XLI.
Et Corbulo castra in loco metatus, an expeditis legionibus nocte Artaxata pergeret obsidioque circumdaret agitavit, concessisse illuc Tiridaten ratus. dein postquam exploratores attulere longinquum regis iter et Medi an Albani peterentur incertum, lucem opperitur, praemissaque levi[s] armatura, quae muros interim ambiret oppugnationemque eminus inciperet. sed oppidani portis sponte patefactis se suaque Romanis permisere. quod salutem ipsis tulit; Artaxatis ignis immissus deletaque et solo aequata sunt, qui nec teneri [poterant] sine valido praesidio ob magnitudinem moenium, nec id nobis virium erat, quod firmando praesidio et capessendo bello divideretur, vel, si integra et incustodita relinquerentur, nulla in eo utilitas aut gloria, quod capta essent. adicitur miraculum velut numine oblatum: nam cuncta Artaxatis tenus sole inlustria fuere; repente quod moenibus cingebatur ita atra nube coopertum fulgoribusque discretum est, ut quasi infensantibus deis exitio tradi crederetur. Ob haec consal[ut]atus imperator Nero, et senatus consulto supplicationes habitae, statuaeque et arcus et continui consulatus principi, utque inter festos referretur dies, quo patrata victoria, quo nuntiata, quo relatum de ea esset, aliaque in eandem formam decernuntur, adeo modum egressa, ut C. Cassius de ceteris honoribus adsensus, si pro benignitate fortunae dis grates agerentur, ne totum quidem annum supplicationibus sufficere disseruerit, eoque oportere dividi sacros et negotiosos dies, quis divina colerent et humana non impedirent.
41.
As to Corbulo, he halted the march and set up camp where he was. Presuming that Tiridates had retired to Artaxata, he considered whether during the night he should lead the legions there, unencumbered by baggage, and invest the capital, but when his scouts reported that the king had gone much farther, no one knew exactly where, possibly to Media or Albania, he waited until daybreak and meanwhile sent ahead his light infantry to encircle the city and begin hostilities from afar. The citizenry, however, voluntarily opened their gates and gave themselves and their possession up to the Romans. The surrender saved their lives, but Artaxata was set on fire and completely wiped out. A city with such extensive walls could neither be held without a large garrison, nor did we possess enough forces to warrant their division between the defense of Artaxata and the conduct of the war. Besides, what advantage or glory would be derived from the capture of a city by leaving it intact and undefended? A final consideration in favor of its destruction was an extraordinary prodigy seemingly sent by some deity. The countryside around as far as the walls of the city was bathed in glorious sunshine, but suddenly the space within the walls was engulfed by so ominous a dark cloud, rent by lightning-flashes, that people believed the city was doomed to destruction, as it were, by the anger of the gods. In view of Corbulo’s successes, Nero was saluted imperator and thanksgivings were celebrated by a decree of the senate. Statues, arches, successive consulships were distinctions heaped on the prince. Among the festive days were included the day the victory was achieved, the day the news of it reached Rome, and even the day in which the senate officially took cognizance of it. More honors of the same kind were voted to him, so much beyond all limits of reason, that Gaius Cassius Longinus (even though he had concurred with the homage paid so far) declared that if the gods were to be thanked according to their largess on any day, the whole year would not suffice. Thus, it was necessary to distinguish the days of worship from the days of business, in a manner that the one would not interfere with the other.
XLII.
Variis deinde casibus iactatus et multorum odia meritus reus, haud tamen sine invidia Senecae damnatur. is fuit Publius Suillius, imperitante Claudio terribilis ac venalis et mutatione temporum non quantum inimici cuperent demissus quique se nocentem videri quam supplicem mallet. eius opprimendi gratia repetitum credebatur senatus consultum poenaque Cinciae legis adversum eos, qui pretio causas oravissent. nec Suillius questu aut exprobratione abstinebat, praeter ferociam animi extrema senecta liber et Senecam increpans infensum amicis Claudii, sub quo iustissimum exilium pertulisset. simul studiis inertibus et iuvenum imperitiae suetum livere iis, qui vividam et incorruptam eloquentiam tuendis civibus exercerent. se quaestorem Germanici, illum domus eius adulterum fuisse. an gravius aestimandum sponte litigatoris praemium honestae operae adsequi quam corrumpere cubicula principum feminarum? qua sapientia, quibus philosophorum praeceptis intra quadriennium regiae amicitiae ter milies sestertium paravisset? Romae testamenta et orbos velut indagine eius capi, Italiam et provincias immenso faenore hauriri: at sibi labore quaesitam et modicam pecuniam esse. crimen, periculum, omnia potius toleraturum, quam veterem ac domi partam dignationem subitae felicitati submitteret.
