51 In the meantime, while they were still hesitating, reluctant to abridge the period of hope and fear, a certain Epicharis, who had gained her information by means unknown — she had never previously shown interest in anything honourable — began to animate and upbraid the conspirators. Finally, wearied of their slowness and happening to be in Campania, she made an effort to undermine the loyalty of the fleet officers at Misenum and to implicate them in the plot. The beginning of the intrigue was this. In the squadron was a ship-captain, Volusius Proculus, one of Nero’s agents in the assassination of his mother, but not (he considered) promoted as the importance of the crime deserved. This person, as a former acquaintance of the woman (or possibly the friendship may have been of recent growth), disclosed what his services to Nero had been, and how thankless they had proved, then proceeded to complaints and to a declared intention of settling the account, should occasion offer. He thus gave hope that he might be influenced and win fresh adherents. The help of the fleet, it was reflected, was no slight matter; and opportunities must be plentiful, as Nero delighted in frequent excursions by sea in the neighbourhood of Puteoli and Misenum. Epicharis therefore went further, and entered upon a catalogue of the emperor’s crimes:—”Nothing was left either for the senate
[52] Coniuratis tamen metu proditionis permotis placitum maturare caedem apud Baias in villa Pisonis, cuius amoenitate captus Caesar crebro ventitabat balneasque et epulas inibat omissis excubiis et fortunae suae mole. sed abnuit Piso, invidiam praetendens, si sacra mensae diique hospitales caede qualiscumque principis cruentarentur: melius apud urbem in illa invisa et spoliis civium exstructa domo vel in publico patraturos quod pro re publica suscepissent. haec in commune, ceterum timore occulto, ne L. Silanus exilia nobilitate disciplinaque C. Cassii, apud quem educatus erat, ad omnem claritudinem sublatus imperium invaderet, prompte daturis, qui a coniuratione integri essent quique miserarentur Neronem tamquam per scelus interfectum. plerique Vestini quoque consulis acre ingenium vitavisse Pisonem crediderunt, ne ad libertatem oreretur, vel delecto imperatore alio sui muneris rem publicam faceret. etenim expers coniurationis erat, quamvis super eo crimine Nero vetus adversum insontem odium expleverit.
52 The plotters, however, moved by the fear of betrayal, decided to hasten on the murder at Baiae in a villa belonging to Piso — its charms had a fascination for the Caesar, who came frequently and indulged in the bath or the banquet, dispensing with his guards and the tedious magnificence of his rank. But Piso refused, his pretext being the odium which must be faced, “if they stained with the blood of an emperor, however contemptible, the sanctities of the guest-table and the gods of hospitality. Better in the capital, in that hated palace reared from the spoils of his countrymen, or under the public gaze, to do the deed they had undertaken for the public good.” This was for the general ear; actually he had an unconfessed misgiving that Lucius Silanus — who, thanks to his exalted lineage and to the training of Gaius Cassius, with whom he had been educated, stood high enough for any dignity — might grasp at the empire; which would be promptly offered to him by the persons who had held aloof from the plot or who pitied Nero as the victim of a murder. It was commonly believed that Piso had intended at the same time to evade the energy of the consul Vestinus, lest he should arise as the champion of liberty, or, by selecting another as emperor, convert the state into a gift of his own bestowing. For in the conspiracy he had no part, though conspiracy was the charge on which Nero satisfied his old hatred of an innocent man.
[53] Tandem statuere circensium ludorum die, qui Cereri celebratur, exsequi destinata, quia Caesar rarus egressu domoque aut hortis clausus ad ludicra circi ventitabat promptioresque aditus erant laetitia spectaculi. ordinem insidiis composuerant, ut Lateranus, quasi subsidium rei familiari oraret, deprecabundus et genibus principis accidens prosterneret incautum premeretque, animi validus et corpore ingens; tum iacentem et impeditum tribuni et centuriones et ceterorum ut quisque audentiae habuisset, adcurrerent, trucidarentque, primas sibi partes expostulante Scaevino, qui pugionem templo Salutis [in Etruria] sive, ut alii tradidere, Fortunae Ferentino in oppido detraxerat gestabatque velut magno operi sacrum. interim Piso apud aedem Cereris opperiretur, unde eum praefectus Faenius et ceteri accitum ferrent in castra, comitante Antonia, Claudii Caesaris filia, ad eliciendum vulgi favorem, quod Cl. Plinius memorat. nobis quoquo modo traditum non occultare in animo fuit, quamvis absurdum videretur aut inane[m] ad spem Antoniam nomen et periculum commodavisse, aut Pisonem notum amore uxoris alii matrimonio se obstrinxisse, nisi si cupido dominandi cunctis adfectibus flagrantior est.
