Tacitus: ANNALES

[1] Interea rex Parthorum Vologaeses, cognitis Corbulonis rebus regemque alienigenam Tigranen Armeniae impositum, simul fratre Tiridate pulso spretum Arsacidarum fastigium ire ultum volens, magnitudine rursum Romana et continui foederis reverentia diversas ad curas trahebatur, cunctator ingenio et defectione Hyrcanorum, gentis validae, multisque ex eo bellis inligatus. atque illum ambiguum novus insuper nuntius contumeliae exstimulat: quippe egressus Armenia Tigranes Adiabenos, conterminam nationem, latius ac diutius quam per latrocinia vastaverat, idque primores gentium aegre tolerabant: eo contemptionis descensum, ut ne duce quidem Romano incursarentur, sed temeritate obsidis tot per annos inter mancipia habiti. accendebat dolorem eorum Monobazus, quem penes Adiabenum regimen, quod praesidium aut unde peteret rogitans: iam de Armenia concessum, proxima trahi; et nisi defendant Parthi, levius servitium apud Romanos deditis quam captis esse.

[1] Meanwhile Vologaeses, king of the Parthians, having learned of Corbulo’s measures and that an alien-born king, Tigranes, had been imposed upon Armenia, at the same time, his brother Tiridates having been driven out, wishing to go to avenge the slight to the Arsacid eminence, was on the other hand drawn off to different concerns by Roman magnitude and respect for the standing treaty, a delayer by temperament and entangled by the defection of the Hyrcanians, a powerful people, and by many wars arising therefrom. And this wavering man a fresh report of contumely further spurred: for Tigranes, having gone out from Armenia, had laid waste the Adiabeni, a bordering nation, more broadly and for longer than is the way of brigandage, and the foremost men of the peoples could hardly endure it: so far had contempt descended that they were raided not even by a Roman commander, but by the rashness of a hostage long held for so many years among the slaves. Their pain was inflamed by Monobazus, in whose hands was the rule of Adiabene, asking what protection and whence he should seek it: already, as to Armenia, concession had been made; the nearest were being dragged off; and unless the Parthians should defend them, servitude among the Romans is lighter for the surrendered than for the captured.

Tiridates quoque, regni profugus, per silentium aut modice querendo gravior erat: non enim ignavia magna imperia contineri; virorum armorumque faciendum certamen; id in summa fortuna aequius quod validus, et sua retinere privatae domus, de alienis certare regiam laudem esse.

Tiridates too, a fugitive from his kingdom, was the more weighty either by silence or by moderate complaining: for great empires are not held by inertia; there must be a contest of men and of arms; in the summit of fortune the fairer claim is that of the strong, and to retain one’s own belongs to a private household, but to contend for what is another’s is a regal renown.

[2] Igitur commotus his Vologaeses concilium vocat et proximum sibi Tiridaten constituit atque ita orditur: "hunc ego eodem mecum patre genitum, cum mihi per aetatem summo nomine concessisset, in possessionem Armeniae deduxi, qui tertius potentiae gradus habetur (nam Medos Pacorus ante ceperat), videbarque contra vetera fratrum odia et certamin[a] familiae nostrae penates rite composuisse. prohibent Romani et pacem numquam ipsis prospere lacessitam nunc quoque in exitium suum abrumpunt. non ibo infitias: aequitate quam sanguine, causa quam armis retinere parta maioribus malueram.

[2] Therefore, moved by these things, Vologaeses calls a council and sets Tiridates nearest to himself, and thus begins: "This man, begotten of the same father as I, since by reason of age he had conceded to me the supreme name, I led into the possession of Armenia, which is held to be the third grade of power (for Pacorus had earlier taken the Medes), and I seemed, against the ancient hatreds of brothers and the contests of our family, to have duly set in order our Penates. The Romans forbid it, and a peace never, when provoked by themselves, prosperous to them, they now also break off to their own ruin. I will not deny it: I had preferred to retain what was won by my ancestors by equity rather than by blood, by right rather than by arms."

si cunctatione deliqui, virtute corrigam. vestra quidem vis et gloria [in] integro est, addita modestiae fama, quae neque summis mortalium spernenda est et a dis aestimatur." simul diademate caput Tiridatis evinxit, promptam equitum manum, quae regem ex more sectatur, Monaesi nobili viro tradidit, adiectis Adiabenorum auxiliis, mandavitque Tigranen Armenia exturba[re], dum ipse positis adversus Hyrcanos discordiis vires intimas molemque belli ciet, provinciis Romanis minitans.

"if I have failed by delay, I will correct it by valor. Your force indeed and glory are intact, with the renown of modesty added, which is not to be scorned by the highest of mortals and is esteemed by the gods." At the same time he bound Tiridates’ head with a diadem, handed over to Monaeses, a noble man, a ready band of horsemen which, according to custom, attends a king, with the auxiliaries of the Adiabenes added, and he ordered him to drive Tigranes out of Armenia, while he himself, with the discords against the Hyrcanians set aside, rouses his inner forces and the mass of war, threatening the Roman provinces.

[3] Quae ubi Corbuloni certis nuntiis audita sunt, legiones duas cum Verulano Severo et Vettio Bolano subsidium Tigrani mittit, occulto praecepto, compositius cuncta quam festinantius agerent. quippe bellum habere quam gerere malebat, scripseratque Caesari proprio duce opus esse, qui Armeniam defenderet: Syriam ingruente Vologaese acriore in discrimine esse. atque interim reliquas legiones pro ripa Euphratis locat, tumultuariam provincialium manum armat, hostiles ingressus praesidiis intercipit.

[3] When these things were heard by Corbulo through sure messengers, he sends two legions with Verulanus Severus and Vettius Bolanus as support for Tigranes, with a secret instruction that they should conduct everything more composedly than more hastily. Indeed he preferred to have a war rather than to wage it, and he had written to Caesar that there was need of a proper commander to defend Armenia: that Syria, with Vologaeses bearing down, was in a sharper peril. And meanwhile he stations the remaining legions along the bank of the Euphrates, arms a tumultuary band of provincials, and intercepts hostile ingressions with garrisons.

et quia egena aquarum regio est, castella fontibus imposita; quosdam rivos congestu harenae abdidit.

and because the region is destitute of waters, forts have been set upon springs; some rivulets it has hidden by the piling-up of sand.

[4] Ea dum a Corbulone tuendae Syriae parantur, acto raptim agmine Mon[a]eses, ut famam sui praeiret, non ideo nescium aut incautum Tigranen offendit. occupaverat Tigranocertam, urbem copia defensorum et magnitudine moenium validam. ad hoc Nicephorius amnis haud spernenda latitudine partem murorum ambit, et ducta ingens fossa, qua fluvio diffidebatur.

[4] While these things for the safeguarding of Syria were being prepared by Corbulo, with the column driven swiftly Monaeses, that the repute of himself might go before, did not for that reason catch Tigranes unknowing or incautious. He had occupied Tigranocerta, a city strong in a supply of defenders and in the greatness of its walls. In addition to this, the river Nicephorius, with a breadth not to be scorned, encircles part of the walls, and a huge ditch was drawn where reliance was not placed on the river.

inerantque milites et provisi ante commeatus, quorum subvectu pauci avidius progressi et repentinis hostibus circumventi ira magis quam metu ceteros accenderant. sed Partho ad exsequendas obsidiones nulla comminus audacia: raris sagittis neque clausos exterret et semet frustratur. Adiabeni cum promovere scalas et machinamenta inciperent, facile detrusi, mox erumpentibus nostris caeduntur.

and there were soldiers within, and provisions had been provided beforehand, by the bringing up of which a few, having advanced too eagerly and, surrounded by sudden enemies, had inflamed the rest more by anger than by fear. but the Parthian has no hand-to-hand audacity for prosecuting sieges: with sparse arrows he neither terrifies those enclosed, and only frustrates himself. when the Adiabeni began to push forward ladders and engines, they were easily driven back; soon, as our men burst out, they are cut down.

[5] Corbulo tamen, quamvis secundis rebus suis, moderandum fortunae ratus misit ad Vologaesen, qui expostularent vim provinciae inlatam: socium amicumque regem, cohortes Romanas circumsederi. omitteret potius obsidionem, aut se quoque in agro hostili castra positurum. Casperius centurio in eam leg[at]ionem delectus apud oppidum Nisibin, septem et triginta milibus passuum a Tigranocerta distantem, adit regem et mandata ferociter edidit.

[5] Corbulo, however, although his affairs were favorable,
thinking that fortune ought to be moderated, sent to Vologaeses those who should expostulate about the force inflicted upon the province: that a king, an ally and friend, and Roman cohorts were being besieged.
He should rather abandon the siege, or he too would pitch camp in hostile territory.
Casperius, a centurion, chosen for that legation,
at the town of Nisibis, thirty-seven miles distant from Tigranocerta, approaches the king and set forth the mandates fiercely.

Vologaesi vetus et penitus infixum erat arma romana vitandi, nec praesentia prospere fluebant. inritum obsidium, tutus manu et copiis Tigranes, fugati qui expugnationem sumpserant, missae in Armeniam legiones, et alia pro Syria paratae ultro inrumpere; sibi imbecillum equitem pabuli inopia; nam exorta vi locustarum aberat quicquid herbidum aut frondosum. igitur metu abstruso mitiora obtendens, missurum ad imperatorem Romanum legatos super petenda Armenia et firmanda pace respondet; Mon[a]esen omittere Tigranocertam iubet, ipse retro concedit.