42.
Next came the impeachment and condemnation of Publius Suillius Rufus. He had survived many struggles and been the target of much hatred, but his downfall did not occur without Seneca incurring considerable censure. Suillius had behaved with much hardness and venality under Claudius, the regime change not having brought him low enough to satisfy his enemies, and was reported to be still a more impenitent sinner than a suppliant on bended knees. It was to achieve his ruin, so it was believed, that an old senatorial decree was resuscitated together with the penalties laid down by the Cincian law against those who had argued a cause for a fee. Suillius did not refrain from crying foul and utter recriminations, given his violent temper and the freedom of speech granted by his advanced old age. He attacked Seneca with vicious animosity, charging him of being hostile against the friends of Claudius, under whom he had to endure the most justified of exiles. He exclaimed that Seneca, snugly ensconced in his sterile literary pursuits, rung around by immature pupils, resented anyone who devoted to the defense of citizens his living and wholesome eloquence. He, Suillius, had been quaestor under Germanicus, while Seneca was satisfying his adulterous lust in the house of that very man. Should one consider a worse crime to accept compensation voluntarily offered by a litigant for honorable service or to desecrate the boudoirs of princesses? By what wisdom, by which philosophical precepts had Seneca accumulated three hundred million sesterces in four years of regal friendship? At Rome the testaments of men without issue were like game caught in his ring of traps, Italy and the provinces were sucked dry by his exorbitant usury. His own money, on the contrary, was earned by honest labor and his wealth was modest. He would face anything, accusations, trials, dangers, rather than compromise his ancient, homespun integrity for the sudden wealth of a nouveau riche.
XLIII.
Nec deerant qui haec isdem verbis aut versa in deterius Senecae deferrent. repertique accusatores direptos socios, cum Suillius provinciam Asiam regeret, ac publicae pecuniae peculatum detulerunt. mox, quia inquisitionem annuam impetraverant, brevius visum [sub] urbana crimina incipi, quorum obvii testes erant. ii acerbitate accusationis Q. Pomponium ad necessitatem belli civilis detrusum, Iuliam Drusi filiam Sabinamque Poppaeam ad mortem actas et Valerium Asiaticum, Lusium Saturninum, Cornelium Lupum circumventos, iam equitum Romanorum agmina damnata omnemque Claudii saevitiam Suillio obiectabant. ille nihil ex his sponte susceptum, sed principi paruisse defendebat, donec eam orationem Caesar cohibuit, compertum sibi referens ex commentariis patris sui nullam cuiusquam accusationem ab eo coactam. tum iussa Messalinae praetendi et labare defensio: cur enim neminem alium delectum, qui saevienti impudicae vocem praeberet? puniendos rerum atrocium ministros, ubi pretia scelerum adepti scelera ipsa aliis delegent. igitur adempta bonorum parte (nam filio et nepti pars concedebatur eximebanturque etiam quae testamento matris aut aviae acceperant) in insulas Baleares pellitur, non in ipso discrimine, non post damnationem fractus animo; ferebaturque copiosa et molli vita secretum illud toleravisse. filium eius Nerullinum adgressis accusatoribus per invidiam patris et crimina repetundarum, intercessit princeps tamquam satis expleta ultione.
43.
