XXXI.
Nerone iterum L. Pisone consulibus pauca memoria digna evenere, nisi cui libeat laudandis fundamentis et trabibus, quis molem amphitheatri apud campum Martis Caesar exstruxerat, volumina implere, cum ex dignitate populi Romani repertum sit res inlustres annalibus, talia diurnis urbis actis mandare. ceterum coloniae Capua atque Nuceria additis veteranis firmatae sunt, plebeique congiarium quadringeni nummi viritim dati, et sestertium quadringenties aerario inlatum est ad retinendam populi fidem. vectigal quoque quintae et vicesimae venalium mancipiorum remissum, specie magis quam vi, quia, cum venditor pendere iuberetur, in partem pretii emptoribus adcrescebat. et [e]dixit Caesar, ne quis magistratus aut procurator in provincia, [quam] obtineret, spectaculum gladiatorum aut ferarum aut quod aliud ludicrum ederet. nam ante non minus tali largitione quam corripiendis pecuniis subiectos adfligebant, dum, quae libidine deliquerant, ambitu propugnant.
31.
The second consulate of Nero, with Lucius Piso as partner, was not distinguished by any memorable event, except in the eyes of anyone who takes pleasure in filling volumes with his raptures about the foundation and the lumber with which Nero had erected the massive amphitheater in the Campus Martius. In keeping with the dignity of the Roman people, however, it has always been accepted that matters of importance were to be entrusted to the annals and mundane everyday occurrences to the official public journal. Be that as it may, the colonies of Capua and Nuceria were reinforced by a new detachment of veterans and the populace receives a bonus of four hundred sesterces a head. Forty million sesterces were added to the public treasury to ensure public credit. The tax of four percent on the purchase of slaves was abolished, or so it seemed in appearance; in actual fact, since the foreign vendors were required to pay the tax, they raised their prices and therefore the buyers ended up being no better off than before. An edict of Nero prohibited magistrates and procurators in the provinces from holding gladiatorial or wild beasts shows, and even all other kinds of public amusements. The reason for this was that up to that time such liberality was no less oppressive than the predatory practices of these administrators, who sought to disguise under the veil of popularity the abuses perpetrated to satisfy their avarice.
XXXII.
Factum et senatus consultum ultioni iuxta et securitati, ut si quis a suis servis interfectus esset, ii quoque, qui testamento manu missi sub eodem tecto mansissent, inter servos supplicia penderent. redditur ordini Lurius Varus consularis, avaritiae criminibus olim perculsus. et Pomponia Graecina insignis femina, [A.] Plautio, quem ovasse de Britannis rettuli, nupta ac superstitionis externae rea, mariti iudicio permissa. isque prisco instituto propinquis coram de capite famaque coniugis cognovit et insontem nuntiavit. longa huic Pomponiae aetas et continua tristitia fuit. nam post Iuliam Drusi filiam dolo Messalinae interfectam per quadraginta annos non cultu nisi lugubri, non animo nisi maesto egit; idque illi imperitante Claudio impune, mox ad gloriam vertit.
32.
A senate decree was approved, both correctional and preventative alike, prescribing, in case a man was murdered by his slaves, that those freed in the owner’s testament – if living in the same house – were to be executed with the rest. The consul Lurius Varus, formerly found guilty of extorsion, was accepted back in the senate. Pomponia Graecina, a woman of noble birth and wife to Aulus Plautius, who had received an ovation for his successes in Britain, as I have reported earlier, was charged with practising some kind of foreign religion and the judgement was left to her husband. Following ancient usage, Plautius held a trial that would yield a verdict on her fate and reputation before the members of her family, at the end of which he informed the senate of her innocence. This woman was destined to live a long life of unceasing grief. In fact, after the death of Drusus’ daughter Julia, a victim of Messalina’s intrigues, for forty years her dress was never other than one of mourning, her heart knew nothing other than sadness. Under Claudius her behavior escaped prosecution; in the aftertime, it became her glory.
XXXIII.