Vologaeses had an old and deeply infixed habit of avoiding Roman arms, nor were present circumstances flowing prosperously. An abortive siege, Tigranes secure in force and troops, those who had undertaken the storming routed, legions sent into Armenia, and others, for Syria, prepared to break in of their own accord; for himself a feeble cavalry through lack of fodder; for, a plague of locusts having arisen, whatever was grassy or leafy was lacking. Therefore, with fear kept out of sight and putting forward milder terms, he replies that he will send envoys to the Roman emperor concerning the seeking of Armenia and the establishing of peace; he orders Mon[a]eses to abandon Tigranocerta, and he himself withdraws back.

[6] Haec plures ut formidine regis et Corbulonis minis patrata ac magnifica extollebat. alii occulte pepigisse interpretabantur, ut omisso utrimque bello et abeunte Vologaese Tigranes quoque Armenia abscederet. cur enim exercitum Romanum a Tigranocertis deductum?

[6] Many were extolling these things as accomplished by the king’s dread and Corbulo’s menaces, and as magnificent. others were interpreting that there had been a secret compact, that, with war laid aside on both sides and Vologaeses departing, Tigranes too would withdraw from Armenia. for why, indeed, was the Roman army drawn off from Tigranocerta?

cur deserta per otium quae bello defenderant? an melius hibernavisse in extrema Cappadocia, raptim erectis tuguriis, quam in sede regni modo retenti? dilata prorsus arma, ut Vologaeses cum alio quam cum Corbulone certaret, Corbulo meritae tot per annos gloriae non ultra periculum faceret.

why had they deserted in leisure what they had defended in war? or was it better
to have wintered in farthest Cappadocia, with huts hastily erected, than in
the seat of the kingdom just now retained? arms were postponed outright, in order that Vologaeses might contend with another
rather than with Corbulo, and that Corbulo, for glory merited through so many years,
might no longer incur further peril.

nam, ut rettuli, proprium ducem tuendae Armeniae poposcerat, et adventare Caesennius Paetus audiebatur. iamque aderat, copiis ita divisis, ut quarta et duodecima legiones addita quinta, quae recens e Moesis excita erat, simul Pontica et Galatarum Cappadocumque auxilia Paeto oboedirent, tertia et sexta et decima legiones priorque Syriae miles apud Corbulonem manerent; cetera ex rerum usu sociarent partirenturve. sed neque Corbulo aemuli patiens, et Paetus, cui satis ad gloriam erat, si proximus haberetur, despiciebat gesta, nihil caedis aut praedae, usurpatas nomine tenus urbium expugnationes dictitans: se tributa ac leges et pro umbra regis Romanum ius victis impositurum.

For, as I have related, he had demanded a proper leader for the safeguarding of
Armenia, and it was heard that Caesennius Paetus was approaching. And now he was at hand, the forces divided in such a way that the Fourth and the Twelfth legions, with the addition of the
Fifth, which had been newly raised from the Moesians, together with the Pontic and the auxiliaries of the Galatians
and Cappadocians, should obey Paetus, while the Third and Sixth and Tenth
legions and the earlier Syrian soldiery should remain with Corbulo; the rest, according to
the exigency of affairs, they should unite or divide. But neither was Corbulo tolerant of a rival,
and Paetus, to whom it was enough for glory if he were reckoned as next, was despising
the achievements, saying there had been nothing of slaughter or booty, that stormings of cities had been usurped in name only,
declaring that he would impose tributes and laws and, instead of the shadow of a king,
the Roman right upon the conquered.

[7] Sub idem tempus legati Vologaesis, quos ad principem missos memoravi, revertere inriti bellumque propalam sumptum a Parthis. nec Paetus detrectavit, sed duabus legionibus, quarum quartum Funisulanus Vettonianus eo in tempore, duodecimam Calavius Sabinus regebant, Armeniam intrat tristi omine. nam in transgressu Euphratis, quem ponte tramittebant, nulla palam causa turbatus equus, qui consularia insignia gestabat, retro evasit; hostiaque, quae muniebantur hibernaculis adsistens, semifacta opera fuga perrupit seque vallo extulit; et pila militum arsere, magis insigni prodigio, quia [Parthus] hostis missilibus telis decertat.

[7] At about the same time the legates of Vologaeses, whom I have mentioned as sent to the emperor, returned in vain, and war had been openly undertaken by the Parthians. Nor did Paetus refuse, but with two legions, of which at that time the Fourth was commanded by Funisulanus Vettonianus, the Twelfth by Calavius Sabinus, he enters Armenia under a grim omen. For in the crossing of the Euphrates, which they were passing over by a bridge, the horse which bore the consular insignia, disturbed with no apparent cause, escaped backward; and the sacrificial victim, standing by the winter-quarters that were being fortified, burst through the half-finished works in flight and raised itself over the rampart; and the soldiers’ javelins burned—a more notable prodigy, because the [Parthian] enemy fights with missile weapons.

[8] Ceterum Paetus spretis ominibus, necdum satis firmatis hibernaculis, nullo rei frumentariae provisu, rapit exercitum trans montem Taurum reciperandis, ut ferebat, Tigranocertis vastandisque regionibus, quas Corbulo integras omisisset. et capta quaedam castella, gloriaeque et praedae nonnihil partum, si aut gloriam cum modo aut praedam cum cura habuisset: longinquis itineribus percursando quae obtineri nequibant, conrupto qui captus erat commeatu et instante iam hieme, reduxit exercitum composuitque ad Caesarem litteras quasi confecto bello, verbis magnificis, rerum vacuas.

[8] But Paetus, the omens having been spurned, with the winter quarters not yet sufficiently secured, with no provision for the grain-supply, snatches up the army across Mount Taurus to recover, as he alleged, Tigranocerta and to devastate the regions which Corbulo had left intact. And certain forts were captured, and not a little of glory and booty procured—had he but held glory with measure or booty with care: by scouring with long marches things that could not be held, the supply which had been seized being spoiled and winter now pressing, he led the army back and composed letters to Caesar as though the war were finished, magnificent in words, empty of realities.

[9] Interim Corbulo numquam neglectam Euphratis ripam crebrioribus praesidiis insedit; et ne ponti iniciendo impedimentum hostiles turmae adferrent (iam enim subiectis magna specie volitabant), naves magnitudine praestantes et conexas trabibus ac turribus auctas agit per amnem catapultisque et balistis proturbat barbaros, in quo[s] saxa et hastae longius permeabant, quam ut contrario sagittarum iactu adaequarentur. dein pons continuatus collesque adversi per socias cohortes, post legionum castris occupantur, tanta celeritate et ostentatione virium, ut Parthi omisso paratu invadendae Syriae spem omnem in Armeniam verterent, ubi Paetus imminentium nescius quintam legionem procul in Ponto habebat, reliquas promiscis militum commeatibus infirmaverat, donec adventare Vologaesen magno et infenso agmine auditum.

[9] Meanwhile Corbulo, never neglecting the bank of the Euphrates, occupied it with more frequent garrisons; and lest the hostile squadrons bring an impediment to the throwing-in of a bridge (for already, their forces being deployed below, they were hovering with great show), he drives along the river ships outstanding in size and linked with beams and augmented with towers, and with catapults and ballistae he drives off the barbarians—into whom rocks and spears carried farther than that they could be matched by a counter-cast of arrows. Then the bridge is made continuous, and the opposite hills are seized by the allied cohorts and afterward are occupied with the camps of the legions, with such speed and ostentation of forces that the Parthians, abandoning their preparation for invading Syria, turned all hope toward Armenia, where Paetus, unaware of what was impending, had the Fifth legion far off in Pontus; he had weakened the rest by indiscriminate furloughs for the soldiers, until it was heard that Vologases was approaching with a great and hostile column.

[10] Accitur legio duodecima, et unde famam aucti exercitus speraverat, prodita infrequentia. qua tamen retineri castra et eludi Parthus tractu belli poterat, si Paeto aut in suis aut in alienis consiliis constantia fuisset: verum ubi a viris militaribus adversus urgentes casus firmatus erat, rursus, ne alienae sententiae indigens videretur, in diversa ac deteriora transibat. et tunc relictis hibernis non fossam neque vallum sibi, sed corpora et arma in hostem data clamitans, duxit legiones quasi proelio certaturus.

[10] The Twelfth legion is summoned, and where he had hoped for the repute of an augmented army, its scantiness was betrayed. Yet with it the camp could have been held and the Parthian evaded by a protraction of the war, if in Paetus there had been constancy either in his own counsels or in those of others: but when he had been strengthened by military men against the pressing emergencies, again, lest he seem in need of another’s opinion, he passed over into different and worse courses. And then, the winter quarters abandoned, crying out that not a ditch nor a rampart for himself, but bodies and arms had been given to the enemy, he led the legions as if about to contend in battle.

deinde amisso centurione et paucis militibus, quos visendis hostium copiis praemiserat, trepidus remeavit. et quia minus acriter Vologaeses institerat, vana rursus fiducia tria milia delicti peditis proximo Tauri iugo imposuit, quo transitum regis arcerent; alares quoque Pannonios, robur equitatus, in parte campi locat. coniux ac filius castello, cui Arsamosata nomen est, abditi, data in praesidium cohorte ac disperso milite, qui in uno habitus vagum hostem promptius sustentavisset aegre compulsum ferunt, ut instantem Corbuloni fateretur.

then, after losing a centurion and a few soldiers whom he had sent ahead to reconnoiter the enemy’s forces, he returned in alarm. And because Vologaeses had pressed on less sharply, in empty confidence once more he set three thousand select infantry on the nearest ridge of the Taurus, to bar the king’s transit; he also places the Pannonian alares, the backbone of the cavalry, on a part of the plain. His wife and son were hidden in a stronghold whose name is Arsamosata, a cohort having been assigned as garrison; and the soldiery were scattered—who, if kept in one body, would more promptly have sustained the roaming enemy—, and they report that he was with difficulty compelled to confess that Corbulo was pressing close.

nec a Corbulone properatum, quo gliscentibus periculis etiam subsidii laus augeretur. expediri tamen itineri singula milia ex tribus legionibus et alarios octingentos, parem numerum e cohortibus iussit.

nor was there haste on Corbulo’s part, in order that, as the dangers swelled, even the praise of the relief might be augmented. nevertheless, he ordered for the march to be made ready a thousand apiece from the three legions and eight hundred alares (auxiliary cavalry), and an equal number from the cohorts.

