Suetonius: DE VITIS CAESARUM

I. Ex gente Domitia duae familiae claruerunt, Calvinorum et Aenobarborum. Aenobarbi auctorem originis itemque cognominis habent L. Domitium, cui rure quondam revertenti iuvenes gemini augustiore forma ex occursu imperasse traduntur, nuntiaret senatui ac populo victoriam, de qua incertum adhuc erat; atque in fidem maiestatis adeo permulsisse malas, ut e nigro rutilum aerique similem capillum redderent. Quod insigne mansit et in posteris eius, ac magna pars rutila barba fuerunt.

1. From the Domitian gens two families became illustrious, the Calvini and the Ahenobarbi. The Ahenobarbi have as the author of their lineage, and likewise of their cognomen, L. Domitius, to whom, as he was once returning from the countryside, twin youths of more august form are said to have met and commanded that he announce to the senate and the people a victory about which there was as yet uncertainty; and, as a pledge of their majesty, they so stroked his cheeks that from black they made his hair reddish and like to bronze. This distinguishing mark remained also in his descendants, and a great part had a reddish beard.

Functi autem consulatibus septem, triumpho censuraque duplici et inter patricios adlecti perseveraverunt omnes in eodem cognomine. Ac ne praenomia quidem ulla praeterquam Gnaei et Luci usurparunt, eaque ipsa notabili varietate, modo continuantes unum quodque per trinas personas, modo alternantes per singulas. Nam primum secundumque ac tertium Ahenobarborum Lucios, sequentis rursus tres ex ordine Gnaeos accepimus, reliquos non nisi vicissim tum Lucos tum Gnaeos.

Having discharged seven consulships, a triumph and a double censorship, and being adlected among the patricians, they all persevered in the same cognomen. And not even any praenomina other than Gnaeus and Lucius did they employ, and these themselves with a notable variety, now continuing each one through three persons, now alternating by single ones. For the first, second, and third of the Ahenobarbi we have as Lucii, the next three in order again as Gnaei, the rest only in alternation, now Lucii now Gnaei.

Pluris e familia cognosci referre arbitror, quo facilius appareat ita degenerasse a suorum virtutibus Nero, ut tamen vitia cuiusque quasi tradita et ingenita rettulerit.

I judge it more worthwhile to have more known about the family, so that it may more easily appear that Nero so degenerated from the virtues of his own, yet that he reproduced the vices of each as if transmitted and ingenerate.

II. Ut igitur paulo altius repetam, atavus eius Cn. Domitius in tribunatu pontificibus offensior, quod alium quam se in patris sui locum cooptassent, ius sacerdotum subrogandorum a collegiis ad populum transtulit, at in consulatu Allobrogibus Arvernisque superatis elephanto per provinciam vectus est turba militum quasi inter sollemnia triumphi prosequente. In hunc dixit Licinius Crassus orator non esse mirandum, quod aeneam barbam habret, cui os ferreum, cor plumbeum esset. Huius filius praetor C. Caesarem abeuntem consulatu, quem adversus auspicia legesque gessisse existimabatur, ad disquisitionem senatus vocavit; mox consul imperatorem ab exercitibus Gallicis retrahere temptavit successorque ei per factionem nominatus principio civilis belli ad Corfinium captus est.

2. So then, to go back a little further: his ancestor Gnaeus Domitius, during his tribunate, being more offended with the pontiffs because they had coopted someone other than himself into his father’s place, transferred the right of substituting priests from the colleges to the people; and in his consulship, after the Allobroges and the Arverni had been defeated, he was carried through the province on an elephant, with a crowd of soldiers following as if amid the solemnities of a triumph. Against him the orator Licinius Crassus said that it was not to be wondered at that he had a brazen beard, since he had an iron mouth and a leaden heart. His son, as praetor, summoned Gaius Caesar, as he was leaving the consulship—who was thought to have acted against the auspices and the laws—to an inquiry before the senate; soon, as consul, he tried to draw the imperator back from the Gallic armies, and, having been named his successor through faction, at the beginning of the civil war he was captured at Corfinium.

Unde dimissus Massiliensis obsidione laborantis cum adventu suo confirmasset, repente destituit acieque demum Pharsalica occubuit; vir neque satis constans et ingenio truci in desperatione rerum mortem timore appetitam ita expavit, ut haustum venenum paenitentia evomuerit medicumque manumiserit, quod sibi prudens ac sciens minus noxium temperasset. Consultante autem Cn. Pompeio de mediis ac neutram partem sequentibus solus censuit hostium numero habendos.

Whence dismissed, after he had, by his arrival, heartened the Massilians suffering from a siege, he suddenly abandoned them and at last fell in the Pharsalian battle line; a man neither sufficiently constant, and of a savage disposition, in the desperation of affairs he so dreaded a death sought out of fear that, in repentance, he vomited up the draught of poison and manumitted his physician, because the latter, prudent and knowing, had compounded for him a less noxious dose. When, moreover, Gnaeus Pompeius was consulting about those in the middle and those following neither side, he alone judged that they ought to be held in the number of enemies.

III. Reliquit filium omnibus gentis suae procul dubio praeferendum. Is inter conscios Caesarianae necis quamquam insons damnatus lege Pedia, cum ad Cassium Brutumque se propinqua sibi cognatione iunctos contulisset, post utriusque interitum classem olim commissam retinuit, auxit etiam, nec nisi partibus ubique profligatis M. Antonio sponte et ingentis meriti loco tradidit.

3. He left a son, unquestionably to be preferred before all men of his clan. He, among those privy to the Caesarian slaying, although innocent, was condemned by the Lex Pedia, and when he had betaken himself to Cassius and Brutus, joined to him by close cognation, after the death of both he retained the fleet once entrusted to him, and even increased it, and not until the parties were everywhere overthrown did he hand it over to M. Antony of his own accord and as a ground of immense merit.

Solusque omnium ex iis, qui pari lege damnati erant, restitutus in patriam amplissimos honores percucurrit, ac subinde redintegrata dissensione civili, eidem Antonio legatus, delatam sibi summam imperii ab iis, quos Cleopatrae pudebat, neque suscipere neque recusare fidenter propter subitam valitudinem ausus, transiit ad Augustum et in diebus paucis obiit, nonnulla et ipse infamia aspersus. Nam Antonius eum desiderio amicae Serviliae Naidis transfugisse iactavit.

And he alone of all from those who had been condemned under the same law, restored to his fatherland, ran through the most ample honors; and soon thereafter, with the civil dissension renewed, as legate to that same Antony, the supreme command having been offered to him by those who were ashamed of Cleopatra, he dared neither confidently to take it up nor to refuse it because of sudden ill‑health, crossed over to Augustus and in a few days died, he himself too bespattered with some infamy. For Antony boasted that he had deserted out of desire for his mistress Servilia the Naïs.

IV. Ex hoc Domitius nascitur, quem emptorem familiae pecuniaeque in testamento Augusti fuisse mox vulgo notatum est, non minus aurigandi arte in adulescentia clarus quam deinde ornamentis triumphalibus ex Germanico bello. Verum arrogans, profusus, immitis censorem L. Plancum via sibi decedere aedilis coegit; praeturae consulatusque honore equites R. matronasque ad agendum mimum produxit in scaenam. Venationes et in Circo et in omnibus urbis regionibus dedit munus etiam gladiatorium, sed tanta saevitia, ut necesse fuerit Augusto clam frustra monitum edicto coercere.

4. From this man Domitius was born, who was soon commonly noted to have been the purchaser of the household and funds in Augustus’s testament, no less renowned in youth for the art of charioteering than thereafter for triumphal ornaments from the Germanic war. But arrogant, prodigal, and harsh, when aedile he forced the censor L. Plancus to yield the road to him; and in the honor of the praetorship and the consulship he brought Roman equestrians and matrons onto the stage to act a mime. He gave beast-hunts both in the Circus and in all the regions of the city, and even a gladiatorial show, but with such savagery that it was necessary for Augustus—having secretly, and in vain, warned him—to restrain him by an edict.

V. Ex Antonia maiore patrem Neronis procreavit omni parte vitae detestabilem, siquidem comes ad Orientem C. Caesaris iuvenis, occiso liberto suo, quod potare quantum iubebatur recusaret, dimissus e cohorte amicorum nihilo modetius vixit; sed et in viae Appiae vico repente puerum citatis iumentis haud ignarus obtrivit et Romae medio Foro cuidam equiti Romano liberius iurganti oculum eruit; perfidiae vero tantae, ut non modo argentarios pretiis rerum coemptarum, sed et in praetura mercede palmarum aurigarios fraudaverit, notatus ob haec et sororis ioco, querentibus dominis factionum repraesentanda praemia in posterum sanxit. Maiestatis quoque et adulteriorum incestique cum sorore Lepida sub excessu Tiberi reus, mutatione temporum evasit decessitque Pyrgis morbo aquae intercutis, sublato filio Nerone ex Agrippina Germanico genita.

5. From Antonia the Elder he begot Nero’s father, detestable in every part of life; for, as a young companion of Gaius Caesar to the East, after his own freedman had been killed because he refused to drink as much as he was ordered, he was dismissed from the cohort of friends and lived none the more modestly; and in a village on the Appian Way he suddenly crushed a boy with his beasts driven at speed, not unwittingly, and at Rome, in the middle of the Forum, he gouged out the eye of a certain Roman knight who was quarreling too freely; of such perfidy that he defrauded not only the bankers of the prices of things he had purchased, but even, in his praetorship, the charioteers of the prize-money for their palms—marked for these deeds and by his sister’s joke; when the owners of the factions complained, he ordained for the future that the prizes were to be paid down at once. Also, upon the passing of Tiberius, arraigned on a charge of treason and of adulteries and of incest with his sister Lepida, he escaped by a change of times and died at Pyrgi of dropsy, after acknowledging his son Nero by Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus.

VI. Nero natus est Anti post VIIII. mensem quam Tiberius excessit, XVIII. Kal.

6. Nero was born at Antium nine months after Tiberius passed away, on the 18th day before the Kalends.

Ian. tantum quod exoriente sole, paene ut radiis prius quam terra contingeretur. De genitura eius statim multa et formidulosa multis coniectantibus praesagio fuit etiam Domiti patris vox, inter gratulationes amicorum negantis quicquam ex se et Agrippina nisi detestabile et malo publico nasci potuisse.

Jan., just as the sun was rising, almost as though the rays touched him before they touched the earth. Concerning his nativity, immediately many and formidable predictions were made by many conjecturing; a presage too was the utterance of his father Domitius, who, amid the congratulations of friends, declared that nothing from himself and Agrippina could have been born except something detestable and for the public evil.

Eiusdem futurae infelicitates signum evidens die lustrico exstitit; nam C. Caesar, rogante sorore ut infanti quod vellet nomen daret, intuens Claudium patruum suum, a quo mox principe Nero adoptatus est, eius se dixit dare, neque ipse serio sed per iocum et aspernante Agrippina, quod tum Claudius inter ludibria aulae erat.

A manifest sign of the same one’s future infelicities appeared on the lustral day; for Gaius Caesar, when his sister asked that he give the infant whatever name he wished, looking at Claudius his paternal uncle—by whom, when he soon became emperor, Nero was adopted—said that he would give his name; and he did this not in earnest but in jest, with Agrippina objecting, since at that time Claudius was among the mockeries of the court.

Trimulus patrem amisit; cuius ex parte tertia heres, ne hanc quidem integram cepit correptis per coheredem gaium universis bonis. Et subinde matre etiam relegata paene inops atque egens apud amitam Lepidam nutritus est sub duobus paedagogis saltatore atque tonsore. Verum Claudio imperium adepto non solum paternas opes reciperavit, sed et Crispi Passieni vitrici sui hereditate ditatus est.

At three years old he lost his father; though heir to a third part of his estate, he did not even receive this whole, all the goods having been seized by his coheir Gaius. And presently, his mother also being relegated, almost destitute and needy he was reared at the house of his aunt Lepida under two pedagogues, a dancer and a barber. But when Claudius obtained the imperium he not only recovered his paternal means, but was also enriched by the inheritance of his stepfather Crispus Passienus.

Gratia quidem et potentia revocatae restitutaeque matris usque eo floruit, ut emanaret in vulgus missos a Messalina uxore Claudi, qui eum meridiantem, quasi Britannici aemulum, strangularent. Additum fabulae eosdem dracone e pulvino se proferente conterritos refugisse. Quae fabula exorta est deprensis in lecto eius circum cervicalia serpentis exuviis; quas tamen aureae armillae ex voluntate matris inclusas dextro brachio gestavit aliquamdiu ac taedio tandem maternae memoriae abiecit rursusque extremis suis rebus frustra requisiit.

The favor and power of his mother, recalled and restored, flourished to such a point that it leaked into the vulgar talk that men had been sent by Messalina, wife of Claudius, to strangle him as he was taking a noonday nap, as a rival of Britannicus. It was added to the tale that the same men, a dragon-serpent thrusting itself out from the cushion, were terrified and fled back. This tale arose when, in his bed, around the pillows, the sloughed skins (exuviae) of a serpent were discovered; which, however, enclosed in a golden armlet by his mother’s wish, he wore for some time on his right arm, and at length, out of weariness of his mother’s memory, he cast away, and later, in his last extremities, sought again in vain.

VII. Tener adhuc necdum matura pueritia circensibus ludis Troiam constantissime favorabiliterque lusit. Undecimo aetatis anno a Claudio adoptatus est Annaeoque Senecae iam tunc senatori in disciplinam traditus.

VII. Still tender, his boyhood not yet mature, at the circus games he played the Troy-game with the utmost steadfastness and to favorable acclaim. In his 11th year he was adopted by Claudius and was handed over for instruction to Annaeus Seneca, already then a senator.

Ferunt Senecam proxima nocte visum sibi per quietem C. Caesari praecipere, et fidem somnio Nero brevi fecit prodita immanitate naturae quibus primum potuit experimentis. Namque Britannicum fratrem, quod se post adoptionem Ahenobarbum ex consuetudine salutasset, ut subditivum apud patrem arguere conatus est. Amitam autem Lepidam ream testimonio coram afflixit gratificans matri, a qua rea premebatur.

They report that Seneca, on the next night, seemed to himself in sleep to be instructing Gaius Caesar; and Nero shortly gave credence to the dream, his nature’s immanity being betrayed by the first experiments he could make. For he tried to accuse his brother Britannicus before his father as a supposititious child, because after the adoption he had greeted him, according to custom, as Ahenobarbus. And his aunt Lepida, when arraigned, he crushed by his testimony to her face, gratifying his mother, by whom she was being prosecuted as a defendant.

Deductus in Forum tiro populo congiarium, militi donativum proposuit indictaque decursione praetorianis scutum sua manu praetulit; exin patri gratias in senatu egit. Apud eundem consulem pro Bononiensibus Latine, pro Rhodiis atque Iliensibus Graece verba fecit. Auspicatus est et iuris dictionem praefectus urbi sacro Latinarum, celeberrimis patronis non tralaticias, ut assolet, et brevis, sed maximas plurimasque postulationes certatim ingerentibus, quamvis interdictum a Claudio esset.

Led down into the Forum, a tyro, he proposed a congiary for the people and a donative for the soldiery, and a decursion having been proclaimed, he bore a shield with his own hand before the Praetorians; thereafter he gave thanks to his father in the senate. Before the same consul he spoke on behalf of the Bononians in Latin, and on behalf of the Rhodians and the Ilians in Greek. He also inaugurated the exercise of jurisdiction, as praefect of the city, at the Latin Festival, while the most celebrated advocates, not tralaticious and brief requests, as is the custom, but the greatest and very many petitions, were thrusting forward in rivalry—although this had been forbidden by Claudius.