Idem annus plures reos habuit. quorum P. Celerem accusante Asia, quia absolvere nequibat Caesar, traxit, senecta donec mortem obiret; nam Celer interfecto, ut memoravi, Silano pro consule magnitudine sceleris cetera flagitia obtegebat. Cossutianum Capitonem Cilices detulerant, maculosum foedumque et idem ius audaciae in provincia ratum, quod in urbe exercuerat; sed pervicaci accusatione conflictatus postremo defensionem omisit ac lege repetundarum damnatus est. pro Eprio Marcello, a quo Lyci[i] res repetebant, eo usque ambitus praevaluit, ut quidam accusatorum eius exilio multarentur, tamquam insonti periculum fecissent.
33.
In this year many faced action prejudicial to them, among whom was Publius Celer, accused by the people of Asia. As I have previously mentioned, Celer had murdered the proconsul of Asia Marcus Junius Silanus and by the enormity of the crime he distracted public attention from all his other villainies. Since it was not possible to acquit him, Nero dragged out the sentencing until Celer died of old age. The Cilicians brought charges against Cossutianus Capito, a man tainted by dreadful faults, a foul man, who thought he had the same right of committing abuses in the province he had arrogated to himself in the capital. Beleaguered by a determined prosecution, however, he at last gave up his defense and was condemned under the law of extorsion. Protection from above was so powerful in favor of Titus Eprius Marcellus, from whom the Lycians demanded restitution of their stolen property, that some of the accusers were even punished with exile, as if they had done harm to an innocent man.
XXXIV.
Nerone tertium consule simul ini[i]t consulatum Valerius Messala, cuius proavum, oratorem Corvinum, divo Augusto, abavo Neronis, collegam in eo[dem] magistratu fuisse pauci iam senum meminerant. sed nobili familiae honor auctus est oblatis in singulos annos quingenis sestertiis, quibus Messala paupertatem innoxiam sustentaret. Aurelio quoque Cottae et Haterio Antonino annuam pecuniam statuit princeps, quamvis per luxum avitas opes dissipassent. Eius anni principio mollibus adhuc initiis prolatatum inter Parthos Romanosque de obtinenda Armenia bellum acriter sumitur, quia nec Vologaeses sinebat fratrem Tiridaten dati a se regni expertem esse aut alienae id potentiae donum habere, et Corbulo dignum magnitudine populi Romani rebatur parta olim a Lucullo Pompeioque recipere. ad hoc Armenii ambigua fide utraque arma invitabant, situ terrarum, similitudine morum Parthis propiores conubiisque permixti ac libertate ignota illuc magis [ad servitium] inclinantes.
34.
Valerius Messala, whose great-grandfather was the famous orator Corvinus, entered the new consulate as the colleague of Nero, consul for the third time. By then, only a few of the old people still remembered having seen Corvinus, who many years earlier had been the partner in the consulship of the divine Augustus himself, the great-great-grandfather of Nero. The renown of Messala’s illustrious family was enhanced by an annual endowment of five hundred thousand sesterces, on which he might live in dignified poverty. The emperor also assigned financial assistance to Aurelius Cotta and to Haterius Antoninus, even if both had wasted away the fortunes accumulated by their forefathers. At the outset of the year, the war between Parthia and Rome, half-heartedly begun and conducted, suddenly heated up. Vologeses would neither tolerate that his brother Tiridates be deprived of Armenia, which he himself had given him, nor accept it as a gift from a foreign power. Corbulo, on the other hand, felt that the greatness of the Roman people demanded that the conquests of Lucullus and Pompey must be recovered. Furthermore, the Armenians, undecided in their preferences, were inviting in turn the arms of either empire, although they were more inclined to accept the dominion of Parthia, given the position of the country, the similarity of customs, the frequent intermarriages, and, last but not least, their unfamiliarity with liberty.
XXXV.
