grove of Andate,--that being
the name of their personification of Victory, to whom they paid the most
excessive reverence.
[Sidenote:--8--] It happened that Paulinus had already brought Mona to
terms; hence on learning of the disaster in Britain he at once set sail
thither from Mona. He was unwilling to risk a conflict with the barbarians
immediately, for he feared their numbers and their frenzy; therefore he
was for postponing the battle to a more convenient season. But as he grew
short of food and the barbarians did not desist from pressing him hard, he
was compelled, though contrary to his plan, to enter into an engagement
with them. Buduica herself, heading an army of about twenty-three myriads
of men, rode on a chariot and assigned the rest to their several stations.
Now Paulinus could not extend his phalanx the width of her whole line,
for, even if the men had been drawn up only one deep, they would not have
stretched far enough, so inferior were they in numbers: nor did he dare to
join battle with one compact force, for fear he should be surrounded and
cut down. Accordingly, he separated his army into three divisions in order
to fight at several points at once, and he made each of the divisions so
strong that it could not easily be broken through. While ordering and
arranging his men he likewise exhorted them, saying:
[Sidenote:--9--] "Up, fellow-soldiers! Up, men of Rome! Show these pests
how much even in misfortune we surpass them. It is a shame for you now to
lose ingloriously what but a short while ago you gained by your valor.
Often have we ourselves and also our fathers with far fewer numbers than
we have at the present conquered far more numerous antagonists. Fear not
the host of them or their rebellion: their boldness rests on nothing
better than headlong rashness unaided by arms and exercise. Fear not
because they have set on fire a few cities: they took these not by force
nor after a battle, but one was betrayed and the other abandoned. Do you
now exact from them the proper penalty for these deeds, that so they may
learn by actual experience what they undertook when they wronged such men
as us."
[Sidenote:--10--] After speaking these words to some he came to a second
group and said: "Now is the occasion, now, fellow-soldiers, for zeal, for
daring. If to-day you prove yourselves brave men, you will recover what
has slipped from your grasp. If you overcome this enemy, no one else will
any longer withstand us. By one such battle you will both make sure of
your present possessions and subdue whatever is left. All soldiers
stationed anywhere else will emulate you and foes will be terror-stricken.
Therefore, since it is in your own hands either to rule fearlessly all
mankind, both the nations that your fathers left under your control and
those which you yourselves have gained in addition, or else to be bereft
of them utterly, choose rather to be free, to rule, to live in wealth, to
enjoy prosperity, than through indolence to suffer the reverse of these
conditions."
[Sidenote:--11--] After making an address of this sort to the group in
question, he came up to the third division and said also to them: "You
have heard what sort of acts these wretches have committed against us, nay
more, you have even seen some of them. Therefore choose either yourselves
to suffer the same treatment as previous victims and furthermore to be
driven entirely out of Britain, or else through victory to avenge those
that perished and also to give to the rest of mankind an example of mild
clemency toward the obedient, of necessary severity toward the rebellious.
I entertain the highest hopes of victory for our side, counting on the
following factors: first, the assistance of the gods; they usually
cooperate with the party that has been wronged: second, our inherited
bravery; we are Romans and have shown ourselves superior to all mankind in
various instances of valor: next, our experience; we have defeated and
subdued these very men that are now arrayed against us: last, our good
name; it is not worthy opponents but our slaves with whom we are coming in
conflict, persons who enjoyed freedom and self-government only so far as
we allowed it. Yet even should the outcome prove contrary to our
hope,--and I will not shrink from mentioning even this contingency,--it is
better for us to fall fighting bravely than to be captured and impaled, to
see our own entrails cut out, to be spitted on red hot skewers, to perish
dissolved in boiling water, when we have fallen into the power of
creatures that are very beasts, savage, lawless, godless. Let us therefore
either beat them or die on the spot. Britain shall be a noble memorial to
us, even though all subsequent Romans should be driven from it; for in any
case our bodies shall forever possess the land."