Nec multo post duxit uxorem Octaviam ediditque pro Claudi salute circenses et venationem.

Not long after, he married Octavia and produced circus games and a beast-hunt for Claudius’s welfare.

VIII. Septemdecim natus annos, ut de Claudio palam factum est, inter horam sextam septimamque processit ad excubitores, cum ob totius diei diritatem non aliud auspicandi tempus accommodatius videretur; proque Palati gradibus imperator consalutatus lectica in castra et inde raptim appellatis militibus in curiam delatus est discessitque iam vesperi, ex immensis, quibus cumulabatur, honoribus tantum patris patriae nomine recusato propter aetatem.

8. At seventeen years of age, when the matter about Claudius was made public, between the sixth and seventh hour he went forth to the guards, since on account of the balefulness of the whole day no other time seemed more suitable for taking the auspices; and before the steps of the Palatine he was hailed imperator, was borne in a litter to the camp, and thence, after addressing the soldiers in haste, was carried into the curia, and he departed now at evening, of the immense honors with which he was being heaped refusing only the title Father of the Fatherland on account of his age.

IX. Orsus hinc a pietatis ostentatione Claudium apparatissimo funere elatum laudavit et consecravit. Memoriae Domiti patris honores maximos habuit. Matri summam omnium rerum privatarum publicarumque permisit.

9. Beginning here with an ostentation of piety, he praised and consecrated Claudius, carried out with a most sumptuous funeral. He paid the greatest honors to the memory of his father Domitius. To his mother he permitted the highest authority over all affairs, private and public.

Primo etiam imperii die signum excubanti tribuno dedit "optimam matrem" ac deinceps eiusdem saepe lectica per publicum simul vectus est. Antium coloniam deduxit ascriptis veteranis e praetorio additisque per domicilii translationem ditissimis primipilarium; ubi et portum operis sumptuosissimi fecit.

On the very first day of his rule he gave to the tribune on guard the watchword "the best mother," and thereafter he was often carried together with that same one’s litter through the public. He led out a colony to Antium, enrolling veterans from the Praetorian Guard and, by a transfer of domicile, the wealthiest of the primipilares; where he also made a harbor of the most sumptuous workmanship.

X. Atque ut certiorem adhuc indolem ostenderet, ex Augusti praescripto imperaturum se professus, neque liberalitatis neque clementiae, ne comitatis quidem exhibendae ullam occasionem omisit. Graviora vectigalia aut abolevit aut minuit. Praemia delatorum Papiae legis ad quartas redegit.

10. And, to show an even more assured disposition, having professed that he would rule according to Augustus’s precept, he omitted no occasion of exhibiting generosity or clemency, not even of comity. He either abolished or diminished the heavier taxes. He reduced the rewards of informers under the Papia law to one-fourth.

Divisis populo viritim quadringenis nummis senatorum nobilissimo cuique, sed a re familiari destituto annua salaria et quibusdam quingena constituit item praetorianis cohortibus frumentum menstruum gratuitum. Et cum de supplicio cuiusdam capite damnati ut ex more subscriberet admoneretur: "quam vellem, " inquit, "nescire litteras". Omnes ordines subinde ac memoriter salutavit. Agenti senatui gratias respondit: "Cum meruero". Ad campestres exercitationes suas admisit et plebem declamavitque saepius publice; recitavit et carmina, non modo domi sed et in theatro, tanta universorum laetitia, ut ob recitationem supplicatio decreta sit eaque pars carminum aureis litteris Iovi Capitolino dicata.

Having distributed to the people, man by man, 400 coins, he established annual salaries for each of the noblest of the senators who was, however, destitute in his private means, and for some five hundred each; likewise he fixed for the praetorian cohorts a monthly ration of grain free of charge. And when he was reminded, as is the custom, to subscribe to the punishment of a certain man condemned to death, he said: "how I wish, " he said, "not to know letters". He greeted all orders repeatedly and from memory. When the senate was offering thanks, he replied: "When I shall have deserved it". He admitted even the plebs to his field exercises and declaimed more often in public; he also recited poems, not only at home but in the theater too, with such universal joy that on account of the recitation a public supplication was decreed, and a portion of the poems was dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus in golden letters.

XI. Spectaculorum plurima et varia genera edidit: iuvenales, circenses, scaenicos ludos, gladiatorium munus. Iuvenalibus senes quoque consulares anusque matronas recepit ad lusum. Circensibus loca equiti secreta a ceteris tribuit commisitque etiam camelorum quadrigas.

11. He produced very many and varied kinds of spectacles: the Juvenalia, circus-games, scenic plays, and a gladiatorial show. At the Juvenalia he admitted even consular old men and aged matrons to the sport. At the circus-games he allotted places to the equestrian order, separate from the others, and he even set quadrigas of camels to compete.

Ludis, quos pro aeternitate imperii susceptos appellari "maximos" voluit, ex utroque ordine et sexu plerique ludicras partes sustinuerunt; notissimus eques R. elephanto supersidens per catadromum decucurrit; inducta Afrani togata, quae Incendium inscribitur, concessumque ut scaenici ardentis domus supellectilem diriperent ac sibi haberent; sparsa et populo missilia omnium rerum per omnes dies: singula cotidie milia avium cuiusque generis, multiplex penus, tesserae frumentariae, vestis, aurum, argentum, gemmae, margaritae, tabulae pictae, mancipia, iumenta atque etiam mansuetae ferae, novissimae naves, insulae, agri.

At the games, which he undertook for the eternity of the empire and wished to be called “the greatest,” from both orders and both sexes very many sustained ludicrous parts; a very well-known Roman equestrian, seated upon an elephant, ran down the catadrome; a togata of Afranius was put on, which is entitled The Conflagration, and it was permitted that the actors should plunder the furnishings of a burning house and keep them for themselves; there were scattered to the people missilia of every sort through all the days: each day a thousand birds of every kind, manifold provisions, grain-tickets, clothing, gold, silver, jewels, pearls, painted panels, slaves, beasts of burden and even tamed wild animals, brand-new ships, apartment-buildings, fields.

XII. Hos ludos spectavit e proscaeni fastigio. Munere, quod in amphitheatro ligneo regione Martii campi intra anni spatium fabricato dedit, neminem occidit, ne noxiorum quidem.

12. He watched these games from the height of the proscenium. In the munus which he gave in a wooden amphitheater, constructed in the region of the Campus Martius within the span of a year, he put no one to death, not even of the condemned.

Exhibuit autem ad ferrum etiam quadringentos senatores sescentosque equites Romanos et quosdam fortunae atque existimationis integrae, ex isdem ordinibus confectores quoque ferarum et varia harenae ministeria. Exhibuit et naumachiam marina aqua innantibus beluis; item pyrrichas quasdam e numero epheborum, quibus post editam operam diplomata civitatis Romanae singulis optulit. Inter pyrricharum argumenta taurus Pasiphaam ligneo iuvencae simulacro abditam iniit, ut multi spectantium crediderunt; Icarus primo statim conatu iuxta cubiculum eius decidit ipsumque cruore respersit.

Moreover, he exhibited to the sword even four hundred senators and six hundred Roman equites, and certain persons of unimpaired fortune and reputation; from these same orders, he produced also beast-slayers and the various ministries of the arena. He exhibited also a naumachia with sea water, with sea-beasts swimming; likewise certain pyrrhiches from the number of ephebes, to whom, after their work was displayed, he proffered to each diplomas of Roman citizenship. Among the plots of the pyrrhiches, a bull approached Pasiphaë, hidden in a wooden simulacrum of a heifer, as many of the spectators believed; Icarus, at his very first attempt, fell down next to his box and spattered him himself with blood.

Nam perraro praesidere, ceterum accubans, parvis primum foraminibus, deinde toto podio adaperto spectare consueverat.
3. Instituit et quinquennale certamen primus omnium Romae more Graeco triplex, musicum gymnicum equestre, quod appellavit Neronia; dedicatisque thermis atque gymnasio senatui quoque et equiti oleum praebuit. Magistros toto certamini praeposuit consulares sorte, sede praetorum.

For he very rarely presided; otherwise, reclining, he was accustomed to watch, at first through small apertures, then with the whole podium opened.
3. He also instituted a five-year contest, the first of all at Rome, in the Greek manner, threefold—musical, gymnic, and equestrian—which he called the Neronia; and with the baths and the gymnasium dedicated, he furnished oil to the senate and to the equestrian order as well. He set over the whole contest as masters consulars chosen by lot, with the praetors’ seat.

Deinde in orchestram senatumque descendit et orationis quidem carminisque Latini coronam, de qua honestissimus quisque contenderat, ipsorum consensu concessam sibi recepit, citharae autem a iudicibus ad se delatam adoravit ferrique ad Augusti statuam iussit. Gymnico, quod in Saeptis edebat, inter buthysiae apparatum barbam primam posuit conditamque in auream pyxidem et pretiosissimis margaritis adornatam Capitolio consecravit. Ad athletarum spectaculum invitavit et virgines Vestales, quia Olympiae quoque Cereris sacerdotibus spectare conceditur.

Then he descended into the orchestra and the senate, and the crown of Latin oration and song, for which every most honorable man had contended, he accepted as granted to himself by their own consensus; but the one for the cithara, delivered to him by the judges, he adored and ordered to be carried to the statue of Augustus. As for the gymnic contest, which he was exhibiting in the Saepta, amid the apparatus of a buthysia he set down his first beard, and, laid away in a golden pyxis and adorned with most precious pearls, he consecrated it on the Capitol. To the spectacle of the athletes he invited even the Vestal Virgins, because at Olympia it is likewise permitted for the priestesses of Ceres to look on.

XIII. Non immerito inter spectacula ad eo edita et Tiridatis in urbem introitum rettulerim. Quem Armeniae regem magnis pollicitationibus sollicitatum, cum destinato per edictum die ostensurus populo propter nubilum distulisset, produxit quo opportunissime potuit, dispositis circa Fori templa armatis cohortibus, curuli residens apud rostra triumphantis habitu inter signa militaria atque vexilla.

13. Not without reason I would include among the spectacles given by him also Tiridates’ entry into the city. This king of Armenia, enticed by great promises, though he had postponed displaying him to the people on the day fixed by edict because of overcast weather, he brought forth as opportunely as he could, with armed cohorts stationed around the temples of the Forum, sitting on a curule chair by the rostra in the attire of a triumphator, amid military standards and banners.

Et primo per devexum pulpitum subeuntem admisit ad genua adlevatumque dextra exosculatus est, dein precanti tiara deducta diadema inposuit, verba supplicis interpretata praetorio viro multitudini pronuntiante; perductum inde in theatrum ac rursus supplicantem iuxta se latere dextro conlocavit. Ob quae imperator consalutatus, laurea in Capitolium lata, Ianum geminum clausit, tamquam nullo residuo bello.

And at first, as he was ascending by the sloping platform, he admitted him to his knees and, raising him with his right hand, kissed him; then, as he petitioned, the tiara having been removed, he set the diadem upon him, the words of the suppliant being interpreted, a praetorian man proclaiming them to the multitude; then led thence into the theater and, again supplicating, he seated him beside himself on the right side. For which he was hailed Imperator, the laurel being borne to the Capitol, and he closed the Janus Geminus, as though with no war remaining.

XIV. Consulatus quattuor gessit: primum bimenstrem, secundum et novissimum semenstres, tertium quadrimenstrem; medios duos continuavit, reliquos inter annua spatia variavit.

14. He held four consulships: the first for two months, the second and the last for six months, the third for four months; he ran the two middle ones together, and distributed the others across annual intervals.

XV. In iuris dictione postulatoribus nisi sequenti die ac per libellos non temere respondit. Cognoscendi morem eum tenuit, ut continuis actionibus omissis singillatim quaeque per vices ageret. Quotiens autem ad consultandum secederet, neque in commune quicquam neque propalam deliberabat, sed et conscriptas ab uno quoque sententias tacitus ac secreto legens, quod ipsi libuisset perinde atque pluribus idem videretur pronuntiabat.

15. In pronouncing law, he did not readily reply to petitioners except on the following day and by libelli (written petitions). He maintained this manner of cognoscence, that, with continuous actions omitted, he would handle each matter individually by turns. Whenever he withdrew for consultation, he deliberated neither in common nor openly, but, silently and in private reading the opinions written out by each person, he pronounced what had pleased himself, as if the same had seemed good to several.

2. In curiam libertinorum filios diu non admisit; admissis a prioribus principibus honores denegavit. Candidatos, qui supra numerum essent, in solacium dilationis ac morae legionibus praeposuit. Consulatum in senos plerumque menses dedit.

2. He did not for a long time admit the sons of freedmen into the Senate; to those who had been admitted by earlier emperors he denied honors. The candidates who were beyond the number he put in command of legions as a consolation for the deferral and delay. He granted the consulship, for the most part, in six‑month terms.

Defunctoque circa Kal. Ian. altero e consulibus neminem substituit improbans exemplum vetus Canini Rebili uno die consulis.

And when, with one of the consuls having died about the Kalends of January, he appointed no substitute, disapproving the old precedent of Caninius Rebilus, consul for one day.

Triumphalia ornamenta etiam quaestoriae dignitatis et nonnulis ex equestri ordine tribuit nec utique de causa militari. De quibusdam rebus orationes ad senatum missas praeterito quaestoris officio per consulem plerumque recitabat.

He granted triumphal ornaments even to men of quaestorian dignity and to some from the equestrian order, and not necessarily on account of a military cause. About certain matters, the speeches sent to the senate he would for the most part have recited, bypassing the office of the quaestor, through the consul.

XVI. Formam aedificiorum urbis novam excogitavit et ut ante insulas ac domos porticus essent, de quarum solariis incendia arcerentur; easque sumptu suo extruxit. Destinarat etiam Ostia tenus moenia promovere atque inde fossa mare veteri urbi inducere.

16. He devised a new plan for the city’s buildings, namely that there should be porticoes in front of the apartment blocks and houses, from whose roof-terraces fires might be kept at bay; and he constructed these at his own expense. He had also intended to extend the walls as far as Ostia and from there to bring the sea into the old city by a canal.

2. Multa sub eo et animadversa severe et coercita nec minus instituta: adhibitus sumptibus modus; publicae cenae ad sportulas redactae; interdictum ne quid in popinis cocti praeter legumina aut holera veniret, cum antea nullum non obsonii genus proponeretur; afflicti suppliciis Christiani, genus hominum superstitionis novae ac maleficae; vetiti quadrigariorum lusus, quibus inveterata licentia passim vagantibus fallere ac furari per iocum ius erat; pantomimorum factiones cum ipsis simul relegatae.

2. Many things under him were strictly observed and punished and restrained, and no less instituted: a limit was applied to expenditures; public dinners were reduced to dole-baskets; it was forbidden that anything cooked be sold in cookshops except pulses or greens, whereas previously not any kind of viand was not set out; Christians were afflicted with punishments, a class of men of a new and baleful superstition; the games of the charioteers were forbidden, for whom, with inveterate license as they roamed everywhere, it was a right to deceive and to steal by way of jest; the factions of the pantomimes were banished together with the performers themselves.

XVII. Adversus falsarios tunc primum repertum, ne tabulae nisi pertusae ac ter lino per foramina traiecto obsignarentur; cautum ut testamentis primae duae cerae testatorum modo nomine inscripto vacuae signaturis ostenderentur, ac ne qui alieni testamenti scriptor legatum sibi ascriberet; item ut litigatores pro patrociniis certam iustamque mercedem, pro subsellis nullam omnino darent praebente aerario gratuita; utque rerum actu ab aerario causae ad Forum ac reciperatores transferrentur et ut omnes appellationes a iudicibus ad senatum fierent.

