(337)
I. Two celebrated families, the Calvini and Aenobarbi, sprung from the
race of the Domitii. The Aenobarbi derive both their extraction and
their cognomen from one Lucius Domitius, of whom we have this tradition:
--As he was returning out of the country to Rome, he was met by two young
men of a most august appearance, who desired him to announce to the
senate and people a victory, of which no certain intelligence had yet
reached the city. To prove that they were more than mortals, they
stroked his cheeks, and thus changed his hair, which was black, to a
bright colour, resembling that of brass; which mark of distinction
descended to his posterity, for they had generally red beards. This
family had the honour of seven consulships [548], one triumph [549], and
two censorships [550]; and being admitted into the patrician order, they
continued the use of the same cognomen, with no other praenomina [551]
than those of Cneius and Lucius. These, however, they assumed with
singular irregularity; three persons in succession sometimes adhering to
one of them, and then they were changed alternately. For the first,
second, and third of the Aenobarbi had the praenomen of Lucius, and again
the three following, successively, that of Cneius, while those who came
after were called, by turns, one, Lucius, and the other, Cneius. It
appears to me proper to give a short account of several of the family, to
show that Nero so far degenerated from the noble qualities of his
ancestors, that he retained only their vices; as if those alone had been
transmitted to him by his descent.
II. To begin, therefore, at a remote period, his great-grandfather’s
grandfather, Cneius Domitius, when he was tribune of the people, being
offended with the high priests for electing another than himself in the
room of his father, obtained the (338) transfer of the right of election
from the colleges of the priests to the people. In his consulship [552],
having conquered the Allobroges and the Arverni [553], he made a progress
through the province, mounted upon an elephant, with a body of soldiers
attending him, in a sort of triumphal pomp. Of this person the orator
Licinius Crassus said, “It was no wonder he had a brazen beard, who had a
face of iron, and a heart of lead.” His son, during his praetorship
[554], proposed that Cneius Caesar, upon the expiration of his
consulship, should be called to account before the senate for his
administration of that office, which was supposed to be contrary both to
the omens and the laws. Afterwards, when he was consul himself [555], he
tried to deprive Cneius of the command of the army, and having been, by
intrigue and cabal, appointed his successor, he was made prisoner at
Corsinium, in the beginning of the civil war. Being set at liberty, he
went to Marseilles, which was then besieged; where having, by his
presence, animated the people to hold out, he suddenly deserted them, and
at last was slain in the battle of Pharsalia. He was a man of little
constancy, and of a sullen temper. In despair of his fortunes, he had
recourse to poison, but was so terrified at the thoughts of death, that,
immediately repenting, he took a vomit to throw it up again, and gave
freedom to his physician for having, with great prudence and wisdom,
given him only a gentle dose of the poison. When Cneius Pompey was
consulting with his friends in what manner he should conduct himself
towards those who were neuter and took no part in the contest, he was the
only one who proposed that they should be treated as enemies.
III. He left a son, who was, without doubt, the best of the family. By
the Pedian law, he was condemned, although innocent, amongst others who
were concerned in the death of Caesar [556]. Upon this, he went over to
Brutus and Cassius, his near relations; and, after their death, not only
kept together the fleet, the command of which had been given him some
time before, but even increased it. At last, when the party had
everywhere been defeated, he voluntarily surrendered it to (339) Mark
Antony; considering it as a piece of service for which the latter owed
him no small obligations. Of all those who were condemned by the law
above-mentioned, he was the only man who was restored to his country, and
filled the highest offices. When the civil war again broke out, he was
appointed lieutenant under the same Antony, and offered the chief command
by those who were ashamed of Cleopatra; but not daring, on account of a
sudden indisposition with which he was seized, either to accept or refuse
it, he went over to Augustus [557], and died a few days after, not
without an aspersion cast upon his memory. For Antony gave out, that he
was induced to change sides by his impatience to be with his mistress,
Servilia Nais. [558]
IV. This Cneius had a son, named Domitius, who was afterwards well known
as the nominal purchaser of the family property left by Augustus’s will
[559]; and no less famous in his youth for his dexterity in
chariot-driving, than he was afterwards for the triumphal ornaments which
he obtained in the German war. But he was a man of great arrogance,
prodigality, and cruelty. When he was aedile, he obliged Lucius Plancus,
the censor, to give him the way; and in his praetorship, and consulship,
he made Roman knights and married women act on the stage. He gave hunts
of wild beasts, both in the Circus and in all the wards of the city; as
also a show of gladiators; but with such barbarity, that Augustus, after
privately reprimanding him, to no purpose, was obliged to restrain him by
a public edict.
V. By the elder Antonia he had Nero’s father, a man of execrable
character in every part of his life. During his attendance upon Caius
Caesar in the East, he killed a freedman of his own, for refusing to
drink as much as he ordered him. Being dismissed for this from Caesar’s
society, he did not mend his habits; for, in a village upon the Appian
road, he suddenly whipped his horses, and drove his chariot, on purpose,
(340) over a poor boy, crushing him to pieces. At Rome, he struck out
the eye of a Roman knight in the Forum, only for some free language in a
dispute between them. He was likewise so fraudulent, that he not only
cheated some silversmiths [560] of the price of goods he had bought of
them, but, during his praetorship, defrauded the owners of chariots in
the Circensian games of the prizes due to them for their victory. His
sister, jeering him for the complaints made by the leaders of the several
parties, he agreed to sanction a law, “That, for the future, the prizes
should be immediately paid.” A little before the death of Tiberius, he
was prosecuted for treason, adulteries, and incest with his sister
Lepida, but escaped in the timely change of affairs, and died of a
dropsy, at Pyrgi [561]; leaving behind him his son, Nero, whom he had by
Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus.
VI. Nero was born at Antium, nine months after the death of Tiberius
[562], upon the eighteenth of the calends of January [15th December],
just as the sun rose, so that its beams touched him before they could
well reach the earth. While many fearful conjectures, in respect to his
future fortune, were formed by different persons, from the circumstances
of his nativity, a saying of his father, Domitius, was regarded as an ill
presage, who told his friends who were congratulating him upon the
occasion, “That nothing but what was detestable, and pernicious to the
public, could ever be produced of him and Agrippina.” Another manifest
prognostic of his future infelicity occurred upon his lustration day
[563]. For Caius Caesar being requested by his sister to give the child
what name he thought proper--looking at his uncle, Claudius, who (341)
afterwards, when emperor, adopted Nero, he gave his: and this not
seriously, but only in jest; Agrippina treating it with contempt, because
Claudius at that time was a mere laughing-stock at the palace. He lost
his father when he was three years old, being left heir to a third part
of his estate; of which he never got possession, the whole being seized
by his co-heir, Caius. His mother being soon after banished, he lived
with his aunt Lepida, in a very necessitous condition, under the care of
two tutors, a dancing-master and a barber. After Claudius came to the
empire, he not only recovered his father’s estate, but was enriched with
the additional inheritance of that of his step-father, Crispus Passienus.
