The Works of Tacitus

tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb

[1864-1877]


Tacitus: Annals Book 14 [50]

50. A similar accusation caused the downfall of Fabricius Veiento. He had composed
many libels on senators and pontiffs in a work to which he gave the title of
“Codicils.” Talius Geminus, the prosecutor, further stated that he had habitually
trafficked in the emperor’s favours and in the right of promotion. This was
Nero’s reason for himself undertaking the trial, and having convicted Veiento,
he banished him from Italy, and ordered the burning of his books, which, while
it was dangerous to procure them, were anxiously sought and much read. Soon
full freedom for their possession caused their oblivion.

51. But while the miseries of the State were daily growing worse, its supports
were becoming weaker. Burrus died, whether from illness or from poison was a
question. It was supposed to be illness from the fact that from the gradual
swelling of his throat inwardly and the closing up of the passage he ceased
to breathe. Many positively asserted that by Nero’s order his throat was smeared
with some poisonous drug under the pretence of the application of a remedy,
and that Burrus, who saw through the crime, when the emperor paid him a visit,
recoiled with horror from his gaze, and merely replied to his question, “I indeed
am well.” Rome felt for him a deep and lasting regret, because of the remembrance
of his worth, because too of the merely passive virtue of one of his successors
and the very flagrant iniquities of the other. For the emperor had appointed
two men to the command of the praetorian cohorts, Faenius Rufus, for a vulgar
popularity, which he owed to his administration of the corn-supplies without
profit to himself; and Sofonius Tigellinus, whose inveterate shamelessness and
infamy were an attraction to him. As might have been expected from their known
characters, Tigellinus had the greater influence with the prince, and was the
associate of his most secret profligacy, while Rufus enjoyed the favour of the
people and of the soldiers, and this, he found, prejudiced him with Nero.

52. The death of Burrus was a blow to Seneca’s power, for virtue had not
the same strength when one of its companions, so to say, was removed, and Nero
too began to lean on worse advisers. They assailed Seneca with various charges,
representing that he continued to increase a wealth which was already so vast
as to be beyond the scale of a subject, and was drawing to himself the attachment
of the citizens, while in the picturesqueness of his gardens and the magnificence
of his country houses he almost surpassed the emperor. They further alleged
against him that he claimed for himself alone the honours of eloquence, and
composed poetry more assiduously, as soon as a passion for it had seized on
Nero. “Openly inimical to the prince’s amusements, he disparaged his ability
in driving horses, and ridiculed his voice whenever he sang. When was there
to be an end of nothing being publicly admired but what Seneca was thought to
have originated? Surely Nero’s boyhood was over, and he was all but in the prime
of youthful manhood. He ought to shake off a tutor, furnished as he was with
sufficiently noble instructors in his own ancestors.”

53. Seneca, meanwhile, aware of these slanders, which were revealed to him
by those who had some respect for merit, coupled with the fact that the emperor
more and more shunned his intimacy, besought the opportunity of an interview.
This was granted, and he spoke as follows:- “It is fourteen years ago, Caesar,
that I was first associated with your prospects, and eight years since you have
been emperor. In the interval, you have heaped on me such honours and riches
that nothing is wanting to my happiness but a right use of it. I will refer
to great examples taken not from my own but from your position. Your great-grandfather
Augustus granted to Marcus Agrippa the calm repose of Mitylene, to Caius Maecenas
what was nearly equivalent to a foreign retreat in the capital itself. One of
these men shared his wars; the other struggled with many laborious duties at
Rome; both received awards which were indeed splendid, but only proportioned
to their great merits. For myself, what other recompense had I for your munificence,
than a culture nursed, so to speak, in the shade of retirement, and to which
a glory attaches itself, because I thus seem to have helped on the early training
of your youth, an ample reward for the service. “You on the other hand have
surrounded me with vast influence and boundless wealth, so that I often think
within myself, Am I, who am but of an equestrian and provincial family, numbered
among the chief men of Rome? Among nobles who can show a long succession of
glories, has my new name become famous? Where is the mind once content with
a humble lot? Is this the man who is building up his garden terraces, who paces
grandly through these suburban parks, and revels in the affluence of such broad
lands and such widely-spread investments? Only one apology occurs to me, that
it would not have been right in me to have thwarted your bounty.

54. “And yet we have both filled up our respective measures, you in giving
as much as a prince can bestow on a friend, and I in receiving as much as a
friend can receive from a prince. All else only fosters envy, which, like all
things human, sinks powerless beneath your greatness, though on me it weighs
heavily. To me relief is a necessity. Just as I should implore support if exhausted
by warfare or travel, so in this journey of life, old as I am and unequal even
to the lightest cares, since I cannot any longer bear the burden of my wealth,
I crave assistance. Order my property to be managed by your agents and to be
included in your estate. Still I shall not sink myself into poverty, but having
surrendered the splendours which dazzle me, I will henceforth again devote to
my mind all the leisure and attention now reserved for my gardens and country
houses. You have yet before you a vigorous prime, and that on which for so many
years your eyes were fixed, supreme power. We, your older friends, can answer
for our quiet behaviour. It will likewise redound to your honour that you have
raised to the highest places men who could also bear moderate fortune.”

55. Nero’s reply was substantially this:- “My being able to meet your elaborate
speech with an instant rejoinder is, I consider, primarily your gift, for you
taught me how to express myself not only after reflection but at a moment’s
notice. My great-grandfather Augustus allowed Agrippa and Maecenas to enjoy
rest after their labours, but he did it at an age carrying with it an authority
sufficient to justify any boon, of any sort, he might have bestowed. But neither
of them did he strip of the rewards he had given. It was by war and its perils
they had earned them; for in these the youth of Augustus was spent. And if I
had passed my years in arms, your sword and right hand would not have failed
me. But, as my actual condition required, you watched over my boyhood, then
over my youth, with wisdom, counsel, and advice. And indeed your gifts to me
will, as long as life holds out, be lasting possessions; those which you owe
to me, your parks, investments, your country houses, are liable to accidents.
Though they seem much, many far inferior to you in merit have obtained more.
I am ashamed to quote the names of freedmen who parade a greater wealth. Hence
I actually blush to think that, standing as you do first in my affections, you
do not as yet surpass all in fortune.