17. Against forgers it was then for the first time devised that tablets should not be sealed unless pierced and with linen thrice drawn through the holes; it was provided that in wills the first two wax leaves be shown empty of signet-impressions, with only the name of the testators inscribed, and that no scribe of another’s will should ascribe a legacy to himself; likewise that litigants should give a fixed and just fee for advocacies, but none at all for benches, these being furnished gratis by the treasury; and that cases concerning the conduct of business from the aerarium be transferred to the Forum and the recuperators, and that all appeals from the judges be made to the Senate.

XVIII. Augendi propagandique imperii neque voluntate ulla neque spe motus umquam, etiam ex Britannia deducere exercitum cogitavit, nec nisi verecundia, ne obtrectare parentis gloriae videretur, destitit. Ponti modo regnum concedente Polemone, item Alpium defuncto Cottio in provinciae formam redegit.

18. Moved neither by any will nor hope of augmenting and propagating the empire, he even considered leading the army back from Britain, and only out of modest regard, lest he seem to detract from his father’s glory, did he desist. Only the kingdom of Pontus—Polemon ceding it—and likewise that of the Alps—upon the death of Cottius—he reduced into the form of a province.

XIX. Peregrinationes duas omnino suscepit, Alexandrinam et Achaicam; sed Alexandrina ipso profectionis die destitit turbatus religione simul ac periculo. Nam cum circumitis templis in aede Vestae resedisset, consurgenti ei primum lacinia obhaesit, dein tanta oborta caligo est, ut dispicere non posset.

19. He undertook two journeys in all, the Alexandrian and the Achaean; but the Alexandrian he abandoned on the very day of departure, disturbed by religion as well as by danger. For when, after going around the temples, he had sat down in the temple of Vesta, as he rose, first the hem of his garment snagged; then such a darkness arose that he could not see.

In Achaia Isthmum perfodere adgressus praetorianos pro contione ad incohandum opus cohortatus est tubaeque signo dato primus rastello humum effodit et corbulae congestam umeris extulit. Parabat et ad Caspias portas expeditionem conscripta ex Italicis senum pedum tironibus nova legione, quam Magni Alexandri phalanga appellabat.
3. Haec partim nulla reprehensione, partim etiam non mediocri laude digna in unum contuli, ut secernerem a probris ac sceleribus eius, de quibus dehinc dicam.

In Achaia, having undertaken to cut through the Isthmus, he exhorted the Praetorians before the assembly to commence the work; and, the signal of the trumpet having been given, he was the first to dig the earth with a mattock, and carried it out, heaped into a little basket, upon his shoulders. He was also preparing an expedition to the Caspian Gates, with a new legion levied from Italians six feet tall, which he called the phalanx of Alexander the Great.
3. These things, partly with no censure, partly even worthy of no mediocre praise, I have gathered into one, so that I might separate them from his disgraces and crimes, about which hereafter I will speak.

XX. Inter ceteras disciplinas pueritiae tempore imbutus et musica, statim ut imperium adeptus est, Terpnum citharoedum vigentem tunc praeter alios arcessiit diebusque continuis post cenam canenti in multam noctem assidens paulatim et ipse meditari exercerique coepit neque eorum quicquam omittere, quae generis eius artifices vel conservandae vocis causa vel augendae factitarent; sed et plumbeam chartam supinus pectore sustinere et clystere vomituque purgari et abstinere pomis cibisque officientibus; donec blandiente profectu, quamquam exiguae vocis et fuscae, prodire in scaenam concupiit, subinde inter familiares Graecum proverbium iactans occultae musicae nullum esse respectum. Et prodit Neapoli primum ac ne concusso quidem repente motu terrae theatro ante cantare destitit, quam incohatum absolveret nomon. Ibidem saepius et per complures cantavit dies; sumpto etiam ad reficiendam vocem brevi tempore, impatiens secreti a balineis in theatrum transiit mediaque in orchestra frequente populo epulatus, si paulum subbibisset, aliquid se sufferti tinniturum Graeco sermone promisit.

20. Among his other disciplines, in the time of childhood he was also imbued with music; and as soon as he obtained the imperium, he summoned Terpnus, a cithara-player then flourishing beyond the rest, and, sitting by him for successive days after dinner as he sang late into the night, he gradually himself began to rehearse and to be exercised, nor to omit any of the things which practitioners of that art habitually do either for the sake of preserving the voice or of augmenting it: even, lying on his back, to hold a leaden sheet upon his chest, to be purged by clyster and by vomiting, and to abstain from apples and foods that hinder. Until, progress coaxing him on—though of a small and dusky (husky) voice—he conceived a desire to appear upon the stage, repeatedly tossing among his intimates the Greek proverb that “there is no regard for hidden music.” And he appeared first at Neapolis, and not even when the theater was suddenly shaken by an earthquake shock did he cease singing before he finished the nomos he had begun. There too he sang more often and for several days; and, even after taking a short time to refresh his voice, impatient of seclusion he went from the baths into the theater, and, having feasted in the middle of the orchestra with the populace in attendance, he promised in Greek that, if he had just sipped a little, he would trill out something.

Captus autem modulatis Alexandrinorum laudationibus, qui de novo commeatu Neapolim confluxerant, plures Alexandria evocavit. Neque eo segnius adulescentulos equestris ordinis et quinque amplius milia e plebe robustissimae iuventutis undique elegit, qui divisi in factiones plausuum genera condiscerent -- bombos et imbrices et testas vocabant -- operamque navarent cantanti sibi, insignes pinguissima coma et excellentissimo cultu, puris ac sine anulo laevis, quorum duces quadringena milia sestertia merebant.

Captured, moreover, by the modulated laudations of the Alexandrians, who had flocked to Naples with a new convoy, he summoned more from Alexandria. Nor any the less for that did he choose young men of the equestrian order and, from the plebs, more than five thousand of the most robust youth from everywhere, who, divided into factions, should learn kinds of applause -- they called them bombi, imbrices, and testae -- and render zealous service to him as he sang, distinguished by the most luxuriant hair and the most excellent attire, clean and smooth, without a ring, whose leaders were earning 400,000 sesterces apiece.

XXI. Cum magni aestimaret cantare etiam Romae, Neroneum agona ante praestitutam diem revocavit flagitantibusque cunctis caelestem vocem respondit quidem in hortis se copiam volentibus facturum, sed adiuvante vulgi preces etiam statione militum, quae tunc excubabat, repraesentaturum se pollicitus est libens; ac sine mora nomen suum in albo profitentium citharoedorum iussit ascribi sorticulaque in urnam cum ceteris demissa intravit ordine suo, simul praefecti praetorii citharam sustinentes, post tribuni militum iuxtaque amicorum intimi. Utque constitit, peracto principio, Niobam se cantaturum per Cluvium Rufum consularem pronuntiavit et in horam fere decimam perseveravit coronamque eam et reliquam certaminis partem in annum sequentem distulit, ut saepius canendi occasio esset.

21. Since he esteemed it a great thing to sing even at Rome, he recalled the Neronean Agon before the pre-appointed day; and as all were clamoring for the heavenly voice, he replied that in the gardens he would make himself available to those who wished, but, the prayers of the crowd being seconded even by the military station then on guard, he gladly promised that he would give an immediate performance; and without delay he ordered his name to be entered in the album of citharoedes who declared themselves, and, the little lots having been dropped into the urn with the others, he entered in his proper turn—at the same time the praetorian prefects holding the cithara, after them the tribunes of the soldiers, and next his closest friends. And when he had taken his stand, the preliminaries having been completed, he announced through Cluvius Rufus, a consular, that he would sing “Niobe,” and he persisted until almost the tenth hour, and he deferred the awarding of that crown and the remaining part of the contest to the following year, so that there might be more frequent occasion for singing.

Quod cum tardum videretur, non cessavit identidem se publicare. Dubitavit etiam an privatis spectaculis operam inter scaenios daret quodam praetorum sestertium decies offerente. Tragoedias quoque cantavit personatus heroum deorumque, item heroidum ac dearum, personis effectis ad similitudinem oris sui et feminae, prout quamque diligeret.

Since this seemed slow, he did not cease repeatedly to make himself public. He even wavered whether to lend his services among stage-players at private spectacles, one of the praetors offering 1,000,000 sesterces. He also sang tragedies, masked as heroes and gods, likewise as heroines and goddesses, the masks fashioned to the likeness of his own face and of a woman’s, according as he cherished each.

Inter cetera cantavit Canacen parturientem, Oresten matricidam, Oedipodem excaecatum, Herculem insanum. In qua fabula fama est tirunculum militem positum ad custodiam aditus, cum eum ornari ac vinciri catenis, sicut argumentum postulabat, videret, accurrisse ferendae opis gratia.

Among the rest he sang Canace in labor, Orestes the matricide, Oedipus blinded, Hercules insane. In which play rumor has it that a raw recruit soldier, posted to guard the entrance, when he saw him being arrayed and bound with chains, as the argument required, ran up for the sake of bringing aid.

XXII. Equorum studio vel praecipue ab ineunte aetate flagravit plurimusque illi sermo, quanquam vetaretur, de circensibus erat; et quondam tractum prasinum agitatorem inter condiscipulos querens, obiurgante paedagogo, de Hectore se loqui ementitus est. Sed cum inter initia imperii eburneis quadrigis cotidie in abaco luderet, ad omnis etiam minimos circenses e secessu commeabat, primo clam, deinde propalam, ut nemini dubium esset eo die utique affuturum.

22. He burned with zeal for horses especially from his earliest age, and very much of his talk, although it was forbidden, was about the circus; and once, complaining among his fellow-pupils that a Green charioteer had been dragged off, when his pedagogue scolded him, he pretended that he was speaking about Hector. But although at the beginning of his principate he played every day on a board with ivory four-horse teams, he used to go from seclusion to all the circus-races, even the very smallest—at first secretly, then openly—so that to no one was there any doubt that on that day he would certainly be present.

Neque dissimulabat velle se palmarum numerum ampliari; quare spectaculum multiplicatis missibus in serum protrahebatur, ne dominis quidem iam factionum dignantibus nisi ad totius diei cursum greges ducere. Mox et ipse aurigare atque etiam spectari saepius voluit positoque in hortis inter servitia et sordidam plebem rudimento universorum se oculis in Circo Maximo praebuit, aliquo liberto mittente mappam unde magistratus solent. Nec contentus harum artium experimenta Romae dedisse, Achaiam, ut diximus, petit hinc maxime motus.

Nor did he conceal that he wanted the number of palms to be increased; therefore the spectacle, with the heats multiplied, was drawn out into the late hours, with not even the owners of the factions now deigning to bring out their teams except for a whole day’s run. Soon he wished to drive a chariot himself and even to be seen more often, and, after a training-bout set in the gardens among the slave-ranks and the sordid rabble, he presented himself to the eyes of all in the Circus Maximus, with some freedman dropping the napkin from the place whence the magistrates are accustomed. And not content with having given proofs of these arts at Rome, he sought Achaia, as we said, moved chiefly by this.

Instituerant civitates, apud quas musici agones edi solent, omnes citharoedorum coronas ad ipsum mittere. Eas adeo grate recipiebat, ut legatos, qui pertulissent, non modo primos admitteret, sed etiam familiaribus epulis interponeret. A quibusdam ex his rogatus ut cantaret super cenam, expectusque effusius, solos scire audire Graecos solosque se et studiis suis dignos ait.

The cities, in which musical agones are accustomed to be held, had instituted that all the citharoedes’ crowns be sent to him. He received these so gratefully that he not only admitted the envoys who had brought them first, but even placed them among intimate banquets. Asked by some of these to sing over dinner, and being welcomed more lavishly, he said that only the Greeks know how to listen, and that they alone are worthy of himself and his studies.

Nec profectione dilata, ut primum Cassiopen traiecit, statim ad aram Iovis Cassii cantare auspicatus certamina deinceps obiit omnia.

Nor delaying his departure, as soon as he crossed over to Cassiope, immediately at the altar of Jupiter Cassius he began by singing, and thereafter he entered all the contests in succession.

XXIII. Nam et quae diversissimorum temporum sunt, cogi in unum annum, quibusdam etiam iteratis, iussit et Olympiae quoque praeter consuetudinem musicum agona commisit. Ac ne quid circa haec occupatum avocaret detineretve, cum praesentia eius urbicas res egere a liberto Helio admoneretur, rescripsit his verbis: "Quamvis nunc tuum consilium sit et votum celeriter reverti me, tamen suadere et optare potius debes, ut Nerone dignus revertar.

23. For he even ordered those which belong to the most diverse times to be gathered into one year, with some even repeated, and he also, at Olympia and contrary to custom, established a musical agon. And, lest anything, while he was occupied with these matters, should call him away or detain him, when he was being reminded by his freedman Helios that the city’s affairs required his presence, he wrote back in these words: "Although your counsel and wish now is that I return quickly, nevertheless you ought rather to urge and to wish that I return worthy of Nero.

" Cantante eo ne necessaria quidem causa excedere theatro licitum est. Itaque et enixae quaedam in spectaculis dicuntur et multi taedio audiendi laudandique clausis oppidorum portis aut furtim desiluisse de muro aut morte simulata funere elati. Quam autem trepide anxieque certaverit, quanta adversariorum aemulatione, quo metu iudicum, vix credi potest.

" While he was singing, it was not permitted to leave the theater even for a necessary cause. And so it is said that some women gave birth at the spectacles, and many, out of the tedium of listening and applauding, with the gates of the towns closed, either secretly leaped down from the wall or, feigning death, were carried out in a funeral. But how tremblingly and anxiously he competed, with how great the emulation of adversaries, with what fear of the judges, can scarcely be believed.

Adversarios, quasi plane condicionis eiusdem, observare, captare, infamare secreto, nonnumquam ex occursu maledictis incessere ac, si qui arte praecellerent, conrumpere etiam solebat. Iudices autem prius quam inciperet reverentissime adloquebatur, omnia se facienda fecisse, sed eventum in manu esse Fortunae; illos ut sapientis et doctos viros fortuita debere excludere; atque, ut auderet hortantibus, aequiore animo recedebat, ac ne sic quidem sine sollicitudine, taciturnitatem pudoremque quorundam pro tristitia et malignitate arguens suspectosque sibi dicens.

He used to observe his adversaries, as if plainly of the same condition, to try to catch them out, to defame them in secret, sometimes upon an encounter to assail them with maledictions, and, if any excelled in skill, even to corrupt them. The judges, however, he addressed most reverently before he began, saying that he had done everything that had to be done, but that the outcome was in the hand of Fortune; that they, as wise and learned men, ought to exclude fortuitous things; and when they encouraged him to take heart, he withdrew with a calmer mind, and not even thus without anxiety, accusing the taciturnity and modesty of certain persons as gloom and malignity and saying they were suspect to him.

XXIV. In certando vero ita legi oboediebat, ut numquam exscreare ausus sudorem quoque frontis brachio detergeret; atque etiam in tragico quodam actu, cum elapsum baculum cito resumpsisset, pavidus et metuens ne ob delictum certamine summoveretur, non aliter confirmatus est quam adiurante hypocrita non animadversum id inter exsultationes succlamationesque populi. Victorem autem se ipse pronuntiabat; qua de causa et praeconio ubique contendit.