Upon his mother’s recall from banishment, he was advanced to such favour,
through Nero’s powerful interest with the emperor, that it was reported,
assassins were employed by Messalina, Claudius’s wife, to strangle him,
as Britannicus’s rival, whilst he was taking his noon-day repose. In
addition to the story, it was said that they were frightened by a
serpent, which crept from under his cushion, and ran away. The tale was
occasioned by finding on his couch, near the pillow, the skin of a snake,
which, by his mother’s order, he wore for some time upon his right arm,
inclosed in a bracelet of gold. This amulet, at last, he laid aside,
from aversion to her memory; but he sought for it again, in vain, in the
time of his extremity.
VII. When he was yet a mere boy, before he arrived at the age of
puberty, during the celebration of the Circensian games [564], he
performed his part in the Trojan play with a degree of firmness which
gained him great applause. In the eleventh year of his age, he was
adopted by Claudius, and placed under the tuition of Annaeus Seneca
[565], who had been made a senator. It is said, that Seneca dreamt the
night after, that he was giving a lesson to Caius Caesar [566]. Nero
soon verified his dream, betraying the cruelty of his disposition in
every way he could. For he attempted to persuade his father that his
brother, Britannicus, was nothing but a changeling, because the latter
had (342) saluted him, notwithstanding his adoption, by the name of
Aenobarbus, as usual. When his aunt, Lepida, was brought to trial, he
appeared in court as a witness against her, to gratify his mother, who
persecuted the accused. On his introduction into the Forum, at the age
of manhood, he gave a largess to the people and a donative to the
soldiers: for the pretorian cohorts, he appointed a solemn procession
under arms, and marched at the head of them with a shield in his hand;
after which he went to return thanks to his father in the senate. Before
Claudius, likewise, at the time he was consul, he made a speech for the
Bolognese, in Latin, and for the Rhodians and people of Ilium, in Greek.
He had the jurisdiction of praefect of the city, for the first time,
during the Latin festival; during which the most celebrated advocates
brought before him, not short and trifling causes, as is usual in that
case, but trials of importance, notwithstanding they had instructions
from Claudius himself to the contrary. Soon afterwards, he married
Octavia, and exhibited the Circensian games, and hunting of wild beasts,
in honour of Claudius.
VIII. He was seventeen years of age at the death of that prince [567],
and as soon as that event was made public, he went out to the cohort on
guard between the hours of six and seven; for the omens were so
disastrous, that no earlier time of the day was judged proper. On the
steps before the palace gate, he was unanimously saluted by the soldiers
as their emperor, and then carried in a litter to the camp; thence, after
making a short speech to the troops, into the senate-house, where he
continued until the evening; of all the immense honours which were heaped
upon him, refusing none but the title of FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY, on
account of his youth,
IX. He began his reign with an ostentation of dutiful regard to the
memory of Claudius, whom he buried with the utmost pomp and magnificence,
pronouncing the funeral oration himself, and then had him enrolled
amongst the gods. He paid likewise the highest honours to the memory of
his father Domitius. He left the management of affairs, both public and
private, to his mother. The word which he gave the first day of his
reign to the tribune on guard, was, “The (343) Best of Mothers,” and
afterwards he frequently appeared with her in the streets of Rome in her
litter. He settled a colony at Antium, in which he placed the veteran
soldiers belonging to the guards; and obliged several of the richest
centurions of the first rank to transfer their residence to that place;
where he likewise made a noble harbour at a prodigious expense. [568]
X. To establish still further his character, he declared, “that he
designed to govern according to the model of Augustus;” and omitted no
opportunity of showing his generosity, clemency, and complaisance. The
more burthensome taxes he either entirely took off, or diminished. The
rewards appointed for informers by the Papian law, he reduced to a fourth
part, and distributed to the people four hundred sesterces a man. To the
noblest of the senators who were much reduced in their circumstances, he
granted annual allowances, in some cases as much as five hundred thousand
sesterces; and to the pretorian cohorts a monthly allowance of corn
gratis. When called upon to subscribe the sentence, according to custom,
of a criminal condemned to die, “I wish,” said he, “I had never learnt to
read and write.” He continually saluted people of the several orders by
name, without a prompter. When the senate returned him their thanks for
his good government, he replied to them, “It will be time enough to do so
when I shall have deserved it.” He admitted the common people to see him
perform his exercises in the Campus Martius. He frequently declaimed in
public, and recited verses of his own composing, not only at home, but in
the theatre; so much to the joy of all the people, that public prayers
were appointed to be put up to the gods upon that account; and the verses
which had been publicly read, were, after being written in gold letters,
consecrated to Jupiter Capitolinus.
(344) XI. He presented the people with a great number and variety of
spectacles, as the Juvenal and Circensian games, stage-plays, and an
exhibition of gladiators. In the Juvenal, he even admitted senators and
aged matrons to perform parts. In the Circensian games, he assigned the
equestrian order seats apart from the rest of the people, and had races
performed by chariots drawn each by four camels. In the games which he
instituted for the eternal duration of the empire, and therefore ordered
to be called Maximi, many of the senatorian and equestrian order, of both
sexes, performed. A distinguished Roman knight descended on the stage by
a rope, mounted on an elephant. A Roman play, likewise, composed by
Afranius, was brought upon the stage. It was entitled, “The Fire;” and
in it the performers were allowed to carry off, and to keep to
themselves, the furniture of the house, which, as the plot of the play
required, was burnt down in the theatre. Every day during the solemnity,
many thousand articles of all descriptions were thrown amongst the people
to scramble for; such as fowls of different kinds, tickets for corn,
clothes, gold, silver, gems, pearls, pictures, slaves, beasts of burden,
wild beasts that had been tamed; at last, ships, lots of houses, and
lands, were offered as prizes in a lottery.
XII. These games he beheld from the front of the proscenium. In the
show of gladiators, which he exhibited in a wooden amphitheatre, built
within a year in the district of the Campus Martius [569], he ordered
that none should be slain, not even the condemned criminals employed in
the combats. He secured four hundred senators, and six hundred Roman
knights, amongst whom were some of unbroken fortunes and unblemished
reputation, to act as gladiators. From the same orders, he engaged
persons to encounter wild beasts, and for various other services in the
theatre. He presented the public with the representation of a naval
fight, upon sea-water, with huge fishes swimming in it; as also with the
Pyrrhic dance, performed by certain youths, to each of whom, after the
performance was over, he granted the freedom of Rome. During this
diversion, a bull covered Pasiphae, concealed within a wooden statue of a
cow, as many of the spectators believed. Icarus, upon his first attempt
to fly, fell on the stage close to (345) the emperor’s pavilion, and
bespattered him with blood. For he very seldom presided in the games,
but used to view them reclining on a couch, at first through some narrow
apertures, but afterwards with the Podium [570] quite open. He was the
first who instituted [571], in imitation of the Greeks, a trial of skill
in the three several exercises of music, wrestling, and horse-racing, to
be performed at Rome every five years, and which he called Neronia. Upon
the dedication of his bath [572] and gymnasium, he furnished the senate
and the equestrian order with oil. He appointed as judges of the trial
men of consular rank, chosen by lot, who sat with the praetors. At this
time he went down into the orchestra amongst the senators, and received
the crown for the best performance in Latin prose and verse, for which
several persons of the greatest merit contended, but they unanimously
yielded to him. The crown for the best performer on the harp, being
likewise awarded to him by the judges, he devoutly saluted it, and
ordered it to be carried to the statue of Augustus. In the gymnastic
exercises, which he presented in the Septa, while they were preparing the
great sacrifice of an ox, he shaved his beard for the first time [573],
and putting it up in a casket of gold studded with pearls of great price,
consecrated it to Jupiter Capitolinus. He invited the Vestal Virgins to
see the (346) wrestlers perform, because, at Olympia, the priestesses of
Ceres are allowed the privilege of witnessing that exhibition.
