Tacitus: Annals: Book 15 [40]

The Works of Tacitus

tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb

[1864-1877]

Tacitus: Annals Book 15 [40]

40. At last, after five days, an end was put to the conflagration at the foot
of the Esquiline hill, by the destruction of all buildings on a vast space,
so that the violence of the fire was met by clear ground and an open sky. But
before people had laid aside their fears, the flames returned, with no less
fury this second time, and especially in the spacious districts of the city.
Consequently, though there was less loss of life, the temples of the gods, and
the porticoes which were devoted to enjoyment, fell in a yet more widespread
ruin. And to this conflagration there attached the greater infamy because it
broke out on the Aemilian property of Tigellinus, and it seemed that Nero was
aiming at the glory of founding a new city and calling it by his name. Rome,
indeed, is divided into fourteen districts, four of which remained uninjured,
three were levelled to the ground, while in the other seven were left only a
few shattered, half-burnt relics of houses.

41. It would not be easy to enter into a computation of the private mansions,
the blocks of tenements, and of the temples, which were lost. Those with the
oldest ceremonial, as that dedicated by Servius Tullius to Luna, the great altar
and shrine raised by the Arcadian Evander to the visibly appearing Hercules,
the temple of Jupiter the Stayer, which was vowed by Romulus, Numa’s royal palace,
and the sanctuary of Vesta, with the tutelary deities of the Roman people, were
burnt. So too were the riches acquired by our many victories, various beauties
of Greek art, then again the ancient and genuine historical monuments of men
of genius, and, notwithstanding the striking splendour of the restored city,
old men will remember many things which could not be replaced. Some persons
observed that the beginning of this conflagration was on the 19th of July, the
day on which the Senones captured and fired Rome. Others have pushed a curious
inquiry so far as to reduce the interval between these two conflagrations into
equal numbers of years, months, and days.

42. Nero meanwhile availed himself of his country’s desolation, and erected
a mansion in which the jewels and gold, long familiar objects, quite vulgarised
by our extravagance, were not so marvellous as the fields and lakes, with woods
on one side to resemble a wilderness, and, on the other, open spaces and extensive
views. The directors and contrivers of the work were Severus and Celer, who
had the genius and the audacity to attempt by art even what nature had refused,
and to fool away an emperor’s resources. They had actually undertaken to sink
a navigable canal from the lake Avernus to the mouths of the Tiber along a barren
shore or through the face of hills, where one meets with no moisture which could
supply water, except the Pomptine marshes. The rest of the country is broken
rock and perfectly dry. Even if it could be cut through, the labour would be
intolerable, and there would be no adequate result. Nero, however, with his
love of the impossible, endeavoured to dig through the nearest hills to Avernus,
and there still remain the traces of his disappointed hope.

43. Of Rome meanwhile, so much as was left unoccupied by his mansion, was
not built up, as it had been after its burning by the Gauls, without any regularity
or in any fashion, but with rows of streets according to measurement, with broad
thoroughfares, with a restriction on the height of houses, with open spaces,
and the further addition of colonnades, as a protection to the frontage of the
blocks of tenements. These colonnades Nero promised to erect at his own expense,
and to hand over the open spaces, when cleared of the debris, to the ground
landlords. He also offered rewards proportioned to each person’s position and
property, and prescribed a period within which they were to obtain them on the
completion of so many houses or blocks of building. He fixed on the marshes
of Ostia for the reception of the rubbish, and arranged that the ships which
had brought up corn by the Tiber, should sail down the river with cargoes of
this rubbish. The buildings themselves, to a certain height, were to be solidly
constructed, without wooden beams, of stone from Gabii or Alba, that material
being impervious to fire. And to provide that the water which individual license
had illegally appropriated, might flow in greater abundance in several places
for the public use, officers were appointed, and everyone was to have in the
open court the means of stopping a fire. Every building, too, was to be enclosed
by its own proper wall, not by one common to others. These changes which were
liked for their utility, also added beauty to the new city. Some, however, thought
that its old arrangement had been more conducive to health, inasmuch as the
narrow streets with the elevation of the roofs were not equally penetrated by
the sun’s heat, while now the open space, unsheltered by any shade, was scorched
by a fiercer glow.

44. Such indeed were the precautions of human wisdom. The next thing was
to seek means of propitiating the gods, and recourse was had to the Sibylline
books, by the direction of which prayers were offered to Vulcanus, Ceres, and
Proserpina. Juno, too, was entreated by the matrons, first, in the Capitol,
then on the nearest part of the coast, whence water was procured to sprinkle
the fane and image of the goddess. And there were sacred banquets and nightly
vigils celebrated by married women. But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts
of the emperor, and the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister
belief that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently, to get
rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite
tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace.
Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during
the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus,
and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke
out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where
all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre
and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded
guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not
so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery
of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they
were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to
the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had
expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show
in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer
or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and
exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as
it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man’s cruelty, that they were
being destroyed.