His every word, of course, was duly reported to Seneca, made worse in the telling. Accusers were found as well, who testified that Suillius had fleeced our allies and embezzled public money when governor of Asia. Then, since the prosecution had already been granted a year for the gathering of evidence, it was thought that time would be saved if they dealt first with Suillius’ misdeeds in the city, where witnesses were within easy reach. Thus, he was accused of forcing Quintus Pomponius Secundus to civil war by the gravity of his charges, of driving Livia Julia, Drusus’ daughter, and Poppaea Sabina to suicide, of luring into a fatal trap Decimus Valerius Asiaticus, Quintus Lusius Saturninus and Cornelius Lupus, and finally of engineering the trials and convictions of a multitude of knights, in brief all the cruel acts of Claudius were laid at Suillius’ door. He responded in his defense by saying that he had done nothing on his own initiative and had only obeyed the prince’s orders, when Nero stopped him short, pointing out that his father’s papers contained no mention of his ever ordering a prosecution. Thereupon, Messalina’s orders were advanced as an excuse, but his defence began to totter. Why, it was demanded, was he the only one asked to lend his forensic talents to the shameless trollop? The ministers of atrocious villainies must be punished, whenever they assign the blame to others after having pocketed the rewards of those offences. In consequence, half of Suillius’ estate was seized (for his son and granddaughter were allowed the other half, together with what they had inherited from the mother’s and grandmother’s wills) and he was banished to the Balearic Islands. Never, either when his life was at risk during the trial or after the verdict, did his combativeness abate. It was rumored that he had eased those years of isolation by an affluent and pleasant life. Prosecutors, still hating the father, tried to go after his son Nerullinus on some charges of extorsion, but the prince intervened, for in his view vengeance had run its course.
XLIV.
Per idem tempus Octavius Sagitta plebei tribunus, Pontiae mulieris nuptae amore vaecors, ingentibus donis adulterium et mox, ut omitteret maritum, emercatur, suum matrimonium promittens ac nuptias eius pactus. sed ubi mulier vacua fuit, nectere moras, adversam patris voluntatem causari repertaque spe ditioris coniugis promissa exuere. Octavius contra modo conqueri, modo minitari, famam perditam, pecuniam exhaustam obtestans, denique salutem, quae sola reliqua esset, arbitrio eius permittens. ac postquam spernebatur, noctem unam ad solacium poscit, qua delenitus modum in posterum adhiberet. statuitur nox, et Pontia consciae ancillae custodiam cubiculi mandat. ille uno cum liberto ferrum veste occultum infert. tum, ut adsolet in amore et ira, iurgia preces, exprobratio satisfactio, et pars tenebrarum libidini seposita; ea quasi incensus nihil metuentem ferro transverberat et adcurrentem ancillam vulnere absterret cubiculoque prorumpit. postera die manifesta caedes, haud ambiguus percussor; quippe mansitasse una convincebatur. sed libertus suum illud facinus profiteri, se patroni iniurias ultum esse. commoveratque quosdam magnitudine exempli, donec ancilla ex vulnere refecta verum aperuit. postulatusque apud consules a patre interfectae, postquam tribunatu abierat, sententia patrum et lege de sicariis condemnatur.
44.
In about the same time period, Octavius Sagitta, tribune of the plebs, fell helplessly in love with a married woman named Pontia Postumia. He prevailed on her first, at the cost of very expensive gifts, to commit adultery, then to desert her husband by promising her marriage. She gave the same promise to him, but once free she adduced various pretexts for delays, such as the opposition of her father, and revoked her consent, in reality tempted by the prospect of marriage with a richer man. Octavius, on his part, resorted to threats and reproaches adducing his ruined reputation, his spent resources, even offering her his life — all that was left to him – to do with it what she pleased. Faced with a new refusal, he begged her for a single night of intimacy to get relief from his passion and as a way to regain control of his life in after years. She agreed, and on the chosen night placed the custody of her chamber in the hands of a female slave, who was privy to the arrangement. Octavius came accompanied by a freedman and carrying a concealed dagger under his garments. What happened during the tryst are the usual things common to every quarrel between angry lovers: name-calling, appeals, reproaches, excuses, and the hours of darkness given up to carnal pleasure. Suddenly, as if maddened by lust, Octavius stabbed the unsuspecting Pontia, wounded and frightened away the slave servant rushing up to help her mistress, then fled from the house. Next day there was no doubt about the perpetrator of the crime, for it became evident that Octavius had been with her the previous night. Yet the freedman took the deed upon himself, maintaining that he wanted to avenge the injuries suffered by his patron. Many were already moved by his noble example of fidelity, when Pontia’s maid, on recovering from her wound, revealed what had really happened. The tribune was brought before the consuls, at the expiry of his office, by the father of the victim and the senate condemned him to the penalty prescribed for homicide.