XIII. Amongst the spectacles presented by him, the solemn entrance of
Tiridates [574] into the city deserves to be mentioned. This personage,
who was king of Armenia, he invited to Rome by very liberal promises.
But being prevented by unfavourable weather from showing him to the
people upon the day fixed by proclamation, he took the first opportunity
which occurred; several cohorts being drawn up under arms, about the
temples in the forum, while he was seated on a curule chair on the
rostra, in a triumphal dress, amidst the military standards and ensigns.
Upon Tiridates advancing towards him, on a stage made shelving for the
purpose, he permitted him to throw himself at his feet, but quickly
raised him with his right hand, and kissed him. The emperor then, at the
king’s request, took the turban from his head, and replaced it by a
crown, whilst a person of pretorian rank proclaimed in Latin the words in
which the prince addressed the emperor as a suppliant. After this
ceremony, the king was conducted to the theatre, where, after renewing
his obeisance, Nero seated him on his right hand. Being then greeted by
universal acclamation with the title of Emperor, and sending his laurel
crown to the Capitol, Nero shut the temple of the two-faced Janus, as
though there now existed no war throughout the Roman empire.
XIV. He filled the consulship four times [575]: the first for two
months, the second and last for six, and the third for four; the two
intermediate ones he held successively, but the others after an interval
of some years between them.
XV. In the administration of justice, he scarcely ever gave his decision
on the pleadings before the next day, and then in writing. His manner of
hearing causes was not to allow any adjournment, but to dispatch them in
order as they stood. When he withdrew to consult his assessors, he did
not debate the matter openly with them; but silently and privately
reading over their opinions, which they gave separately in writing, (347)
he pronounced sentence from the tribunal according to his own view of the
case, as if it was the opinion of the majority. For a long time he would
not admit the sons of freedmen into the senate; and those who had been
admitted by former princes, he excluded from all public offices. To
supernumerary candidates he gave command in the legions, to comfort them
under the delay of their hopes. The consulship he commonly conferred for
six months; and one of the two consuls dying a little before the first of
January, he substituted no one in his place; disliking what had been
formerly done for Caninius Rebilus on such an occasion, who was consul
for one day only. He allowed the triumphal honours only to those who
were of quaestorian rank, and to some of the equestrian order; and
bestowed them without regard to military service. And instead of the
quaestors, whose office it properly was, he frequently ordered that the
addresses, which he sent to the senate on certain occasions, should be
read by the consuls.
XVI. He devised a new style of building in the city, ordering piazzas to
be erected before all houses, both in the streets and detached, to give
facilities from their terraces, in case of fire, for preventing it from
spreading; and these he built at his own expense. He likewise designed
to extend the city walls as far as Ostia, and bring the sea from thence
by a canal into the old city. Many severe regulations and new orders
were made in his time. A sumptuary law was enacted. Public suppers were
limited to the Sportulae [576]; and victualling-houses restrained from
selling any dressed victuals, except pulse and herbs, whereas before they
sold all kinds of meat. He likewise inflicted punishments on the
Christians, a sort of people who held a new and impious [577]
superstition.
(348) He forbad the revels of the charioteers, who had long assumed a
licence to stroll about, and established for themselves a kind of
prescriptive right to cheat and thieve, making a jest of it. The
partisans of the rival theatrical performers were banished, as well as
the actors themselves.
XVII. To prevent forgery, a method was then first invented, of having
writings bored, run through three times with a thread, and then sealed.
It was likewise provided that in wills, the two first pages, with only
the testator’s name upon them, should be presented blank to those who
were to sign them as witnesses; and that no one who wrote a will for
another, should insert any legacy for himself. It was likewise ordained
that clients should pay their advocates a certain reasonable fee, but
nothing for the court, which was to be gratuitous, the charges for it
being paid out of the public treasury; that causes, the cognizance of
which before belonged to the judges of the exchequer, should be
transferred to the forum, and the ordinary tribunals; and that all
appeals from the judges should be made to the senate.
XVIII. He never entertained the least ambition or hope of augmenting and
extending the frontiers of the empire. On the contrary, he had thoughts
of withdrawing the troops from Britain, and was only restrained from so
doing by the fear of appearing to detract from the glory of his father
[578]. All (349) that he did was to reduce the kingdom of Pontus, which
was ceded to him by Polemon, and also the Alps [579], upon the death of
Cottius, into the form of a province.
XIX. Twice only he undertook any foreign expeditions, one to Alexandria,
and the other to Achaia; but he abandoned the prosecution of the former
on the very day fixed for his departure, by being deterred both by ill
omens, and the hazard of the voyage. For while he was making the circuit
of the temples, having seated himself in that of Vesta, when he attempted
to rise, the skirt of his robe stuck fast; and he was instantly seized
with such a dimness in his eyes, that he could not see a yard before him.
In Achaia, he attempted to make a cut through the Isthmus [580]; and,
having made a speech encouraging his pretorians to set about the work, on
a signal given by sound of trumpet, he first broke ground with a spade,
and carried off a basket full of earth upon his shoulders. He made
preparations for an expedition to the Pass of the Caspian mountains
[581]; forming a new legion out of his late levies in Italy, of men all
six feet high, which he called the phalanx of Alexander the Great. These
transactions, in part unexceptionable, and in part highly commendable, I
have brought into one view, in order to separate them from the scandalous
and criminal part of his conduct, of which I shall now give an account.
XX. Among the other liberal arts which he was taught in his youth, he
was instructed in music; and immediately after (350) his advancement to
the empire, he sent for Terpnus, a performer upon the harp [582], who
flourished at that time with the highest reputation. Sitting with him
for several days following, as he sang and played after supper, until
late at night, he began by degrees to practise upon the instrument
himself. Nor did he omit any of those expedients which artists in music
adopt, for the preservation and improvement of their voices. He would
lie upon his back with a sheet of lead upon his breast, clear his stomach
and bowels by vomits and clysters, and forbear the eating of fruits, or
food prejudicial to the voice. Encouraged by his proficiency, though his
voice was naturally neither loud nor clear, he was desirous of appearing
upon the stage, frequently repeating amongst his friends a Greek proverb
to this effect: “that no one had any regard for music which they never
heard.” Accordingly, he made his first public appearance at Naples; and
although the theatre quivered with the sudden shock of an earthquake, he
did not desist, until he had finished the piece of music he had begun.
