The Works of Tacitus
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
Tacitus: Annals Book 15 [70]
70. Next he ordered the destruction of Marcus Annaeus Lucanus. As the blood
flowed freely from him, and he felt a chill creeping through his feet and hands,
and the life gradually ebbing from his extremities, though the heart was still
warm and he retained his mental power, Lucanus recalled some poetry he had composed
in which he had told the story of a wounded soldier dying a similar kind of
death, and he recited the very lines. These were his last words. After him,
Senecio, Quintianus, and Scaevinus perished, not in the manner expected from
the past effeminacy of their life, and then the remaining conspirators, without
deed or word deserving record.
71. Rome all this time was thronged with funerals, the Capitol with sacrificial
victims. One after another, on the destruction of a brother, a kinsman, or a
friend, would return thanks to the gods, deck his house with laurels, prostrate
himself at the knees of the emperor, and weary his hand with kisses. He, in
the belief that this was rejoicing, rewarded with impunity the prompt informations
of Antonius Natalis and Cervarius Proculus. Milichus was enriched with gifts
and assumed in its Greek equivalent the name of Saviour. Of the tribunes, Gavius
Silvanus, though acquitted, perished by his own hand; Statius Proximus threw
away the benefit of the pardon he had accepted from the emperor by the folly
of his end. Cornelius Martialis, Flavius Nepos, Statius Domitius were then deprived
of the tribuneship, on the ground, not of actually hating the emperor, but of
having the credit of it. Novius Priscus, as Seneca’s friend, Glitius Gallus,
and Annius Pollio, as men disgraced rather than convicted, escaped with sentences
of banishment. Priscus and Gallus were accompanied respectively by their wives,
Artoria Flaccilla and Egnatia Maximilla. The latter possessed at first a great
fortune, still unimpaired, and was subsequently deprived of it, both which circumstances
enhanced her fame. Rufius Crispinus too was banished, on the opportune pretext
of the conspiracy, but he was in fact hated by Nero, because he had once been
Poppaea’s husband. It was the splendour of their name which drove Verginius
Flavus and Musonius Rufus into exile. Verginius encouraged the studies of our
youth by his eloquence; Rufus by the teachings of philosophy. Cluvidienus Quietus,
Julius Agrippa, Blitius Catulinus, Petronius Priscus, Julius Altinus, mere rank
and file, so to say, had islands in the Aegean Sea assigned to them. Caedicia,
the wife of Scaevinus, and Caesonius Maximus were forbidden to live in Italy,
their penalty being the only proof they had of having been accused. Atilla,
the mother of Annaeus Lucanus, without either acquittal or punishment, was simply
ignored.
72. All this having been completed, Nero assembled the troops and distributed
two thousand sesterces to every common soldier, with an addition of as much
corn without payment, as they had previously the use of at the market price.
Then, as if he was going to describe successes in war, he summoned the Senate,
and awarded triumphal honours to Petronius Turpilianus, an ex-consul, to Cocceius
Nerva, praetor-elect, and to Tigellinus, commander of the praetorians. Tigellinus
and Nerva he so distinguished as to place busts of them in the palace in addition
to triumphal statues in the Forum. He granted a consul’s decorations to Nymphidius,
on whose origin, as he now appears for the first time, I will briefly touch.
For he too will be a part of Rome’s calamities. The son of a freedwoman, who
had prostituted a handsome person among the slaves and freedmen of the emperors,
he gave out that he was the offspring of Caius Caesar, for he happened to be
of tall stature and to have a fierce look, or possibly Caius Caesar, who liked
even harlots, had also amused himself with the man’s mother.
73. Nero meanwhile summoned the Senate, addressed them in a speech, and further
added a proclamation to the people, with the evidence which had been entered
on records, and the confessions of the condemned. He was indeed perpetually
under the lash of popular talk, which said that he had destroyed men perfectly
innocent out of jealousy or fear. However, that a conspiracy was begun, matured,
and conclusively proved was not doubted at the time by those who took pains
to ascertain the truth, and is admitted by those who after Nero’s death returned
to the capital. When every one in the Senate, those especially who had most
cause to mourn, abased himself in flattery, Salienus Clemens denounced Junius
Gallio, who was terror-stricken at his brother Seneca’s death was pleading for
his life. He called him an enemy and traitor to the State, till the unanimous
voice of the senators deterred him from perverting public miseries into an occasion
for a personal resentment, and thus importing fresh bitterness into what by
the prince’s clemency had been hushed up or forgotten.
74. Then offerings and thanksgivings to the gods were decreed, with special
honours to the Sun, who has an ancient temple in the circus where the crime
was planned, as having revealed by his power the secrets of the conspiracy.
The games too of Ceres in the circus were to be celebrated with more horse-races,
and the month of April was to be called after the name of Nero. A temple also
was to be erected to Safety, on the spot whence Scaevinus had taken his dagger.
The emperor himself dedicated the weapon in the temple of the capital, and inscribed
on it, “To Jupiter the Avenger.” This passed without notice at the moment, but
after the war of Julius Vindex it was construed as an omen and presage of impending
vengeance. I find in the registers of the Senate that Cerialis Anicius, consul-elect,
proposed a motion that a temple should as soon as possible be built at the public
expense to the Divine Nero. He implied indeed by this proposal that the prince
had transcended all mortal grandeur and deserved the adoration of mankind. Some
however interpreted it as an omen of his death, seeing that divine honours are
not paid to an emperor till he has ceased to live among men. ad omen [dolum]
sui exitus verteretur: nam deum honor principi non ante habetur, quam agere
inter homines desierit.
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