24. In contesting, indeed, he obeyed the rule to such a degree that he never dared to expectorate, and would even wipe the sweat of his forehead with his arm; and even in a certain tragic act, when he quickly picked up a staff that had slipped, fearful and afraid lest on account of the delinquency he be removed from the contest, he was reassured only when an actor, with an oath, declared that it had not been noticed amid the exultations and acclamations of the people. Moreover, he pronounced himself the victor; for which reason he also everywhere contended for the herald’s proclamation.

Ac ne cuius alterius hieronicarum memoria aut vestigium exstaret usquam, subverti et unco trahi abicique in latrinas omnium statuas et imagines imperavit. Aurigavit quoque plurifariam, Olympiis vero etiam decemiugem, quamvis id ipsum in rege Mithradate carmine quodam suo reprehendisset; sed excussus curru ac rursus repositus, cum perdurare non posset, destitit ante decursum; neque eo setius coronatus est. Decedens deinde provinciam universam libertate donavit simulque iudices civitate Romana et pecunia grandi.

And lest the memory or even the vestige of anyone else’s sacred victories should exist anywhere, he ordered all their statues and images to be overthrown, dragged off with a hook, and cast into latrines. He also drove a chariot in many places, and at the Olympic Games even a ten-horse team, although he had censured this very thing in King Mithridates in one of his poems; but, thrown from the chariot and then set back in, since he could not endure to the end, he gave up before completing the course; and he was crowned nonetheless. Then, on departing, he bestowed liberty upon the entire province, and upon the judges Roman citizenship and a large sum of money.

Quae beneficia e medio stadio Isthmiorum die sua ipse voce pronuntiavit.

Which benefactions he himself proclaimed, in his own voice, from the middle of the stadium of the Isthmian Games, on his own day.

XXV. Reversus e Graecia Neapolim, quod in ea primum artem protulerat, albis equis introiit disiecta parte muri, ut mos hieronicarum est; simili modo Antium, inde Albanum, inde Romam; sed et Romam eo curru, quo Augustus olim triumphaverat, et in veste purpurea distinctaque stellis aureis chlamyde coronamque capite gerens Olympiacam, dextra manu Pythiam, praeeunte pompa ceterarum cum titulis, ubi et quos quo cantionum quove fabularum argumento vicisset; sequentibus currum ovantium ritu plausoribus, Augustianos militesque se triumphi eius clamitantibus. Dehinc diruto Circi Maximi arcu per Velabrum Forumque Palatium et Apollinem petit.

25. Returned from Greece to Naples, since there he had first put forth his art, he entered with white horses through a broken part of the wall, as is the hieronic custom; in similar fashion to Antium, thence to Albanum, thence to Rome; and into Rome too in that chariot in which Augustus once had triumphed, and wearing a purple robe and a chlamys sprinkled with golden stars and on his head bearing the Olympic crown, and in his right hand the Pythian; a procession of his other (crowns) going before with titles, where and whom he had defeated, and by what theme of songs or of plays; applauders following the chariot in the manner of an ovation, the Augustiani and the soldiers loudly proclaiming themselves his triumphal escort. Thereafter, the arch of the Circus Maximus having been broken through, through the Velabrum and the Forum he made for the Palatine and Apollo.

Incedenti passim victimae caesae sparso per vias identidem croco ingestaeque aves ac lemnisci et bellaria. Sacras coronas in cubiculis circum lectos posuit, item statuas suas citharoedico habitu, qua nota etiam nummum percussit. Ac post haec tantum afuit a remittendo laxandoque studio, ut conservandae vocis gratia neque milites umquam, nisi absens aut alio verba pronuntiante, appellaret neque quicquam serio iocove egerit, nisi astante phonasco, qui moneret parceret arteriis ac sudarium ad os applicaret; multisque vel amicitiam suam optulerit vel simultatem indixerit, prout quisque se magis parciusve laudasset.

As he proceeded, everywhere victims were slain, saffron was repeatedly scattered along the streets, and birds and lemnisci (ribbons) and sweetmeats were showered in. He placed the sacred crowns in the bedchambers around the couches, likewise his own statues in citharoedic attire, a device with which he even struck a coin. And after these things he was so far from relaxing or loosening his zeal that, for the sake of conserving his voice, he would never address the soldiers except when absent or with another pronouncing the words; nor did he do anything in earnest or in jest unless the phonaschus (voice-coach) stood by to advise him to spare his arteries and to apply a handkerchief to his mouth; and to many he either proffered his friendship or proclaimed enmity, according as each had praised him more or more sparingly.

XXVI. Petulantiam, libidinem, luxuriam, avaritiam, crudelitatem sensim quidem primo et occulte et velut iuvenili errore exercuit, sed ut tunc quoque dubium nemini foret naturae illa vitia, non aetatis esse. Post crepusculum statim adrepto pilleo vel galero popinas inibat circumque vicos vagabatur ludibundus nec sine pernicie tamen, siquidem redeuntis a cena verberare ac repugnantes vunerare cloacisque demergere assuerat, tabernas etiam effringere et expilare.

26. He exercised petulance, libido, luxury, avarice, cruelty—gradually indeed at first and covertly and as if by a youthful error—yet in such a way that even then it was doubtful to no one that those vices were of his nature, not of his age. After dusk, immediately, having taken up a cap or broad-brimmed hat, he would enter taverns and wander around the neighborhoods sportively, yet not without harm; for he had become accustomed to beat those returning from dinner, to wound those who resisted, and to plunge them into the sewers, and even to break open and plunder shops.

Quintana domi constituta ubi partae et ad licitationem dividendae praedae pretium absumeretur. Ac saepe in eius modi rixis oculorum et vitae periculum adiit, a quodam laticlavio, cuius uxorem adtrectaverat, prope ad necem caesus. Quare numquam postea publico se illud horae sine tribunis commisit procul et occulte subsequentibus.

With a quintana established at home, where the proceeds of plunder obtained and to be divided by auction were used up. And often in brawls of this sort he incurred danger to his eyes and his life, having been beaten nearly to death by a certain laticlavius, whose wife he had handled. Therefore thereafter he never exposed himself in public at that hour without tribunes following at a distance and secretly.

Interdiu quoque clam gestatoria sella delatus in theatrum seditionibus pantomimorum e parte proscaeni superiore signifer simul ac spectator aderat. Et cum ad manus ventum esset lapidibusque et subselliorum fragminibus decerneretur, multa et ipse iecit in populum atque etiam praetoris caput consauciavit.

By day as well, secretly, conveyed in a carrying-chair into the theater, at the seditions of the pantomimes he was present from the upper part of the proscenium, a standard-bearer as well as a spectator. And when it came to blows and the contest was waged with stones and fragments of benches, he too hurled many missiles into the crowd and even gashed the praetor’s head.

XXVII. Paulatim vero invalescentibus vitiis iocularia et latebras omisit nullaque dissimulandi cura ad maiora palam erupit. Epulas a medio die ad mediam noctem protrahebat, refotus saepius calidis piscinis ac tempore aestivo nivatis; cenitabatque nonnumquam et in publico, naumachia praeclusa vel Martio campo vel Circo Maximo, inter scortorum totius urbis et ambubaiarum ministeria.

27. Gradually, however, as his vices gained strength, he abandoned his jests and his hiding-places, and with no concern for dissembling burst openly into greater crimes. He would prolong banquets from midday to midnight, being refreshed rather often in hot pools and, in the summer season, in snow-cooled ones; and now and then he even dined in public, the Naumachia, or the Campus Martius, or the Circus Maximus shut off, amid the ministrations of the harlots of the whole city and of flute-girls.

Quotiens Ostiam Tiberi deflueret aut Baianum sinum praeternavigaret, dispositae per litora et ripas diversoriae tabernae parabantur insignes ganea et matronarum institorio copas imitantium atque hinc inde hortantium ut appelleret. Indicebat et familiaribus cenas, quorum uni mitellita quadragies sestertium constitit, alteri pluris aliquanto rosaria.

Whenever he floated down the Tiber to Ostia or sailed past the Baian gulf, lodging-taverns arranged along the shores and banks were made ready, noteworthy for cook-shops (ganea) and for barmaids aping matrons at a shop-stall, and from this side and that urging him to put in. He also proclaimed dinners for his intimates, at one of which a little mussel-dish cost 4,000,000 sesterces, and for another the rose-arrangements cost somewhat more.

XXVIII. Super ingenuorum paedagogia et nuptarum concubinatus Vestali virgini Rubriae vim intulit. Acten libertam paulum afuit quin iusto sibi matrimonio coniungeret, summissis consularibus viris qui regio genere ortam peierarent.

28. In addition to defiling freeborn youths and the concubinage of married women, he committed violence upon the Vestal Virgin Rubria. It was only a little short of his uniting to himself in lawful marriage the freedwoman Acte, after sending in consular men to perjure themselves that she was sprung from royal lineage.

Puerum Sporum exsectis testibus etiam in muliebrem naturam transfigurare conatus cum dote et flammeo per sollemnia nuptiarum celeberrimo officio deductum ad se pro uxore habuit; exstatque cuiusdam non inscitus iocus bene agi potuisse cum rebus humanis, si Domitius pater talem habuisset uxorem. Hunc Sporum, Augustarum ornamentis excultum lecticaque vectum, et circa conventus mercatusque Graeciae ac mox Romae circa Sigillaria comitatus est identidem exosculans. Nam matris concubitum appetisse et ab obtrectatoribus eius, ne ferox atque impotens mulier et hoc genere gratiae praevaleret, deterritum nemo dubitavit, utique postquam meretricem, quam fama erat Agrippinae simillimam, inter concubinas recepit.

He tried to transfigure the boy Sporus, with his testicles cut out, even into the female nature, and, with a dowry and bridal veil, having been led through the solemnities of marriage with a most thronged attendance, he kept him as his wife; and there exists a not unskilled jest of someone, that things could have gone well with human affairs, if his father Domitius had had such a wife. This Sporus, adorned with the ornaments of the Augustae and carried in a litter, he escorted around the assemblies and markets of Greece and soon at Rome around the Sigillaria, again and again kissing him fondly. For no one doubted that he had sought intercourse with his mother and had been deterred by her detractors, lest the fierce and unbridled woman also prevail by this kind of favor, especially after he received among his concubines a prostitute who, rumor had it, was very like Agrippina.

Olim etiam quotiens lectica cum matre veheretur, libidinatum inceste ac maculis vestis proditum affirmant.

They affirm that, at times even, whenever he was being borne in a litter with his mother, he indulged in incestuous lust, and that this was betrayed by stains on his garment.

XXIX. Suam quidem pudicitiam usque adeo prostituit, ut contaminatis paene omnibus membris novissime quasi genus lusus excogitaret, quo ferae pelle contectus emitteretur e cavea virorumque ac feminarum ad stipitem deligatorum inguina invaderet et, cum affatim desaevisset, conficeretur a Doryphoro liberto; cui etiam, sicut ipsi Sporus, ita ipse denupsit, voces quoque et heiulatus vim patientium virginum imitatus. Ex nonnullis comperi persuasissimum habuisse eum neminem hominem pudicum aut ulla corporis parte purum esse, verum plerosque dissimulare vitium et callide optegere; ideoque professis apud se obscaenitatem cetera quoque concessisse delicta.

29. He indeed prostituted his own modesty to such a degree that, with almost all his members contaminated, at last he excogitated, as a kind of game, this: covered with a wild-beast’s pelt he would be let out from a cage and would invade the groins of men and women bound to a stake, and, when he had raged his fill, he would be “finished off” by the freedman Doryphorus; to whom also, just as Sporus to himself, so he himself was married as a bride, even imitating the voices and wailings of maidens suffering force. From several I have learned that he held most firmly the persuasion that no human being was modest or pure in any part of the body, but that the majority dissimulated their vice and cleverly covered it; and therefore, for those confessing obscenity in his presence, he conceded the other crimes as well.

XXX. Divitiarum et pecuniae fructum non alium putabat quam profusionem, sordidos ac deparcos esse quibus impensarum ratio constaret, praelautos vereque magnificos, qui abuterentur ac perderent. Laudabat mirabaturque avunculum Gaium nullo magis nomine, quam quod ingentis a Tiberio relictas opes in brevi spatio prodegisset.

30. He thought the fruit of riches and money to be nothing other than profusion, that those were sordid and over-frugal in whom an account of expenses stood firm, but pre‑eminently lavish and truly magnificent, those who would abuse and squander. He praised and marveled at his uncle Gaius on no point more than that he had, in a brief span, squandered the immense resources left by Tiberius.

2 Quare nec largiendi nec absumendi modum tenuit. In Tiridatem, quod vix credibile videatur, octingena nummum milia diurna erogavit, abeuntique super sestertium milies contulit. Menecraten citharoedum et Spiculum murmillonem triumphalium virorum patrimoniis aedibusque donavit.

2 Therefore he kept no measure either in largessing or in consuming. Upon Tiridates—what can scarcely be believed—he disbursed 800,000 sesterces daily, and when he departed he bestowed upon him over 1,000,000,000 sesterces. He presented Menecrates the citharode and Spiculus the murmillo with the estates and houses of triumphal men.

Cercopithecum Panerotem faeneratorem et urbanis rusticisque praediis locupletatum prope regio extulit funere. 3 Nullam vestem bis induit. Quadringenis in punctum sestertiis aleam lusit.

He exalted the Monkey Panerotes, a moneylender enriched with urban and rural estates, with an almost royal funeral. 3 He did not put on any garment twice. He played dice at 400,000 sesterces per point.

Piscatus est rete aurato et purpura coccoque funibus nexis. Numquam minus mille carrucis fecisse iter traditur, soleis mularum argenteis, canusinatis mulionibus, armillata phalerataque Mazacum turba atque cursorum.

He fished with a gilded net and with ropes woven of purple and scarlet. He is said never to have made a journey with fewer than 1,000 carriages, the mules’ shoes of silver, Canusine muleteers, and a crowd of Mazaces and of runners adorned with bracelets and phalerae.

XXXI. Non in alia re tamen damnosior quam in aedificando domum a Palatio Esquilias usque fecit, quam primo transitoriam, mox incendio absumptam restitutamque auream nominavit. De cuius spatio atque cultu suffecerit haec rettulisse.

31. Not in any other matter, however, was he more ruinous than in building: he made a house from the Palatine to the Esquiline, which at first he called the Transitory, soon, when it had been consumed by a conflagration and restored, he named the Golden House. Of its extent and adornment it will have sufficed to have related these things.

Vestibulum eius fuit, in quo colossus CXX pedum staret ipsius effigie; tanta laxitas, ut porticus triplices miliarias haberet; item stagnum maris instar, circumsaeptum aedificiis ad urbium speciem; rura insuper arvis atque vinetis et pascuis silvisque varia, cum multitudine omnis generis pecudum ac ferarum. 2 In ceteris partibus cuncta auro lita, distincta gemmis unionumque conchis erant; cenationes laqueatae tabulis eburneis versatilibus, ut flores, fistulatis, ut unguenta desuper spargerentur; praecipua cenationum rotunda, quae perpetuo diebus ac noctibus vice mundi circumageretur; balineae marinis et albulis fluentes aquis. Eius modi domum cum absolutam dedicaret, hactenus comprobavit, ut se diceret quasi hominem tandem habitare coepisse.

