The Works of Tacitus
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
Tacitus: Annals Book 13 [20]
20. Night was far advanced and Nero was still sitting over his cups, when Paris
entered, who was generally wont at such times to heighten the emperor’s enjoyments,
but who now wore a gloomy expression. He went through the whole evidence in
order, and so frightened his hearer as to make him resolve not only on the destruction
of his mother and of Plautus, but also on the removal of Burrus from the command
of the guards, as a man who had been promoted by Agrippina’s interest, and was
now showing his gratitude. We have it on the authority of Fabius Rusticus that
a note was written to Caecina Tuscus, intrusting to him the charge of the praetorian
cohorts, but that through Seneca’s influence that distinguished post was retained
for Burrus. According to Plinius and Cluvius, no doubt was felt about the commander’s
loyalty. Fabius certainly inclines to the praise of Seneca, through whose friendship
he rose to honour. Proposing as I do to follow the consentient testimony of
historians, I shall give the differences in their narratives under the writers’
names. Nero, in his bewilderment and impatience to destroy his mother, could
not be put off till Burrus answered for her death, should she be convicted of
the crime, but “any one,” he said, “much more a parent, must be allowed a defence.
Accusers there were none forthcoming; they had before them only the word of
a single person from an enemy’s house, and this the night with its darkness
and prolonged festivity and everything savouring of recklessness and folly,
was enough to refute.”
21. Having thus allayed the prince’s fears, they went at daybreak to Agrippina,
that she might know the charges against her, and either rebut them or suffer
the penalty. Burrus fulfilled his instructions in Seneca’s presence, and some
of the freedmen were present to witness the interview. Then Burrus, when he
had fully explained the charges with the authors’ names, assumed an air of menace.
Instantly Agrippina, calling up all her high spirit, exclaimed, “I wonder not
that Silana, who has never borne offspring, knows nothing of a mother’s feelings.
Parents do not change their children as lightly as a shameless woman does her
paramours. And if Iturius and Calvisius, after having wasted their whole fortunes,
are now, as their last resource, repaying an old hag for their hire by undertaking
to be informers, it does not follow that I am to incur the infamy of plotting
a son’s murder, or that a Caesar is to have the consciousness of like guilt.
As for Domitia’s enmity, I should be thankful for it, were she to vie with me
in goodwill towards my Nero. Now through her paramour, Atimetus, and the actor,
Paris, she is, so to say, concocting a drama for the stage. She at her Baiae
was increasing the magnificence of her fishponds, when I was planning in my
counsels his adoption with a proconsul’s powers and a consul-elect’s rank and
every other step to empire. Only let the man come forward who can charge me
with having tampered with the praetorian cohorts in the capital, with having
sapped the loyalty of the provinces, or, in a word, with having bribed slaves
and freedmen into any wickedness. Could I have lived with Britannicus in the
possession of power? And if Plautus or any other were to become master of the
State so as to sit in judgment on me, accusers forsooth would not be forthcoming,
to charge me not merely with a few incautious expressions prompted by the eagerness
of affection, but with guilt from which a son alone could absolve me.” There
was profound excitement among those present, and they even tried to soothe her
agitation, but she insisted on an interview with her son. Then, instead of pleading
her innocence, as though she lacked confidence, or her claims on him by way
of reproach, she obtained vengeance on her accusers and rewards for her friends.
22. The superintendence of the corn supply was given to Faenius Rufus, the
direction of the games which the emperor was preparing, to Arruntius Stella,
and the province of Egypt to Caius Balbillus. Syria was to be assigned to Publius
Anteius, but he was soon put off by various artifices and finally detained at
Rome. Silana was banished; Calvisius and Iturius exiled for a time; Atimetus
was capitally punished, while Paris was too serviceable to the emperor’s profligacy
to allow of his suffering any penalty. Plautus for the present was silently
passed over.
23. Next Pallas and Burrus were accused of having conspired to raise Cornelius
Sulla to the throne, because of his noble birth and connection with Claudius,
whose son-in-law he was by his marriage with Antonia. The promoter of the prosecution
was one Paetus, who had become notorious by frequent purchases of property confiscated
to the exchequer and was now convicted clearly of imposture. But the proved
innocence of Pallas did Pallas did not please men so much, as his arrogance
offended them. When his freedmen, his alleged accomplices, were called, he replied
that at home he signified his wishes only by a nod or a gesture, or, if further
explanation was required, he used writing, so as not to degrade his voice in
such company. Burrus, though accused, gave his verdict as one of the judges.
The prosecutor was sentenced to exile, and the account-books in which he was
reviving forgotten claims of the exchequer, were burnt.
24. At the end of the year the cohort usually on guard during the games was
withdrawn, that there might be a greater show of freedom, that the soldiery
too might be less demoralised when no longer in contact with the licence of
the theatre, and that it might be proved whether the populace, in the absence
of a guard, would maintain their self-control. The emperor, on the advice of
the augurs, purified Rome by a lustration, as the temples of Jupiter and Minerva
had been struck by lightning.