He played and sung in the same place several times, and for several days
together; taking only now and then a little respite to refresh his voice.
Impatient of retirement, it was his custom to go from the bath to the
theatre; and after dining in the orchestra, amidst a crowded assembly of
the people, he promised them in Greek [583], “that after he had drank a
little, he would give them a tune which would make their ears tingle.”
Being highly pleased with the songs that were sung in his praise by some
Alexandrians belonging to the fleet just arrived at Naples [584], he sent
for more of the like singers from Alexandria. At the same time, he chose
young men of the equestrian order, and above five thousand robust young
fellows from the common people, on purpose to learn various kinds of
applause, called bombi, imbrices, and testae [585], which they were to
practise in his favour, whenever he performed. They were (351) divided
into several parties, and were remarkable for their fine heads of hair,
and were extremely well dressed, with rings upon their left hands. The
leaders of these bands had salaries of forty thousand sesterces allowed
them.
XXI. At Rome also, being extremely proud of his singing, he ordered the
games called Neronia to be celebrated before the time fixed for their
return. All now becoming importunate to hear “his heavenly voice,” he
informed them, “that he would gratify those who desired it at the
gardens.” But the soldiers then on guard seconding the voice of the
people, he promised to comply with their request immediately, and with
all his heart. He instantly ordered his name to be entered upon the list
of musicians who proposed to contend, and having thrown his lot into the
urn among the rest, took his turn, and entered, attended by the prefects
of the pretorian cohorts bearing his harp, and followed by the military
tribunes, and several of his intimate friends. After he had taken his
station, and made the usual prelude, he commanded Cluvius Rufus, a man of
consular rank, to proclaim in the theatre, that he intended to sing the
story of Niobe. This he accordingly did, and continued it until nearly
ten o’clock, but deferred the disposal of the crown, and the remaining
part of the solemnity, until the next year; that he might have more
frequent opportunities of performing. But that being too long, he could
not refrain from often appearing as a public performer during the
interval. He made no scruple of exhibiting on the stage, even in the
spectacles presented to the people by private persons, and was offered by
one of the praetors, no less than a million of sesterces for his
services. He likewise sang tragedies in a mask; the visors of the heroes
and gods, as also of the heroines and goddesses, being formed into a
resemblance of his own face, and that of any woman he was in love with.
Amongst the rest, he sung “Canace in Labour,” [586] “Orestes the Murderer
of his Mother,” “Oedipus (352) Blinded,” and “Hercules Mad.” In the last
tragedy, it is said that a young sentinel, posted at the entrance of the
stage, seeing him in a prison dress and bound with fetters, as the fable
of the play required, ran to his assistance.
XXII. He had from his childhood an extravagant passion for horses; and
his constant talk was of the Circensian races, notwithstanding it was
prohibited him. Lamenting once, among his fellow-pupils, the case of a
charioteer of the green party, who was dragged round the circus at the
tail of his chariot, and being reprimanded by his tutor for it, he
pretended that he was talking of Hector. In the beginning of his reign,
he used to amuse himself daily with chariots drawn by four horses, made
of ivory, upon a table. He attended at all the lesser exhibitions in the
circus, at first privately, but at last openly; so that nobody ever
doubted of his presence on any particular day. Nor did he conceal his
desire to have the number of the prizes doubled; so that the races being
increased accordingly, the diversion continued until a late hour; the
leaders of parties refusing now to bring out their companies for any time
less than the whole day. Upon this, he took a fancy for driving the
chariot himself, and that even publicly. Having made his first
experiment in the gardens, amidst crowds of slaves and other rabble, he
at length performed in the view of all the people, in the Circus Maximus,
whilst one of his freedmen dropped the napkin in the place where the
magistrates used to give the signal. Not satisfied with exhibiting
various specimens of his skill in those arts at Rome, he went over to
Achaia, as has been already said, principally for this purpose. The
several cities, in which solemn trials of musical skill used to be
publicly held, had resolved to send him the crowns belonging to those who
bore away the prize. These he accepted so graciously, that he not only
gave the deputies who brought them an immediate audience, but even
invited them to his table. Being requested by some of them to sing at
supper, and prodigiously applauded, he said, “the Greeks were the only
people who has an ear for music, and were the only good judges of him and
his attainments.” Without delay he commenced his journey, and on his
arrival at Cassiope [587], (352) exhibited his first musical performance
before the altar of Jupiter Cassius.
XXIII. He afterwards appeared at the celebration of all public games in
Greece: for such as fell in different years, he brought within the
compass of one, and some he ordered to be celebrated a second time in the
same year. At Olympia, likewise, contrary to custom, he appointed a
public performance in music: and that he might meet with no interruption
in this employment, when he was informed by his freedman Helius, that
affairs at Rome required his presence, he wrote to him in these words:
“Though now all your hopes and wishes are for my speedy return, yet you
ought rather to advise and hope that I may come back with a character
worthy of Nero.” During the time of his musical performance, nobody was
allowed to stir out of the theatre upon any account, however necessary;
insomuch, that it is said some women with child were delivered there.
Many of the spectators being quite wearied with hearing and applauding
him, because the town gates were shut, slipped privately over the walls;
or counterfeiting themselves dead, were carried out for their funeral.
With what extreme anxiety he engaged in these contests, with what keen
desire to bear away the prize, and with how much awe of the judges, is
scarcely to be believed. As if his adversaries had been on a level with
himself, he would watch them narrowly, defame them privately, and
sometimes, upon meeting them, rail at them in very scurrilous language;
or bribe them, if they were better performers than himself. He always
addressed the judges with the most profound reverence before he began,
telling them, “he had done all things that were necessary, by way of
preparation, but that the issue of the approaching trial was in the hand
of fortune; and that they, as wise and skilful men, ought to exclude from
their judgment things merely accidental.” Upon their encouraging him to
have a good heart, he went off with more assurance, but not entirely free
from anxiety; interpreting the silence and modesty of some of them into
sourness and ill-nature, and saying that he was suspicious of them.
XXIV. In these contests, he adhered so strictly to the rules, (354) that
he never durst spit, nor wipe the sweat from his forehead in any other
way than with his sleeve. Having, in the performance of a tragedy,
dropped his sceptre, and not quickly recovering it, he was in a great
fright, lest he should be set aside for the miscarriage, and could not
regain his assurance, until an actor who stood by swore he was certain it
had not been observed in the midst of the acclamations and exultations of
the people. When the prize was adjudged to him, he always proclaimed it
himself; and even entered the lists with the heralds. That no memory or
the least monument might remain of any other victor in the sacred Grecian
games, he ordered all their statues and pictures to be pulled down,
dragged away with hooks, and thrown into the common sewers. He drove the
chariot with various numbers of horses, and at the Olympic games with no
fewer than ten; though, in a poem of his, he had reflected upon
Mithridates for that innovation. Being thrown out of his chariot, he was
again replaced, but could not retain his seat, and was obliged to give
up, before he reached the goal, but was crowned notwithstanding. On his
departure, he declared the whole province a free country, and conferred
upon the judges in the several games the freedom of Rome, with large sums
of money. All these favours he proclaimed himself with his own voice,
from the middle of the Stadium, during the solemnity of the Isthmian
games.