[Sidenote:--12--] At the conclusion of exhortations of this sort and
others like them he raised the signal for battle. Thereupon they
approached each other, the barbarians making a great outcry intermingled
with menacing incantations, but the Romans silently and in order until
they came within a javelin's throw of the enemy. Then, while the foe were
advancing against them at a walk, the Romans started at a given word and
charged them at full speed, and when the clash came easily broke through
the opposing ranks; but, as they were surrounded by the great numbers,
they had to be fighting everywhere at once. Their struggle took many
forms. In the first place, light-armed troops might be in conflict with
light-armed, heavy-armed be arrayed against heavy-armed, cavalry join
issue with cavalry; and against the chariots of the barbarians the Roman
archers would be contending. Again, the barbarians would assail the Romans
with a rush of their chariots, knocking them helter-skelter, but, since
they fought without breastplates, would be themselves repulsed by the
arrows. Horseman would upset foot-soldier, and foot-soldier strike down
horseman; some, forming in close order, would go to meet the chariots, and
others would be scattered by them; some would come to close quarters with
the archers and rout them, whereas others were content to dodge their
shafts at a distance: and all these things went on not at one spot, but in
the three divisions at once. They contended for a long time, both parties
being animated by the same zeal and daring. Finally, though late in the
day, the Romans prevailed, having slain numbers in the battle, beside the
wagons, or in the wood: they also captured many alive. Still, not a few
made their escape and went on to prepare to fight a second time.
Meanwhile, however, Buduica fell sick and died. The Britons mourned her
deeply and gave her a costly burial; but, as they themselves were this
time really defeated, they scattered to their homes.--So far the history
of affairs in Britain.
[Sidenote: A.D. 62 (a.u. 815)] [Sidenote:--13--] In Rome Nero had before
this sent away Octavia Augusta, on account of his concubine Sabina, and
subsequently he put her to death. This he did in spite of the opposition
of Burrus, who tried to prevent his sending her away, and once said to
him: "Well, then, give her back her dowry" (by which he meant the
sovereignty). Indeed, Burrus used such unmitigated frankness that on one
occasion, when he was asked by the emperor a second time for an opinion on
matters regarding which he had already made clear his attitude, he
answered bluntly: "When I have once had my say about anything, don't ask
me again." So Nero disposed of him by poison. He also appointed to command
the Pretorians a certain Ofonius Tigillinus, who outstripped all his
contemporaries in licentiousness and bloodiness. [It was he who won Nero
away from them and made light of his colleague Rufus.] [Footnote:
_Foenius Rufus._] To him the famous sentence of Pythias is said to have
been directed. She had proved the only exception when all the other
attendants of Octavia had joined Sabina in attacking their mistress,
despising the one because she was in misfortune and toadying to the other
because her influence was strong. Pythias alone had refused though cruelly
tortured to utter lies against Octavia, and finally, as Tigillinus
continued to urge her, she spat in his face, saying:
"My mistress's privy parts are cleaner, Tigillinus, than your mouth."
[Sidenote:--14--] The troubles of his relatives Nero turned into laughter
and jest. For instance, after killing Plautus [Footnote: _Rubellirs
Plautus_.] he took a look at his head when it was brought to him and
remarked: "I didn't know he had such a big nose," as much as to say that
he would have spared him, had he been aware of this fact beforehand. And
though he spent practically his whole existence in tavern life, he forbade
others to sell in taverns anything boiled save vegetables and pea-soup. He
put Pallas out of the way because the latter had accumulated great wealth
that could be counted by the ten thousand myriads. Likewise he was very
liable to peevishness that showed in his behavior, and at such times he
would not speak a word to his servants or freedmen but write on tablets
whatever he wanted as well as any orders that he had to give them.
[Sidenote: A.D. 63 (a.u. 816)] [Sidenote:--15--] Indeed, when many of
those who had gathered at Antium perished, Nero made that, too, an
occasion for a festival.
A certain Thrasea gave his opinion to the effect that for a senator the
extreme penalty should be exile.
[Sidenote: A.D. 64 (a.u. 817)] To such lengths did
Nero's self-indulgence go that he actually drove chariots in public.