LV.
Non minus insignis eo anno impudicitia magnorum rei publicae malorum initium fecit. erat in civitate Sabina Poppaea, T. Ollio patre genita, sed nomen avi materni sumpserat, inlustri memoria Poppaei Sabini consularis et triumphali decore praefulgentis; nam Ollium honoribus nondum functum amicitia Seiani pervertit. huic mulieri cuncta alia fuere praeter honestum animum. quippe mater eius, aetatis suae feminas pulchritudine supergressa, gloriam pariter et formam dederat; opes claritudine generis sufficiebant. sermo comis nec absurdum ingenium. modestiam praeferre et lascivia uti; rarus in publicum egressus, idque velata parte oris, ne satiaret adspectum, vel quia sic decebat. famae numquam pepercit, maritos et adulteros non distinguens; neque adfectui suo aut alieno obnoxia, unde utilitas ostenderetur, illuc libidinem transferebat. igitur agentem eam in matrimonio Rufri Crispi[ni] equitis Romani, ex quo filium genuerat, Otho pellexit iuventa ac luxu et quia flagrantissimus in amicitia Neronis habebatur. nec mora quin adulterio matrimonium iungeretur.
45.
No less shocking that year was another sexual scandal that was the root of much evil to the state. Poppaea Sabina, a woman living in Rome, the daughter of Titus Ollius, had taken the name of her grandfather Poppaeus Sabinus of illustrious memory, distinguished by the consulate and by an honorific triumph, in preference to the name of Ollius, whom Sejanus had ruined by his close friendship before he could earn any renown for public service. Poppaea possessed every enviable attribute of mind and body, except honesty. Her mother in her day had been a woman of matchless beauty, an asset she had passed on to her daughter in all its splendor, together with adequate fortune and high birth. Poppaea’s speech was pleasant nor did her understanding lack penetration. She paid lip service to virtue, but her morals were loose. Her appearances in public were anything but frequent and she always wore a veil that hid part of her face, either to avoid becoming too familiar a sight or because it added grace to her person. Concern for her good name she had none, being equally appreciative of husbands and of illicit lovers. Never would she allow herself to become a slave to her passions or to the passions of others. Where she espied an advantage, there she directed her desires. Therefore, while she was the wife of Rufrius Crispinus, a Roman knight, from whom she had a child, she yielded to the youthful looks and fashionable elegance of Otho, also by reason of his being a most intimate friend of Nero. It took no time for adultery to become a marriage.
XLVI.
Otho sive amore incautus laudare formam elegantiamque uxoris apud principem, sive ut accenderet ac, si eadem femina potirentur, id quoque vinculum potentiam ei adiceret. saepe auditus est consurgens e convivio Caesaris seque ire ad illam, sibi concessam dictitans nobilitatem pulchritudinem, vota omnium et gaudia felicium. his atque talibus inritamentis non longa cunctatio interponitur, sed accepto aditu Poppaea primum per blandimenta et artes valescere, imparem cupidini et forma Neronis captam simulans; mox acri iam principis amore ad superbiam vertens, si ultra unam alteramque noctem attineretur, nuptam esse se dictitans, nec posse matrimonium omittere, devinctam Othoni per genus vitae, quod nemo adaequaret: illum animo et cultu magnificum; ibi se summa fortuna digna visere. at Neronem, paelice ancilla et adsuetudine Actes devinctum, nihil e contubernio servili nisi abiectum et sordidum traxisse. deicitur familiaritate sueta, post congressu et comitatu Otho, et ad postremum, ne in urbe aemulatus ageret, provinciae Lusitaniae praeficitur; ubi usque ad civilia arma non ex priore infamia, sed integre sancteque egit, procax otii et potestatis temperantior.
46.