[11] At Vologaeses, quamvis obsessa a Paeto itinera hinc peditatu inde equite accepisset, nihil mutato consilio, sed vi ac minis alares exterruit, legionarios obtrivit, uno tantum centurione Tarquitio Crescente turrim, in qua praesidium agitabat, defendere auso factaque saepius eruptione et caesis, qui barbarorum propius suggrediebantur, donec ignium iactu circumveniretur. peditum si quis integer, longinqua et avia, vulnerati castra repetivere, virtutem regis, saevitiam et copias gentium, cuncta metu extollentes, facili credulitate eorum, qui eadem pavebant. ne dux quidem obniti adversis, sed cuncta militiae munia deseruerat, missis iterum ad Corbulonem precibus, veniret propere, signa et aquilas et nomen reliquum infelicis exercitus tueretur: se fidem interim, donec vita suppeditet, retenturos.

[11] But Vologaeses, although he had found the routes blocked by Paetus, here by infantry and there by cavalry, with his plan changed in nothing, by force and threats frightened the alares (wing-cavalry), crushed the legionaries, with only one centurion, Tarquitius Crescens, having dared to defend the tower in which he was holding garrison, and having made sallies repeatedly and cut down those of the barbarians who were coming up closer, until he was surrounded by the hurling of fires. If any of the foot-soldiers was unhurt, he sought out distant and pathless places; the wounded returned to camp, exalting everything through fear—the valor of the king, the savagery and the forces of the nations—by the easy credulity of those who dreaded the same. Not even the commander strove against adverse things, but had deserted all the duties of soldiery, sending petitions again to Corbulo to come quickly and protect the standards and eagles and the remaining name of the ill-fated army: that they meanwhile, so long as life should supply, would keep their loyalty.

[12] Ille interritus et parte copiarum apud Syriam relicta, ut munimenta Euphrati imposita retinerentur, qua proximum et commeatibus non egenum, regionem Commagenam, exim Cappadociam, inde Armenios petivit. comitabantur exercitum praeter alia sueta bello magna vis camelorum onusta frumenti, ut simul hostem famemque depelleret. primum e perculsis Paccium primi pili centurionem obvium habuit, dein plerosque militum; quos diversas fugae causas obtendentes redire ad signa et clementiam Paeti experiri monebat: se nisi victoribus immitem esse.

[12] He, undismayed, and with a part of his forces left in Syria, that the muniments placed upon the Euphrates might be held, made for the region of Commagene by the route which was nearest and not in want of supplies, then for Cappadocia, thence for Armenia. The army was accompanied, besides other things usual in war, by a great mass of camels laden with grain, so that he might at once drive off the enemy and hunger. First, from among the panic‑stricken, he met Paccius, a centurion of the first spear (primus pilus), then the majority of the soldiers; whom, as they were putting forward diverse causes for flight, he admonished to return to the standards and to try the clemency of Paetus: that he himself was merciless only to the victors.

simul suas legiones adire, hortari; priorum admonere, novam gloriam ostendere. non vicos aut oppida Armeniorum, sed castra Romana duasque in iis legiones pretium laboris peti. si singulis manipularibus praecipua servati civis corona imperatoria manu tribueretur, quod illud et quantum decus, ubi par eorum numerus aspiceretur, qui adtulissent salutem et qui accepissent!

at the same time to approach his legions, to exhort; to admonish of former things, to display new glory. not the villages or towns of the Armenians, but the Roman camp and two legions in it are sought as the price of the labor. if to individual manipular soldiers the special Civic Crown for a citizen preserved were conferred by the emperor’s hand, what—and how great—an honor would that be, when an equal number would be seen of those who had brought salvation and those who had received it!

his atque talibus in commune alacres (et erant quos pericula fratrum aut propinquorum propriis stimulis incenderent) continuum diu noctuque iter properabant.

At these and the like, eager for the common cause (and there were those whom the dangers of brothers or of kinsmen inflamed with their own stimuli), they were hastening an unbroken march by day and by night.

[13] Eoque intentius Vologaeses premere obsessos, modo vallum legionum, modo castellum, quo imbellis aetas defendebatur, adpugnare, propius incedens quam mos Parthis, si ea temeritate hostem in proelium eliceret. at illi vix contuberniis extracti, nec aliud quam munimenta propugnabant, pars iussu ducis, et alii propria ignavia aut Corbulonem opperientes, ac vis [si] ingrueret, provisis exemplis Caudinae Numantinaeque [pacis; neque] eandem vim Samnitibus, Italico populo, aut [Hispanis quam] Parthis, Romani imperii aemulis. validam quoque et laudatam antiquitatem, quotiens fortuna contra daret, saluti consuluisse.

[13] And for that reason Vologaeses more intently pressed the besieged, now assailing the rampart of the legions, now the fortlet in which the unwarlike age was defended, advancing nearer than is the custom for the Parthians, in case by such rashness he might draw the enemy into battle. But they were scarcely drawn out even from their tent-companies, and did nothing other than defend the muniments, some by the order of the leader, and others through their own sloth or awaiting Corbulo; and, should force [if] bear down, with the examples foreseen of the Caudine and Numantine [peace; nor] was there the same compulsion upon the Samnites, an Italian people, or upon the [Spaniards than] to the Parthians, rivals of the Roman empire. And that the sturdy and much-praised antiquity also, whenever fortune turned against them, had taken counsel for safety.

qua desperatione exercitus dux subactus primas tamen litteras ad Vologaesen non supplices, sed in modum querentis composuit, quod pro Armeniis semper Romanae dicionis aut subiectis re[g]i, quem imperator delegisset, hostilia faceret: pacem ex aequo utilem. ne praesentia tantum spectaret: ipsum adversus duas legiones totis regni viribus advenisse; at Romanis orbem terrarum reliquum, quo bellum iuvarent.

By this desperation the army’s leader, though brought under, nevertheless composed the first letters to Vologases not as a suppliant, but in the mode of one complaining, that on behalf of the Armenians—always of Roman dominion or subject to a king whom the emperor had designated—he was doing hostile things: peace on equal terms was advantageous. Let him not look only to present circumstances: that he himself had come against two legions with all the forces of his kingdom; but for the Romans the rest of the world remained, wherewith to aid the war.

[14] Ad eo Vologaeses nihil pro causa, sed opperiendos sibi fratres Pacorum ac Tiridaten rescripsit; illum locum tempusque consilio destinatum, quid de Armenia cernerent; adiecisse deos dignum Arsacidarum, simul ut de legionibus Romanis statuerent. missi posthac Paeto nuntii et regis conloquium petitum, qui Vasacen praefectum equitatus ire iussit. tum Paetus Lucullos, Pompeios et si qua C[a]esa[res] obtinendae donandaeve Armeniae egerant, Vasaces imaginem retinendi largiendive penes nos, vim penes Parthos memorat.

[14] In answer to this Vologases wrote back nothing on the merits, but that his brothers Pacorus and Tiridates must be awaited by him; that that place and time had been appointed for a council, to decide what they should determine concerning Armenia; that the gods had added something worthy of the Arsacids, and at the same time that they should determine about the Roman legions. Thereafter envoys were sent to Paetus and a conference with the king was requested; he ordered Vasaces, prefect of cavalry, to go. Then Paetus cited the Luculli, the Pompeys, and whatever the Caesars had transacted for the obtaining or the bestowing of Armenia, representing to Vasaces that the appearance of retaining or granting was with us, the force with the Parthians.

et multum in vicem disceptato, Monobazus Adiabenus in diem posterum testis iis quae pepigissent adhibetur. placuitque liberari obsidio legiones et decedere omnem militem finibus Armeniorum castellaque et commeatus Parthis tradi, quibus perpetratis copia Vologaesi fieret mittendi ad Neronem legatos.

and after much disputation between them, Monobazus of Adiabene was brought in for the next day as a witness to the terms they had covenanted. And it was agreed that the legions be released from the siege and that all the soldiery withdraw from the borders of the Armenians, and that the forts and provisions be handed over to the Parthians; once these had been carried through, leave would be given to Vologases to send legates to Nero.

[15] Interim flumini Arsaniae (is castra praefluebat) pontem imposuit, specie sibi illud iter expedientis, sed Parthi quasi documentum victoriae iusserant; namque iis usui fuit, nostri per diversum iere. addidit rumor sub iugum missas legiones et alia ex rebus infaustis, quorum simulacrum ab Armeniis usurpatum est. namque et munimenta ingressi sunt, antequam agmen Romanum excederet, et circumstetere vias, captiva olim mancipia aut iumenta adgnoscentes abstrahentesque; raptae etiam vestes, retenta arma, pavido milite et concedente, ne qua proelii causa existeret.