Again, one time after the slaughter of beasts he straightway brought water
into the theatre by means of pipes and produced a sea-fight: then he let
the water out again and arranged a gladiatorial combat. Last of all he
flooded the place once more and gave a costly public banquet. The person
who had been appointed director of the banquet was Tigillinus, and a large
and complete equipment had been furnished. The arrangements made were as
follows. In the center and resting on the water were placed the great
wooden wine vessels, over which boards had been fastened. Round about it
had been built taverns and booths. Thus Nero and Tigillinus and their
fellow-banqueters, being in the center, held their feast on purple carpets
and soft mattresses, while all the other people caroused in the taverns.
These also entered the brothels, where unrestrictedly they might enjoy
absolutely any woman to be found there. Now the latter were some of the
most beautiful and distinguished in the city, both slaves and free, some
hetaerae, some virgins, some wives,--not merely, that is to say, public
wenches, but both girls and women of the very noblest families. Every man
was given authority to have whichever one he wished, for the women were
not allowed to refuse any one. Consequently, the multitude being a regular
rabble, they drank greedily and reveled in wanton conduct. So a slave
debauched his mistress in the presence of his master and a gladiator
ravished a girl of noble family while her father looked on. The shoving
and striking and uproar that went on, first on the part of those who were
going in and second on the part of those who stood around outside, was
disgraceful. Many men met their death in these encounters, and of the
women some were strangled and some were seized and carried off.
[Sidenote:--16--] After this Nero had the wish (or rather it had always
been a fixed purpose of his) to make an end of the whole city and
sovereignty during his lifetime. Priam he deemed wonderfully happy in that
he had seen his country perish at the same moment as his authority.
Accordingly he sent in different directions men feigning to be drunk or
engaged in some indifferent species of rascality and at first had one or
two or more blazes quietly kindled in different quarters: people, of
course, fell into the utmost confusion, not being able to find any
beginning of the trouble nor to put any end to it, and meanwhile they
became aware of many strange sights and sounds. For soon there was nothing
to be observed but many fires as in a camp, and no other phrases fell from
men's lips but "This or that is burning "; "Where?"; "How?"; "Who set
it?"; "To the rescue!" An extraordinary perturbation laid hold on all
wherever they might be, and they ran about as if distracted, some in one
direction and some in another. Some men in the midst of assisting their
neighbors would learn that their own premises were on fire. Others
received the first intimation of their own possessions being aflame when
informed that they were destroyed. Persons would run from their houses
into the lanes with some idea of being of assistance from the outside, or
again they would dash into the dwellings from the streets, appearing to
think they could accomplish something inside. The shouting and screaming
of children, women, men, and graybeards all together were incessant, so
that one could have no consciousness nor comprehension of anything by
reason of the smoke and shouting combined. On this account some might be
seen standing speechless, as if dumb. All this time many who were carrying
out their goods and many more who were stealing what belonged to others
kept encountering one another and falling over the merchandise. It was not
possible to get anywhere, nor yet to stand still; but people pushed and
were pushed back, they upset others and were themselves upset, many were
suffocated, many were crushed: in fine, no evil that can possibly happen
to men at such a crisis failed to befall them. They could not with ease
find even any avenue of escape, and, if any one did save himself from some
immediate danger, he usually fell into another one and was lost.
[Sidenote:--17--] This did not all take place on one day, but lasted for
several days and nights together. Many houses were destroyed through lack
of some one to defend them and many were set on fire in still more places
by persons who presumably came to the rescue. For the soldiers (including
the night watch), having an eye upon plunder, instead of extinguishing any
blaze kindled greater conflagrations. While similar scenes were being
enacted at various points a sudden wind caught the fire and swept it over
whatever remained. Consequently no one concerned himself any longer about
goods or houses, but all the survivors, standing in a place of safety,
gazed upon what seemed to be many islands and cities burning. There was no
longer any grief over individual losses, for it was swallowed up in the
public lamentation, as men reminded one another how once before most of
their city had been similarly laid waste by the Gauls. [Sidenote:--18--]
While the whole population was in this state of mind and many crazed by
the disaster were leaping into the blaze itself, Nero mounted to the roof
of the palace, where nearly the whole conflagration could be taken in by a
sweeping glance, and having assumed the lyrist's garb he sang the Taking
(as he said) of Ilium, which, to the ordinary vision, however, appeared to
be the Taking of Rome.