53 At last they resolved to execute their purpose on the day of the Circensian Games when the celebration is in honour of Ceres; as the emperor who rarely left home and secluded himself in his palace or gardens, went regularly to the exhibitions in the Circus and could be approached with comparative ease owing to the gaiety of the spectacle. They had arranged a set programme for the plot. Lateranus, as though asking financial help, would fall in an attitude of entreaty at the emperor’s feet, overturn him while off his guard, and hold him down, being as he was a man of intrepid character and a giant physically. Then, as the victim lay prostrate and pinned, the tribunes, the centurions, and any of the rest who had daring enough, were to run up and do him to death; the part of protagonist being claimed by Scaevinus, who had taken down a dagger from the temple of Safety — of Fortune, according to other accounts — in the town of Ferentinum, and wore it regularly as the instrument sanctified to a great work. In the interval, Piso was to wait in the temple of Ceres; from which he would be summoned by the prefect Faenius and the others and carried to the camp: he would be accompanied by Claudius’ daughter Antonia, with a view to eliciting the approval of the crowd. This is the statement of Pliny. For my own part, whatever his assertion may be worth, I was not inclined to suppress it, absurd as it may seem that either Antonia should have staked her name and safety on an empty expectation, or Piso, notoriously devoted to his wife, should have pledged himself to another marriage — unless, indeed, the lust of power burns more fiercely than all emotions combined.
[54] Sed mirum quam inter diversi generis ordines, aetates sexus, dites pauperes taciturnitate omnia cohibita sint, donec proditio coepit e domo Scaevini. qui pridie insidiarum multo sermone cum Antonio Natale, dein regressus domum testamentum obsignavit, promptum vagina pugionem, de quo supra rettuli, vetustate obtusum increpans, asperari saxo et in mucronem ardescere iussit eamque curam liberto Milicho mandavit. simul adfluentius solito convivium initum, servorum carissimi libertate et alii pecunia donati; atque ipse maestus et magnae cogitationis manifestus erat, quamvis laetitiam vagis sermonibus simularet. postremo vulneribus ligamenta quibusque sistitur sanguis par[ar]i iubet [id]que eundem Milichum monet, sive gnarum coniurationis et illuc usque fidum, seu nescium et tunc primum arreptis suspicionibus, ut plerique tradidere. de consequentibus [consentitur]. nam cum secum servilis animus praemia perfidiae reptuavit simulque immensa pecunia et potentia obversabantur, cessit fas et salus patroni et acceptae libertatis memoria. etenim uxoris quoque consilium adsumpserat, muliebre ac deterius: quippe ultro metum intentabat, multosque astitisse libertos ac servos, qui eadem viderint: nihil profuturum unius silientium, at praemia penes unum fore, qui indicio praevenisset.
54 It is surprising, none the less, how in this mixture of ranks and classes, ages and sexes, rich and poor, the whole
affair was kept in secrecy, till the betrayal came from the house of Scaevinus. On the day before the attempt, he had a long conversation with Antonius Natalis, after which he returned home, sealed his will, and taking the dagger, mentioned above, from the sheath, complained that it was to be rubbed on a whetstone till the edge glittered: this task he entrusted to his freedman Milichus. At the same time, he began a more elaborate dinner than usual, and presented his favourite slaves with their liberty, or, in some cases, with money. He himself was moody, and obviously deep in thought, though he kept up a disconnected conversation which affected cheerfulness. At last, he gave the word that bandages for wounds and appliances for stopping haemorrhage were to be made ready. The instructions were again addressed to Milichus: possibly he was aware of the conspiracy, and had so far kept faith; possibly, as the general account goes, he knew nothing, and caught his first suspicions at that moment. About the sequel there is unanimity. For when his slavish brain considered the wages of treason, and unbounded wealth and power floated in the same instant before his eyes, conscience, the safety of his patron, the memory of the liberty he had received, withdrew into the background. For he had also taken his wife’s counsel. It was feminine and baser; for she held before him the further motive of fear, and pointed out that numbers of freedmen and slaves had been standing by, who had witnessed the same incidents as himself:—”One man’s silence would profit nothing; but one man would handle the rewards — he who won the race to give information.”