Otho took to praising the beauty and perfections of his wife to the prince, either made thoughtless by love or deliberately to excite Nero’s lust, calculating that the shared possession of the same woman would add to his influence through a new bond. He was often heard saying, when rising from the prince’s table, that he was on his way to the noble treasures of his beautiful wife, the object of every man’s desire, which he had the amazing good fortune to call his own and enjoy. Under the spur of these provoking expressions and the like, the expected result was not long in coming, and Poppaea was soon admitted to the palace. She at first established her dominion by artful seductions, pretending to be unable to resist her passion and the spell of Nero’s charms. Soon after, having fully awakened the prince’s cupidity, her attitude became more aloof. If he kept her longer than a night or two, she often objected that she had a husband, that she would not break her marriage and abandon a style of life which no one could parallel. Otho was, she said, a man of extraordinary abilities and culture; in her life with him she saw possibilities worthy of the highest fortune, whereas he, Nero, with a slave girl as mistress, bound to Acte by habit, had derived nothing from that concubinage that was not mean and sordid. Upon that, Otho was excluded from the usual familiarity with Nero, then from his train and from direct access to him. Ultimately, to avoid having him as a rival in Rome, Nero sent him as governor to Lusitania. His banishment lasted until the civil war following upon Nero’s death. Yet, as governor he carried out his duties in a manner that was unexpected in the light of his scandalous precedents, with justice and rectitude. He was as self-disciplined in public service as he had been lax in private life.
XLVII.
Hactenus Nero flagitiis et sceleribus velamenta quaesivit. suspectabat maxime Cornelium Sullam, socors ingenium eius in contrarium trahens callidumque et simulatorem interpretando. quem metum Graptus ex libertis Caesaris, usu et senecta Tiberio abusque domum principium edoctus, tali mendacio intendit. pons Mulvius in eo tempore celebris nocturnis inlecebris erat; ven[ti]tabatque illuc Nero, quo solutius urbem extra lasciviret. igitur regredienti per viam Flaminiam compositas insidias fatoque evitatas, quoniam diverso itinere Sallustianos in hortos remeaverit, auctoremque eius doli Sullam ementitur, quia forte redeuntibus ministris principis quidam per iuvenilem licentiam, quae tunc passim exercebatur, inanem metum fecerant. neque servorum quisquam neque clientium Sullae adgnitus, maximeque despecta et nullius ausi capax natura eius a crimine abhorrebat: proinde tamen, quasi convictus esset, cedere patria et Massiliensium moenibus coerceri iubetur.
47.
Thus far Nero had always tried to veil over his excesses and crimes, a tendency he now abandoned. He was strangely suspicious of Faustus Cornelius Sulla, whose obtuseness and apathy he misinterpreted as cunning artfully dissimulated. Graptus, one of the imperial freedmen, who, because of his advanced age, had learned the ways of the court of the Caesars since the time of Tiberius, aggravated Nero’s apprehension by the malicious lie that follows. The Milvian bridge at that time was infamous as a place of nightly excesses. Nero would go there to give free play outside the city to his base instincts. Graptus told the prince that on his returning home on a certain night along the Flaminian way, he had by great fortune avoided an ambuscade by taking a different path to the gardens of Sallust. He mendaciously added that the organizer of the ambush was none other than Sulla himself. The only truth in the story was that some of Nero’s attendants on coming back to the city had been the target of a juvenile prank (a common occurrence in those days) that had caused them unnecessary alarm. No slave or client of Sulla had been recognized during the encounter. More than anything else, Sulla’s spiritless personality, incapable of anything daring, bore no relation to such a charge. Yet, just as if he had been found guilty, he was ordered to leave Rome and confine himself within the walls of Massilia.
XLVIII.
Isdem consulibus auditae Puteolanorum legationes, quas diversas ordo plebs ad senatum miserant, illi vim multitudinis, hi magistratuum et primi cuiusque avaritiam increpantes. eaque seditio ad saxa et minas ignium progressa ne c[aed]em et arma proliceret, C. Cassius adhibendo remedio delectus. quia severitatem eius non tolerabant, precante ipso ad Scribonios fratres ea cura transfertur, data cohorte praetoria, cuius terrore et paucorum supplicio rediit oppidanis concordia.
48.