The calamity which the city at this time experienced has no parallel
before or since, except in the Gallic invasion. The whole Palatine hill,
the theatre of Taurus, and nearly two-thirds of the remainder of the city
were burned and countless human beings perished. The populace invoked
curses upon Nero without intermission, not uttering his name but simply
cursing those who had set the city on fire: and this was especially the
case because they were disturbed by the memory of the oracle chanted in
Tiberius's day. These were the words:--
"Thrice three hundred cycles of tireless years being ended, Civil strife
shall the Romans destroy." [Footnote: Compare Book Fifty-seven, chapter
18.]
And when Nero by way of encouraging them reported that these verses were
nowhere to be found, they changed and went to repeating another oracle,
which they averred to be a genuine Sibylline production, namely:--
"Last of the sons of Aeneas a matricide shall govern."
And so it proved, whether this was actually revealed beforehand by some
divination or whether the populace now for the first time gave it the form
of a divine saying adapted to existing circumstances. For Nero was indeed
the last emperor of the Julian line descended from Aeneas.
He now began to collect vast sums from both individuals and nations,
sometimes using compulsion, with the conflagration for his excuse, and
sometimes obtaining it by "voluntary" offers; and the mass of the Romans
had the food supply fund withdrawn.
[Sidenote:--19--] While he was so engaged, he received news from Armenia
and soon after a laurel wreath in honor of victory. The scattered bodies
of soldiery in that region had been united by Corbulo, who trained them
sedulously after a period of neglect, and then by the very report of his
coming had terrified both Vologaesus, king of Parthia, and Tiridates,
chief of Armenia. He resembled the primitive Romans in that besides coming
of a brilliant family and besides possessing much strength of body he was
still further gifted with a shrewd intelligence: and he behaved with great
bravery, with great fairness, and with great good faith toward all, both
friends and enemies. For these reasons Nero had despatched him to the
scene of war in his own stead and had entrusted to him a larger force than
to anybody else, being equally assured that the man would subdue the
barbarians and would not revolt against him. And Corbulo proved neither of
these assumptions false.
All other men, however, had it as a particular grievance against him that
he kept faith with Nero. They were very anxious to get him as emperor in
place of the actual despot, and this conduct of his seemed to them his
only defect.
[Sidenote:--20--] Corbulo, accordingly, had taken Artaxata without a
struggle and had razed the city to the ground. This exploit finished, he
marched in the direction of Tigranocerta, sparing all the districts that
yielded themselves but devastating the lands of all such as resisted him.
Tigranocerta submitted to him voluntarily, and he performed other
brilliant and glorious deeds, as a result of which he induced the
formidable Vologaesus to accept terms that accorded with the Roman
reputation. [For Vologaesus, on hearing that Nero had assigned Armenia to
others and that Adiabene was being ravaged by Tigranes, made preparations
himself to go on a campaign into Syria against Corbulo, but sent into
Armenia Monobazus, king of Adiabene, and Monaeses, a Parthian. These two
had shut up Tigranes in Tigranocerta. But since they did not succeed in
harming him at all by their siege and as often as they tried conclusions
with him were repulsed by both the native troops and the Romans that were
in his army, and since Corbulo guarded Syria with extreme care, Vologaesus
recognized the hopelessness of his attempt and disbanded his forces. Then
he sent to Corbulo and obtained peace on condition that he send a new
embassy to Nero, raise the siege, and withdraw his soldiers from Armenia.
Nero made him no immediate nor speedy nor definite reply, but despatched
Lucius Caesennius Paetus to Cappadocia to see to it that there should be
no Armenian uprising.]