[55] Igitur coepta luce Milichus in hortos Servilianos pergit; et cum foribus arceretur, magna et atrocia adferre dictitans deductusque ab ianitoribus ad libertum Neronis Epaphroditum, mox ab eo ad Neronem, urgens periculum, graves coniuratos et cetera, quae audiverat coniectaverat, docet; telum quoque in necem eius paratum ostendit accirique reum iussit. is raptus per milites et defensionem orsus, ferrum, cuius argueretur, olim religione patria cultum et in cubiculo habitum ac fraude liberti subreptum respondit. tabulas testamenti saepius a se et incustodia dierum observatione signatas. pecunias et libertates servis et ante dono datas, sed ideo tunc largius, quia tenui iam re familiari et instantibus creditoribus testamento diffideret. enimvero liberales semper epulas struxisse, [dum ageret] vitam amoenam et duris iudicibus parum probatam. fomenta vulneribus nulla iussu suo, sed quia cetera palam vana obiecisset, adiungere crimen, [cu]ius se pariter indicem et testem faceret. adicit dictis constantiam; incusat ultro intestabilem et consceleratum, tanta vocis ac vultus securitate, ut labaret indicium, nisi Milichum uxor admonuisset Antonium Natalem multa cum Scaevino ac secreta collocutum et esse utrosque C. Pisonis intimos.
55 At the break of day, then, Milichus went straight to the Servilian Gardens. He was turned from the door; but, on insisting that he was the bearer of great and terrible news, was escorted by the porters to Nero’s freedman Epaphroditus, and by him in due course to Nero, whom he informed of the urgency of the danger, of the desperate character of the conspirators, and of all else that he had heard or conjectured. He also showed the weapon prepared for the assassination, and demanded that the accused should be summoned. Scaevinus was hurried to the spot by soldiers, and opened his defence by replying that “the weapon charged against him had long been regarded with veneration by his family, had been kept in his bedroom, and had been purloined by the knavery of his freedman. The tablets of his will he had quite often sealed, and without taking any particular notice of the days. He had previously made grants of money or freedom to his slaves; but this time more liberally, for the simple reason that his means were now slender, and, with his creditors pressing, he had misgivings about his will. As to his table, it had always been generously provided: his life had been on pleasant lines, and hardly to the taste of austere critics. There had been no bandages for wounds of his ordering, but the accuser — whose other allegations had been patently futile — was adding a charge in which he could play informer and witness alike.” He followed up his words with a display of spirit, and attacked the freedman as an unspeakable villain, with so much assurance of look and tone that the informer’s tale was on the point of collapse, had not his wife reminded Milichus that Antonius Navalis had had a long and secret interview with Scaevinus, and that both were on intimate terms with Gaius Piso.
[56] Ergo accitur Natalis, et diversi interrogantur, quisnam is sermo, qua de re fuisset. tum exorta suspicio, quia non congruentia responderant, inditaque vincla. et tormentorum adspectum ac minas non tulere: prior tamen Natalis, totius conspirationis magis gnarus, simul arguendi peritior, de Pisone primum fatetur, deinde adicit Annaeum Senecam, sive internuntius inter eum Pisonemque fuit, sive ut Neronis gratiam pararet, qui infensus Senecae omnes ad eum opprimendum artes conquirebat. tum cognito Natalis indicio Scaevinus quoque pari imbecillitate, an cuncta iam patefacta credens nec ullum silentii emolumentum, edidit ceteros. ex quibus Lucanus Quintianusque et Senecio diu abnuere: post promissa impunitate corrupti, quo tarditatem excusarent, Lucanus Aciliam matrem suam, Quintianus Glitium Gallum, Senecio Annium Pollionem, amicorum praecipuos, nominavere.
56 Natalis accordingly was summoned, and the two were separately questioned as to the nature and the subject of the conversation. Suspicion was now awakened, as their answers failed to tally, and they were thrown into irons. At the sight and threat of torture they broke down. Natalis, however, took the lead. Better acquainted with the conspiracy as a whole, and at the same time more adroit as an accuser, he first admitted the case against Piso, then went on to name Annaeus Seneca, perhaps because he had acted as intermediate between him and Piso, or perhaps to win the good graces of Nero; who, in his hatred of Seneca, grasped at all methods of suppressing him. Then, when Natalis’ disclosure became known, Scaevinus himself, with similar weakness, — or else in the belief that all had been told and there was no profit in silence, — divulged the rest of the confederates. Of these, Lucan, Quintianus, and Senecio, long denied the charge: at last, bribed by a promise of impunity, and by way of excuse for their slowness, they gave the names, Lucan of his mother Acilia; Quintianus and Senecio, of their principal friends — Glitius Gallus and Annius Pollio respectively.