Sed Corbuloni plus molis adversus ignaviam militum quam contra perfidiam hostium erat: quippe Syria transmotae legiones, pace longa segnes, munia castrorum aegerrime tolerabant. satis constitit fuisse in eo exercitu veteranos, qui non stationem, non vigilias inissent, vallum fossamque quasi nova et mira viserent, sine galeis, sine loricis, nitidi et quaestuosi, militia per oppida expleta. igitur dimissis, quibus senectus aut valdetudo adversa erat, supplementum petivit. et habiti per Galatiam Cappadociamque dilectus, adiectaque ex Germania legio cum equitibus alariis et peditatu cohortium. retentusque omnis exercitus sub pellibus, quamvis hieme saeva adeo, ut obducta glacie nisi effossa humus tentoriis locum non praeberet. ambusti multorum artus vi frigoris, et quidam inter excubias exanimati sunt. adnotatusque miles, qui fascem lignorum gestabat, ita praeriguisse manus, ut oneri adhaerentes truncis brachiis deciderent. ipse cultu [l]evi, capite intecto, in agmine, in laboribus frequens adesse, laudem strenuis, solacium invalidis, exemplum omnibus ostendere. dehinc, quia duritia caeli militiaeque multi abnuebant deserebantque, remedium severitate quaesitum est. nec enim, ut in aliis exercitibus, primum alterumque delictum venia prosequebatur, sed qui signa reliquerat, statim capite poenas luebat. idque usu salubre et misericordia melius apparuit: quippe pauciores illa castra deseruere quam ea, in quibus ignoscebatur.
35.
Yet Corbulo’s major struggle was not so much with the unreliability of the Armenians as with the indolence of his troops. Indeed, the legions he had moved out of Syria, softened by years of peace, did not take willingly to the labors of the camp. It became sufficiently clear that the army contained veterans who had never done garrison duty or kept watch, who viewed ramparts and ditches as strange things new to them, who wore no helmets or breastplate, stylish men intent only on filling their pockets, whose service years were spent in towns. Consequently, soldiers too old or too sick for the army were now discharged and replaced through new levies conducted in Galatia and Cappadocia. A legion from Germany was added, complete with its cavalry and auxiliary infantry. The whole army was housed in tents, in the face of a winter so rigorous, that, to install the tents, the ground covered in ice had to be dug and broken up. The limbs of many men froze up in the bitter cold, and not a few died while on watch duty. One soldier was seen carrying a bundle of firewood, whose hands became so frozen as to stick to the wood and fall off with the load from the mutilated arms. Corbulo, lightly attired and with head uncovered, was always with the men on the march, or at their work, praising the stalwart, encouraging the stragglers, setting an example for all to follow. Then, since many found the rigor of the climate so overwhelming that they abandoned the ranks and became deserters, he resorted to the most stringent measures. Anyone guilty of desertion paid with his life, quite unlike in armies elsewhere, in which a first or even a second offence of that same kind was met with leniency. Such grim harshness was proven by experience to be more beneficial than tolerance, as fewer desertions occurred in Corbulo’s camp than in any other.
XXXVI.
Interim Corbulo legionibus intra castra habitis, donec ver adolesceret, dispositisque per idoneos locos cohortibus auxiliariis, ne pugnam priores auderent praedicit. curam praesidiorum Paccio Orfito primi pili honore perfuncto mandat. is quamquam incautos barbaros et bene gerendae rei casum offerri scripserat, tenere se munimentis et maiores copias opperiri iubetur. sed rupto imperio, postquam paucae e proximis castellis turmae advenerant pugnamque imperitia poscebant, congressus cum hoste funditur. et damno eius exterriti qui subsidium ferre debuerant, sua quisque in castra trepida fuga rediere. quod graviter Corbulo accepit increpitumque Pac[c]ium et praefectos militesque tendere extra vallum iussit; inque ea contumelia detenti nec nisi precibus universi exercitus exsoluti sunt
36.
During this time, Corbulo kept the legions inside the camp until spring was well on its way. The auxiliary cohorts were positioned at strategic points and instructed not to risk being the first to engage. Command of these detachments was entrusted to Paccius Orfitus, who had previously held the rank of senior centurion of his legion. He had informed Corbulo in a written message that the barbarians were reckless and that he thought the opportunity offered itself of a successful engagement, but he was told to stay put within his defenses and to await reinforcements. However, when some cavalry from the nearest forts came up to his position and in their ignorance of warfare eagerly demanded action, he disobeyed orders, came to grips with the enemy, and was routed. Dismayed by his defeat, the cavalry contingent, instead of providing support, as they were honor-bound to do, turned tail and hastily repaired back to their encampments. On hearing of this, Corbulo was incensed: he harshly reprimanded Paccius and ordered that he, his men, and their officers set up camp outside the fortifications. They were left there in dishonor and were taken back only at the pleading of the entire army.