Its vestibule was one in which a colossus 120 feet tall would stand in his own likeness; so great was the spaciousness that it had triple porticoes a mile long; likewise a pool in the likeness of the sea, enclosed by buildings in the aspect of cities; moreover, rural tracts with fields and vineyards and pastures and varied woods, with a multitude of every kind of cattle and wild beasts. 2 In the other parts, everything was overlaid with gold, set off with gems and with the shells of pearls; the dining rooms had coffered ceilings with ivory panels that revolved, so that flowers, and with piping, perfumes might be sprinkled from above; the chief of the dining rooms was a rotunda, which was turned continuously by day and by night in the manner of the world; the baths flowed with sea water and the waters of the Albula. A house of this sort, when he dedicated it completed, he approved only to this extent: that he said he had begun, as it were, to dwell as a human being at last.

3 Praeterea incohabat piscinam a Miseno ad Avernum lacum contectam porticibusque conclusam, quo quidquid totis Baiis calidarum aquarum esset converteretur; fossam ab Averno Ostiam usque, ut navibus nec tamen mari iretur, longitudinis per centum sexaginta milia, latitudinis, qua contrariae quinqueremes commearent. Quorum operum perficiendorum gratia quod ubique esset custodiae in Italiam deportari, etiam scelere convictos non nisi ad opus damnari praeceperat. 4 Ad hunc impendiorum furorem, super fiduciam imperii, etiam spe quadam repentina immensarum et reconditarum opum impulsus est ex indicio equitis R. pro comperto pollicentis thesauros antiquissimae gazae, quos Dido regina fugiens Tyro secum extulisset, esse in Africa vastissimis specubus abditos ac posse erui parvula molientium opera.

3 Moreover, he was initiating the construction of a pool from Misenum to Lake Avernus, covered and enclosed with porticoes, to which whatever hot waters there were throughout all Baiae might be diverted; and a canal from Avernus all the way to Ostia, so that one might travel by ships, yet not by the sea, of a length of one hundred and sixty miles, and of a breadth such that quinqueremes going in opposite directions could pass. For the sake of completing these works, he had given orders that whatever there was of persons in custody everywhere be transported into Italy, and that even those convicted of crime be sentenced only to labor. 4 To this frenzy of expenditures, beyond the confidence of his imperium, he was also impelled by a certain sudden hope of immense and hidden wealth, on the information of a Roman knight, who promised as ascertained that treasures of a most ancient hoard, which Queen Dido, fleeing from Tyre, had carried off with her, were concealed in Africa in very vast caverns and could be dug out with the slightest effort of workers.

XXXII. Verum ut spes fefellit, destitutus atque ita iam exhaustus et egens ut stipendia quoque militum et commoda veteranorum protrahi ac differri necesse esset, calumniis rapinisque intendit animum. Ante omnia instituit, ut e libertorum defunctorum bonis pro semisse dextans ei cogeretur, qui sine probabili causa eo nomine essent, quo fuissent ullae familiae quas ipse contingeret deinde, ut ingratorum in principem testamenta ad fiscum pertinerent, ac ne impune esset studiosis iuris, qui scripsissent vel dictassent ea tunc ut lege maiestatis facta dictaque omnia, quibus modo delator non deesset, tenerentur.

32. But when the hope failed him, left in the lurch and now so exhausted and needy that even the soldiers’ stipends and the veterans’ perquisites had to be prolonged and deferred, he turned his mind to calumnies and rapines. Before everything he ordained that, from the estates of deceased freedmen, a dextans in place of a half should be exacted for him, from anyone who, without a plausible cause, was under that designation—namely, enrolled under any household that he himself had any connection with; then, that the testaments of those ungrateful toward the princeps should fall to the fisc; and that it should not be with impunity for devotees of the law who had written or dictated them—then, that under the law of maiestas all deeds and words, provided only that a delator not be lacking, should be held liable.

Revocavit et praemia coronarum, quae umquam sibi civitates in certaminibus detulissent. Et cum interdixisset usum amethystini ac Tyrii coloris summisissetque qui nundinarum die pauculas uncias venderet, praeclusit cunctos negotiatores. Quin etiam inter canendum animadversum matronam in spectaculis vetita purpura cultam demonstrasse procuratoribus suis dicitur detractamque ilico non veste modo sed et bonis exuit.

He also recalled the prizes of crowns that cities had ever conferred upon him in contests. And after he had interdicted the use of the amethystine and Tyrian color and had put up someone who on market day would sell a few ounces, he precluded all the merchants. Indeed, it is said that while singing he noticed a matron in the spectacles attired in forbidden purple, pointed her out to his procurators, and she was on the spot stripped not only of her garment but also of her property.

Nulli delegavit officium ut non adiceret: "Scis quid mihi opus sit, " et: "Hoc agamus, ne quis quicquam habeat." Ultimo templis compluribus dona detraxit simulacraque ex auro vel argento fabricata conflavit, in iis Penatium deorum, quae mox Galba restituit.

He delegated no duty to anyone without adding, "You know what I need," and, "Let us do this, that no one have anything." Finally, from several temples he stripped the gifts and melted down the simulacra fashioned of gold or silver, among them the Penates, which Galba soon restored.

XXXIII. Parricidia et caedes a Claudio exorsus est, cuius necis etsi non auctor, at conscius fuit, neque dissimulanter, ut qui boletos, in quo cibi genere venenum is acceperat, quasi deorum cibum posthac proverbio Graeco conlaudare sit solitus. Certe omnibus rerum verborumque contumeliis mortuum insectatus est, modo stultitiae, modo saevitiae arguens; nam et morari eum desisse inter homines producta prima syllaba iocabatur multaque decreta et constituta, ut insipientis atque deliri, pro irritis habuit; denique bustum eius consaepiri nisi humili levique maceria neglexit.

33. He began his parricides and slaughters with Claudius, of whose death, although he was not the author, yet he was privy—and not with any dissembling; for he was wont thereafter to extol mushrooms—the kind of food in which he had received the poison—as “the food of the gods,” with a Greek proverb. Surely he pursued the dead man with every contumely of deeds and of words, now charging him with stupidity, now with savagery; for he even jested, with the first syllable lengthened, that he had ceased to “delay” among men, and he held many decrees and enactments, as of a witless and delirious man, for null; finally, he neglected to have his tomb enclosed otherwise than with a low and slight boundary-wall.

Britannicum non minus aemulatione vocis, quae illi iucundior suppetebat, quam metu ne quandoque apud hominum gratiam paterna memoria praevaleret, veneno adgressus est. Quod acceptum a quadam Lucusta, venenariorum indice, cum opinione tardius cederet ventre modo Britannici moto, accersitam mulierem sua manu verberavit arguens pro veneno remedium dedisse, excusantique minus datum ad occultandam facinoris invidiam: "Sane" inquit, "legem Iuliam timeo," coegitque se coram in cubiculo quam posset velocissimum ac praesentaneum coquere. Deinde in haedo expertus, postquam is quinque horas protraxit, iterum ac saepius recoctum porcello obiecit; quo statim exanimato inferri in triclinium darique cenanti secum Britannico imperavit.

He attacked Britannicus with poison, no less from rivalry in voice—since a more agreeable one was at his command—than from fear lest at some time in men’s favor the paternal memory should prevail. When the drug, received from a certain Lucusta, an informer on poisoners, worked more slowly than expected, with only Britannicus’s belly stirred, he had the woman summoned and beat her with his own hand, accusing her of having given a remedy instead of a poison; and when she excused herself that too little had been administered to conceal the odium of the crime, “To be sure,” he said, “I fear the Julian law,” and he forced her, in his presence in the bedchamber, to cook the swiftest and most immediate-acting preparation she could. Then, having tested it on a kid, after that one dragged on for five hours, he threw it, again and again reboiled, to a piglet; when that one immediately expired, he ordered the same to be brought into the dining room and to be given to Britannicus, who was dining with him.

Et cum ille ad primum gustum concidisset, comitiali morbo ex consuetudine correptum apud convivas ementitus postero die raptim inter maximos imbres tralaticio extulit funere. Lucustae pro navata opera impunitatem praediaque ampla, sed et discipulos dedit.

And when he had collapsed at the first taste, he, pretending among the fellow-diners that he had been seized, as was his custom, by the comitial disease (epilepsy), on the next day hurriedly conducted a customary funeral amid the heaviest downpours. To Lucusta, for the service rendered, he granted impunity and ample estates, and even provided disciples.

XXXIV. Matrem facta dictaque sua exquirentem acerbius et corrigentem hactenus primo gravabatur, ut invidia identidem oneraret quasi cessurus imperio Rhodumque abiturus, mox et honore omni et potestate privavit abductaque militum et Germanorum statione contubernio quoque ac Palatio expulit; neque in divexanda quicquam pensi habuit, summissis qui et Romae morantem litibus et in secessu quiescentem per convicia et iocos terra marique praetervehentes inquietarent. Verum minis eius ac violentia territus perdere statuit; et cum ter veneno temptasset sentiretque antidotis praemunitam, lacunaria, quae noctu super dormientem laxata machina deciderent, paravit.

34. He found it burdensome at first that his mother should inquire too sharply into his deeds and words and correct him, to this extent only: that he would load her again and again with odium, as if about to relinquish the imperium and depart to Rhodes; soon he deprived her of every honor and power, and, the guard of the soldiers and the Germans withdrawn, he even drove her from his quarters and from the Palace; nor had he any scruple in harrying her, sending agents to disturb her both with lawsuits while she stayed at Rome, and with revilings and jests, as they passed by land and sea, while she kept quiet in retirement. But frightened by her threats and violence, he resolved to destroy her; and when he had tried three times with poison and perceived that she was fortified with antidotes, he prepared a paneled ceiling which at night, loosened by a machine, would fall upon her as she slept.

Hoc consilio per conscios parum celato solutilem navem, cuius vel naufragio vel camarae ruina periret, commentus est atque ita reconciliatione simulata iucundissimis litteris Baias evocavit ad sollemnia Quinquatruum simul celebranda; datoque negotio trierarchis, qui liburnicam qua advecta erat velut fortuito concursu confringerent, protraxit convivium repetentique Baulos in locum corrupti navigii machinosum illud optulit, hilare prosecutus atque in digressu papillas quoque exosculatus. Reliquum temporis cum magna trepidatione vigilavit opperiens coeptorum exitum. Sed ut diversa omnia nandoque evasisse eam comperit, inops consilii L. Agermum libertum eius salvam et incolumem cum gaudio nuntiantem, abiecto clam iuxta pugione ut percussorem sibi subornatum arripi constringique iussit, matrem occidi, quasi deprehensum crimen voluntaria morte vitasset.

With this plan, which was scarcely concealed from the accomplices, he devised a ship made to come apart, by the wreck of which or by the collapse of its cabin roof she might perish, and so, a reconciliation having been feigned, he summoned her to Baiae with most pleasant letters, to celebrate at the same time the solemnities of the Quinquatria; and, a task having been assigned to the trierarchs to smash, as if by a chance collision, the Liburnian craft by which she had been conveyed, he prolonged the banquet, and when she was making for Baulos again, he offered her in place of the damaged vessel that contrivance, escorting her cheerfully and at departure even kissing her breasts. He spent the remaining time in great agitation, keeping vigil as he awaited the outcome of his undertaking. But when he learned that all had turned out otherwise and that she had escaped by swimming, bereft of counsel he ordered that Lucius Agermus, her freedman, who was joyfully announcing that she was safe and unharmed, after a dagger had been secretly thrown down beside him, be seized and bound as an assassin suborned against himself; and that his mother be slain, as though, the crime having been detected, she had avoided it by a voluntary death.

Adduntur his atrociora nec incertis auctoribus: ad visendum interfectae cadaver accurrisse, contrectasse membra, alia vituperasse, alia laudasse, sitique interim oborta bibisse. Neque tamen conscientiam sceleris, quamquam et militum et senatus populique gratulationibus confirmaretur, aut statim aut umquam postea ferre potuit, saepe confessus exagitari se materna specie verberibusque Furiarum ac taedis ardentibus. Quin et facto per Magos sacro evocare Manes et exorare temptavit.

Additions more atrocious than these are told, and not by uncertain authors: that he hurried to view the corpse of the slain woman, handled the limbs, censured some parts, praised others, and, a thirst meanwhile arising, drank. Nor could he bear the consciousness of the crime—although it was reinforced by the congratulations of the soldiers and of the senate and the people—either immediately or ever thereafter, often confessing that he was harried by his mother’s apparition and by the scourges of the Furies and blazing torches. Indeed, even with a sacred rite performed by Magi, he tried to evoke and appease the Manes.

Peregrinatione quidem Graeciae et Eleusinis sacris, quorum initiatione impii et scelerati voce praeconis summoventur, interesse non ausus est. Iunxit parricidio matris amitae necem. Quam cum ex duritie alvi cubantem visitaret, et illa tractans lanuginem eius, ut assolet, iam grandis natu per blanditias forte dixisset: "Simul hanc excepero, mori volo, " conversus ad proximos confestim se positurum velut irridens ait, praecepitque medicis ut largius purgarent aegram; necdum defunctae bona invasit suppresso testamento, ne quid abscederet.

On his tour of Greece and at the Eleusinian rites—at whose initiation the impious and the criminal are removed by the voice of the herald—he did not dare to be present. He joined to the parricide of his mother the killing of his aunt. When he visited her as she lay ill from hardness of the belly, and she, stroking his down (as is customary), now advanced in years, by way of blandishment happened to say, “As soon as I have received this, I wish to die,” turning to those nearby he said, as though jeering, that he would set it at once, and he ordered the doctors to purge the sick woman more liberally; and before she had yet died he seized her goods, the will being suppressed, lest anything slip away.

XXXV. Uxores praeter Octaviam duas postea duxit, Poppaeam Sabinam quaestorio patre natam et equiti Romano antea nuptam, deinde Statiliam Messalinam Tauri bis consulis ac triumphalis abneptem. Qua ut poteretur, virum eius Atticum Vestinum consulem in honore ipso trucidavit.

35. Besides Octavia, he afterwards took two wives: Poppaea Sabina, born of a quaestorian father and previously married to a Roman eques, and then Statilia Messalina, great-granddaughter of Taurus, twice consul and triumphal. That he might possess her, he slaughtered her husband, Atticus Vestinus, the consul, while actually in office.

Octaviae consuetudinem cito aspernatus corripientibus amicis sufficere illi debere respondit uxoria ornamenta. 2 Eandem mox saepe frustra strangulare meditatus dimisit ut sterilem, sed improbante divortium populo nec parcente conviciis etiam relegavit, denique occidit sub crimine adulteriorum adeo impudenti falsoque, ut in quaestione pernegantibus cunctis Anicetum paedagogum suum indicem subiecerit, qui fingeret et dolo stupratam a se fateretur. 3 Poppaeam duodecimo die post divortium Octaviae in matrimonium acceptam dilexit unice; et tamen ipsam quoque ictu calcis occidit, quod se ex aurigatione sero reversum gravida et aegra conviciis incesserat.

Having quickly spurned intimacy with Octavia, when his friends reproved him he replied that for her wifely ornaments ought to suffice. 2 The same woman he soon, after often vainly planning to strangle her, dismissed as barren; but when the people disapproved the divorce and did not spare taunts, he even banished her, and finally killed her under a charge of adulteries so shameless and so false that, as all denied under interrogation, he put forward Anicetus, his paedagogue, as an informer, to fabricate and confess that by deceit he had debauched her. 3 Poppaea, taken into marriage on the twelfth day after Octavia’s divorce, he loved uniquely; and yet her too he killed with a blow of his heel, because, pregnant and ill, she had assailed him with revilings for returning late from chariot-driving.

