[13] Tot facinoribus foedum annum etiam dii tempestatibus et morbis insignivere. vastata Campania turbine ventorum, qui villas arbusta fruges passim disiecit pertulitque violentiam ad vicina urbi; in qua omne mortalium genus vis pestilentiae depopulabatur, nulla caeli intemperie quae occurreret oculis. sed domus corporibus exanimis, itinera funeribus complebantur; non sexus, non aetas periculo vacua; servitia perinde et ingenua plebes raptim extingui, inter coniugum et liberorum lamenta, qui dum adsident, dum deflent, saepe eodem rogo cremabantur. equitum senatorumque interitus quamvis promisci minus flebiles erant, tamquam communi mortalitate saevitiam principis praevenirent. Eodem anno dilectus per Galliam Narbonensem Africamque et Asiam habiti sunt supplendis Illyrici legionibus, ex quibus aetate aut valetudine fessi sacramento solvebantur. cladem Lugdunensem quadragies sestertio solatus est princeps, ut amissa urbi reponerent; quam pecuniam Lugdunenses ante obtulerant urbis casibus.
13 Upon this year, disgraced by so many deeds of shame, Heaven also set its mark by tempest and disease. Campania was wasted by a whirlwind, which far and wide wrecked the farms, the fruit trees, and the crops, and carried its fury to the neighbourhood of the capital, where all classes of men were being decimated by a deadly epidemic. No outward sign of a distempered air was visible. Yet the houses were filled with lifeless bodies, the streets with funerals. Neither sex nor age gave immunity from danger; slaves and the free-born populace alike were summarily cut down, amid the laments of their wives and children, who, themselves infected while tending or mourning the victims, were often burnt upon the same pyre. Knights and senators, though they perished on all hands, were less deplored — as if, by undergoing the common lot, they were cheating the ferocity of the emperor. In the same year, levies were held in Narbonese Gaul, Africa, and Asia, to recruit the legions of Illyricum, in which all men incapacitated by age or sickness were being discharged fromº the service. The emperor alleviated the disaster at Lugdunum by a grant of four million sesterces to repair the town’s losses: the same amount which Lugdunum had previously offered in aid of the misfortunes of the capital.
[14] C. Suetonio Luccio Telesino consulibus Antistius Sosianus, factitatis in Neronem carminibus probrosis exilio, ut dixi, multatus, postquam id honoris indicibus tamque promptum ad caedes principem accepit, inquies animo et occasionum haud segnis Pammenem, eiusdem loci exulem et Chaldaeorum arte famosum eoque multorum amicitiis innexum, similitudine fortunae sibi conciliat, ventitare ad eum nuntios et consultationes non frustra ratus; simul annuam pecuniam a P. Anteio ministrari cognoscit. neque nescium habebat Anteium caritate Agrippinae invisum Neroni opesque eius praecipuas ad eliciendam cupidinem eamque causam multis exitio esse. igitur interceptis Antei litteris, furatus etiam libellos, quibus dies genitalis eius et eventura secretis Pammenis occultabantur, simul repertis quae de ortu vitaque Ostorii Scapulae composita erant, scribit ad principem magna se et quae incolumitati eius conducerent adlaturum, si brevem exilii veniam impetravisset: quippe Anteium et Ostorium imminere rebus et sua Caesarisque fata scrutari. exim missae liburnicae advehiturque propere Sosianus. ac vulgato eius indicio inter damnatos magis quam inter reos Anteius Ostoriusque habebantur, adeo ut testamentum Antei nemo obsignaret, nisi Tigellinus auctor extitisset monito prius Anteio ne supremas tabulas moraretur. atque ille hausto veneno, tarditatem eius perosus intercisis venis mortem adproperavit.
14 In the consulate of Gaius Suetonius and Luccius Telesinus, Antistius Sosianus, who had, as I have said, been sentenced to exile for composing scurrilous verses upon Nero, heard of the honour paid to informers and of the emperor’s alacrity for bloodshed. Reckless by temperament, with a quick eye for opportunities, he used the similarity of their fortunes in order to ingratiate himself with Pammenes, who was an exile in the same place and, as a noted astrologer, had wide connections of friendship. He believed it was not for nothing that messengers were for ever coming to consult Pammenes, to whom, as he discovered at the same time, a yearly pension was allowed by Publius Anteius. He was further aware that Pammenes’ affection for Agrippina had earned him the hatred of Nero; that his riches were admirably calculated to excite cupidity; and that this was a circumstance which proved fatal to many. He therefore intercepted a letter from Anteius, stole in addition the papers, concealed in Pammenes’ archives, which contained his horoscope and career, and, lighting at the same time on the astrologer’s calculations with regard to the birth and life of Ostorius Scapula, wrote to the emperor that, could he be granted a short respite from his banishment, he would bring him grave news conducive to his safety; for Anteius and Ostorius had designs upon the empire, and were peering into their destinies and that of the prince. Fast galleys were at once sent out, and Sosianus arrived in haste. The moment his information was divulged, Anteius and Ostorius were regarded, not as incriminated, but as condemned: so much so, that not a man would become signatory to the will of Anteius until Tigellinus came forward with his sanction, first warning the testator not to defer his final dispositions. Anteius swallowed poison; but, disgusted by its slowness, found a speedier death by cutting his arteries.