XXXVII.
At Tiridates super proprias clientelas ope Vologaesi fratris adiutus, non furtim iam, sed palam bello infensare Armeniam, quosque fidos nobis rebatur, depopulari, et si copiae contra ducerentur, eludere hucque et illuc volitans plura fama quam pugna exterrere. igitur Corbulo, quaesito diu proelio frustra habitus et exemplo hostium circumferre bellum coactus, dispertit vires, ut legati praefectique diversos locos pariter invaderent. simul regem Antiochum monet proximas sibi praefecturas petere. nam Pharasmanes interfecto filio Radamisto quasi proditore, quo fidem in nos testaretur, vetus adversus Armenios odium promptius exercebat. tuncque primum inlecti Moschi, gens ante alias socia Romanis, avia Armeniae incursavit. ita consilia Tiridati in contrarium vertebant, mittebatque oratores, qui suo Parthorumque nomine expostularent, cur datis nuper obsidibus redintegrataque amicitia quae novis quoque beneficiis locum aperiret, vetere Armeniae possessione depelleretur. ideo nondum ipsum Volgaesen commotum, quia causa quam vi agere mallent; sin perstaretur in bello, non defore Arsacidis virtutem fortunamque saepius iam clade Romana expertam. ad ea Corbulo, satis comperto Vologaesen defectione Hyrcaniae attineri, suadet Tiridati precibus Caesarem adgredi: posse illi regnum stabile et res incruentas contingere, si omissa spe longinqua et sera praesentem potioremque sequeretur.
37.
As for Tiridates, aside from the support for him inside Armenia, he could count on the help of his brother Vologeses. This emboldened him to ravage Armenia no longer in covert ways, but in open aggression, especially aimed at communities still loyal to us. If opposed by armed forces, he would avoid confrontation and move rapidly away from one place to another and by shifting operations in different directions cause more alarm with rumors of his approach than by the use of actual force. Corbulo, robbed of the opportunity to pin down his adversary and obliged to follow him in pursuit across Armenia with his troops in tow, decided to widen the war by splitting his army, so that legion and light infantry commanders could attack at different locations concurrently. He also had king Antiochus advance into the districts of Armenia closest to him, while Pharasmenes, who had killed his son Radamistus as being a traitor, vented more actively his old desire for vengeance on the Armenians to attest his fidelity to us. Finally, the more remote and wild parts of the country were raided by the Moschi, a tribe that had just come over to our side and in time proved a most loyal ally of Rome. Tiridates’ strategy was thus turned against him and he took to sending envoys to Corbulo, in his and Parthia’s name, to demand why he was hounded from his ancient possession of Armenia, after he had recently given hostages and renewed a pact of friendship with Rome that might have led to even better relations. Vologeses, he said, had not yet reacted because he and his brother preferred to act from just reasons rather than from force. If war was persisted in the house of the Arsacids would not lack the valor and the good fortune the Romans had often experienced in defeat. Corbulo knew that Vologeses was tied down by a revolt in Hyrcania and his answer was that Tiridates should address his petitions to the emperor. He could procure for himself a stable reign without loss of blood by forsaking distant and belated expectations and accepting present and more solid prospects.
XXXVIII.
Placitum dehinc, quia commeantibus in vicem nuntiis nihil in summa[m] pacis proficiebatur, colloquio ipsorum tempus locumque destinari. mille equitum praesidium Tiridates adfore sibi dicebat; quantum Corbuloni cuiusque generis militum adsisteret, non statuere, dum positis loricis et galeis in faciem pacis veniretur. cuicumque mortalium, nedum veteri et provido duci, barbarae astutiae patuissent: ideo artum inde numerum finiri et hinc maiorem offerri, ut dolus pararetur; nam equiti sagittarum usu exercito si detecta corpora obicerentur, nihil profuturam multitudinem. dissimulato tamen intellectu rectius de iis, quae in publicum consulerentur, totis exercitibus coram dissertaturos respondit. locumque delegit, cuius pars altera colles erant clementer adsurgentes accipiendis peditum ordinibus, pars in planitiem porrigebatur ad explicandas equitum turmas. dieque pacto prior Corbulo socias cohortes et auxilia regum pro cornibus, medio sextam legionem constituit, cui accita per noctem aliis ex castris tria milia tertianorum permiscuerat, una cum aquila, quasi eadem legio spectaretur. Tiridates vergente iam die procul adstitit, unde videri magis quam audiri posset. ita sine congressu dux Romanus abscedere militem sua quemque in castra iubet.