[Sidenote:--21--] [So Vologaesus attacked Tigranocerta and drove back
Paetus, who had come to its aid. When the latter fled he pursued him, beat
back the garrison left by Paetus at the Taurus, and shut him up in
Rhandea, near the river Arsanias. Then he was on the point of retiring
without accomplishing anything; for destitute as he was of heavy-armed
soldiers he could not approach close to the wall, and he had no large
stock of provender, particularly as he had come at the head of a vast host
without making arrangements for food supplies. Paetus, however, stood in
terror of his archery, which took effect in the very camp itself, as well
as of the cavalry, which kept appearing at all points. Hence he made peace
proposals to his antagonist, accepted his terms, and took an oath that he
would himself abandon all of Armenia and that Nero should give it to
Tiridates. The Parthian was satisfied enough with this agreement, seeing
that he was to obtain control of the country without a contest and would
be making the Romans his debtors for a very considerable kindness. And, as
he learned that Corbulo (whom Paetus several times sent for before he was
surrounded) was drawing near, he dismissed the beleaguered soldiers,
having first made them agree to build a bridge over the river Arsanias for
him. He was not really in need of a bridge, for he had crossed on foot,
but he wished to give them a practical example of the fact that he was
stronger than they. Indeed, he did not retire by way of the bridge even on
this occasion, but rode across on an elephant, while the rest got over as
before.
[Sidenote:--22--] The capitulation had scarcely been made when Corbulo
with inconceivable swiftness reached the Euphrates and there waited for
the retreating force. When the two armies approached each other you would
have been struck with the difference between them and between their
generals: one set were fairly aglow with delight at their rapidity; the
others were grieved and ashamed of their compact. Vologaesus sent Monaeses
to Corbulo with the demand that the newcomer should give up the fort in
Mesopotamia. So they held a prolonged conference together right at the
bridge crossing the Euphrates, after first destroying the center of the
structure. Corbulo having promised to leave the country if the Parthian
would also abandon Armenia, both of these things were done temporarily
until Nero could learn the outcome of the engagements and begin
negotiations with the envoys of Vologaesus, whom the latter had sent a
second time. The answer given them by the emperor was that he would bestow
Armenia upon Tiridates if this aspirant would come to Rome. Paetus was
deposed from his command and the soldiers that had been with him were sent
somewhere else. Corbulo was again assigned to the war against the same
foes. Nero had intended to accompany the expedition in person, but after
falling down during the ceremony of sacrificing he would not venture to go
abroad but remained where he was.]
[Sidenote:--23--] [Corbulo therefore officially prepared for war upon
Vologaesus and sent a centurion bidding him depart from the country.
Privately, however, he suggested to the king that he send his brother to
Rome, and this advice met with acceptance, since Corbulo seemed to have
the stronger force. Thus it came about that they both, Corbulo and
Tiridates, met at no other place than Rhandea, which suited them both. It
appealed to the Parthian because there his people had cut off the Romans
and had sent them away under a capitulation, a visible proof of the favor
that had been done them. To the Roman it appealed because his men were
going to wipe out the ill repute that had attached to them there before.
For the meeting of the two was not limited merely to conversation; a lofty
platform had been erected on which were set images of Nero, and in the
presence of crowds of Armenians, Parthians, and Romans Tiridates
approached and did them reverence; after sacrificing to them and calling
them by laudatory names he took off the diadem from his head and set it
upon them. Monobazus and Vologaesus also came to Corbulo and gave him
hostages. In honor of this event Nero was a number of times saluted as
imperator and held a triumph, contrary to precedent.] But Corbulo in spite
of the large force that he had and the very considerable reputation that
he enjoyed did not rebel and was never accused of rebellion. He might
easily have been made emperor, since men thoroughly detested Nero but all
admired him in every way. [In addition to the more striking features of
his submissive behavior he voluntarily sent to Rome his son-in-law Annius,
who served as his lieutenant; this was done professedly that Annius might
escort Tiridates back, but in fact this relative stood in the position of
a hostage to Nero. The latter was so firmly persuaded that his general
would not revolt that Corbulo obtained his son-in-law as lieutenant
[Footnote: Reading [Greek: hyparchon] (Boissevain) for [Greek: hypaton].]
before he had been praetor.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 65 (a.u. 818)] [Sidenote:--24--] Seneca, however, and
Rufus the prefect and some other prominent men formed a plot against Nero.