XXV. On his return from Greece, arriving at Naples, because he had
commenced his career as a public performer in that city, he made his
entrance in a chariot drawn by white horses through a breach in the
city-wall, according to the practice of those who were victorious in the
sacred Grecian games. In the same manner he entered Antium, Alba, and
Rome. He made his entry into the city riding in the same chariot in
which Augustus had triumphed, in a purple tunic, and a cloak embroidered
with golden stars, having on his head the crown won at Olympia, and in
his right hand that which was given him at the Parthian games: the rest
being carried in a procession before him, with inscriptions denoting the
places where they had been won, from whom, and in what plays or musical
performances; whilst a train followed him with loud acclamations, crying
out, that “they (355) were the emperor’s attendants, and the soldiers of
his triumph.” Having then caused an arch of the Circus Maximus [588] to
be taken down, he passed through the breach, as also through the Velabrum
[589] and the forum, to the Palatine hill and the temple of Apollo.
Everywhere as he marched along, victims were slain, whilst the streets
were strewed with saffron, and birds, chaplets, and sweetmeats scattered
abroad. He suspended the sacred crowns in his chamber, about his beds,
and caused statues of himself to be erected in the attire of a harper,
and had his likeness stamped upon the coin in the same dress. After this
period, he was so far from abating any thing of his application to music,
that, for the preservation of his voice, he never addressed the soldiers
but by messages, or with some person to deliver his speeches for him,
when he thought fit to make his appearance amongst them. Nor did he ever
do any thing either in jest or earnest, without a voice-master standing
by him to caution him against overstraining his vocal organs, and to
apply a handkerchief to his mouth when he did. He offered his
friendship, or avowed (356) open enmity to many, according as they were
lavish or sparing in giving him their applause.
XXVI. Petulancy, lewdness, luxury, avarice, and cruelty, he practised at
first with reserve and in private, as if prompted to them only by the
folly of youth; but, even then, the world was of opinion that they were
the faults of his nature, and not of his age. After it was dark, he used
to enter the taverns disguised in a cap or a wig, and ramble about the
streets in sport, which was not void of mischief. He used to beat those
he met coming home from supper; and, if they made any resistance, would
wound them, and throw them into the common sewer. He broke open and
robbed shops; establishing an auction at home for selling his booty. In
the scuffles which took place on those occasions, he often ran the hazard
of losing his eyes, and even his life; being beaten almost to death by a
senator, for handling his wife indecently. After this adventure, he
never again ventured abroad at that time of night, without some tribunes
following him at a little distance. In the day-time he would be carried
to the theatre incognito in a litter, placing himself upon the upper part
of the proscenium, where he not only witnessed the quarrels which arose
on account of the performances, but also encouraged them. When they came
to blows, and stones and pieces of broken benches began to fly about, he
threw them plentifully amongst the people, and once even broke a
praetor’s head.
XXVII. His vices gaining strength by degrees, he laid aside his jocular
amusements, and all disguise; breaking out into enormous crimes, without
the least attempt to conceal them. His revels were prolonged from
mid-day to midnight, while he was frequently refreshed by warm baths, and,
in the summer time, by such as were cooled with snow. He often supped in
public, in the Naumachia, with the sluices shut, or in the Campus Martius,
or the Circus Maximus, being waited upon at table by common prostitutes of
the town, and Syrian strumpets and glee-girls. As often as he went down
the Tiber to Ostia, or coasted through the gulf of Baiae, booths furnished
as brothels and eating-houses, were erected along the shore and river
banks; before which stood matrons, who, like bawds and hostesses, allured
him to land. It was also his custom to invite (357) himself to supper
with his friends; at one of which was expended no less than four millions
of sesterces in chaplets, and at another something more in roses.
XXVIII. Besides the abuse of free-born lads, and the debauch of married
women, he committed a rape upon Rubria, a Vestal Virgin. He was upon the
point of marrying Acte [590], his freedwoman, having suborned some men of
consular rank to swear that she was of royal descent. He gelded the boy
Sporus, and endeavoured to transform him into a woman. He even went so
far as to marry him, with all the usual formalities of a marriage
settlement, the rose-coloured nuptial veil, and a numerous company at the
wedding. When the ceremony was over, he had him conducted like a bride
to his own house, and treated him as his wife [591]. It was jocularly
observed by some person, “that it would have been well for mankind, had
such a wife fallen to the lot of his father Domitius.” This Sporus he
carried about with him in a litter round the solemn assemblies and fairs
of Greece, and afterwards at Rome through the Sigillaria [592], dressed
in the rich attire of an empress; kissing him from time to time as they
rode together. That he entertained an incestuous passion for his mother
[593], but was deterred by her enemies, for fear that this haughty and
overbearing woman should, by her compliance, get him entirely into her
power, and govern in every thing, was universally believed; especially
after he had introduced amongst his concubines a strumpet, who was
reported to have a strong resemblance to Agrippina [594].--------
XXIX. He prostituted his own chastity to such a degree, that (358) after
he had defiled every part of his person with some unnatural pollution, he
at last invented an extraordinary kind of diversion; which was, to be let
out of a den in the arena, covered with the skin of a wild beast, and
then assail with violence the private parts both of men and women, while
they were bound to stakes. After he had vented his furious passion upon
them, he finished the play in the embraces of his freedman Doryphorus
[595], to whom he was married in the same way that Sporus had been
married to himself; imitating the cries and shrieks of young virgins,
when they are ravished. I have been informed from numerous sources, that
he firmly believed, no man in the world to be chaste, or any part of his
person undefiled; but that most men concealed that vice, and were cunning
enough to keep it secret. To those, therefore, who frankly owned their
unnatural lewdness, he forgave all other crimes.
XXX. He thought there was no other use of riches and money than to
squander them away profusely; regarding all those as sordid wretches who
kept their expenses within due bounds; and extolling those as truly noble
and generous souls, who lavished away and wasted all they possessed. He
praised and admired his uncle Caius [596], upon no account more, than for
squandering in a short time the vast treasure left him by Tiberius.
Accordingly, he was himself extravagant and profuse, beyond all bounds.
He spent upon Tiridates eight hundred thousand sesterces a day, a sum
almost incredible; and at his departure, presented him with upwards of a
million [597]. He likewise bestowed upon Menecrates the harper, and
Spicillus a gladiator, the estates and houses of men who had received the
honour of a triumph. He enriched the usurer Cercopithecus Panerotes with
estates both in town and country; and gave him a funeral, in pomp and
magnificence little inferior to that of princes. He never wore the same
garment twice. He (359) has been known to stake four hundred thousand
sesterces on a throw of the dice. It was his custom to fish with a
golden net, drawn by silken cords of purple and scarlet. It is said,
that he never travelled with less than a thousand baggage-carts; the
mules being all shod with silver, and the drivers dressed in scarlet
jackets of the finest Canusian cloth [598], with a numerous train of
footmen, and troops of Mazacans [599], with bracelets on their arms, and
mounted upon horses in splendid trappings.