In that same year, audience was given by the senate to two opposed deputations sent by Puteoli, one from the municipal council, the other from the plebs. The first lamented the brutality of the commons, the second the greed of the magistrates and of all the leading citizens. The seditious rancor had heated to such levels that stones were thrown and fire threatened. To prevent further escalation of the violence that might result in armed confrontation and bloodshed, Gaius Cassius Longinus was sent to try to find a solution to the problem. His severity, however, was not tolerated by either side, and he himself requested that the task be transferred to Rufus and Proculus, the two brothers of the Scribonius family. They were assigned a praetorian cohort, fear of which added to a few executions reestablished concord in the town.
XLIX.
Non referrem vulgarissimum senatus consultum, quo civitati Syracusanorum egredi numerum edendis gladiatoribus finitum permittebatur, nisi Paetus Thrasea contra dixisset praebuissetque materiem obtrectatoribus arguendae sententiae. cur enim, si rem publicam egere libertate senatoria crederet, tam levia consectaretur? quin de bello aut pace, de vectigalibus et legibus, quibusque aliis [res] Romana continetur, suaderet dissuaderetve? licere patribus, quotiens ius dicendae sententiae accepissent, quae vellent expromere relationemque in ea postulare. an solum emendatione dignum, ne Syracusis spectacula largius ederentur: cetera per omnes imperii partes perinde egregia quam si non Nero, sed Thrasea regimen eorum teneret? quod si summa dissimulatione transmitterentur, quanto magis inanibus abstinendum! Thrasea contra, rationem poscentibus amicis, non praesentium ignarum respondebat eius modi consulta corrigere, sed patrum honori dare, ut manifestum fieret magnarum rerum curam non dissimulaturos, qui animum etiam levissimis adverterent.
49.
I would not report here a very secondary senate decree by which the city of Syracuse was allowed to exceed the legal number of gladiatorial shows, were it not that Paetus Thrasea objected to it, thereby offering his detractors a chance to criticize him. Why, it was demanded, was he wasting his talents on attacking such trivial matters, if he believed that the good of the state needed freedom of speech in the senate? Why not speak in favor or against war and peace, taxation, the laws, or other vital matters by which the Roman empire was held together. Each time a senator received permission to speak, he was free to talk about anything of interest to him and to ask that his proposals be taken up in the senate. Was the fact that the Syracusans should not have shows on a grander scale the only issue needing debate and reform, all the rest in every part of the empire being in perfect order, as if Thrasea and not Nero had the management of it? If momentous affairs of state were neglected or ignored, with all more reason would minor questions be passed under silence. When asked by his friends for an answer, Thrasea said that in faulting a decree of that kind he was not oblivious to more pressing needs. His purpose was to sustain the prestige of the senate, by demonstrating that the fathers did not neglect important concerns, since they were attentive also to those of little value.
L.
Eodem anno crebris populi flagitationibus, immodestiam publicanorum arguentis, dubitavit Nero, an cuncta vectigalia omitti iuberet idque pulcherrimum donum generi mortalium daret. sed impetum eius, multum prius laudata magnitudine animi, attinuere seniores, dissolutionem imperii docendo, si fructus, quibus res publica sustineretur, deminuerentur: quippe sublatis portoriis sequens, ut tributorum abolitio expostularetur. plerasque vectigalium societates a consulibus et tribunis plebis constitutas acri etiam tum populi Romani libertate; reliqua mox ita provisa, ut ratio quaestuum et necessitas erogationum inter se congruerent. temperandas plane publicanorum cupidines, ne per tot annos sine querela tolerata novis acerbitatibus ad invidiam verterent.
50.
In that year there were also repeated complaints from the people against the greedy practices of the tax collectors. Nero seriously considered abolishing all indirect taxes and thereby confer an unprecedented boon on all humanity. His impulse was reined in by the senior members of the senate he consulted, who, after warmly praising his noble-minded generosity, represented to him that the empire would fall apart if the income that kept the state going was curtailed. Suppression of indirect taxes would soon bring on demands to do away with the tribute as well. Most of the companies that gather together the indirect taxes had been set up by the consuls and the tribunes of the plebs at a time when the liberty of the Roman people was still alive and strong. Changes were later introduced to the system only to make the income collected correspond to the total expenditures incurred. Nero’s advisers agreed that limits must be set to curb the cupidity of the collectors, lest the odium generated by novel abuses might upset an arrangement long borne without demur.