They could no longer endure his ignoble behavior, his licentiousness, and
his cruelty. They desired at one and the same time to be rid of these
evils and to give Nero his release from them. Indeed, Sulpicius Asper, a
centurion, and Subrius Flavius, a military tribune, both belonging to the
body-guards, admitted this to him point blank. Asper, when interrogated by
the emperor as to the reason for his attempt, replied: "I could help you
in no other way." And the response of Flavins was: "I both loved you and
hated you above all men. I loved you, hoping that you would prove a good
emperor: I have hated you because you do so-and-so. I can not be slave to
charioteer or lyre-player."--Information was lodged and these men were
punished, besides many others indirectly associated with them. Everything
in the nature of a complaint that could be entertained against any one for
excessive joy or grief, for words or gestures, was brought forward and was
believed. Not one of these complaints, even if fictitious, could be
refused credence in view of Nero's actual deeds. Hence conscienceless
friends and house servants of some men flourished greatly. Persons guarded
against strangers and foes,--for of these they were suspicious,--but were
bound to expose themselves whether they would or no to their associates.
[Sidenote:--25--] It would be no small task to record details about most
of those that perished, but the fate of Seneca needs a few words by
itself. It was his wish to end the life of his wife Paulina at the same
time with his own, for he declared that he had taught her to despise death
and that she desired to leave the world in company with him. So he opened
her veins as well as his own. As he failed, however, to yield readily to
death, his end was hastened by the soldiers; and his dying so speedily
enabled Paulina to survive. He did not lay hands upon himself, however,
until he had revised the book which he had composed and had deposited with
various persons certain other valued possessions which he feared might
come into Nero's hands and be destroyed. Thus was Seneca forced to part
with life in spite of the fact that he had on the pretext of illness
abandoned the society of the emperor and had bestowed upon him his entire
property, supposedly to help defray the expense of necessary building
operations. His brothers, too, perished after him.
[Sidenote:--26--] Likewise Thrasea and Soranus, who had no superiors in
family, wealth, and every excellence, met their death not because they
were accused of conspiracy but because they were what they were. Against
Soranus Publius Egnatius Celer, a philosopher, gave false evidence. The
victim had had two associates,--Cassius Asclepiodotus of Nicaea and this
Publius of Berytus. Now Asclepiodotus so far from speaking against Soranus
bore witness to his noble qualities; he was at the time exiled for his
pains, but later, under Galba, was restored. Publius in return for his
services as blackmailer received money and honors (as did others of the
same profession), but subsequently he was banished. Soranus was slain on
the charge of having caused his daughter to employ a species of magic, the
foundation for this story being that when he was sick his family had
offered some sacrifices. Thrasea was executed for not appearing regularly
at the senate-house, thus showing that he did not like the measures
passed, for not listening to the emperor's singing and zither-playing, for
not sacrificing to Nero's Divine Voice as did the rest, and for not giving
any public exhibitions: for it was remarked that at Patavium, his native
place, he had acted in a tragedy given in pursuance of some old custom at
a festival held every thirty years. As he made the incision in his artery,
he raised his hand, exclaiming: "To thee, Jupiter, patron of freedom, I
pour this libation of blood."
[Sidenote:--27--] [And Junius Torquatus, a descendant of Augustus, made
himself liable to a most strange indictment. He had squandered his
property in a rather lavish way, whether following his native bent or with
the intention of not being very rich. Nero therefore declared that, as he
lacked many things, he must be covetous of the goods of others, and
consequently caused a fictitious charge to be brought against him of
aspiring to imperial power.]
And why should one be surprised that such complaints
were fastened upon them, [Footnote: A slight gap in the MS. exists here,
filled by a doubtful conjecture of Boissevain's.] seeing that one man
[Footnote: _Salvidienus Orfitus_ (according to Suetonius, Life of
Nero, chap. 37).] was brought to trial and slain for living near the
Forum, for letting out some shops, or for receiving a few friends in them;
and another [Footnote: _C. Cassius Longinus_ (ibid)..] because he
possessed a likeness of Cassius, the murderer of Caesar?