[15] In the meantime he laid a bridge upon the river Arsania (it flowed before the camp), with the appearance of clearing that route for himself, but the Parthians had ordered it as a sort of proof of victory; for it was of use to them, while our men went by a different way. A rumor added that the legions had been sent under the yoke and other items from the ill-omened events, the simulacrum of which was appropriated by the Armenians. For they even entered the fortifications before the Roman column had withdrawn, and they stood round the roads, recognizing and dragging off slaves once captives or beasts of burden; garments too were snatched, the arms retained, the soldiery fearful and yielding, lest any cause of battle should arise.

Vologaeses armis et corporibus caesorum aggeratis, quo cladem nostram testaretur, visu fugientium legionum abstinuit: fama moderationis quaerebatur, postquam superbiam expleverat. flumen Arsaniam elephanto insidens, proximus quisque regem vi equorum perrupere, quia rumor incesserat pontem cessurum oneri dolo fabricantium; sed qui ingredi ausi sunt, validum et fidum intellexere.

Vologaeses, with the arms and
the bodies of the slain heaped up, in order to attest our disaster, from the sight
of the fleeing legions he refrained: a fame for moderation was being sought,
after he had sated his pride. Riding an elephant, he entered the river Arsanias,
and each man nearest to the king broke through by the force of their horses, because a rumor had arisen
that the bridge would give way to the load by the trickery of the builders; but those who dared to step upon it,
understood it to be strong and trustworthy.

[16] Ceterum obsessis adeo suppeditavisse rem frumentariam constitit, ut horreis ignem inicerent, contraque prodiderit Corbulo Parthos inopes copiarum et pabulo attrito relicturos oppugnationem, neque se plus tridui itinere afuisse. adicit iure iurando Paeti cautum apud signa, adstantibus iis, quos testificando rex misisset, neminem Romanum Armeniam ingressurum, donec referrentur litterae Neronis, an paci adnueret. quae ut augendae infamiae composita, sic reliqua non in obscuro habentur, una die quadraginta milium spatium emensum esse Paetum, desertis passim sauciis, neque minus deformem illam fugientium trepidationem, quam si terga in acie vertissent.

[16] However, it was established that to the besieged the grain-supply had been furnished to such a degree that they set fire to the granaries; and, contrariwise, Corbulo reported that the Parthians, needy of resources and with fodder worn down, would abandon the oppugnation, and that he himself had been no more than a three-days’ march away. He adds that by Paetus’s sworn oath it was stipulated at the standards, with those standing by whom the king had sent for testifying, that no Roman would enter Armenia until Nero’s letters were brought back, as to whether he would assent to the peace. Which, though composed for the augmenting of infamy, yet the rest are not in obscurity: that in one day Paetus traversed a space of forty miles, with the wounded abandoned everywhere, and that that trepidation of the fugitives was no less disgraceful than if they had turned their backs in the battle line.

Corbulo cum suis copiis apud ripam Euphratis obvius non eam speciem insignium et armorum praetulit, ut diversitatem exprobraret: maesti manipuli ac vicem commilitonum miserantes ne lacrimis quidem temperare; vix prae fletu usurpata consalutatio. decesserat certamen virtutis et ambitio gloriae, felicium hominum adfectus: sola misericordia valebat, et apud minores magis.

Corbulo, when
with his own forces by the bank of the Euphrates meeting them, did not display such an appearance of insignia and
arms as to upbraid the disparity: the maniples were gloomy and, pitying the lot of their comrades-in-arms, could not even restrain their tears; scarcely, because of the weeping, was the mutual salutation employed. The contest of valor and the ambition of glory had departed—affections of fortunate men: only mercy prevailed, and among the lesser ranks more.

[17] Ducum inter se brevis sermo secutus est, hoc conquerente inritum laborem, potuisse bellum fuga Parthorum finiri; ille integra utrique cuncta respondit: converterent aquilas et iuncti invaderent Armeniam abscessu Vologaesis infirmatam. non ea imperatoris habere mandata Corbulo: periculo legionum commotum e provincia egressum; quando in incerto habeantur Parthorum conatus, Syriam repetiturum. sic quoque optimam fortunam orandam, ut pedes confectus spatiis itinerum alacrem et facilitate camporum praevenientem equitem adsequeretur.

[17] A brief speech between the leaders followed, this one complaining that his labor was rendered vain, that the war could have been ended by the flight of the Parthians; the other replied that everything was intact for both: let them turn the eagles and, united, invade Armenia, weakened by the withdrawal of Vologases. Corbulo did not have such mandates of the emperor: moved by the danger to the legions, he had gone out from the province; since the endeavors of the Parthians were held in uncertainty, he would make for Syria again. Even so, the best fortune must be prayed for, that the foot, worn out by the stretches of marches, might overtake the cavalry, brisk and, by the ease of the plains, getting ahead.

exim Paetus per Cappadociam hibernavit. at Vologaesi ad Corbulonem missi nuntii, detraheret castella trans Euphraten amnemque, ut olim, medium faceret; ille Armeniam quoque diversis praesidiis vacuam fieri expostulabat. et postremo concessit rex; dirutaque quae Euphraten ultra communiverat Corbulo, et Armenii sine arbitro relicti sunt.

Then Paetus wintered through Cappadocia. But messengers sent by Vologeses to Corbulo [requested] that he remove the forts across the Euphrates and make the river, as formerly, the middle line; he in turn demanded that Armenia also be made empty of its various garrisons. And at last the king conceded; and the fortifications which Corbulo had strengthened beyond the Euphrates were torn down, and the Armenians were left without an arbiter.

[18] At Romae tropaea de Parthis arcusque medio Capitolini montis sistebantur, decreta ab senatu integro adhuc bello neque tum omissa, dum adspectui consulitur spreta conscientia. quin et dissimulandis rerum externarum curis Nero frumentum plebis vetustate corruptum in Tiberim iecit, quo securitatem annonae sustentaret. cuius pretio nihil additum est, quamvis ducentas ferme naves portu in ipso violentia tempestatis et centum alias Tiberi subvectas fortuitus ignis absumpsisset.

[18] But at Rome trophies over the Parthians and an arch were being set up in the middle of the Capitoline
hill, measures decreed by the senate with the war still entire and not even then dropped, while provision was made for
appearance with conscience spurned. Moreover, to cloak anxieties about foreign affairs Nero threw the plebs’ grain,
spoiled by age, into the Tiber, in order thereby to sustain confidence in the grain-supply. The price of which was not
raised, although nearly two hundred ships in the harbor itself had been destroyed by the violence of a storm, and a
chance fire had consumed a hundred others brought up the Tiber.

tres dein consulares, L. Pisonem, Ducenium Geminum, Pompeium Paulinum vectigalibus publicis praeposuit, cum insectatione priorum principum, qui gravitate sumptuum iustos reditus anteissent: se annuum sexcenties sestertium rei publicae largiri.

Then he put three men of consular rank, L. Piso, Ducennius Geminus, and Pompeius Paulinus, in charge of the public revenues, with an invective against former emperors, who by the heaviness of their expenses had outstripped just returns: that he was bestowing upon the commonwealth an annual 60,000,000 sesterces.

[19] Percrebuerat et tempestate pravus mos, cum propinquis comitiis aut sorte provinciarum plerique orbi fictis adoptionibus adsciscerent filios, praeturasque et provincias inter patres sortiti statim emitterent manu, quos adoptaverant. [igitur qui filios genuerant] magna cum invidia senatum adeunt, ius naturae, labores educandi adversus fraudem et artes et brevitatem adoptionis enumerant. satis pretii esse orbis, quod multa securitate, nullis oneribus gratiam honores, cuncta prompta et obvia haberent.

[19] A depraved custom had also grown widespread at that time, when, with the elections close at hand or with the provinces being allotted by lot, many of the childless were enrolling sons by feigned adoptions, and, after praetorships and provinces had been drawn by lot among the Fathers, they immediately emancipated those whom they had adopted. [therefore those who had begotten sons] with great ill-will approach the senate, and they enumerate the right of nature and the labors of rearing in opposition to the fraud, the artifices, and the shortness of adoption. That there was reward enough for the childless, in that, with much securitas and with no burdens, they had favor, honors, everything ready and at hand.

sibi promissa legum diu exspectata in ludibrium verti, quando quis sine sollicitudine parens, sine luctu orbus longa patrum vota repente adaequaret. factum ex eo senatus consultum, ne simulata adoptio in ulla parte muneris publici iuvaret ac ne usurpandis quidem hereditatibus prodesset.

they said that the promises of the laws, long awaited by them, were being turned into a mockery, since someone, a parent without solicitude, childless without mourning, suddenly equaled the long vows of fathers. from this there was made a senatorial decree, that a simulated adoption should not avail in any part of public office, and should not even be of use for the usurping of inheritances.

[20] Exim Claudius Timarchus Cretensis reus agitur, ceteris criminibus, ut solent praevalidi provincialium et opibus nimiis ad iniurias minorum elati: una vox eius usque ad contumeliam senatus penetraverat, quod dictitasset in sua potestate situm, an proconsulibus, qui Cretam obtinuissent, grates agerentur. quam occasionem Paetus Thrasea ad bonum publicum vertens, postquam de reo censuerat provincia Creta depellendum, haec addidit: "usu probatum est, patres conscripti, leges egregias, exempla honesta apud bonos ex delictis aliorum gigni. sic oratorum licentia Cinciam rogationem, candidatorum ambitus Iulias leges, magistratuum avaritia Calpurnia scita pepererunt; nam culpa quam poena tempore prior, emendari quam peccare posterius est.