[15] Ostorius longinquis in agris apud finem Ligurum id temporis erat: eo missus centurio qui caedem eius maturaret. causa festinandi ex eo oriebatur quod Ostorius multa militari fama et civicam coronam apud Britanniam meritus, ingenti corpore armorumque scientia metum Neroni fecerat ne invaderet pavidum semper et reperta nuper coniuratione magis exterritum. igitur centurio, ubi effugia villae clausit, iussa imperatoris Ostorio aperit. is fortitudinem saepe adversum hostis spectatam in se vertit; et quia venae quamquam interruptae parum sanguinis effundebant, hactenus manu servi usus ut immotum pugionem extolleret, adpressit dextram eius iuguloque occurrit.
15 Ostorius, at the moment, was on a remote estate on the Ligurian frontier; and thither a centurion was despatched to do the murder quickly. A motive for speed was given by the fact that Ostorius, the owner of a considerable military reputation and a civic crown earned in Britain, had, by his great bodily powers and skill in arms, inspired Nero with a fear that he might possibly attack his sovereign, always cowardly and more than ever terrified by the lately discovered plot. The centurion, then, after guarding the exits from the villa, disclosed the imperial orders to Ostorius. The victim turned against himself the courage which he had often evinced in face of the enemy. Finding that, although he had opened his veins, the blood ran slowly, he had recourse to a slave for one service alone, to hold up a dagger steadily; then he drew his hand nearer, and met the steel with his throat.
[16] Etiam si bella externa et obitas pro re publica mortis tanta casuum similitudine memorarem, meque ipsum satias cepisset aliorumque taedium expectarem, quamvis honestos civium exitus, tristis tamen et continuos aspernantium: at nunc patientia servilis tantumque sanguinis domi perditum fatigant animum et maestitia restringunt. neque aliam defensionem ab iis quibus ista noscentur exegerim, quam ne oderim tam segniter pereuntis. ira illa numinum in res Romanas fuit, quam non, ut in cladibus exercituum aut captivitate urbium, semel edito transire licet. detur hoc inlustrium virorum posteritati , ut quo modo exequiis a promisca sepultura separantur, ita in traditione supremorum accipiant habeantque propriam memoriam.
16 Even had I been narrating campaigns abroad and lives laid down for the commonwealth, and narrating them with the same uniformity of incident, I should myself have lost appetite for the task, and I should expect the tedium of others, repelled by the tale of Roman deaths, honourable perhaps, but tragic and continuous. As it is, this slave-like patience and the profusion of blood wasted at home weary the mind and oppress it with melancholy. The one concession I would ask from those who shall study these records is that they would permit me not to hate the men who died with so little spirit! It was the anger of Heaven against the Roman realm — an anger which you cannot, as in the case of beaten armies or captured towns, mention once and for all and proceed upon your way. Let us make this concession to the memory of the nobly born: that, as in the last rites they are distinguished from the vulgar dead, so, when history reco
rds their end, each shall receive and keep his special mention.
[17] Paucos quippe intra dies eodem agmine Annaeus Mela, Cerialis Anicius, Rufrius Crispinus, C. Petronius cecidere, Mela etCrispinus equites Romani dignitate senatoria. nam hic quondam praefectus praetorii et consularibus insignibus donatus ac nuper crimine coniurationis in Sardiniam exactus accepto iussae mortis nuntio semet interfecit. Mela, quibus Gallio et Seneca parentibus natus, petitione honorum abstinuerat per ambitionem praeposteram ut eques Romanus consularibus potentia aequaretur; simul adquirendae pecuniae brevius iter credebat per procurationes administrandis principis negotiis. idem Annaeum Lucanum genuerat, grande adiumentum claritudinis. quo interfecto dum rem familiarem eius acriter requirit, accusatorem concivit Fabium Romanum, ex intimis Lucani amicis. mixta inter patrem filiumque coniurationis scientia fingitur, adsimilatis Lucani litteris: quas inspectas Nero ferri adeum iussit, opibus eius inhians. at Mela, quae tum promptissima mortis via, exolvit venas, scriptis codicillis quibus grandem pecuniam in Tigellinum generumque eius Cossutianum Capitonem erogabat quo cetera manerent. additur codicillis, tamquam de iniquitate exitii querens ita scripsisset, se quidem mori nullis supplicii causis, Rufrium autem Crispinum et Anicium Cerialem vita frui infensos principi. quae composita credebantur de Crispino, quia interfectus erat, de Ceriale, ut interficeretur. neque enim multo post vim sibi attulit, minore quam ceteri miseratione, quia proditam G. Caesari coniurationem ab eo meminerant.