XXXI. In nothing was he more prodigal than in his buildings. He
completed his palace by continuing it from the Palatine to the Esquiline
hill, calling the building at first only “The Passage,” but, after it was
burnt down and rebuilt, “The Golden House.” [600] Of its dimensions and
furniture, it may be sufficient to say thus much: the porch was so high
that there stood in it a colossal statue of himself a hundred and twenty
feet in height; and the space included in it was so ample, that it had
triple porticos a mile in length, and a lake like a sea, surrounded with
buildings which had the appearance of a city. Within its area were corn
fields, vineyards, pastures, and woods, containing a vast number of
animals of various kinds, both wild and tame. In other parts it was
entirely over-laid with gold, and adorned with jewels and mother of
pearl. The supper rooms were vaulted, and compartments of the ceilings,
inlaid with ivory, were made to revolve, and scatter flowers; while they
contained pipes which (360) shed unguents upon the guests. The chief
banqueting room was circular, and revolved perpetually, night and day, in
imitation of the motion of the celestial bodies. The baths were supplied
with water from the sea and the Albula. Upon the dedication of this
magnificent house after it was finished, all he said in approval of it
was, “that he had now a dwelling fit for a man.” He commenced making a
pond for the reception of all the hot streams from Baiae, which he
designed to have continued from Misenum to the Avernian lake, in a
conduit, enclosed in galleries; and also a canal from Avernum to Ostia,
that ships might pass from one to the other, without a sea voyage. The
length of the proposed canal was one hundred and sixty miles; and it was
intended to be of breadth sufficient to permit ships with five banks of
oars to pass each other. For the execution of these designs, he ordered
all prisoners, in every part of the empire, to be brought to Italy; and
that even those who were convicted of the most heinous crimes, in lieu of
any other sentence, should be condemned to work at them. He was
encouraged to all this wild and enormous profusion, not only by the great
revenue of the empire, but by the sudden hopes given him of an immense
hidden treasure, which queen Dido, upon her flight from Tyre, had brought
with her to Africa. This, a Roman knight pretended to assure him, upon
good grounds, was still hid there in some deep caverns, and might with a
little labour be recovered.
XXXII. But being disappointed in his expectations of this resource, and
reduced to such difficulties, for want of money, that he was obliged to
defer paying his troops, and the rewards due to the veterans; he resolved
upon supplying his necessities by means of false accusations and plunder.
In the first place, he ordered, that if any freedman, without sufficient
reason, bore the name of the family to which he belonged; the half,
instead of three fourths, of his estate should be brought into the
exchequer at his decease: also that the estates of all such persons as
had not in their wills been mindful of their prince, should be
confiscated; and that the lawyers who had drawn or dictated such wills,
should be liable to a fine. He ordained likewise, that all words and
actions, upon which any informer could ground a prosecution, should be
deemed treason. He demanded an equivalent for the crowns which the
cities of (361) Greece had at any time offered him in the solemn games.
Having forbad any one to use the colours of amethyst and Tyrian purple,
he privately sent a person to sell a few ounces of them upon the day of
the Nundinae, and then shut up all the merchants’ shops, on the pretext
that his edict had been violated. It is said, that, as he was playing
and singing in the theatre, observing a married lady dressed in the
purple which he had prohibited, he pointed her out to his procurators;
upon which she was immediately dragged out of her seat, and not only
stripped of her clothes, but her property. He never nominated a person
to any office without saying to him, “You know what I want; and let us
take care that nobody has any thing he can call his own.” At last he
rifled many temples of the rich offerings with which they were stored,
and melted down all the gold and silver statues, and amongst them those
of the penates [601], which Galba afterwards restored.
XXXIII. He began the practice of parricide and murder with Claudius
himself; for although he was not the contriver of his death, he was privy
to the plot. Nor did he make any secret of it; but used afterwards to
commend, in a Greek proverb, mushrooms as food fit for the gods, because
Claudius had been poisoned with them. He traduced his memory both by
word and deed in the grossest manner; one while charging him with folly,
another while with cruelty. For he used to say by way of jest, that he
had ceased morari [602] amongst men, pronouncing the first syllable long;
and treated as null many of his decrees and ordinances, as made by a
doting old blockhead. He enclosed the place where his body was burnt
with only a low wall of rough masonry. He attempted to poison (362)
Britannicus, as much out of envy because he had a sweeter voice, as from
apprehension of what might ensue from the respect which the people
entertained for his father’s memory. He employed for this purpose a
woman named Locusta, who had been a witness against some persons guilty
of like practices. But the poison she gave him, working more slowly than
he expected, and only causing a purge, he sent for the woman, and beat
her with his own hand, charging her with administering an antidote
instead of poison; and upon her alleging in excuse, that she had given
Britannicus but a gentle mixture in order to prevent suspicion, “Think
you,” said he, “that I am afraid of the Julian law;” and obliged her to
prepare, in his own chamber and before his eyes, as quick and strong a
dose as possible. This he tried upon a kid: but the animal lingering for
five hours before it expired, he ordered her to go to work again; and
when she had done, he gave the poison to a pig, which dying immediately,
he commanded the potion to be brought into the eating-room and given to
Britannicus, while he was at supper with him. The prince had no sooner
tasted it than he sunk on the floor, Nero meanwhile, pretending to the
guests, that it was only a fit of the falling sickness, to which, he
said, he was subject. He buried him the following day, in a mean and
hurried way, during violent storms of rain. He gave Locusta a pardon,
and rewarded her with a great estate in land, placing some disciples with
her, to be instructed in her trade.