[20] Next Claudius Timarchus, a Cretan, is prosecuted, on the other
charges such as the over-mighty among provincials are wont to face, and, lifted up by excessive resources, to the injuries of their inferiors: one utterance of his had penetrated even to an insult of the senate, in that he kept saying it lay in his own power whether thanks should be given to the proconsuls who had held Crete. Turning this occasion to the public good, Paetus Thrasea, after he had voted that the defendant be expelled from the province of Crete, added these things: "It has been proved by use, Conscript Fathers, that excellent laws and honorable examples among good men are begotten out of the delicts of others. Thus the license of orators produced the Cincian bill, the canvassing of candidates the Julian laws, the avarice of magistrates the Calpurnian decrees; for culpa is earlier in time than poena, to be emended later than to sin."

ergo adversus novam provincialium superbiam dignum fide constantiaque Romana capiamus consilium, quo tutelae sociorum nihil derogetur, nobis opinio decedat, qualis quisque habeatur, alibi quam in civium iudicio esse.

therefore, against the new arrogance of the provincials, let us adopt a counsel worthy of Roman faith and constancy, by which nothing is derogated from the protection of the allies, and let the notion depart from us that how each person is regarded is anywhere other than in the judgment of the citizens.

[21] Olim quidem non modo praetor aut consul, sed privati etiam mittebantur, qui provincias viserent et quid de cuiusque obsequio videretur referrent, trepidabantque gentes de aestimatione singulorum: at nunc colimus externos et adulamur, et quo modo ad nutum alicuius grates, ita promptius accusatio decernitur. decernaturque et maneat provincialibus potentiam suam tali modo ostentandi: sed laus falsa et precibus expressa perinde cohibeatur quam malitia, quam crudelitas. plura saepe peccantur, dum demeremur quam dum offendimus.

[21] Once indeed not only a praetor or a consul, but even private individuals
were sent, to visit the provinces and to report what seemed about each one’s obedience;
and the nations used to tremble at the appraisal of individuals:
but now we cultivate and flatter foreigners, and just as, at someone’s nod,
thanks are decreed, so the accusation is all the more promptly decreed. And let it be decreed and let it remain
for the provincials to display their power in such a manner; but false praise,
wrung out by entreaties, should be restrained just as much as malice, as cruelty. More things are often sinned,
while we seek to ingratiate ourselves, than while we give offense.

quaedam immo virtutes odio sunt, severitas obstinata, invictus adversum gratiam animus. inde initia magistratuum nostrorum meliora ferme et finis inclinat, dum in modum candidatorum suffragia conquirimus: quae si arceantur, aequalibus atque constantius provinciae regentur. nam ut metu repetundarum infracta avaritia est, ita vetita gratiarum actione ambitio cohibe[bi]tur."

Indeed, certain virtues even are hated—an obstinate severity, a spirit unconquered against favor. From this, the beginnings of our magistracies are for the most part better, and the close inclines downward, while, in the manner of candidates, we hunt for suffrages: and if these be warded off, the provinces will be governed more equally and more consistently. For as avarice has been broken by fear of the repetundae (extortion-charges), so, with the vote of thanks forbidden, ambition will be restrained."

[22] Magno adsensu celebrata sententia. non tamen senatus consultum perfici potuit abnuentibus consulibus ea de re relatum. mox auctore principe sanxere, ne quis ad concilium sociorum referret agendas apud senatum pro praetoribus prove consulibus grates, neu quis ea legatione fungeretur.

[22] The opinion was celebrated with great assent. Yet a senatus-consult could not be brought to completion, the consuls refusing that a report on that matter be made. Soon, with the princeps as author, they sanctioned that no one should refer to the council of the allies that thanks be presented before the senate on behalf of praetors or of consuls, nor should anyone discharge that legation.

Isdem consulibus gymnasium ictu fulminibus conflagravit, effigies in eo Neronis ad informe aes liquefacta. et motu terrae celebre Campaniae oppidum Pompei magna ex parte proruit; defunctaque virgo Vestalis Laelia, in cuius locum Cornelia ex familia Cossorum capta est.

Under the same consuls the gymnasium, by a stroke of lightning, was conflagrated, the effigy of Nero in it liquefied into formless bronze. And by an earthquake the celebrated town of Campania, Pompeii, collapsed in great part; and the Vestal Virgin Laelia died, in whose place Cornelia from the family of the Cossi was taken.

[23] Memmio Regulo et Verginio Rufo consulibus natam sibi ex Poppaea filiam Nero ultra mortale gaudium accepit appelavitque Augustam, dato et Poppaea eodem cognomento. locus puerperio colonia Antium fuit, ubi ipse generatus erat. iam senatus uterum Poppaeae commendaverat dis votaque publice susceperat, quae multiplicata exsolutaque.

[23] With Memmius Regulus and Verginius Rufus as consuls,
Nero received as beyond mortal joy that a daughter had been born to him from Poppaea,
and he called her Augusta, the same cognomen being given also to Poppaea.
The place of the childbirth was the colony Antium, where he himself had been born.
Already the senate had commended Poppaea’s womb to the gods and had undertaken vows publicly, which were multiplied and discharged.

et additae supplicationes templumque fecunditatis et certamen ad exemplar Actiacae religionis decretum, utque Fortunarum effigies aureae in solio Capitolini Iovis locarentur, ludicrum circense, ut Iuliae genti apud Bovillas, ita Claudiae Domitiaeque apud Antium ederetur. quae fluxa fuere, quartum intra mensem defuncta infante. rursusque exortae adulationes censentium honorem divae et pulvinar aedemque et sacerdotem.

and supplications were added, and a temple of Fertility, and a contest decreed after the exemplar of the Actian religion,
and that golden effigies of the Fortunes be placed on the throne of Capitoline Jupiter,
a circus show to be exhibited—as for the Julian gens at Bovillae, so for the Claudian and the Domitian at Antium. These were short‑lived, the infant having died within the fourth month.
And again adulations arose from those decreeing the honor of a diva, and a pulvinar and a temple and a priest.

atque ipse ut laetitiae, it maeroris immodicus egit. adnotatum est, omni senatu Antium sub recentem partum effuso, Thraseam prohibitum immoto animo praenuntiam imminentis caedis contumeliam excepisse. secutam dehinc vocem Caesaris ferunt, qua reconciliatum se Thraseae apud Senecam iactaverit, ac Senecam Caesari gratulatum.

and he himself acted as immoderate in grief as in joy. It was noted that, when the entire senate had poured out to Antium right after the recent delivery, Thrasea, being forbidden, with an unmoved spirit took the contumely as a presage of imminent slaughter. Then, they report, there followed a remark of Caesar, by which he boasted before Seneca that he had been reconciled to Thrasea, and that Seneca offered congratulations to Caesar.

unde gloria egregiis viris et pericula gliscebant.

whence glory for distinguished men and perils were swelling.

[25] Inter quae veris principio legati Parthorum mandata regis Vologaesis litterasque in eandem formam attulere: se priora et totiens iactata super obtineneda Armenia nunc omittere, quoniam dii, quamvis potentium populorum arbitri, possessionem Parthis non sine ignominia Romana tradidissent. nuper clausum Tigranen, post Paetum legionesque, cum opprimere posset, incolumes dimisisse. satis adprobatam vim; datum et lenitatis experimentum.

[25] Meanwhile at the beginning of spring envoys of the Parthians brought the mandates of King Vologases and letters to the same effect: that he now was omitting his earlier claims, so often vaunted, concerning the holding of Armenia, since the gods, although arbiters of powerful peoples, had handed the possession to the Parthians not without Roman ignominy. Recently, with Tigranes shut in, and thereafter Paetus and the legions, when he could have crushed them, he had let them go unharmed. His force had been sufficiently approved; and a proof of lenity had been given.

nec recusaturum Tiridaten accipiendo diademati in urbem venire, nisi sacerdotii religione attineretur: iturum ad signa et effigies principis, ubi legionibus coram regnum auspicaretur.

nor would Tiridates refuse
to come into the city to receive the diadem, unless he were bound by the religion of his priesthood: he would go to the standards and the effigies of the princeps, where, in the presence of the legions, he would inaugurate his kingship.

[25] Talibus Vologaesis litteris, qui Paetus diversa tamquam rebus integris scribebat, interrogatus centurio, qui cum legatis advenerat, quo in statu Armenia esset, omnes inde Romanos excessisse respondit. tum intellecto barbarorum inrisu, qui peterent quod eripuerant, consuluit inter primores civitatis Nero, bellum anceps an pax inho[ne]sta placeret. nec dubitatum de bello.