17 For, in the course of a few days, there fell, in a single band, Annaeus Mela, Anicius Cerialis, Rufrius Crispinus, and Titus Petronius. Mela and Crispinus were Roman knights of senatorial rank. The latter, once commander of the praetorian guards and decorated with the consular insignia, but latterly banished to Sardinia on a charge of conspiracy, committed suicide on reception of the news that his death had been ordered. Mela, son of the same parents as Gallio and Seneca, had refrained from seeking office, as he nursed the paradoxical ambition of equalling the influence of a consular while remaining a simple knight: at the same time, he held that the shorter road to the acquiry of wealth lay in the pro-curatorships handling private business of the sovereign. He was also the father of Lucan — a considerable enhancement of his fame. After his son’s death, he called in the debts owing to the estate with a vigour which raised up an accuser in Fabius Romanus, one of Lucan’s intimate friends. A fictitious charge, that knowledge of the plot had been shared between father and son, was backed by a forged letter from Lucan. Nero, after inspecting it, gave orders that it was to be carried to Mela. Mela took what was then the favoured way of death, and opened an artery, first penning a codicil by which he bequeathed a large sum to Tigellinus and his son-in-law Cossutianus Capito, in hopes of saving the rest of the will. A postscript to the codicil, written in appearance as a protest against the iniquity of his doom, stated that, while he himself was dying without a cause for his execution, Rufrius Crispinus and Anicius Cerialis remained in the enjoyment of life, though bitterly hostile to the emperor. The statement was considered to be a fiction, invented in the case of Crispinus, because death had been inflicted; in that of Cerialis, to make certain its infliction. For not long afterwards he took his own life, exciting less pity than the others, as memories remained of his betrayal of the conspiracy to Gaius Caesar.
[18] De C. Petronio pauca supra repetenda sunt. nam illi dies per somnum, nox officiis et oblectamentis vitae transigebatur; utque alios industria, ita hunc ignavia ad famam protulerat, habebaturque non ganeo et profligator, ut plerique sua haurientium, sed erudito luxu. ac dicta factaque eius quanto solutiora et quandam sui neglegentiam praeferentia, tanto gratius in speciem simplicitatis accipiebantur. proconsul tamen Bithyniae et mox consul vigentem se ac parem negotiis ostendit. dein revolutus ad vitia seu vitiorum imitatione inter paucos familiarium Neroni adsumptus est, elegantiae arbiter, dum nihil amoenum et molle adfluentia putat, nisi quod ei Petronius adprobavisset. unde invidia Tigellini quasi adversus aemulum et scientia voluptatum potiorem. ergo crudelitatem principis, cui ceterae libidines cedebant, adgreditur, amicitiam Scaevini Petronio obiectans, corrupto ad indicium servo ademptaque defensione et maiore parte familiae in vincla rapta.
18 Petronius calls for a brief retrospect. He was a man whose day was passed in sleep, his nights in the social duties and amenities of life: others industry may raise to greatness — Petronius had idled into fame. Nor was he regarded, like the common crowd of spendthrifts, as a debauchee and wastrel, but as the finished artist of extravagance. His words and actions had a freedom and a stamp of self-abandonment which rendered them doubly acceptable by an air of native simplicity. Yet as proconsul of Bithynia, and later as consul, he showed himself a man of energy and competent to affairs. Then, lapsing into the habit, or copying the features, of vice, he was adopted into the narrow circle of Nero’s intimates as his Arbiter of Elegance; the jaded emperor finding charm and delicacy in nothing save what Petronius had commended. His success awoke the jealousy of Tigellinus against an apparent rival, more expert in the science of pleasure than himself. He addressed himself, therefore, to the sovereign’s cruelty, to which all other passions gave pride of place; arraigning Petronius for friendship with Scaevinus, while suborning one of his slaves to turn informer, withholding all opportunity of defence, and placing the greater part of his household under arrest.