38.
Next, seeing that the exchange of envoys was not leading to any final peace settlement, it was agreed to set a time and a place for a conference of the two commanders. Tiridates let it be known that an escort of one thousand soldiers would accompany him, but placed no limit to the size and composition of Corbulo’s guard, as long as they came in peace, wearing no helmets or breastplates. To anyone, let alone to an experienced and shrewd general, the barbarian ploy would have been perfectly evident, in view of the fact that a limited number of soldiers was fixed on the Parthian side and a higher number was allowed on our side in preparation for a trap. Obviously, to cavalry trained to shoot arrows from their horses, even a large formation of soldiers would not make any difference if they were exposed to their arrows without armor protection. Feigning not to have fathomed Tiridates’ scheme, Corbulo answered that it would be more appropriate for consultations about matters of public interest to be held in the presence of both armies. He chose a place of which one half was hilly with slopes gradually ascending, suitable for arrays of infantry, the other half enlarged into a plain, where cavalry could spread out. On the chosen day, Corbulo arrived first and arranged the allied infantry and the troops of the kings on the flanks; in the center he placed the Sixth legion, in which, under one eagle, he incorporated three thousand more men from the third legion, summoned in the night from a different camp, so as to make it appear as a single legion. Towards the end of the day, Tiridates appeared at a distance from where he could be seen but not heard. The parley was thus cancelled and the Roman general directed the soldiers to return to their respective camps.
XXXIX.
Rex sive fraudem suspectans, quia plura simul in loca ibatur, sive ut commeatus nostros Pontico mari et Trapezunte oppido adventantes interciperet, propere discedit. sed neque commeatibus vim facere potuit, quia per montes ducebantur praesidiis nostris insessos, et Corbulo, ne inritum bellum traheretur utque Armenios ad sua defendenda cogeret, exscindere parat castella, sibique quod validissimum in ea praefectura, cognomento Volandum, sumit; minora Cornelio Flacco legato et Insteio Capitoni castrorum praefecto mandat. tum, circumspectis munimentis et quae expugnationi idonea provisis, hortatur milites, ut hostem vagum neque paci aut proelio paratum, sed perfidiam et ignaviam fuga confitentem exuerent sedibus gloriaeque pariter et praedae consulerent. tum quadripertito exercitu hos in testudinem conglobatos subruendo vallo inducit, alios scalas moenibus admovere, multos tormentis faces et hastas incutere iubet. libritoribus funditoribusque attributus locus, unde eminus glandes torquerent, ne qua pars subsidium laborantibus ferret pari undique metu. tantus inde ardor certantis exercitus fuit, ut intra tertiam diei partem nudati propugnatoribus muri, obices portarum subversi, capta escensu munimenta omnesque puberes trucidati sint, nullo milite amisso, paucis admodum vulneratis. et imbelle vulgus sub corona venundatum, reliqua praeda victoribus cessit. pari fortuna legatus ac praefectus usi sunt, tribusque una die castellis expugnatis cetera terrore et alia sponte incolarum in deditionem veniebant. unde orta fiducia caput gentis Artaxata adgrediendi. nec tamen proximo itinere ductae legiones, qua si amnem Araxen, qui moenia adluit, ponte transgrederentur, sub ictum dabantur: procul et latioribus vadis transiere.
39.