Ex hac filiam tulit Claudiam Augustam amisitque admodum infantem. 4 Nullum adeo necessitudinis genus est, quod non scelere perculerit. Antoniam Claudi filiam, recusantem post Poppaeae mortem nuptias suas quasi molitricem novarum rerum interemit; similiter ceteros aut affinitate aliqua sibi aut propinquitate coniunctos; in quibus Aulum Plautium iuvenem, quem cum ante mortem per vim conspurcasset: 'Eat nunc' inquit 'mater mea et successorem meum osculetur' iactans dilectum ab ea et ad spem imperii impulsum.

From her he had a daughter, Claudia Augusta, and lost her when still very much an infant. 4 There is no kind of relationship at all that he did not strike down by crime. He put to death Antonia, the daughter of Claudius, who, after Poppaea’s death, refused his marriage, as if a contriver of new affairs; similarly the rest who were joined to him either by some affinity or by kinship; among whom the young Aulus Plautius, whom, before his death, he had defiled by force: “Let my mother now go and kiss my successor,” he said, vaunting that he was beloved by her and impelled to the hope of imperial power.

5 Privignum Rufrium Crispinum Poppaea natum impuberem adhuc, quia ferebatur ducatus et imperia ludere, mergendum mari, dum piscaretur, servis ipsius demandavit. Tuscum nutricis filium relegavit, quod in procuratione Aegypti balineis in adventum suum exstructis lavisset. Senecam praeceptorem ad necem compulit, quamvis saepe commeatum petenti bonisque cedenti persancte iurasset suspectum se frustra periturumque potius quam nociturum ei. Burro praefecto remedium ad fauces pollicitus toxicum misit.

5 His stepson Rufrius Crispinus, born of Poppaea, still prepubescent, because it was reported that he played at generalships and imperial commands, he entrusted to his own slaves to be drowned in the sea while he was fishing. He relegated Tuscus, the nurse’s son, because, in the procuratorship of Egypt, he had bathed in the baths constructed for his arrival. He compelled his preceptor Seneca to death, although to him, often requesting leave and yielding his goods, he had sworn most solemnly that he suspected him in vain and would rather perish than do him harm. To Burrus the prefect, promising a remedy for his throat, he sent poison.

Libertos divites et senes, olim adoptionis mox dominationis suae fautores atque rectores, veneno partim cibis, partim potionibus indito intercepit.

He cut off freedmen, wealthy and aged, once supporters of his adoption and soon of his domination, and even its directors, by poison, partly inserted into foods, partly into drinks.

XXXVI. Nec minore saevitia foris et in exteros grassatus est. Stella crinita, quae summis potestatibus exitium portendere vulgo putatur, per continuas noctes oriri coeperat.

36. Nor with lesser savagery did he proceed abroad and against foreigners. A comet, which is commonly thought to portend destruction for the highest authorities, had begun to arise over successive nights.

Anxius ea re, ut ex Balbillo astrologo didicit, solere reges talia ostenta caede aliqua illustri expiare atque a semet in capita procerum depellere, nobilissimo cuique exitium destinavit; enimvero multo magis et quasi per iustam causam duabus coniurationibus provulgatis, quarum prior maiorque Pisoniana Romae, posterior Viniciana Beneventi conflata atque detecta est. 2 Coniurati e vinculis triplicium catenarum dixere causam, cum quidam ultro crimen faterentur, nonnulli etiam imputarent, tamquam aliter illi non possent nisi morte succurrere dedecorato flagitiis omnibus. Damnatorum liberi urbe pulsi enectique veneno aut fame; constat quosdam cum paedagogis et capsariis uno prandio pariter necatos, alios diurnum victum prohibitos quaerere.

Anxious at this matter, as he learned from the astrologer Balbillus that kings are wont to expiate such portents by some illustrious slaughter and to deflect them from themselves onto the heads of the nobles, he destined destruction for every most noble man; indeed, much more—and as if for a just cause—after two conspiracies were published, of which the earlier and greater, the Pisonian, at Rome, the later, the Vinician, at Beneventum, was concocted and detected. 2 The conspirators, from bonds of triple chains, pleaded their cause, while certain men voluntarily confessed the crime, and some even imputed that otherwise they could not succor him—disgraced by every scandal—except by his death. The children of the condemned were driven from the city and killed by poison or by hunger; it is agreed that some, together with their pedagogues and book-bearers, were killed equally at a single luncheon, others were forbidden to seek their daily sustenance.

XXXVII. Nullus posthac adhibitus dilectus aut modus interimendi quoscumque libuisset quacumque de causa. Sed ne de pluribus referam, Salvidieno Orfito obiectum est, quod tabernas tres de domo sua circa Forum civitatibus ad stationem locasset, Cassio Longino iuris consulto ac luminibus orbato, quod in vetere gentili stemmate C. Cassi percussoris Caesaris imagines retinuisset, Paeto Thraseae tristior et paedagogi vultus.

37. After this no selection or measure was applied in killing whomever he pleased for whatever cause. But, not to speak of more: against Salvidienus Orfitus it was alleged that he had leased to the municipalities, for a station, three shops from his house around the Forum; against Cassius Longinus, a jurisconsult and bereft of his eyes, that he had retained in the old gentilician pedigree the images of Gaius Cassius, the assassin of Caesar; against Thrasea Paetus—the too gloomy and schoolmasterly look.

2 Mori iussis non amplius quam horarum spatium dabat; ac ne quid morae interveniret, medicos admovebat, qui cunctantes continuo curarent; ita enim vocabatur venas mortis gratia incidere. Creditur etiam polyphago cuidam Aegypti generis crudam carnem et quidquid daretur mandere assueto, concupisse vivos homines laniandos absumendosque obicere. 3 Elatus inflatusque tantis velut successibus negavit quemquam principum scisse, quid sibi liceret, multasque nec dubias significationes saepe iecit, ne reliquis quidem se parsurum senatoribus, eumque ordinem sublaturum quandoque e re publica ac provincias et exercitus equiti Romano ac libertis permissurum.

2 To those ordered to die he gave no more than a span of hours; and, lest any delay should intervene, he brought in physicians, who would immediately “treat” the hesitators; for thus was called the incising of the veins for the sake of death. It is believed, too, that he desired to throw living men to be torn and consumed before a certain polyphagous fellow of Egyptian race, accustomed to chew raw flesh and whatever was given. 3 Elated and inflated by such, as it were, successes, he declared that none of the principes had known what was permitted to him, and he often cast many and not doubtful indications that he would not spare even the remaining senators, and that he would someday remove that order from the commonwealth and entrust the provinces and the armies to the Roman equestrian order and to freedmen.

Certe neque adveniens neque proficiscens quemquam osculo impertiit ac ne resalutatione quidem; et in auspicando opere Isthmi magna frequentia clare, ut sibi ac populo Romano bene res verteret, optavit dissimulata senatus mentione.

Certainly neither arriving nor departing did he impart a kiss to anyone, nor even a return-greeting; and in taking the auspices for the work of the Isthmus, with a great crowd present, he clearly prayed aloud that things might turn out well for himself and the Roman people, with mention of the Senate dissimulated.

XXXVIII. Sed nec populo aut moenibus patriae pepercit. Dicente quodam in sermone communi: "Ἐμοῦ θανόντος γαῖα μειχθήτω πυρί," "Immo", inquit, "ἑμοῦ ζῶντος," planeque ita fecit.

38. But he spared neither the people nor the walls of his fatherland. When a certain person in common talk said: "When I am dead, let the earth be mingled with fire," "Nay rather," he said, "while I am alive," and plainly he did so.

Nam quasi offensus deformitate veterum aedificiorum et angustiis flexurisque vicorum, incendit urbem tam palam, ut plerique consulares cubicularios eius cum stuppa taedaque in praediis suis deprehensos non attigerint, et quaedam horrea circum domum Auream, quorum spatium maxime desiderabat, ut bellicis machinis labefacta atque inflammata sint quod saxeo muro constructa erant. Per sex dies septemque noctes ea clade saevitum est ad monumentorum bustorumque deversoria plebe compulsa. Tunc praeter immensum numerum insularum domus priscorum ducum arserunt hostilibus adhuc spoliis adornatae deorumque aedes ab regibus ac deinde Punicis et Gallicis bellis votae dedicataeque, et quidquid visendum atque memorabile ex antiquitate duraverat.

For, as if offended by the deformity of the old buildings and by the narrowness and windings of the streets, he set the city ablaze so openly that many men of consular rank, having caught his chamberlains with tow and torch on their own estates, did not lay hands on them; and certain storehouses around the Golden House, whose space he especially desired, were battered with war‑machines and ignited, because they had been built of stonework. For six days and seven nights the savagery of that calamity raged, with the plebs driven to the sheltering places of monuments and burial mounds. Then, besides an immense number of apartment blocks, the houses of the ancient commanders burned, adorned still with enemy spoils, and the temples of the gods, vowed and dedicated by kings and thereafter in the Punic and Gallic wars, and whatever from antiquity had endured, worth seeing and memorable.

Hoc incendium e turre Maecenatiana prospectans laetusque "flammae", ut aiebat, "pulchritudine" Halosin Ilii in illo suo scaenico habitu decantavit. Ac ne non hinc quoque quantum posset praedae et manubiarum invaderet, pollicitus cadaverum et ruderum gratuitam egestionem nemini ad reliquias rerum suarum adire permisit, conlationibusque non receptis modo verum et efflagitatis provincias privatorumque census prope exhausit.

Surveying this conflagration from the Maecenatian tower and, delighted at the “beauty,” as he said, of the “flame,” he sang the “Halosis of Ilium” in that his scenic costume. And in order that he might also from this quarter seize as much booty and spoils as he could, after promising free removal of corpses and rubble he allowed no one to approach the remnants of their property, and, with contributions not only received but even exacted, he nearly exhausted the provinces and the resources of private individuals.

XXXIX. Accesserunt tantis ex principe malis probrisque quaedam et fortuita: pestilentia unius autumni, quo triginta funerum milia in rationem Libitinae venerunt; clades Britannica, qua duo praecipua oppida magna civium sociorumque caede direpta sunt; ignominia ad Orientem legionibus in Armenia sub iugum missis aegreque Syria retenta. Mirum et vel praecipue notabile inter haec fuerit nihil eum patientius quam maledicta et convicia hominum tulisse, neque in ullos leniorem quam qui se dictis aut carminibus lacessissent exstitisse.

39. There were added to such great evils and reproaches from the prince some even fortuitous ones: a pestilence of a single autumn, in which thirty thousand funerals entered into Libitina’s account; the British disaster, in which two principal towns were plundered with a great slaughter of citizens and allies; the ignominy in the East, the legions in Armenia being sent under the yoke, and Syria scarcely retained. A marvel, and indeed especially notable, among these was that he bore nothing more patiently than the maledictions and revilings of men, and that he showed himself more lenient toward none than those who had provoked him with words or songs.

Multa Graece Latineque proscripta aut vulgata sunt, sicut illa "Νέρων Ὀρέστης Ἀλκμέων μητροκτόνος."

Many things in Greek and in Latin were posted or made public, such as that: "Nero Orestes Alcmaeon matricide."

"Νεόψηφον· Νέρων ἰδίαν μητέρα ἀπέκτεινε."
Quis negat Aeneae magna de stirpe Neronem ?
Sustulit hic matrem, sustulit ille patrem.

"Fresh ballot: Nero has killed his own mother."
Who denies Nero from the great stock of Aeneas ?
This one removed his mother, that one removed his father.

Dum tendit citharam noster, dum cornua Parthus,
Noster erit Paean, ille Hecatebeletes.

Roma domus fiet; Veios migrate, Quirites,
Si non et Veios occupat ista domus.

While our man strings the cithara, while the Parthian his bows,
ours will be Paean, that one the Far-shooter.

Rome will become a house; migrate to Veii, Quirites,
if this house does not also seize Veii.

Sed neque auctores requisivit et quosdam per indicem delatos ad senatum adfici graviore poena prohibuit. Transeuntem eum Isidorus Cynicus in publico clara voce corripuerat, quod Naupli mala bene cantitaret, sua bona male disponeret; et Datus Atellanarum histrio in cantico quodam

But he neither sought out the authors, and he forbade that certain persons, denounced to the senate by an informer, be subjected to a heavier penalty. As he was passing by, Isidorus the Cynic had rebuked him in public with a loud voice, because he sang well the evils of Nauplius, but arranged his own goods ill; and Datus, an actor of Atellan farces, in a certain song

"ὑγίαινε πάτερ, ὑγίαινε μῆτερ"

"Be well, father, be well, mother"

Ita demonstraverat, ut bibentem natantemque faceret, exitum scilicet Claudi Agrippinaeque significans, et in novissima clausula

Thus he had demonstrated it, so that he represented him as drinking and swimming, indicating the exit (i.e., the demise) of Claudius and of Agrippina, and in the very last clause

Orcus vobis ducit pedes

Orcus is leading your steps for you

senatum gestu notarat. Histrionem et philosophum Nero nihil amplius quam urbe Italiaque summovit, vel contemptu omnis infamiae vel ne fatendo dolorem irritaret ingenia.

he had marked the senate by a gesture. Nero removed the actor and the philosopher no more than from the city and Italy, either from contempt of all infamy or lest by confessing his pain he provoke minds.

XL. Talem principem paulo minus quattuordecim annos perpessus terrarum orbis tandem destituit, initium facientibus Gallis duce Iulio Vindice, Qui tum eam provinciam pro praetore optinebat. Praedictum a mathematicis Neroni olim erat fore ut quandoque destitueretur; unde illa vox eius celeberrima: "Τὸ τέχνιον ἡμᾶς διατρέφε", quo maiore scilicet venia meditaretur citharoedicam artem, principi sibi gratam, privato necessariam. Spoponderant tamen quidam destituto Orientis dominationem, nonnulli nominatim regnum Hierosolymorum, plures omnis pristinae fortunae restitutionem.

40. Such a princeps the world endured for a little less than 14 years and at last deserted him, the Gauls making the first move under the leader Julius Vindex, who then held that province as propraetor. It had once been foretold to Nero by mathematicians that he would someday be deserted; whence that most celebrated utterance of his: "Τὸ τέχνιον ἡμᾶς διατρέφε," so that, with the greater indulgence, he might rehearse the citharoedic art—pleasing to him as princeps, necessary to him as a private man. Yet certain persons had pledged to him, when deserted, the domination of the East, some specifically the kingdom of Jerusalem, more the restitution of all his former fortune.

Cui spei pronior, Britannia Armeniaque amissa ac rursus utraque recepta, defunctum se fatalibus malis existimabat. Ut vero consulto Delphis Apolline septuagensimum ac tertium annum cavendum sibi audivit, quasi eo demum obiturus, ac nihil coniectans de aetate Galbae, tanta fiducia non modo senectam sed etiam perpetuam singularemque concepit felicitatem, ut amissis naufragio pretiosissimis rebus non dubitaverit inter suos dicere pisces eas sibi relaturos. Neapoli de motu Galliarum cognovit die ipso quo matrem occiderat, adeoque lente et secure tulit ut gaudentis etiam suspicionem praeberet tamquam occasione nata spoliandarum iure belli opulentissimarum provinciarum; statimque in gymnasium progressus certantis athletas effusissimo studio spectavit.

Leaning more toward this hope, with Britain and Armenia lost and then both recovered, he thought himself discharged from his fated ills. But when, after consulting Apollo at Delphi, he heard that he must beware of the seventy-third year, as though he would die only then, and guessing nothing about the age of Galba, with such confidence he conceived not only of old age but even of perpetual and singular felicity, that, when the most precious possessions had been lost in a shipwreck, he did not hesitate to say among his intimates that the fishes would bring them back to him. At Naples he learned of the uprising in Gaul on the very day on which he had killed his mother, and he took it so slowly and securely as even to give the suspicion of rejoicing, as if an opportunity had arisen for despoiling, by the right of war, the richest provinces; and immediately, going into the gymnasium, he watched the athletes competing with the most unrestrained zeal.