45. Meanwhile Italy was thoroughly exhausted by contributions of money, the
provinces were ruined, as also the allied nations and the free states, as they
were called. Even the gods fell victims to the plunder; for the temples in Rome
were despoiled and the gold carried off, which, for a triumph or a vow, the
Roman people in every age had consecrated in their prosperity or their alarm.
Throughout Asia and Achaia not only votive gifts, but the images of deities
were seized, Acratus and Secundus Carinas having been sent into those provinces.
The first was a freedman ready for any wickedness; the latter, as far as speech
went, was thoroughly trained in Greek learning, but he had not imbued his heart
with sound principles. Seneca, it was said, to avert from himself the obloquy
of sacrilege, begged for the seclusion of a remote rural retreat, and, when
it was refused, feigning ill health, as though he had a nervous ailment, would
not quit his chamber. According to some writers, poison was prepared for him
at Nero’s command by his own freedman, whose name was Cleonicus. This Seneca
avoided through the freedman’s disclosure, or his own apprehension, while he
used to support life on the very simple diet of wild fruits, with water from
a running stream when thirst prompted.

46. During the same time some gladiators in the town of Praeneste, who attempted
to break loose, were put down by a military guard stationed on the spot to watch
them, and the people, ever desirous and yet fearful of change, began at once
to talk of Spartacus, and of bygone calamities. Soon afterwards, tidings of
a naval disaster was received, but not from war, for never had there been so
profound a peace. Nero, however, had ordered the fleet to return to Campania
on a fixed day, without making any allowance for the dangers of the sea. Consequently
the pilots, in spite of the fury of the waves, started from Formiae, and while
they were struggling to double the promontory of Misenum, they were dashed by
a violent south-west wind on the shores of Cumae, and lost, in all directions,
a number of their triremes with some smaller vessels.

47. At the close of the year people talked much about prodigies, presaging
impending evils. Never were lightning flashes more frequent, and a comet too
appeared, for which Nero always made propitiation with noble blood. Human and
other births with two heads were exposed to public view, or were discovered
in those sacrifices in which it is usual to immolate victims in a pregnant condition.
And in the district of Placentia, close to the road, a calf was born with its
head attached to its leg. Then followed an explanation of the diviners, that
another head was preparing for the world, which however would be neither mighty
nor hidden, as its growth had been checked in the womb, and it had been born
by the wayside.

48. Silius Nerva and Atticus Vestinus then entered on the consulship, and
now a conspiracy was planned, and at once became formidable, for which senators,
knights, soldiers, even women, had given their names with eager rivalry, out
of hatred of Nero as well as a liking for Caius Piso. A descendant of the Calpurnian
house, and embracing in his connections through his father’s noble rank many
illustrious families, Piso had a splendid reputation with the people from his
virtue or semblance of virtue. His eloquence he exercised in the defence of
fellow-citizens, his generosity towards friends, while even for strangers he
had a courteous address and demeanour. He had, too, the fortuitous advantages
of tall stature and a handsome face. But solidity of character and moderation
in pleasure were wholly alien to him. He indulged in laxity, in display, and
occasionally in excess. This suited the taste of that numerous class who, when
the attractions of vice are so powerful, do not wish for strictness or special
severity on the throne.

49. The origin of the conspiracy was not in Piso’s personal ambition. But
I could not easily narrate who first planned it, or whose prompting inspired
a scheme into which so many entered. That the leading spirits were Subrius Flavus,
tribune of a praetorian cohort, and Sulpicius Asper, a centurion, was proved
by the fearlessness of their death. Lucanus Annaeus, too, and Plautius Lateranus,
imported into it an intensely keen resentment. Lucanus had the stimulus of personal
motives, for Nero tried to disparage the fame of his poems and, with the foolish
vanity of a rival, had forbidden him to publish them. As for Lateranus, a consul-elect,
it was no wrong, but love of the State which linked him with the others. Flavius
Scaevinus and Afranius Quintianus, on the other hand, both of senatorian rank,
contrary to what was expected of them, undertook the beginning of this daring
crime. Scaevinus, indeed, had enfeebled his mind by excess, and his life, accordingly,
was one of sleepy languor. Quintianus, infamous for his effeminate vice, had
been satirised by Nero in a lampoon, and was bent on avenging the insult.

Next: Book 15 [50]