56. “Yours too is a still vigorous manhood, quite equal to the labours of
business and to the fruit of those labours; and, as for myself, I am but treading
the threshold of empire. But perhaps you count yourself inferior to Vitellius,
thrice a consul, and me to Claudius. Such wealth as long thrift has procured
for Volusius, my bounty, you think, cannot fully make up to you. Why not rather,
if the frailty of my youth goes in any respect astray, call me back and guide
yet more zealously with your help the manhood which you have instructed? It
will not be your moderation, if you restore me your wealth, not your love of
quiet, if you forsake your emperor, but my avarice, the fear of my cruelty,
which will be in all men’s mouths. Even if your self-control were praised to
the utmost, still it would not be seemly in a wise man to get glory for himself
in the very act of bringing disgrace on his friend.” To these words the emperor
added embraces and kisses; for he was formed by nature and trained by habit
to veil his hatred under delusive flattery. Seneca thanked him, the usual end
of an interview with a despot. But he entirely altered the practices of his
former greatness; he kept the crowds of his visitors at a distance, avoided
trains of followers, seldom appeared in Rome, as though weak health or philosophical
studies detained him at home.

57. When Seneca had fallen, it was easy to shake the position of Faenius
Rufus by making Agrippina’s friendship a charge against him. Tigellinus, who
was daily becoming more powerful and who thought that the wicked schemings which
alone gave him strength, would be better liked if he could secure the emperor’s
complicity in guilt, dived into Nero’s most secret apprehensions, and, as soon
as he had ascertained that Plautus and Sulla were the men he most dreaded, Plautus
having been lately sent away to Asia, Sulla to Gallia Narbonensis, he spoke
much of their noble rank and of their respective proximity to the armies of
the East and of Germany. “I have no eye,” he said, “like Burrus, to two conflicting
aims, but only to Nero’s safety, which is at least secured against treachery
in Rome by my presence. As for distant commotions, how can they be checked?
Gaul is roused at the name of the great dictator, and I distrust no less the
nations of Asia, because of the renown of such a grandfather as Drusus. Sulla
is poor, and hence comes his surpassing audacity; he shams apathy, while he
is seeking an opening for his reckless ambition. Plautus again, with his great
wealth, does not so much as affect a love of repose, but he flaunts before us
his imitations of the old Romans, and assumes the self-consciousness of the
Stoics along with a philosophy, which makes men restless, and eager for a busy
life.” There was not a moment’s delay. Sulla, six days afterwards, was murdered
by assassins brought over to Massilia, while he was reclining at the dinner-table,
before he feared or heard of his danger. The head was taken to Rome, and Nero
scoffed at its premature grey hairs as if they were a disfigurement.

58. It was less of a secret that there was a design to murder Plautus, as
his life was dear to many. The distance too by land and sea, and the interval
of time, had given rise to rumours, and the popular story was that he had tampered
with Corbulo, who was then at the head of great armies, and would be a special
mark for danger, if illustrious and innocent men were to be destroyed. Again
Asia, it was said, from its partiality for the young man, had taken up arms,
and the soldiers sent to do the crime, not being sufficient in number or decided
in purpose, and, finding themselves unable to execute their orders, had gone
over to the new cause. These absurdities, like all popular gossip, gathered
strength from the idle leisure of a credulous society. As it was, one of Plautus’s
freedmen, thanks to swift winds, arrived before the centurion and brought him
a message from his father-in-law, Lucius Antistius. “He was to avoid the obvious
refuge of a coward’s death, and in the pity felt for a noble name he would soon
find good men to help him, and daring spirits would rally round him. Meantime
no resource was to be rejected. If he did but repel sixty soldiers (this was
the number on the way), while tidings were being carried back to Nero, while
another force was on its march, many events would follow which would ripen into
war. Finally, by this plan he either secured safety, or he would suffer nothing
worse by daring than by cowardice.”

59. But all this had no effect on Plautus. Either he saw no resource before
him, an unarmed exile as he was, or he was weary of an uncertain hope, or was
swayed by his love of his wife and of his children, to whom he thought the emperor,
if harassed by no anxiety, would be more merciful. Some say that another message
came to him from his father-in-law, representing that no dreadful peril hung
over him, and that two teachers of philosophy, Coeranus from Greece and Musonius
from Etruria, advised him to await death with firmness rather than lead a precarious
and anxious life. At all events, he was surprised at midday, when stripped for
exercise. In that state the centurion slew him in the presence of Pelago, an
eunuch, whom Nero had set over the centurion and his company, like a despot’s
minister over his satellites. The head of the murdered man was brought to Rome.
At its sight the emperor exclaimed (I give his very words), “Why would you have
been a Nero?” Then casting off all fear he prepared to hurry on his marriage
with Poppaea, hitherto deferred because of such alarms as I have described,
and to divorce his wife Octavia, notwithstanding her virtuous life, because
her father’s name and the people’s affection for her made her an offence to
him. He wrote, however, a letter to the Senate, confessing nothing about the
murders of Sulla and Plautus, but merely hinting that both had a restless temper,
and that he gave the most anxious thought to the safety of the State. On this
pretext a thanksgiving was decreed, and also the expulsion from the Senate of
Sulla and Plautus, more grievous, however, as a farce than as an actual calamity.


Next: Book 14 [60]