25. In the consulship of Quintus Volusius and Publius Scipio, there was peace
abroad, but a disgusting licentiousness at home on the part of Nero, who in
a slave’s disguise, so as to be unrecognized, would wander through the streets
of Rome, to brothels and taverns, with comrades, who seized on goods exposed
for sale and inflicted wounds on any whom they encountered, some of these last
knowing him so little that he even received blows himself, and showed the marks
of them in his face. When it was notorious that the emperor was the assailant,
and the insults on men and women of distinction were multiplied, other persons
too on the strength of a licence once granted under Nero’s name, ventured with
impunity on the same practices, and had gangs of their own, till night presented
the scenes of a captured city. Julius Montanus, a senator, but one who had not
yet held any office, happened to encounter the prince in the darkness, and because
he fiercely repulsed his attack and then on recognizing him begged for mercy,
as though this was a reproach, forced to destroy himself. Nero was for the future
more timid, and surrounded himself with soldiers and a number of gladiators,
who, when a fray began on a small scale and seemed a private affair, were to
let it alone, but, if the injured persons resisted stoutly, they rushed in with
their swords. He also turned the licence of the games and the enthusiasm for
the actors into something like a battle by the impunity he allowed, and the
rewards he offered, and especially by looking on himself, sometimes concealed,
but often in public view, till, with the people at strife and the fear of a
worse commotion, the only remedy which could be devised was the expulsion of
the offending actors from Italy, and the presence once more of the soldiery
in the theatre.
26. During the same time there was a discussion in the Senate on the misconduct
of the freedmen class, and a strong demand was made that, as a check on the
undeserving, patrons should have the right of revoking freedom. There were several
who supported this. But the consuls did not venture to put the motion without
the emperor’s knowledge, though they recorded the Senate’s general opinion,
to see whether he would sanction the arrangement, considering that only a few
were opposed to it, while some loudly complained that the irreverent spirit
which freedom had fostered, had broken into such excess, that freedmen would
ask their patrons’ advice as to whether they should treat them with violence,
or, as legally, their equals, and would actually threaten them with blows, at
the same time recommending them not to punish. “What right,” it was asked, “was
conceded to an injured patron but that of temporarily banishing the freedman
a hundred miles off to the shores of Campania? In everything else, legal proceedings
were equal and the same for both. Some weapon ought to be given to the patrons
which could not be despised. It would be no grievance for the enfranchised to
have to keep their freedom by the same respectful behaviour which had procured
it for them. But, as for notorious offenders, they deserved to be dragged back
into slavery, that fear might be a restraint where kindness had had no effect.”
27. It was argued in reply that, though the guilt of a few ought to be the
ruin of the men themselves, there should be no diminution of the rights of the
entire class. “For it was,” they contended, “a widely diffused body; from it,
the city tribes, the various public functionaries, the establishments of the
magistrates and priests were for the most part supplied, as well as the cohorts
of the city-guard; very many too of the knights and several of the senators
derived their origin from no other source. If freedmen were to be a separate
class, the paucity of the freeborn would be conspicuously apparent. Not without
good reason had our ancestors, in distinguishing the position of the different
orders, thrown freedom open to all. Again, two kinds of enfranchisement had
been instituted, so as to leave room for retracting the boon, or for a fresh
act of grace. Those whom the patron had not emancipated with the freedom-giving
rod, were still held, as it were, by the bonds of slavery. Every master should
carefully consider the merits of each case, and be slow to grant what once given
could not be taken away.” This view prevailed, and the emperor replied to the
Senate that, whenever freedmen were accused by their patrons, they were to investigate
each case separately and not to annul any right to their common injury. Soon
afterwards, his aunt Domitia had her freedman Paris taken from her, avowedly
by civil law, much to the emperor’s disgrace, by whose direction a decision
that he was freeborn was obtained.
28. Still there yet remained some shadow of a free state. A contest arose
between Vibullius, the praetor, and Antistius, a tribune of the people; for
the tribune had ordered the release of some disorderly applauders of certain
actors, whom the praetor had imprisoned. The Senate approved the imprisonment,
and censured the presumption of Antistius. Tribunes were also forbidden to usurp
the authority of praetors and consuls, or to summon from any part of Italy persons
liable to legal proceedings. It was further proposed by Lucius Piso, consul-elect,
that tribunes were not to try any case in their own houses, that a fine imposed
by them was not to be entered on the public books by the officials of the exchequer,
till four months had expired, and that in the meantime appeals were to be allowed,
which the consuls were to decide. Restrictions were also put on the powers of
the aediles and a limit fixed to the amount of bail or penalty which curule
and plebeian aediles could respectively exact. On this, Helvidius Priscus, a
tribune of the people, followed up a personal quarrel he had with Obultronius
Sabinus, one of the officials of the exchequer, by insinuating that he stretched
his right of confiscation with merciless rigour against the poor. The emperor
then transferred the charge of the public accounts from these officers to the
commissioners.
29. The arrangement of this business had been variously and frequently altered.
Augustus allowed the Senate to appoint commissioners; then, when corrupt practices
were suspected in the voting, men were chosen by lot for the office out of the
whole number of praetors. This did not last long, as the lot strayed away to
unfit persons. Claudius then again appointed quaestors, and that they might
not be too lax in their duties from fear of offending, he promised them promotion
out of the usual course. But what they lacked was the firmness of mature age,
entering, as they did, on this office as their first step, and so Nero appointed
ex-praetors of approved competency.
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