XXXIV. His mother being used to make strict inquiry into what he said or
did, and to reprimand him with the freedom of a parent, he was so much
offended, that he endeavoured to expose her to public resentment, by
frequently pretending a resolution to quit the government, and retire to
Rhodes. Soon afterwards, he deprived her of all honour and power, took
from her the guard of Roman and German soldiers, banished her from the
palace and from his society, and persecuted her in every way he could
contrive; employing persons to harass her when at Rome with law-suits,
and to disturb her in her retirement from town with the most scurrilous
and abusive language, following her about by land and sea. But being
terrified with her menaces and violent spirit, he resolved upon her
destruction, and thrice attempted it by poison. Finding, however, (363)
that she had previously secured herself by antidotes, he contrived
machinery, by which the floor over her bed-chamber might be made to fall
upon her while she was asleep in the night. This design miscarrying
likewise, through the little caution used by those who were in the
secret, his next stratagem was to construct a ship which could be easily
shivered, in hopes of destroying her either by drowning, or by the deck
above her cabin crushing her in its fall. Accordingly, under colour of a
pretended reconciliation, he wrote her an extremely affectionate letter,
inviting her to Baiae, to celebrate with him the festival of Minerva. He
had given private orders to the captains of the galleys which were to
attend her, to shatter to pieces the ship in which she had come, by
falling foul of it, but in such manner that it might appear to be done
accidentally. He prolonged the entertainment, for the more convenient
opportunity of executing the plot in the night; and at her return for
Bauli [603], instead of the old ship which had conveyed her to Baiae, he
offered that which he had contrived for her destruction. He attended her
to the vessel in a very cheerful mood, and, at parting with her, kissed
her breasts; after which he sat up very late in the night, waiting with
great anxiety to learn the issue of his project. But receiving
information that every thing had fallen out contrary to his wish, and
that she had saved herself by swimming,--not knowing what course to take,
upon her freedman, Lucius Agerinus bringing word, with great joy, that
she was safe and well, he privately dropped a poniard by him. He then
commanded the freedman to be seized and put in chains, under pretence of
his having been employed by his mother to assassinate him; at the same
time ordering her to be put to death, and giving out, that, to avoid
punishment for her intended crime, she had laid violent hands upon
herself. Other circumstances, still more horrible, are related on good
authority; as that he went to view her corpse, and handling her limbs,
pointed out some blemishes, and commended other points; and that, growing
thirsty during the survey, he called for drink. Yet he was never
afterwards able to bear the stings of his own conscience for this
atrocious act, although encouraged by the congratulatory addresses of the
army, the senate, and people. He frequently affirmed that he was haunted
by his mother’s ghost, and persecuted with the whips (364) and burning
torches of the Furies. Nay, he attempted by magical rites to bring up
her ghost from below, and soften her rage against him. When he was in
Greece, he durst not attend the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries,
at the initiation of which, impious and wicked persons are warned by the
voice of the herald from approaching the rites [604]. Besides the murder
of his mother, he had been guilty of that of his aunt; for, being obliged
to keep her bed in consequence of a complaint in her bowels, he paid her
a visit, and she, being then advanced in years, stroking his downy chin,
in the tenderness of affection, said to him: “May I but live to see the
day when this is shaved for the first time [605], and I shall then die
contented.” He turned, however, to those about him, made a jest of it,
saying, that he would have his beard immediately taken off, and ordered
the physicians to give her more violent purgatives. He seized upon her
estate before she had expired; suppressing her will, that he might enjoy
the whole himself.
XXXV. He had, besides Octavia, two other wives: Poppaea Sabina, whose
father had borne the office of quaestor, and who had been married
before to a Roman knight: and, after her, Statilia Messalina,
great-grand-daughter of Taurus [606] who was twice consul, and received
the honour of a triumph. To obtain possession of her, he put to death her
husband, Atticus Vestinus, who was then consul. He soon became disgusted
with Octavia, and ceased from having any intercourse with her; and being
censured by his friends for it, he replied, “She ought to be satisfied
with having the rank and appendages of his wife.” Soon afterwards, he
made several attempts, but in vain, to strangle her, and then divorced her
for barrenness. But the people, disapproving of the divorce, and making
severe comments upon it, he also banished her [607]. At last he (365) put
her to death, upon a charge of adultery, so impudent and false, that, when
all those who were put to the torture positively denied their knowledge of
it, he suborned his pedagogue, Anicetus, to affirm, that he had secretly
intrigued with and debauched her. He married Poppaea twelve days after
the divorce of Octavia [608], and entertained a great affection for her;
but, nevertheless, killed her with a kick which he gave her when she was
big with child, and in bad health, only because she found fault with him
for returning late from driving his chariot. He had by her a daughter,
Claudia Augusta, who died an infant. There was no person at all connected
with him who escaped his deadly and unjust cruelty. Under pretence of her
being engaged in a plot against him, he put to death Antonia, Claudius’s
daughter, who refused to marry him after the death of Poppaea. In the
same way, he destroyed all who were allied to him either by blood or
marriage; amongst whom was young Aulus Plautinus. He first compelled him
to submit to his unnatural lust, and then ordered him to be executed,
crying out, “Let my mother bestow her kisses on my successor thus
defiled;” pretending that he had been his mothers paramour, and by her
encouraged to aspire to the empire. His step-son, Rufinus Crispinus,
Poppaea’s son, though a minor, he ordered to be drowned in the sea, while
he was fishing, by his own slaves, because he was reported to act
frequently amongst his play-fellows the part of a general or an emperor.
He banished Tuscus, his nurse’s son, for presuming, when he was procurator
of Egypt, to wash in the baths which had been constructed in expectation
of his own coming. Seneca, his preceptor, he forced to kill himself
[609], though, upon his desiring leave to retire, and offering to
surrender his estate, he solemnly swore, “that there was no foundation for
his suspicions, and that he would perish himself sooner than hurt him.”
Having promised Burrhus, the pretorian prefect, a remedy for a swelling in
his throat, he sent him poison. Some old rich freedmen of Claudius, who
had formerly not only promoted (366) his adoption, but were also
instrumental to his advancement to the empire, and had been his governors,
he took off by poison given them in their meat or drink.
XXXVI. Nor did he proceed with less cruelty against those who were not
of his family. A blazing star, which is vulgarly supposed to portend
destruction to kings and princes, appeared above the horizon several
nights successively [610]. He felt great anxiety on account of this
phenomenon, and being informed by one Babilus, an astrologer, that
princes were used to expiate such omens by the sacrifice of illustrious
persons, and so avert the danger foreboded to their own persons, by
bringing it on the heads of their chief men, he resolved on the
destruction of the principal nobility in Rome. He was the more
encouraged to this, because he had some plausible pretence for carrying
it into execution, from the discovery of two conspiracies against him;
the former and more dangerous of which was that formed by Piso [611], and
discovered at Rome; the other was that of Vinicius [612], at Beneventum.
The conspirators were brought to their trials loaded with triple fetters.
Some ingenuously confessed the charge; others avowed that they thought
the design against his life an act of favour for which he was obliged to
them, as it was impossible in any other way than by death to relieve a
person rendered infamous by crimes of the greatest enormity. The
children of those who had been condemned, were banished the city, and
afterwards either poisoned or starved to death. It is asserted that some
of them, with their tutors, and the slaves who carried their satchels,
were all poisoned together at one dinner; and others not suffered to seek
their daily bread.