Cenae quoque tempore interpellatus tumultuosioribus litteris hactenus excanduit, ut malum iis qui descissent minaretur. Denique per octo continuos dies non rescribere cuiquam, non mandare quid aut praecipere conatus rem silentio obliteravit.

Even at dinner-time, interrupted by more tumultuous letters, he flared up to the point of threatening punishment to those who had defected. Finally, for eight consecutive days, attempting neither to write back to anyone nor to send anything or give orders, he effaced the matter by silence.

XLI. Edictis tandem Vindicis contumeliosis et frequentibus permotus senatum epistula in ultionem sui reique publicae adhortatus est, excusato languore faucium, propter quem non adesset. Nihil autem aeque doluit, quam ut malum se citharoedum increpitum ac pro Nerone Ahenobarbum appellatum; et nomen quidem gentile, quod sibi per contumeliam exprobraretur, resumpturum se professus est deposito adoptivo, cetera convicia, ut falsa, non alio argumento refellebat, quam quod etiam inscitia sibi tanto opere elaboratae perfectaeque a se artis obiceretur, singulos subinde rogitans, nossentne quemquam praestantiorem.

41. At length, stirred by Vindex’s insulting and frequent edicts, he exhorted the senate by letter to take vengeance for himself and for the commonwealth, pleading a weakness of the throat on account of which he was not present. But nothing pained him so much as being railed at as a bad citharode and being called Ahenobarbus instead of Nero; and as for the gentile name, which was cast in his teeth by way of insult, he declared that he would resume it, laying aside the adoptive one; the other reproaches, as false, he refuted by no other argument than that even ignorance was being imputed to him in an art so greatly labored at and perfected by himself, repeatedly asking individuals whether they knew anyone more preeminent.

Sed urgentibus aliis super alios nuntiis Romam praetrepidus rediit; leviterque modo in itinere frivolo auspicio mente recreata, cum adnotasset insculptum monumento militem Gallum ab equite R. oppressum trahi crinibus, ad eam speciem exsiluit gaudio caelumque adoravit. Ac ne tunc quidem aut senatu aut populo coram appellato quosdam e primoribus viris domum evocavit transactaque raptim consultatione reliquam diei partem per organa hydraulica novi et ignoti generis circumduxit, ostendensque singula, de ratione et difficultate cuiusque disserens, iam se etiam prolaturum omnia in theatrum affirmavit, si per Vindicem liceat.

But as other messages were pressing, one atop another, he returned to Rome in great trepidation; and being only lightly cheered on the journey by a frivolous auspice, when he had noted carved upon a monument a Gallic soldier, crushed by a Roman horseman, being dragged by the hair, at that sight he leapt for joy and adored the sky. And not even then, having addressed neither the senate nor the people face to face, he summoned certain men from among the foremost men to his house, and, the consultation having been hurriedly concluded, he led them for the remaining part of the day around hydraulic organs of a new and unknown kind, and, showing each particular and discoursing about the method and difficulty of each, he now also declared that he would bring everything out into the theater, if it should be permitted by Vindex.

XLII. Postquam deinde etiam Galbam et Hispanias descivisse cognovit, conlapsus animoque male facto diu sine voce et prope intermortuus iacuit, utque resipiit, veste discissa, capite converberato, actum de se pronuntiavit consolantique nutriculae et aliis quoque iam principibus similia accidisse memoranti, se vero praeter ceteros inaudita et incognita pati respondit, qui summum imperium vivus amitteret. Nec eo setius quicquam ex consuetudine luxus atque desidiae omisit et inminuit quin immo cum prosperi quiddam ex provinciis nuntiatum esset, super abundantissimam cenam iocularia in defectionis duces carmina lasciveque modulata, quae vulgo notuerunt, etiam gesticulatus est; ac spectaculis theatri clam inlatus cuidam scaenico placenti nuntium misit abuti eum occupationibus suis.

42. After he then learned that even Galba and the Spains had revolted, he collapsed and, his spirit failing, lay for a long time without a voice and almost half-dead; and when he came to, with his garment torn and his head bruised with blows, he declared that it was all over with him, and to his nurse who was consoling him and reminding him that similar things had already befallen other emperors as well, he replied that he, beyond the rest, was suffering unheard-of and unknown things, in that he was losing the supreme imperium while still alive. None the less for that did he omit or diminish anything of his accustomed luxury and idleness; nay rather, when something favorable was reported from the provinces, over a most abundant dinner he even gesticulated to jocular songs about the leaders of the defection, lasciviously modulated—songs which became commonly known; and, secretly brought into the theatrical spectacles, he sent word to a certain popular stage-player to make the most of his opportunities.

XLIII. Initio statim tumultus multa et inmania, verum non abhorrentia a natura sua creditur destinasse; successores percussoresque summittere exercitus et provincias regentibus, quasi conspiratis idemque et unum sentientibus; quidquid ubique exsulum, quidquid in urbe hominum Gallicanorum esset contrucidare, illos ne desciscentibus adgregarentur, hos ut conscios popularium suorum atque fautores; Gallias exercitibus diripiendas permittere; senatum universum veneno per convivia necare; urbem incendere feris in populum immissis, quo difficilius defenderentur. Sed absterritus non tam paenitentia quam perficiendi desperatione credensque expeditionem necessariam, consules ante tempus privavit honore atque in utriusque locum solus iniit consulatum, quasi fatale esset non posse Gallias debellari nisi a consule.

43. At the very beginning of the tumult he is believed to have destined many and monstrous things, yet not abhorrent to his nature: to send in successors and assassins to those governing the armies and the provinces, as if they had conspired and were thinking the same and as one; to butcher whatever exiles there were anywhere, and whatever Gallic men there were in the city—those lest they be added to the defectors, these as confidants and favorers of their fellow-countrymen; to permit Gaul to be plundered by the armies; to kill the entire senate with poison at banquets; to set the city on fire, with wild beasts let loose upon the people, so that they might be defended with greater difficulty. But deterred not so much by repentance as by despair of accomplishing it, and believing a campaign necessary, he deprived the consuls of office before their time and, in place of each, he alone entered upon the consulship, as though it were fated that Gaul could not be subdued except by a consul.

Ac susceptis fascibus cum post epulas triclinio digrederetur, innixus umeris familiarium affirmavit, simul ac primum provinciam attigisset, inermem se in conspectum exercituum proditurum nec quicquam aliud quam fleturum, revocatisque ad paenitentiam defectoribus insequenti die laetum inter laetos cantaturum epinicia, quae iam nunc sibi componi oporteret.

And after taking up the fasces, when he was withdrawing from the triclinium after the banquet, leaning upon the shoulders of his intimates, he affirmed that as soon as he first reached the province he would go forth unarmed into the sight of the armies and would do nothing other than weep; and, the defectors recalled to repentance, on the following day, joyful among the joyful, he would sing epinicia, which even now ought to be composed for him.

XLIV. In praeparanda expeditione primam curam habuit deligendi vehicula portandis scaenicis organis concubinasque, quas secum educeret, tondendi ad virilem modum et securibus peltisque Amazonicis instruendi. Mox tribus urbanas ad sacramentum citavit ac nullo idoneo respondente certum dominis servorum numerum indixit; nec nisi ex tota cuiusque familia probatissimos, ne dispensatoribus quidem aut amanuensibus exceptis, recepit.

44. In preparing the expedition he had as his first concern the choosing of vehicles for carrying scenic apparatus and the concubines whom he would take with him, to be shorn in the manly fashion and equipped with axes and Amazonian peltae. Soon he summoned the Urban Tribes to the oath; and, as no suitable person responded, he imposed on masters a fixed number of slaves; nor did he receive any except the most approved from each man’s whole household, with not even stewards (dispensatores) or amanuenses excepted.

Partem etiam census omnes ordines conferre iussit et insuper inquilinos privatarum aedium atque insularum pensionem annuam repraesentare fisco; exegitque, ingenti fastidio et acerbitate nummum asperum argentum pustulatum, aurum ad obrussam, ut plerique omnem collationem palam recusarent, consensu flagitantes a delatoribus potius revocanda praemia quaecumque cepissent.

He ordered all orders to contribute a portion of their assessment, and, in addition, the tenants of private houses and of apartment-blocks to render forthwith to the fisc the annual rent; and he exacted, with enormous fastidiousness and harshness, rough coin, pocked silver, gold by the touchstone assay, so that most openly refused every contribution, by common consent clamoring that the rewards, whatever they had taken, should rather be recalled from the delators.

XLV. Ex annonae quoque caritate lucranti adcrevit invidia; nam et forte accidit, ut in publica fame Alexandrina navis nuntiaretur pulverem luctatoribus aulicis advexisse. Quare omnium in se odio incitato nihil contumeliarum defuit quin subiret.

45. His unpopularity also increased as he profited from the dearness of the grain-supply; for it likewise happened that, in a public famine, an Alexandrian ship was reported to have brought powder for the aulic wrestlers. Wherefore, with the hatred of all against him incited, there was nothing in the way of contumelies that he did not undergo.

Statuae eius a vertice cirrus appositus est cum inscriptione Graeca; nunc demum agona esse, et traderet tandem. Alterius collo ἀσκὸς praeligatus simulque titulus: "Ego egi quod potui. Sed tu cullum meruisti." Ascriptum et columnis, etiam Gallos eum cantando excitasse.

On his statue a top-knot was set upon the crown with a Greek inscription: that now at last there was an agōn, and that he should finally hand it over. To the neck of another an ἀσκὸς (askos, wineskin) was tied, along with a label: "I did what I could. But you have deserved the culleus." It was also added on the columns that he had even roused the Gauls by singing.

Iam noctibus iurga cum servis plerique simulantes crebro Vindicem poscebant.

Now at nights, most, simulating quarrels with their slaves, were frequently calling for Vindex.

XLVI. Terrebatur ad hoc portentis somniorum et auspiciorum et ominum, cum veteribus tum novis. Numquam antea somniare solitus occisa demum matre vidit per quietem navem sibi regenti extortum gubernaculum trahique se ab Octavia uxore in artissimas tenebras et modo pinnatarum formicarum multitudine oppleri, modo a simulacris gentium ad Pompei theatrum dedicatarum circumiri acerique progressu; asturconem, quo maxime laetabatur, posteriore corporis parte in simiae speciem transfiguratum ac tantum capite integro hinnitus edere canoros.

46. He was terrified besides by portents of dreams and auspices and omens, both old and new. Never before accustomed to dream, only after his mother had at last been slain he saw in his sleep, as he was steering a ship, the helm torn from him, and himself dragged by his wife Octavia into the thickest darkness; and now he was being overwhelmed by a multitude of winged ants, now he was being surrounded by the simulacra of the nations dedicated at the Theater of Pompey and his progress sharply checked; his asturcon, in which he most rejoiced, had the hind part of its body transfigured into a simian form and, with only the head left intact, was emitting melodious neighings.

De Mausoleo, sponte foribus patefactis, exaudita vox est nomine eum cientis. Kal. Ian.

From the Mausoleum, the doors thrown open of their own accord, a voice was heard calling him by name. Jan. 1.

exornati Lares in ipso sacrificii apparatu conciderunt; auspicanti Sporus anulum muneri optulit, cuius gemmae scalptura erat Proserpinae raptus; votorum nuncupatione, magna iam ordinum frequentia, vix repertae Capitolii claves. Cum ex oratione eius, qua in Vindicem perorabat, recitaretur in senatu daturos poenas sceleratos ac brevi dignum exitum facturos, conclamatum est ab universis :"Tu facies, Auguste. " Observatum etiam fuerat novissimam fabulam cantasse eum publice Oedipodem exsulem atque in hoc desisse versu:

the adorned Lares collapsed in the very preparation of the sacrifice; while he was taking the auspices, Sporus offered a ring as a gift, whose gem bore an engraving of the Rape of Proserpina; at the proclamation of the vows, with a great throng of the orders already present, the keys of the Capitol were scarcely found. When from his speech, in which he was declaiming against Vindex, it was read in the senate that the wicked would pay the penalties and would soon meet a fitting end, it was shouted by all : "You will do it, Augustus. " It had also been observed that he publicly sang his latest play, Oedipus the Exile, and that he broke off at this verse:

Θανεῖν μ᾽ ἄνωγε σύγγαμος, μήτηρ, πατήρ.

My consort, my mother, my father bids me to die.

XLVII. Nuntiata interim etiam ceterorum exercituum defectione litteras prandenti sibi redditas concerpsit, mensam subvertit, duos scyphos gratissimi usus, quos Homericos a caelatura carminum Homeri vocabat, solo inlisit ac sumpto a Lucusta veneno et in auream pyxidem condito transiit in hortos Servilianos, ubi praemissis libertorum fidissimis Ostiam ad classem praeparandam tribunos centurionesque praetorii de fugae societate temptavit. Sed partim tergiversantibus, partim aperte detrectantibus, uno vero etiam proclamante: "Usque adeone mori miserum est?" varie agitavit, Parthosne an Galbam supplex peteret, an atratus prodiret in publicum proque rostris quanta maxima posset miseratione veniam praeteritorum precaretur, ac ni flexisset animos, vel Aegypti praefecturam concedi sibi oraret.

47. Meanwhile, when the defection of the other armies was also announced, he tore up the letters handed to him as he was dining, overturned the table, dashed to the floor two cups of his most favorite use—which, from the chasing depicting the songs of Homer, he called “Homeric”—and, having taken poison from Locusta and put it in a golden casket, he passed into the Servilian Gardens, where, after sending ahead his most trusty freedmen to Ostia to prepare the fleet, he tried to induce the tribunes and centurions of the praetorian guard into the partnership of flight. But as some equivocated and others openly refused, one even shouting: “Is it really so miserable a thing to die?” he tossed about various plans—whether he should as a suppliant seek the Parthians or Galba, or go out into public clad in mourning and before the rostra, with the greatest possible commiseration, beg pardon for past deeds, and, if he could not bend their minds, ask that the prefecture of Egypt be granted to himself.

Inventus est postea in scrinio eius hac de re sermo formatus; sed deterritum putant, ne prius quam in Forum perveniret discerperetur. Sic cogitatione in posterum diem dilata ad mediam fere noctem excitatus, ut comperit stationem militum recessisse, prosiluit e lecto misitque circum amicos, et quia nihil a quoquam renuntiabatur, ipse cum paucis hospitia singulorum adiit. Verum clausis omnium foribus, respondente nullo, in cubiculum rediit, unde iam et custodes diffugerant, direptis etiam stragulis, amota et pyxide veneni; ac statim Spiculum murmillonem vel quemlibet alium percussorem, cuius manu periret, requisiit et nemine reperto "Ergo ego" inquit "nec amicum habeo, nec inimicum?" procurritque, quasi praecipitaturus se in Tiberim.

Later there was found in his scrinium a speech composed on this matter; but they think he was deterred, lest before he could reach the Forum he be torn to pieces. Thus, with the plan deferred to the next day, awakened at about midnight, when he learned that the soldiers’ guard-post had withdrawn, he leapt from the bed and sent round to his friends; and because nothing was reported back by anyone, he himself with a few went to the lodgings of each. But with everyone’s doors shut, no one answering, he returned to his bedroom, whence even the guards had now fled, the bedclothes too having been plundered, and the box of poison removed; and at once he looked for Spiculus the murmillo, or any other executioner by whose hand he might perish, and when no one was found, he said, “So then I have neither a friend nor an enemy?” and he ran forward, as if about to hurl himself into the Tiber.