[19] Forte illis diebus Campaniam petiverat Caesar, et Cumas usque progressus Petronius illic attinebatur; nec tulit ultra timoris aut spei moras. neque tamen praeceps vitam expulit, sed incisas venas, ut libitum, obligatas aperire rursum et adloqui amicos, non per seria aut quibus gloriam constantiae peteret. audiebatque referentis nihil de immortalitate animae et sapientium placitis, sed levia carmina et facilis versus. servorum alios largitione, quosdam verberibus adfecit. iniit epulas, somno indulsit, ut quamquam coacta mors fortuitae similis esset. ne codicillis quidem, quod plerique pereuntium, Neronem aut Tigellinum aut quem alium potentium adulatus est, sed flagitia principis sub nominibus exoletorum feminarumque et novitatem cuiusque stupri perscripsit atque obsignata misit Neroni. fregitque anulum ne mox usui esset ad facienda pericula.
19 In those days, as it chanced, the Caesar had migrated to Campania; and Petronius, after proceeding as far as Cumae, was being there detained in custody. He declined to tolerate further the delays of fear or hope; yet still did not hurry to take his life, but caused his already severed arteries to be bound up to meet his whim, then opened them once more, and began to converse with his friends, in no grave strain and with no view to the fame of a stout-hearted ending. He listened to them as they rehearsed, not discourses upon the immortality of the soul or the doctrines of philosophy, but light songs and frivolous verses. Some of his slaves tasted of his bounty, a few of the lash. He took his place at dinner, and drowsed a little, so that death, if compulsory, should at least resemble nature. Not even in his will did he follow the routine of suicide by flattering Nero or Tigellinus or another of the mighty, but — prefixing the names of the various catamites and women — detailed the imperial debauches and the novel features of each act of lust, and sent the document under seal to Nero. His signet-ring he broke, lest it should render dangerous service later.
[20] Ambigenti Neroni quonam modo noctium suarum ingenia notescerent, offertur Silia, matrimonio senatoris haud ignota et ipsi ad omnem libidinem adscita ac Petronio perquam familiaris. agitur in exilium tamquam non siluisset quae viderat pertuleratque, proprio odio. at Minucium Thermum praetura functum Tigellini simultatibus dedit, quia libertus Thermi quaedam de Tigellino criminose detulerat, quae cruciatibus tormentorum ipse, patronus eius nece immerita luere.
20 While Nero doubted how the character of his nights was gaining publicity, there suggested itself the name of Silia — the wife of a senator, and therefore a woman of some note, requisitioned by himself for every form of lubricity, and on terms of the closest intimacy with Petronius. She was now driven into exile for failing to observe silence upon what she had seen and undergone. Here the motive was a hatred of his own. But Minucius Thermus,
an ex-praetor, he sacrificed to the animosities of Tigellinus. For a freedman of Thermus had brought certain damaging charges against the favourite, which he himself expiated by the pains of torture, his patron by an unmerited death.
[21] Trucidatis tot insignibus viris ad postremum Nero virtutem ipsam excindere concupivit interfecto Thrasea Barea Sorano, olim utrisque infensus et accedentibus causis in Thraseam, quod senatu egressus est cum de Agrippina referretur, ut memoravi, quodque Iuvenalium ludicro parum spectabilem operam praebuerat; eaque offensio altius penetrabat, quia idem Thrasea Patavi, unde ortus erat, ludis +cetastis+ a Troiano Antenore institutis habitu tragico cecinerat. die quoque quo praetor Antistius ob probra in Neronem composita ad mortem damnabatur, mitiora censuit obtinuitque; et cum deum honores Poppaeae decernuntur sponte absens, funeri non interfuerat. quae oblitterari non sinebat Capito Cossutianus, praeter animum ad flagitia praecipitem iniquus Thraseae quod auctoritate eius concidisset, iuvantis Cilicum legatos dum Capitonem repetundarum interrogant.
21 After the slaughter of so many of the noble, Nero in the end conceived the ambition to extirpate virtue herself by killing Thrasea Paetus and Barea Soranus. To both he was hostile from of old, and against Thrasea there were additional motives; for he had walked out of the senate, as I have mentioned, during the discussion on Agrippina, and at the festival of the Juvenalia his services had not been conspicuous — a grievance which went the deeper that in Patavium, his native place, the same Thrasea had sung in tragic costume at the . . . Games instituted by the Trojan Antenor. Again, on the day when sentence of death was all but passed on the praetor Antistius for his lampoons on Nero, he proposed, and carried, a milder penalty; and, after deliberately absenting himself from the vote of divine honours to Poppaea, he had not assisted at her funeral. These memories were kept from fading by Cossutianus Capito. For, apart from his character with its sharp trend to crime, he was embittered against Thrasea, whose influence, exerted in support of the Cilician envoys prosecuting Capito for extortion, had cost him the verdict.
Complete Works of Tacitus (Delphi Classics) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 24) Page 304