XXXVII. From this period he butchered, without distinction or quarter,
all whom his caprice suggested as objects for his cruelty; and upon the
most frivolous pretences. To mention only a few: Salvidienus Orfitus was
accused of letting (367) out three taverns attached to his house in the
Forum to some cities for the use of their deputies at Rome. The charge
against Cassius Longinus, a lawyer who had lost his sight, was, that he
kept amongst the busts of his ancestors that of Caius Cassius, who was
concerned in the death of Julius Caesar. The only charge objected
against Paetus Thrasea was, that he had a melancholy cast of features,
and looked like a schoolmaster. He allowed but one hour to those whom he
obliged to kill themselves; and, to prevent delay, he sent them
physicians “to cure them immediately, if they lingered beyond that time;”
for so he called bleeding them to death. There was at that time an
Egyptian of a most voracious appetite, who would digest raw flesh, or any
thing else that was given him. It was credibly reported, that the
emperor was extremely desirous of furnishing him with living men to tear
and devour. Being elated with his great success in the perpetration of
crimes, he declared, “that no prince before himself ever knew the extent
of his power.” He threw out strong intimations that he would not even
spare the senators who survived, but would entirely extirpate that order,
and put the provinces and armies into the hands of the Roman knights and
his own freedmen. It is certain that he never gave or vouchsafed to
allow any one the customary kiss, either on entering or departing, or
even returned a salute. And at the inauguration of a work, the cut
through the Isthmus [613], he, with a loud voice, amidst the assembled
multitude, uttered a prayer, that “the undertaking might prove fortunate
for himself and the Roman people,” without taking the smallest notice of
the senate.
XXXVIII. He spared, moreover, neither the people of Rome, nor the
capital of his country. Somebody in conversation saying--
Emou thanontos gaia michthaeto pyri
When I am dead let fire devour the world--
“Nay,” said he, “let it be while I am living” [emou xontos]. And he
acted accordingly: for, pretending to be disgusted with the old
buildings, and the narrow and winding streets, he set the city on fire so
openly, that many of consular rank caught his own household servants on
their property with tow, and (368) torches in their hands, but durst not
meddle with them. There being near his Golden House some granaries, the
site of which he exceedingly coveted, they were battered as if with
machines of war, and set on fire, the walls being built of stone. During
six days and seven nights this terrible devastation continued, the people
being obliged to fly to the tombs and monuments for lodging and shelter.
Meanwhile, a vast number of stately buildings, the houses of generals
celebrated in former times, and even then still decorated with the spoils
of war, were laid in ashes; as well as the temples of the gods, which had
been vowed and dedicated by the kings of Rome, and afterwards in the
Punic and Gallic wars: in short, everything that was remarkable and
worthy to be seen which time had spared [614]. This fire he beheld from
a tower in the house of Mecaenas, and “being greatly delighted,” as he
said, “with the beautiful effects of the conflagration,” he sung a poem
on the ruin of Troy, in the tragic dress he used on the stage. To turn
this calamity to his own advantage by plunder and rapine, he promised to
remove the bodies of those who had perished in the fire, and clear the
rubbish at his own expense; suffering no one to meddle with the remains
of their property. But he not only received, but exacted contributions
on account of the loss, until he had exhausted the means both of the
provinces and private persons.
XXXIX. To these terrible and shameful calamities brought upon the people
by their prince, were added some proceeding from misfortune. Such were a
pestilence, by which, within the space of one autumn, there died no less
than thirty thousand persons, as appeared from the registers in the
temple of Libitina; a great disaster in Britain [615], where two of the
principal towns belonging to the Romans were plundered; and a (369)
dreadful havoc made both amongst our troops and allies; a shameful
discomfiture of the army of the East; where, in Armenia, the legions were
obliged to pass under the yoke, and it was with great difficulty that
Syria was retained. Amidst all these disasters, it was strange, and,
indeed, particularly remarkable, that he bore nothing more patiently than
the scurrilous language and railing abuse which was in every one’s mouth;
treating no class of persons with more gentleness, than those who
assailed him with invective and lampoons. Many things of that kind were
posted up about the city, or otherwise published, both in Greek and
Latin: such as these,
Neron, Orestaes, Alkmaion, maetroktonai.
Neonymphon [616] Neron, idian maeter apekteinen.
Orestes and Alcaeon--Nero too,
The lustful Nero, worst of all the crew,
Fresh from his bridal--their own mothers slew.
Quis neget Aeneae magna de stirpe Neronem?
Sustulit hic matrem: sustulit [617] ille patrem.
Sprung from Aeneas, pious, wise and great,
Who says that Nero is degenerate?
Safe through the flames, one bore his sire; the other,
To save himself, took off his loving mother.
Dum tendit citharam noster, dum cornua Parthus,
Noster erit Paean, ille Ekataebeletaes.
His lyre to harmony our Nero strings;
His arrows o’er the plain the Parthian wings:
Ours call the tuneful Paean,--famed in war,
The other Phoebus name, the god who shoots afar. [618]
Roma domus fiet: Vejos migrate, Quirites,
Si non et Vejos occupat ista domus.
All Rome will be one house: to Veii fly,
Should it not stretch to Veii, by and by. [619]
(370) But he neither made any inquiry after the authors, nor when
information was laid before the senate against some of them, would he
allow a severe sentence to be passed. Isidorus, the Cynic philosopher,
said to him aloud, as he was passing along the streets, “You sing the
misfortunes of Nauplius well, but behave badly yourself.” And Datus, a
comic actor, when repeating these words in the piece, “Farewell, father!
Farewell mother!” mimicked the gestures of persons drinking and swimming,
significantly alluding to the deaths of Claudius and Agrippina: and on
uttering the last clause,
Orcus vobis ducit pedes;
You stand this moment on the brink of Orcus;
he plainly intimated his application of it to the precarious position of
the senate. Yet Nero only banished the player and philosopher from the
city and Italy; either because he was insensible to shame, or from
apprehension that if he discovered his vexation, still keener things
might be said of him.
XL. The world, after tolerating such an emperor for little less than
fourteen years, at length forsook him; the Gauls, headed by Julius
Vindex, who at that time governed the province as pro-praetor, being the
first to revolt. Nero had been formerly told by astrologers, that it
would be his fortune to be at last deserted by all the world; and this
occasioned that celebrated saying of his, “An artist can live in any
country;” by which he meant to offer as an excuse for his practice of
music, that it was not only his amusement as a prince, but might be his
support when reduced to a private station. Yet some of the astrologers
promised him, in his forlorn state, the rule of the East, and some in
express words the kingdom of Jerusalem. But the greater part of them
flattered him with assurances of his being restored to his former
fortune. And being most inclined to believe the latter prediction, upon
losing Britain and Armenia, he imagined he had run through all the
misfortunes which the fates had decreed him. But when, upon consulting
the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, he was advised to beware of the
seventy-third year, as if he were not to die till then, never thinking of
Galba’s age, he conceived such hopes, not only of living to advanced
years, but of constant and singular good fortune, that having lost some
things of great value by shipwreck, he scrupled not to say amongst his
friends, that (371) “the fishes would bring them back to him.” At Naples
he heard of the insurrection in Gaul, on the anniversary of the day on
which he killed his mother, and bore it with so much unconcern, as to
excite a suspicion that he was really glad of it, since he had now a fair
opportunity of plundering those wealthy provinces by the right of war.
Immediately going to the gymnasium, he witnessed the exercise of the
wrestlers with the greatest delight. Being interrupted at supper with
letters which brought yet worse news, he expressed no greater resentment,
than only to threaten the rebels. For eight days together, he never
attempted to answer any letters, nor give any orders, but buried the
whole affair in profound silence.