XLVIII. Sed revocato rursus impetu aliquid secretioris latebrae ad colligendum animum desideravit, et offerente Phaonte liberto suburbanum suum inter Salariam et Nomentanam viam circa quartum miliarium, ut erat nudo pede atque tunicatus, paenulam obsoleti coloris superinduit adopertoque capite et ante faciem optento sudario equum inscendit, quattuor solis comitantibus, inter quos et Sporus erat. Statimque tremore terrae et fulgure adverso pavefactus audiit e proximis castris clamorem militum et sibi adversa et Galbae prospera ominantium, etiam ex obviis viatoribus quendam dicentem: 'Hi Neronem persequuntur', alium sciscitantem: 'Ecquid in urbe novi de nerone?' Equo autem ex odore abiecti in via cadaveris consternato detecta facie agnitus est a quodam missicio praetoriano et salutatus.

48. But, his impetus called back again, he desired some more secret hiding place for collecting his spirit; and when Phaon, his freedman, offered his suburban estate between the Salarian and Nomentan roads, about the fourth milestone, as he was, with bare foot and in a tunic, he put on a travel-cloak of faded color, and with his head covered and a sudarium held before his face he mounted a horse, with only four companions accompanying, among whom also was Sporus. And immediately, terrified by an earth-tremor and lightning full in his face, he heard from the nearest camp the shout of soldiers, foreboding ill for himself and prosperity for Galba, and even from passers-by one saying: 'These men are pursuing Nero,' another asking: 'Is there anything new in the city about Nero?' Moreover, when the horse was startled by the smell of a corpse cast down in the road, his face being uncovered he was recognized and greeted by a certain discharged Praetorian.

Ut ad deverticulum ventum est, dimissis equis inter fruticeta ac vepres per harundineti semitam aegre nec nisi strata sub pedibus veste ad aversum villae parietem evasit. Ibi hortante eodem Phaonte, ut interim in specum egestae harenae concederet, negavit se vivum sub terram iturum, ac parumper commoratus, dum clandestinus ad villam introitus pararetur, aquam ex subiecta lacuna poturus manu hausit et 'Haec est' inquit, 'Neronis decocta.' Dein divolsa sentibus paenula traiectos surculos rasit, atque ita quadripes per angustias effossae cavernae receptus in proximam cellam decubuit super lectum modica culcita, vetere pallio strato, instructum; fameque et iterum siti interpellante panem quidem sordidum oblatum aspernatus est, aquae autem tepidae aliquantum bibit.

When they came to a by-road, the horses having been dismissed, he made his way with difficulty through shrubs and briers along a path of a reed-bed, and only with a garment spread under his feet, and he reached the back wall of the villa. There, with the same Phaon urging him meanwhile to retire into a pit of removed sand, he said he would not go alive under the earth; and having lingered a little, while a clandestine entrance to the villa was being prepared, he scooped water with his hand from the pool below to drink and said, 'This is Nero’s decoction.' Then, his cloak torn by the briers, he scraped away the little shoots that had pierced through, and thus, on all fours, admitted through the narrowness of the excavated cavity, he lay down in a nearby cell upon a couch furnished with a modest mattress, with an old cloak spread upon it; and as hunger and then again thirst pressed him, he spurned the filthy bread that was offered, but he drank a little tepid water.

XLIX. Tunc uno quoque hinc inde instante ut quam primum se impendentibus contumeliis eriperet, scrobem coram fieri imperavit dimensus ad corporis sui modulum, componique simul, si qua invenirentur, frustra marmoris et aquam simul ac ligna conferri curando mox cadaveri, flens ad singula atque identidem dictitans: 'Qualis artifex pereo!'. Inter moras perlatos a cursore Phaonti codicillos praeripuit legitque se hostem a senatu iudicatum et quaeri, ut puniatur more maiorum, interrogavitque, quale id genus esset poenae; et cum comperisset nudi hominis cervicem inseri furcae, corpus virgis ad necem caedi, conterritus duos pugiones, quos secum extulerat, arripuit temptataque utriusque acie rursus condidit, causatus nondum adesse fatalem horam. Ac modo Sporum hortabatur, ut lamentari ac plangere inciperet, modo orabat, ut se aliquis ad mortem capessendam exemplo iuvaret; interdum segnitiem suam his verbis increpabat: 'Vivo deformiter, turpiter - οὐ πρέπει Νέρωνι, οὐ πρέπει - νήφειν δεῖ ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις - ἄγε ἔγειρε σεαυτόν.'. Iamque equites appropinquabant, quibus praeceptum erat, ut vivum eum adtraherent.

49. Then, with one and another on either side urging him to snatch himself as soon as possible from the insults hanging over him, he ordered a pit to be made before his eyes, measured to the modulus of his body, and that at the same time, if any were to be found, fragments of marble be put together, and that water as well as wood be brought for the soon-to-be-tended corpse; weeping at each item and repeatedly saying: 'What an artifex I perish!' Amid the delays he snatched letters brought by a courier to Phaon and read that he had been judged an enemy by the senate and was being sought to be punished in the ancestral manner; and he asked what sort that type of punishment was; and when he learned that the neck of a naked man was inserted into a fork and the body beaten to death with rods, terror-stricken he seized the two daggers which he had carried with him, and after testing the edge of each, he put them back again, alleging that the fatal hour was not yet at hand. And now he would exhort Sporus to begin to lament and beat his breast, now he would beg that someone help him by example to take on death; sometimes he rebuked his own sluggishness with these words: 'I live disgracefully, shamefully — it is not fitting for Nero, it is not fitting — one must be sober in such matters — come, rouse yourself.' And already the horsemen were approaching, to whom it had been ordered that they drag him alive.

Quod ut sensit, trepidanter effatus: 'Ἵππων μ᾽ ὠκυπόδων ἀμφὶ κτύπος οὔατα βάλλει' ferrum iugulo adegit iuvante Epaphrodito a libellis. Semianimisque adhuc irrumpenti centurioni et paenula ad vulnus adposita in auxilium se venisse simulanti non aliud respondit quam 'Sero' et 'Haec est fides'. atque in ea voce defecit, exstantibus rigentibusque oculis usque ad horrorem formidinemque visentium. Nihil prius aut magis a comitibus exegerat quam ne potestas cuiquam capitis sui fieret, sed ut quoquo modo totus cremaretur.

When he realized this, he said in trepidation: 'The clatter of swift-footed horses strikes my ears,' and he drove the blade into his throat, with Epaphroditus, the secretary for petitions, assisting. And to the centurion who burst in while he was still half-alive and, with a cloak laid upon the wound, pretended to have come to help, he replied nothing other than 'Too late' and 'This is loyalty.' And at that utterance he expired, his eyes protruding and stiff, to the horror and dread of the onlookers. He had demanded nothing sooner or more earnestly from his companions than that no one be given power over his head, but that, in whatever way, he be entirely cremated.

Permisit hoc Icelus, Galbae libertus, non multo ante vinculis exsolutus, in quae primo tumultu coniectus fuerat.

This was permitted by Icelus, Galba’s freedman, who not long before had been released from chains, into which he had been thrown at the first tumult.

L. Funeratus est impensa ducentorum milium, stragulis albis auro intextis, quibus usus Kal. Ian. fuerat.

50. He was buried at an expense of two hundred thousand, with white coverlets interwoven with gold, which he had used on the Kalends of January.

Reliquias Egloge et Alexandria nutrices cum Acte concubina gentili Domitiorum monimento condiderunt quod prospicitur e campo Martio impositum colli Hortulorum. In eo monimento solium porphyretici marmoris, superstante Lunensi ara, circumsaeptum est lapide Thasio.

Egloge and Alexandria, the nurses, together with Acte, the concubine, laid the remains in the gentile monument of the Domitii, which is visible from the Campus Martius, set upon the Hill of the Gardens. In that monument a seat of porphyritic marble, with a Lunensian altar standing above, is enclosed with Thasian stone.

LI. Statura fuit prope iusta, corpore maculoso et fetido, subflavo capillo, vultu pulchro magis quam venusto, oculis caesis et hebetioribus, cervice obesa, ventre proiecto, gracillimis cruribus, valitudine prospera; nam qui luxuriae immoderatissimae esset, ter omnino per quattuordecim annos languit, atque ita ut neque vino neque consuetudine reliqua abstineret; circa cultum habitumque adeo pudendus, ut comam semper in gradus formatam peregrinatione Achaica etiam pone verticem summiserit ac plerumque synthesinam indutus ligato circum collum sudario in publicum sine cinctu et discalciatus.

51. He was of nearly standard stature, with a blotched and foul-smelling body, yellowish-blond hair, a face handsome rather than winsome, bluish-gray and rather dull eyes, a fat neck, a projecting belly, very slender legs, and flourishing health; for though he was of the most immoderate luxury, in the whole fourteen years he ailed only three times, and even then in such a way that he refrained neither from wine nor from his remaining accustomed indulgences; in regard to dress and appearance he was so disgraceful that he always wore his hair arranged in tiers, and on his Achaean tour he even let it fall down behind the crown, and for the most part, clad in a synthesis with a sudarium tied around his neck, he went out in public ungirded and barefoot.

LII. Liberalis disciplinas omnnis fere puer attigit. Sed a philosophia eum mater avertit monens imperaturo contrariam esse; a cognitione veterum oratorum Seneca praeceptor, quo diutius in admiratione sui detineret.

52. As a boy he touched upon almost all the liberal disciplines. But his mother turned him away from philosophy, warning that it was contrary to one who would be an emperor; and from cognizance of the ancient orators Seneca his preceptor [diverted him], so that he might detain him longer in admiration of himself.

Itaque ad poeticam pronus carmina libenter ac sine labore composuit nec, ut quidam putant, aliena pro suis edidit. Venere in manus meas pugillares libellique cum quibusdam notissimis versibus ipsius chirographo scriptis, ut facile appareret non tralatos aut dictante aliquo exceptos, sed plane quasi a cogitante atque generante exaratos; ita multa et deleta et inducta et superscripta inerant. Habuit et pingendi fingendique non mediocre studium.

And so, being prone toward the poetic, he composed songs gladly and without labor, nor, as some suppose, did he publish alien works as his own. There came into my hands writing-tablets and little booklets with certain very well-known verses written in his own hand, so that it was easy to see they were not transferred nor taken down at someone’s dictation, but plainly as if scratched out by one cogitating and generating; so many erasures and insertions and superscriptions were in them. He also had no mediocre zeal for painting and shaping (modeling).

LIII. Maxime autem popularitate efferebatur, omnium aemulus, qui quoquo modo animum vulgi moverent. Exiit opinio post scaenicas coronas proximo lustro descensurum eum ad Olympia inter athletas; nam et luctabatur assidue nec aliter certamina gymnica tota Graecia spectaverat quam brabeutarum more in stadio humi assidens ac, si qua paria longius recessissent, in medium rnanibus suis protrahens.

53. Most of all he was carried away by popularity, a rival of all who in whatever way stirred the spirit of the crowd. A rumor went out that, after his scenic crowns, in the next lustrum he would descend to Olympia among the athletes; for he also wrestled assiduously, nor had he viewed the gymnic contests throughout all Greece otherwise than in the manner of the brabeutai, sitting on the ground in the stadium and, if any matched pairs had withdrawn farther back, dragging them into the middle with his own hands.

Destinaverat etiam, quia Apollinem cantu, Solem aurigando aequiperare existimaretur, imitari et Herculis facta; praeparatumque leonem aiunt, quem vel clava vel brachiorum nexibus in amphitheatri harena spectante populo nudus elideret.

He had also determined, since he was thought to equal Apollo in singing and the Sun in charioteering, to imitate the deeds of Hercules as well; and they say a lion had been prepared, which he, either with a club or with the interlacing of his arms, would crush naked in the arena of the amphitheater, with the people looking on.

LIV. Sub exitu quidem vitae palam voverat, si sibi incolumis status permansisset, proditurum se partae victoriae ludis etiam hydraulam et choraulam et utricularium ac novissimo die histrionem saltaturumque Vergili Turnum. Et sunt qui tradant Paridem histrionem occisum ab eo quasi gravem adversarium.

54. Towards the close of his life he had publicly vowed, if his intact condition should have remained to him, that he would appear at the games for the victory that had been won also as a player on the hydraulus and the choraules and as a bagpiper, and on the last day as an actor, and that he would dance Vergil’s Turnus. And there are those who hand down that the actor Paris was slain by him as a serious adversary.

LV. Erat illi aeternitatis perpetuaeque famae cupido, sed inconsulta. Ideoque multis rebus ac locis vetere appellatione detracta novam indixit ex suo nomine, mensem quoque Aprilem Neroneum appellavit; destinaverat et Romam Neropolim nuncupare.

55. He had a craving for eternity and for perpetual fame, but ill-considered. And so, in many things and places, with the old appellation stripped away, he proclaimed a new one from his own name; he even called the month April “Neroneum”; and he had intended also to denominate Rome “Neropolis.”

LVI. Religionum usque quaque contemptor, praeter unius Deae Syriae, hanc mox ita sprevit, ut urina contaminaret, alia superstitione captus in qua sola pertinacissime haesit, siquidem imagunculam puellarem, cum quasi remedium insidiarum a plebeio quodam et ignoto muneri accepisset, detecta confestim coniuratione pro summo numine trinisque in die sacrificiis colere perseveravit volebatque credi monitione eius futura praenoscere. Ante paucos quam periret menses attendit et extispicio nec umquam litavit.

56. A contemner of religions everywhere, save for the one Syrian Goddess, this one he soon so spurned that he defiled it with urine; captured by another superstition, in which alone he stuck most pertinaciously—namely, a little maidenly statuette which, when he had received as a gift from a certain plebeian and unknown man as though a remedy against plots, upon a conspiracy being immediately detected he persisted in honoring as the highest numen with thrice‑daily sacrifices—and he wished to be believed to foreknow the future by its warning. A few months before he perished he also attended to extispicy, and he never obtained favorable omens.

LVII. Obiit tricensimo et secundo aetatis anno, die quo quondam Octaviam interemerat, tantumque gaudium publice praebuit, ut plebs pilleata tota urbe discurreret. Et tamen non defuerunt qui per longum tempus vernis aestivisque floribus tumulum eius ornarent ac modo imagines praetextatas in rostris proferrent, modo edicta quasi viventis et brevi magno inimicorum malo reversuri.

57. He died in the thirty-second year of his age, on the day on which once he had put Octavia to death, and he afforded such great public joy, that the plebs, wearing the pilleus, ran about through the whole city. And yet there were not lacking those who for a long time adorned his tomb with vernal and estival flowers, and at one time brought forth on the rostra effigies in the praetexta, at another edicts as if from one alive and about to return shortly, to the great harm of his enemies.

Quin etiam Vologaesus Parthorum rex missis ad senatum legatis de instauranda societate hoc etiam magno opere oravit, ut Neronis memoria coleretur. Denique cum post viginti annos adulescente me exstitisset condicionis incertae qui se Neronem esse iactaret, tam favorabile nomen eius apud Parthos fuit, ut vehementer adiutus et vix redditus sit.

Nay even Vologaesus, king of the Parthians, after sending legates to the senate concerning the restoration of the alliance, also with great effort entreated this: that the memory of Nero be honored. Finally, when, twenty years later, I being a youth, there had arisen a man of uncertain condition who boasted that he was Nero, so favorable was his name among the Parthians that he was powerfully assisted and was scarcely handed back.