[25] By such letters of Vologases, while Paetus was writing contrary things as if matters were intact, the centurion who had arrived with the envoys, when questioned as to the condition in which Armenia was, replied that all the Romans had withdrawn from there. Then, the derision of the barbarians being understood—who were asking for what they had snatched away—Nero consulted among the foremost men of the state whether a hazardous war or a dishonorable peace was preferable. And there was no hesitation about war.

et Corbulo militum atque hostium tot per annos gnarus gerendae rei praeficitur, ne cuius alterius inscitia rursum peccaretur, quia Paeti piguerat. igitur inriti remittuntur, cum donis tamen unde spes fieret non frustra eadem oraturum Tiridaten, si preces ipse attulisset. Syriaeque executio [C.] Ce[s]tio, copiae militares Corbuloni permissae; et quinta decima legio ducente Mario Celso e Pannonia adiecta est.

and Corbulo, experienced in soldiers and enemies for so many years and in the matter to be conducted, is put in charge, lest through some other man’s inexperience there should again be error, because Paetus had been sluggish. therefore they are sent back ineffectual, yet with gifts, whence hope might arise that he would not be asking the same things of Tiridates to no purpose, if he himself should bring the petitions. and the administration of Syria to [C.] Ce[s]tius, the military forces were permitted to Corbulo; and the 15th legion, with Marius Celsus leading, was added from Pannonia.

scribitur tetrarchis ac regibus praefectisque et procuratoribus et qui praetorum finitimas provincias regebant, iussis Corbulonis obsequi, in tantum ferme modum aucta potestate, quem populus Romanus Cn. Pompeio bellum piraticum gesturo dederat. regressum Paetum, cum graviora metueret, facetiis insectari satis habuit Caesar, his ferme verbis: ignoscere se statim, ne tam promptus in pavorem longiore sollicitudine aegresceret.

letters are written to the tetrarchs and
to kings and prefects and procurators and to those who were governing the provinces
bordering on the praetors’ jurisdictions, with orders to obey Corbulo, his power
being enlarged almost to the same measure that the Roman People had granted to Cn.
Pompeius for waging the piratical war. On Paetus’s return, as he feared graver things,
the Caesar thought it enough to assail him with witticisms, in words to this effect: that he
forgave him at once, lest one so prompt to panic should grow sick from a longer anxiety.

[26] At Corbulo, quarta et duodecima legionibus, quae fortissimo quoque amisso et ceteris exterritis parum habiles proelio videbantur, in Syriam translatis, sextam inde ac tertiam legiones, integrum militem et crebris ac prosperis laboribus exercitum in Armeniam ducit. addiditque legionem quintam, quae per Pontum agens expers cladis fuerat, simul quintadecimanos recens adductos et vexilla delectorum ex Illyrico et Aegypto, quodque alarum cohortiumque, et auxiliae regum in unum conducta apud Melitenen, qua tramittere Euphraten parabat. tum lustratum rite exercitum ad contionem vocat orditurque magnifica de auspiciis imperatoris rebusque a se gestis, adversa in inscitiam Paeti declinans, multa acutoritate, quae viro militari pro facundia erat.

[26] But Corbulo, after transferring to Syria the 4th and 12th legions, which, with even the bravest lost and the rest panic‑stricken, seemed little fit for battle, thereupon leads into Armenia the 6th and 3rd legions—troops intact and trained by frequent and prosperous toils. And he added the 5th legion, which, operating through Pontus, had been free from disaster, together with the 15th men, recently brought in, and the vexilla detachments of picked men from Illyricum and Egypt, and whatever there was of the alae and cohorts, and the auxiliaries of kings, assembled into one at Melitene, where he was preparing to cross the Euphrates. Then, the army duly lustrated, he calls an assembly and begins with magnificent words about the auspices of the emperor and the deeds achieved by himself, deflecting the reverses onto the unskillfulness of Paetus, with much authority—which, for a military man, stood in place of eloquence.

[27] Mox iter L. Lucullo quondam penetratum, apertis quae vetustas obsaepserat, pergit. et venientes Tiridatis Bologaesisque de pace legatos haud aspernatus, adiungit iis centuriones cum mandatis non immitibus: nec enim adhuc eo ventum, ut certamine extremo opus esset. multa Romanis secunda, quaedam Parthis evenisse, documento adversus superbiam.

[27] Soon he proceeds along the route once penetrated by Lucullus, opening what age had fenced shut. And, not spurning the legates of Tiridates and Vologases coming about peace, he attaches to them centurions with mandates not harsh; for it had not yet come to that point that there was need of a final contest. Many things had turned out favorable for the Romans, certain things for the Parthians, a lesson against arrogance.

proinde et Tiridati conducere intactum vastationibus regnum dono accipere, et Bologaesen melius societate Romana quam damnis mutuis genti Parthorum consulturum. scire, quantum intus discordiarum, quamque indomitas et praeferoces nationes regeret: contra imperatori suo immotam ubique pacem et unum id bellum esse. simul consilio terrorem adicere, et megistanas Armenios, qui primi a nobis defecerant, pellit sedibus, castella eorum exscindit, plana edita, validos invalidosque pari metu complet.

accordingly, it was to Tiridates’ advantage to accept as a gift a kingdom untouched by devastations, and that Bologaeses would better consult the interests of the Parthian nation by Roman alliance than by mutual losses. he knew how great the discords within, and what untamed and over-fierce nations he was ruling; whereas for his own emperor there was unmoved peace everywhere, and this alone was the war. at the same time he added terror by counsel, and he drives the Armenian megistanes, who had been the first to defect from us, from their seats, razes their strongholds, and, on plains and heights alike, fills the strong and the weak with equal fear.

[28] Non infensum nec cum hostili odio Corbulonis nomen etiam barbaris habebatur, eoque consilium eius fidum credebant. ergo Bologaeses neque atrox in summam, et quibusdam praefecturis indutias petit: Tiridates locum diemque conloquio poscit. tempus propinquum, locus, in quo nuper obsessae cum Paeto legiones erant, barbaris delectus est ob memoriam laetioris ibi rei, Corbuloni non vitatus, ut dissimilitudo fortunae gloriam augeret.

[28] The name of Corbulo was held not hostile nor with hostile hatred even by the barbarians, and therefore they believed his counsel trustworthy. Accordingly Bologaeses, neither savage in the main, asks truces for certain prefectures: Tiridates demands a place and day for a conference. The time was near at hand; the place, in which recently the legions with Paetus had been besieged, was chosen by the barbarians on account of the memory of a happier affair there; it was not shunned by Corbulo, that the dissimilarity of fortune might augment his glory.

neque infamia Paeti angebatur, quod eo maxime patuit, quia filio eius tribuno ducere manipulos atque operire reliquias malae pugnae imperavit. die pacta Tiberius Alexander inlustris eques Romanus, minister bello datus, et Vini[ci]anum Annius, gener Corbulonis, nondum senatoria aetate et pro legato quintae legioni impositus, in castra Tiridatis venere, honor[e] eius ac ne metueret insidias tali pignore; viceni dehinc equites adsumpti. et viso Corbulone rex prior equo desiluit; nec cunctatus Corbulo, et pedes uterque dexteras miscuere.

nor was he anguished by the infamy of Paetus, which was most plainly revealed by this, that he ordered his son, a tribune, to lead the maniples and to cover over the remnants of the ill-fought battle. on the appointed day Tiberius Alexander, an illustrious Roman eques, assigned as a minister to the war, and Annius Vini[ci]anus, Corbulo’s son-in-law, not yet of senatorial age and set over the Fifth Legion as acting legate, came into the camp of Tiridates, for the honor of the latter and that he might not fear ambush by such a pledge; then twenty horsemen were taken on. and at the sight of Corbulo the king first leapt down from his horse; nor did Corbulo delay, and on foot both joined right hands.

[29] Exim Romanus laudat iuvenem omissis praecipitibus tuta et salutaria capessentem. ille de nobilitate generis multum praefatus, cetera temperanter adiungit: iturum quippe Romam laturumque novum Caesari decus, non adversis Parthorum rebus supplicem Arsaciden. tum placuit Tiridaten ponere apud effigiem Caesaris insigne regium nec nisi manu Neronis resumere; et conloquium osculo finitum.

[29] Then the Roman praises the youth for, abandoning headlong courses, taking up safe and salutary measures. He, having spoken much about the nobility of his lineage, adds the rest temperately: that indeed he would go to Rome and would bring a new honor to Caesar, not an Arsacid suppliant because of adverse affairs of the Parthians. Then it pleased them that Tiridates should place the royal insignia before the effigy of Caesar and should not resume it except by the hand of Nero; and the colloquy was ended with a kiss.

dein paucis diebus interiectis magna utrimque specie inde eques compositus per turmas et insignibus patriis, hinc agmina legionum stetere fulgentibus aquilis signisque et simulacris deum in modum templi: medio tribunal sedem curulem et sedes effigiem Neronis sustinebat. ad quam progressus Tiridates, caesis ex more victimis, sublatum capiti diadema imagini subiecit, magnis apud cunctos animorum motibus, quos augebat insita adhuc oculis exercituum Romanorum caedes aut obsidio. at nunc versos casus: iturum Tiridaten ostentui gentibus, quanto minus quam captivum?

then, after a few
days interposed, with great display on both sides: there the cavalry, arrayed by
troops and with native insignia; here the ranks of the legions stood, with gleaming
eagles and standards and simulacra of the gods in the manner of a temple: in the middle a tribunal
supported the curule seat, and seats supported the effigy of Nero. To which,
having advanced, Tiridates, victims slain according to custom, placed the diadem lifted from his head
beneath the image, amid great stirrings of spirit among all, which were increased by
the slaughter or siege of Roman armies still planted in their eyes. But now
fortunes reversed: that Tiridates would go for display to the nations—how much less than
a captive?

[30] Addidit gloriae Corbulo comitatem epulasque; et rogitante rege causas, quotiens novum aliquid adverterat, ut initia vigiliarum per centurionem nuntiari, convivium bucina dimitti et structam ante augurale aram subdita face accendi, cuncta in maius attolens admiratione prisci moris adfecit. postero die spatium oravit, quo tantum itineris aditurus fratres ante matremque viseret; obsidem interea filiam tradit litterasque supplices ad Neronem.