[57] Atque interim Nero recordatus Volusii Proculi indico Epicharin attineri ratusque muliebre corpus impar dolori tormentis dilacerari iubet. at illam non verbera, non ignes, non ira eo acrius torquentium, ne a femina spernerentur, pervicere, quin obiecta denegaret. sic primus quaestionis dies contemptus. postero cum ad eosdem cruciatus retraheretur gestamine sellae (nam dissolutis membris insistere nequibat), vinclo fasciae, quam pectori detraxerat, in modum laquei ad arcum sellae restricto indidit cervicem et corporis pondere conisa tenuem iam spiritum expressit, clariore exemplo libertina mulier in tanta necessitate alienos ac prope ignotos protegendo, cum ingenui et viri et equites Romani senatoresque intacti tormentis carissima suorum quisque pignorum proderent.
57 In the meantime, Nero recollected that Epicharis was in custody on the information of Volusius Proculus; and, assuming that female flesh and blood must be unequal to the pain, he ordered her to be racked. But neither the lash nor fire, nor yet the anger of the torturers, who redoubled their efforts rather than be braved by a woman, broke down her denial of the allegations. Thus the first day of torment had been defied. On the next, as she was being dragged back in a chair to a repetition of the agony — her dislocated limbs were unable to support her — she fastened the breast-band (which she had stripped from her bosom) in a sort of noose to the canopy of the chair, thrust her neck into it, and, throwing the weight of her body into the effort, squeezed out such feeble breath as remained to her. An emancipated slave and a woman, by shielding, under this dire coercion, men unconnected with her and all but unknown, she had set an example which shone the brighter at a time when persons freeborn and male, Roman knights and senators, untouched by the torture, were betraying each his nearest and his dearest. For Lucan himself, and Senecio and Quintianus, did not omit to disclose their confederates wholesale; while Nero’s terror grew from more to more, though he had multiplied the strength of the guards
surrounding his person.
[58] Non enim omittebant Lucanus quoque et Senecio et Quintianus passim conscios edere, magis magisque pavido Nerone, quamquam multiplicatis excubiis semet saepsisset. quin et urbem per manipulos occupatis moenibus, insesso etiam mari et amne, velut in custodiam dedit. volitabantque per fora, per domos, rura quoque et proxima municipiorum pedites equitesque, permixti Germanis, quibus fidebat princeps quasi externis. continua hinc et vincta agmina trahi ac foribus hortorum adiacere. atque ubi dicendam ad causam introissent, [non stud]ia tantum erga coniuratos, sed fortuitus sermo et subiti occursus, si convivium, si spectaculum simul inissent, pro crimine accipi, cum super Neronis ac Tigellini saevas percunctationes Faenius quoque Rufus violenter urgueret, nondum ab indicibus nominatus et quo fidem inscitiae pararet, atrox adversus socios. idem Subrio Flavo adsistenti adnuentique, an inter ipsam cognitionem destringeret gladium caedemque patraret, renuit infregitque impetum iam manum ad capulum referentis.
58 He went further, and laid the very capital under a species of arrest: maniples held the walls; the sea and the river themselves were occupied. And through squares and houses, even through the country districts and nearest towns, flitted footmen and horsemen, interspersed with Germans, trusted by the emperor because they were foreign. Then followed continuous columns of manacled men, dragged and deposited at the garden doors. And when they entered to plead their cause, cheerfulness towards a plotter, a chance conversation, an unforeseen meeting, an appearance at a banquet or spectacle in his company, were taken as crimes; while, over and above the pitiless cross-questioning of Nero and Tigellinus, there were the truculent attacks of Faenius Rufus, not yet named by the informers, and struggling to demonstrate his ignorance by browbeating his allies. It was the same Rufus who, when Subrius Flavus at his side inquired by a motion if he should draw his sword and do the bloody deed during the actual inquiry, shook his head and checked the impulse which was already carrying his hand to his hilt.
Complete Works of Tacitus (Delphi Classics) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 24) Page 300