Tiridates retreated in a hurry — probably suspecting some trickery on seeing our troops moving in different directions at the same time — or hoping to intercept our supplies coming to us from the Euxine Pontus and the town of Trebizond. Yet, he was unable to interfere with our supply lines, for they passed along mountains in the hands of Roman garrisons. Corbulo, to shorten the war by forcing the Armenians to defend their positions, prepared to demolish their fortresses, assigning to himself the strongest among them, one called Volandum. The assault of weaker places he entrusted to the legion legate Cornelius Flaccus and to the camp prefect Insteius Capito. Next, he surveyed the enemy position and provided everything required for investing the stronghold, then exhorted the troops to dislodge from their dens that vagabond mob unwilling to accept either peace or war, whose habit to find safety in flight denounced their perfidy and cowardice. Let nothing distract them, he urged, from the task at hand, but concentrate solely on gaining glory and plunder. After dividing the army into four parts, he conducted one arranged in tortoise formation to undermine the base of the rampart. Another was ordered to bring forward ladders to scale the walls, while many more of the men shot javelins and firebrands from catapults. Slingers were assigned locations at a safe distance, from which they could hurl lead or stone balls by means of hand-held or engine-powered slings, thereby preventing any part of the enemy defenses to lend assistance to beleaguered sectors, all places being equally under attack and danger the same everywhere. Owing to these tactics, such was the ardor of the attackers, that before a third of the day had passed, the walls were swept of defenders, the obstacles protecting the gates thrown aside, and the fortification scaled and captured. All male adults were massacred and not a single soldier was lost, a mere few being wounded. The multitude not bearing arms were sold into slavery and the remainder of the plunder fell to the victorious troops. The legate C. Flaccus and the camp prefect I. Capito met with equal good fortune: in one day three fortified positions were taken and the rest, from panic and in some cases by the will of the inhabitants, gave up the fight and surrendered. Success engendered confidence that the capital Artaxata might also be taken. The army, however, avoided using the shorter route, since to reach the city that way meant crossing a bridge over the river Araxes, which runs close to the walls, where they would come under missile attack. Thus, the crossing was done farther upstream and by a wider ford.
XL.
At Tiridates pudore et metu, ne, si concessisset obsidioni, nihil opis in ipso videretur, si prohiberet, impeditis locis seque et equestres copias inligaret, statuit postremo ostendere aciem et dato die proelium incipere vel simulatione fugae locum fraudi parare. igitur repente agmen Romanum circumfundit, non ignaro duce nostro, qui viae pariter et pugnae composuerat exercitum. latere dextro tertia legio, sinistro sexta incedebat, mediis decimanorum delectis; recepta inter ordines impedimenta, et tergum mille equites tuebantur, quibus iusserat, ut instantibus comminus resisterent, refugos non sequerentur. in cornibus pedes sagittarius et cetera manus equitum ibat, productior cornu sinistro per ima collium, ut, si hostis intravisset, fronte simul et sinu exciperetur. adsultare ex diverso Tiridates, non usque ad ictum teli, sed tum minitans, tum specie trepidantis, si laxare ordines et diversos consectari posset. ubi nihil temeritate solutum, nec amplius quam decurio equitum audentius progressus et sagittis confixus ceteros ad obsequium exemplo firmaverat, propinquis iam tenebris abscessit.
40.
Tiridates, on the other hand, was vacillating between shame and fear. If he did nothing to oppose the siege, he would appear helpless; if he intervened, he was afraid that he and his cavalry might be cornered in places where he had no freedom of movement. In the end he resolved to deploy his troops in order of battle and either await the opportunity for a favorable engagement or lure the enemy into an ambush by simulating flight. Thus, he suddenly enveloped the moving column of the Roman army, an action Corbulo had expected and prepared for by arranging his forces for the march as well as for battle. The Third legion advanced on the right flank and on the left the Sixth, with the picked men of the Tenth in between. The baggage train was placed safely within the ranks and a cavalry force of one thousand men guarded the rear with instructions to repel any close attack, but not to pursue the retreating enemy. On both wings were the archers on foot and the remainder of the cavalry, the left flank being enlarged towards the base of the hills in such a way that if the enemy penetrated the column, he would be intercepted both in front and on the sides. Tiridates, on his part, was harassing the column now on the left, now on the right, but never within range of our missiles, at one moment threatening attack, then affecting fear to loosen up our lines and immediately fall on units detached from the rest while chasing the enemy. His boldness proved futile, with the exception of a cavalry decurion who imprudently left the ranks and was transfixed by arrows, his example serving as a good warning to the others. At the approach of dusk Tiridates withdrew.