[30] Corbulo added to his glory comity and banquets; and
with the king repeatedly asking the reasons, whenever he had noticed something new—that the beginnings
of the watches be announced by a centurion, the banquet be dismissed by the buccina, and
the pile set up before the augural altar be kindled by an applied torch—by heightening all things
he inspired admiration for pristine custom. On the following day he begged a respite,
since he was about to undertake so long a journey, to visit his brothers and his mother beforehand; as a hostage
meanwhile he handed over his daughter, and suppliant letters to Nero.

[31] Et digressus Pacorum apud Medos, Vologaesen Ecbatanis repperit, non incuriosum fratris: quippe et propriis nuntiis a Corbulone petierat, ne quam imaginem servitii Tiridates perferret neu ferrum traderet aut complexu provincias obtinentium arceretur foribusve eorum adsisteret, tantusque ei Romae quantus consulibus honor esset. scilicet externae superbiae sueto non inerat notitia nostri, apud quos vis imperii valet, inania tramittuntur.

[31] And, having departed from Pacorus among the Medes, he found Vologaeses at Ecbatana, not incurious about his brother: for indeed by his own messengers he had requested from Corbulo that Tiridates should not carry any image of servitude, nor hand over the iron, nor be shut out from the embrace of those holding the provinces or stand at their thresholds, and that at Rome the honor to him should be as great as to the consuls. Plainly, to one accustomed to external superbia there was no acquaintance with our ways, among whom the force of imperium prevails, the empty formalities are passed over.

[32] Eodem anno Caesar nationes Alpium maritimarum in ius Latii transtulit. equitum Romanorum locos sedilibus plebis anteposuit apud circum; namque ad eam diem indiscreti inibant, quia lex Roscia nihil nisi de quattuordecim ordinibus sanxit. spectacula gladiatorum idem annus habuit pari magnificentia ac priora; sed feminarum inlustrium senatorumque plures per arenam foedati sunt.

[32] In the same year the Caesar transferred the nations of the Maritime Alps into the right of Latium. He put the places of the Roman equestrians before the benches of the plebs at the circus; for up to that day they entered without distinction, because the Lex Roscia sanctioned nothing except concerning the fourteen rows. The same year had spectacles of gladiators with equal magnificence as the earlier ones; but more women of illustrious rank and senators were besmirched in the arena.

[33] C. Laecanio M. Licinio consulibus acriore in dies cupidine adigebatur Nero promiscas scaenas frequentandi. nam adhuc per domum aut hortos cecinerat Iuvenalibus ludis, quos ut parum celebres et tantae voci angustos spernebat. non tamen Romae incipere ausus Neapolim quasi Graecam urbem delegit; inde initium fore, ut transgressus in Achaiam insignesque et antiquitus sacras coronas adeptus maiore fama studia civium eliceret.

[33] In the consulship of Gaius Laecanius and Marcus Licinius, Nero was driven with a keener desire day by day to frequent common stages. For up to now he had sung through the house or the gardens at the Juvenalia games, which he scorned as too little celebrated and too narrow for so great a voice. Not, however, daring to begin at Rome, he chose Naples as a quasi Greek city; from there there would be a beginning, so that, having crossed into Achaia and having obtained distinguished and from ancient times sacred crowns, he might by greater fame elicit the enthusiasms of the citizens.

ergo contractum oppidanorum vulgus, et quos e proximis coloniis et municipiis eius rei fama civerat, quique Caesarem per honorem aut varios usus sectantur, etiam militum manipuli, theatrum Neapolitanorum complent.

therefore the gathered
crowd of the oppidans, and those whom from the neighboring colonies and municipia the report of this matter
had summoned, and those who follow Caesar for honor or for various uses,
even maniples of soldiers, fill the theater of the Neapolitans.

[34] Illic, plerique ut arbitra[ba]ntur, triste, ut ipse, providum potius et secundis numinibus evenit: nam egresso qui adfuerat populo vacuum et sine ullius noxa theatrum collapsum est. ergo per compositos cantus grates dis atque ipsam recentis casus fortunam celebrans petiturusque maris Hadriae traiectus apud Beneventum interim consedit, ubi gladiatorium munus a Vatinio celebre edebatur. Vatinius inter foedissima eius aulae ostenta fuit, sutrinae tabernae alumnus, corpore detorto, facetiis scurrilibus; primo in contumelias adsumptus, dehinc optimi cuiusque criminatione eo usque valuit, ut gratia pecunia vi nocendi etiam malos praemineret.

[34] There, as most thought, a sad omen; as he himself [interpreted it], it turned out rather provident and with favorable divinities: for when the people who had been present had gone out, the theater, empty and with injury to no one, collapsed. Therefore, through composed songs giving thanks to the gods and celebrating fortune herself of the recent mishap, and being about to seek a crossing of the Adriatic Sea, he meanwhile settled at Beneventum, where a celebrated gladiatorial munus was being presented by Vatinius. Vatinius was among the foulest portents of that court, a nursling of a cobbler’s stall, with a twisted body, with scurrilous facetiae; at first taken up for contumelies, then by the crimination of each best man he prevailed to such a degree that in favor, money, and the power of harming he even towered above the wicked.

[35] Eius minus frequentanti Neroni ne inter voluptates quidem a sceleribus cessabatur. isdem quippe illis diebus Torquatus Silanus mori adigitur, quia super Iuniae familiae claritudinem divum Augustum abavum ferebat. iussi accusatores obicere prodigum largitionibus, neque aliam spem quam in rebus novis esse; quin [innobiles] habere, quos ab epistulis et libellis et rationibus appellet, nomina summae curae et meditamenta.

[35] As Nero was attending it less frequently, yet not even amid pleasures was there a cessation from crimes. For in those same days Torquatus Silanus is driven to die, because, in addition to the renown of the Junian family, he claimed the deified Augustus as great-great-grandfather. The accusers were ordered to allege that he was prodigal in largesses, and that he had no other hope than in revolutionary changes; indeed, that he had [men of low birth], whom he styled “from the letters,” “from the petitions,” and “from the accounts”—names of supreme concern and rehearsals.

tum intimus quisque libertorum vincti abreptique; et cum damnatio instaret, brachiorum venas Torquatus interscidit. secutaque Neronis oratio ex more, quamvis sontem et defensioni merito diffisum victurum tamen fuisse, si clementiam iudicis exspectasset.

then each of the most intimate of the freedmen
were bound and dragged off; and when condemnation was imminent,
Torquatus slit the veins of his arms. And a Nero’s oration followed according to custom, that although he was guilty and with good reason distrusted a defense, he would nevertheless have lived, if he had awaited the clemency of the judge.

[36] Nec multo post omissa in praesens Achaia (causae in incerto fuere) urbem revisit, provincias Orientis, maxime Aegyptum, secretis imaginationibus agitans. dehinc [e]dicto testificatus non longam sui absentiam et cuncta in re publica perinde immota ac prospera fore, super ea profectione adiit Capitolium. illic veneratus deos, cum Vestae quoque templum inisset, repente cunctos per artus tremens, seu numine exterrente, seu facinorum recordatione numquam timore vacuus, deseruit inceptum, cunctas sibi curas amore patriae leviores dictitans.

[36] And not much later, with Achaia for the present set aside (the causes were in uncertainty), he revisited the city, turning over in secret imaginations the provinces of the Orient, especially Egypt. then by an edict he testified that his absence would not be long and that all things in the republic would remain equally unmoved and prosperous; concerning that departure he went up to the Capitol. there, having venerated the gods, when he had also entered the temple of Vesta, suddenly trembling through all his limbs—whether with a divinity terrifying him, or from the recollection of his crimes, never free from fear—he abandoned the undertaking, saying that all his cares were to him lighter than love of his fatherland.

vidisse maestos civium vultus, audire secretas querimonias, quod tantum [itineris] aditurus esset, cuius ne modicos quidem egressus tolerarent, sueti adversum fortuita adspectu principis refoveri. ergo ut in privatis necessitudinibus proxima pignora praevalerent, ita [in re publica] populum Romanum vim plurimam habere parendumque retinenti. haec atque talia plebi volentia fuere, voluptatum cupidine et, quae praecipua cura est, rei frumentariae angustias, si abesset, metuenti.

that he had seen the mournful faces of the citizens, he hears secret
complaints, that he was about to undertake so great a [journey], whose not even modest
egresses they could endure, being accustomed to be revived against fortuitous events by the sight of the emperor.
therefore, just as in private relationships the nearest bonds prevail, so [in public affairs] the Roman People
have the greatest force and are to be obeyed when they hold him back. these and such things were welcome to the plebs,
in desire for pleasures and, which is the chief concern, fearing the straits of the grain-supply,
should he be absent.

senatus et primores in incerto erant, procul an coram atrocior haberetur; dehinc, quae natura magnis timoribus, deterius credebant quod evenerat.

the senate and the foremost men were in uncertainty,
whether he would be considered more atrocious at a distance or face to face; then, as is the nature with great
fears, they believed what had occurred to be worse.

[37] Ipse quo fidem adquireret nihil usquam perinde laetum sibi, publicis locis struere convivia totaque urbe quasi domo uti. et celeberrimae luxu famaque epulae fuere, quas a Tigellino paratas ut exemplum referam, ne saepius eadem prodigentia narranda sit. igitur in stagno Agrippae fabricatus est ratem, cui superpositum convivium navium aliarum tractu moveretur.