The conduct of a woman named Epicharis also deserves mention. She had been
included in the conspiracy and all its details had been trusted to her
without reserve; yet she revealed none of these though often tortured in
all the ways that the skill of Tigillinus could devise. And why should one
enumerate the sums given to the Pretorians on the occasion of this
conspiracy or the excessive honors voted to Nero and his friends? Let me
say only that it led to the banishment of Rufus Musonius, the philosopher.
Sabina also perished at this time through an act of Nero's. Either
accidentally or intentionally he had given her a violent kick while she
was pregnant.
[Sidenote:--28--] The extremes of luxury indulged in by this Sabina I will
indicate in the briefest possible terms. She had gilded girths put upon
the mules that carried her and caused five hundred asses that had recently
foaled to be milked each day that she might bathe in their milk. She
devoted great thought to making her person appear youthful and lustrously
beautiful,--and with brilliant results; and this is why, not fancying her
appearance in a mirror one day, she prayed that she might die before she
passed her prime. Nero missed her so that [after her death, at first, on
learning that there was a woman resembling her he sent for and kept this
female: later] because a boy of the _liberti_ class, named Sporus,
resembled Sabina, he had him castrated and used him in every way like a
woman; and in due time he formally married him though he [Nero] was
already married to a freedman Pythagoras. He assigned the boy a regular
dowry according to contract, and Romans as well as others held a public
celebration of their wedding.
While Nero had Sporus the eunuch as a wife, one of his associates in Rome,
who had made a specialty of philosophy, on being asked whether the
marriage and cohabitation in question met with his approval replied: "You
do well, Caesar, to seek the company of such wives. If only your father
had had the same ambition and had dwelt with a similar
consort!"--indicating that if this had been the case, Nero would not have
been born, and the government would have been relieved of great evils.
This was, however, later. At the time with which we are immediately
concerned many, as I stated, were put to death and many who purchased
their preservation with Tigillinus with a great price were released.
[Sidenote:--29--] Nero continued to commit many ridiculous acts, among
which may be cited his descending at a kind of popular festival to the
orchestra of the theatre, where he read some Trojan lays of his own: and
in honor of these there were offered numerous sacrifices, as there were
over everything else that he did. He was now making preparations to
compile in verse a narration of all the achievements of the Romans: before
composing any of it, however, he began to consider the proper number of
books, and took as his adviser Annaeus Cornutus, who at this time was
famed for his learning. This man he came very near putting to death and
did deport to an island, because, while some were urging him to write four
hundred books, Cornutus said that was too many and nobody would read them.
And when some one objected: "Yet Chrysippus, whom you praise and imitate,
has composed many more," the savant retorted: "But they are a help to the
conduct of men's lives." So Cornutus was punished with exile for this. And
Lucanus was enjoined from writing poetry because he was securing great
praise for his work.
DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY
63
Nero, receiving Tiridates with imposing state, places a crown upon his
head (chapters 1-7).
He journeys to Greece in order to become Periodonikes (chapters 8-10).
With the help of Tigillinus and Crispinilla he lays Greece waste: Helius
and Polycletus perform the same office for Rome and Italy (chapters 11,
12).
Nero's marriages and abominations with Sporus and Pythagoras (chapter 13).
His victories and proclamation: frenzy against Apollo: hatred toward the
senators (chapters 14, 15).
Digging a canal through the Isthmus (chapter 16).
Demise of the Scribonii, of Corbulo, of Paris, of the Sulpicii (chapters
17, 18).
At the solicitation of Helius, Nero returning conducts an Iselasticum
triumph (chapters 19-21).
Vindex's conspiracy against Nero, and his extinction (chapters 22-24).
Rufus, saluted as Caesar and Augustus, refuses the sovereignty (chapter
25).
Nero's flight and demise (chapters 26-29).