[37] He himself, that he might acquire good-will, found nothing anywhere so pleasing to him as to arrange banquets in public places and to use the whole city as if a home. And the feasts most celebrated for luxury and notoriety were those which, prepared by Tigellinus, I will relate as a sample, lest the same prodigality have to be told too often. Therefore on the Pool of Agrippa he fabricated a raft, on which the banquet set atop would be moved by the traction of other ships.

naves auro et ebore distinctae; remigesqe exoleti per aetates et scientiam libidinum componebantur. volucres et feras diversis et terris at animalia maris Oceano abusque petiverat. crepidinibus stagni lupanaria adstabant inlustribus feminis completa, et contra scorta visebantur nudis corporibus.

ships distinguished with gold and ivory; and the rowers, exoleti, were composed by ages and by the science of libidines. He had procured winged creatures and wild beasts from diverse lands, and animals of the sea from the Ocean from the farthest reaches. Along the margins of the basin brothels stood, filled with illustrious women, and opposite, scorta were seen with naked bodies.

iam gestus motusque obsceni; et postquam tenebrae incedebant, quantum iuxta nemoris et circiumiecta tecta consonare cantu et luminibus clarescere. ipse per licita atque inlicita foedatus nihil flagitii reliquerat, quo corruptior ageret, nisi paucos post dies uni ex illo contaminatorum grege (nomen Pythagorae fuit) in modum solemnium coniugiorum denupsisset. inditum imperatori flammeum, missi auspices; dos et genialis torus et faces nuptiales, cuncta denique spectata, quae etiam in femina nox operit.

now obscene gestures
and motions; and after the darkness was advancing, how greatly the neighboring grove and the surrounding buildings resounded with song and were made bright with lights. He himself, defiled through licit and illicit things, had left nothing of infamy undone, by which he might act more corruptly, unless a few days later he had wed, in the manner of solemn marriages, one from that herd of the defiled (his name was Pythagoras). The flammeum was put upon the emperor, the auspices were sent; the dowry and the marriage couch and the nuptial torches, finally everything was witnessed which even in a woman the night covers.

[38] Sequitur clades, forte an dolo principis incertum (nam utrumque auctores prodidere), sed omnibus, quae huic urbi per violentiam ignium acciderunt, gravior atque atrocior. initium in ea parte circi ortum, quae Palatino Caelioque montibus contigua est, ubi per tabernas, quibus id mercimonium inerat, quo flamma alitur, simul coeptus ignis et statim validus ac vento citus longitudinem circi conripuit.
neque enim domus munimentis saeptae vel templa muris cincta aut quid aliud morae interiacebat.

[38] A calamity follows, whether by chance or by the deceit of the princeps is uncertain (for authors have put forth both), but heavier and more atrocious than all that have befallen this city through the violence of fires. The beginning arose in that part of the Circus which is adjacent to the Palatine and Caelian hills, where, through the tabernae, in which there was that merchandise by which flame is nourished, the fire at once begun and immediately strong and, quickened by the wind, seized the length of the Circus.
For neither houses fenced with defenses nor temples girt with walls nor anything else of delay intervened.

impetus pervagatum incendium plana primum, deinde in edita adsurgens et rursus inferiora populando anteiit remedia velocitate mali et obnoxia urbe artis itineribus hucque et illuc flexis atque enoribus vicis, qualis vetus Roman fuit. ad hoc lamenta paventium feminarum, fessa aetate aut rudis pueritiae [aetas], quique sibi quique aliis consulebat, dum trahunt invalidos aut opperiuntur, pars mora, pars festinans, cuncta impediebant. et saepe, dum in tergum respectant, lateribus aut fronte circumveniebantur, vel si in proxima evaserant, illis quoque igni correptis, etiam quae longinqua crediderant in eodem casu reperiebant.

the impetus of the pervading conflagration, first on the level parts,
then rising to the heights and again ravaging the lower quarters, outstripped remedies
by the speed of the evil, the city being exposed by its narrow passages, bent hither and thither,
and by its irregular streets, such as old Rome was. To this were added the laments
of terrified women, age wearied or the raw [age] of boyhood, and those who
looked out for themselves and for others; while they drag the infirm or wait for them, part
by delay, part by hastening, were impeding everything. And often, while they look back,
they were surrounded on the sides or in front; or if they had escaped into the nearest places,
with those too seized by fire, even what they had believed far off they found
in the same predicament.

postremo, quid vitarent quid peterent ambigui, complere vias, sterni per agros; quidam amissis omnibus fortunis, diurni quoque victus, alii caritate suorum, quos eripere nequiverant, quamvis patente effugio interiere. nec quisquam defendere audebat, crebris multorum minis restinguere prohibentium, et quia alii palam facies iaciebant atque esse sibi auctorem vociferabantur, sive ut raptus licentius exercerent seu iussu.

At last, uncertain what to avoid and what to seek, they filled the roads, were strewn across the fields; some, having lost all their fortunes, even the means of daily sustenance, others through love for their own, whom they had been unable to snatch away, although an escape lay open, perished. Nor did anyone dare to defend, because of the frequent threats of many forbidding them to extinguish, and because some openly were tossing torches and were vociferating that they had an authorizing authority for themselves—whether that they might exercise rapine more licentiously, or by order.

[39] Eo in tempore Nero Anti agens non ante in urbem regressus est, quam domui eius, qua Palantium et Maecenatis hortos continuaverat, ignis propinquaret. neque tamen sisti potuit, quin et Palatium et domus et cuncta circum haurirentur. sed solacium populo exturbato ac profugo campum Martis ac monumenta Agrippae, hortos quin etiam suos patefacit et subitaria aedificia exstruxit, quae multitudinem inopem acciperent; subvectaque utensilia ab Ostia et propinquis municipiis, pretiumque frumenti minutum usque ad ternos nummos.

[39] At that time Nero, staying at Antium, did not return to the city before the fire drew near to his house, by which he had made the Palatine and the gardens of Maecenas continuous. Nor, however, could it be checked, but that both the Palatine and the houses and everything around were engulfed. But as a solace to the people driven out and in flight, he threw open the Campus Martius and the monuments of Agrippa, and even his own gardens, and he erected improvised buildings to receive the needy multitude; and utensils were conveyed in from Ostia and the neighboring municipalities, and the price of grain was reduced to as little as three coins.

quae quamquam popularia in inritum cadebant, quia pervaserat rumor ipso tempore flagrantis urbis inisse eum domesticam scaenam et cecinisse Troianum excidium, praesentia mala vetustis cladibus adsimulantem.

which, although popular, fell to no effect, because a rumor had spread that at the very time of the city burning he had entered the domestic stage and had sung the Trojan destruction, assimilating the present evils to ancient calamities.

[40] Sexto demum die apud imas Esquilias finis incendio factus, prorutis per immensum aedificiis, ut continuae violentiae campus et velut vacuum caelum occurreret. necdum pos[i]t[us] metus aut redierat [p]lebi s[pes]: rursum grassatus ignis, patulis magis urbis locis; eoque strages hominum minor: delubra deum et porticus amoenitati dicatae latius procidere. plusque infamiae id incendium habuit, quia praediis Tigellini Aemilianis proruperat videbaturque Nero condendae urbis novae et cognomento suo appellandae gloriam quaerere.

[40] On the sixth day at last an end was made to the conflagration at the lowest parts of the Esquiline, with buildings over a vast expanse having been torn down, so that a plain might meet the continuous violence and, as it were, an empty sky. and not yet had fear been laid aside nor had hope returned to the plebs: again the fire advanced, in the more open quarters of the city; and for that reason the slaughter of men was smaller: shrines of the gods and porticoes dedicated to amenity fell more widely. and that conflagration had more infamy, because it had erupted on Tigellinus’s Aemilian estates, and Nero seemed to be seeking the glory of founding a new city and of entitling it with his own cognomen.

quippe in regiones quattuordecim Romam dividitur, quarum quattuor integrae manebant, tres solo tenus deiectae, septem reliquis pauca tectorum vestigia supererant, lacera et semusta.

for into fourteen regions
Rome is divided, of which four remained entire, three leveled down to the ground,
in the remaining seven only a few vestiges of buildings survived, torn and
half-burnt.

[41] Domum et insularum et templorum, quae amissa sunt, numerum inire haud promptum fuerit; sed vetustissima religione, quod Servius Tullius Lunae, et magna ara fanumque, quae praesenti Herculi Arcas Evander sacraverat, aedesque Statoris Iovis vota Romulo Numaeque regia et delubrum Vestae cum penatibus populi Romani exusta; iam opes tot victoriis quaesitae et Graecarum artium decora, exim monumenta ingeniorum antiqua et incorrupta, [ut] quamvis in tanta resurgentis urbis pulchritudine multa seniores meminerint, quae reparari nequibant. fuere qui adnotarent XIIII Kal. Sextiles principium incendii huius ortum, quo et Seneones captam urbem inflammaverint.

[41] The number of houses and apartment-blocks and temples that were lost would hardly be easy to reckon; but, of the most ancient religion, that of Luna by Servius Tullius, and the great altar and shrine which the Arcadian Evander had consecrated to Hercules present, and the temple of Jupiter Stator, the vows of Romulus, and the Regia of Numa, and the shrine of Vesta with the Penates of the Roman people, were burned up; and now the wealth sought by so many victories and the ornaments of Greek arts, and, besides, the monuments of genius, ancient and uncorrupted—so that, although in such great beauty of the city rising again the elders remembered many things which could not be repaired. There were those who noted that the beginning of this fire arose on the 14th day before the Kalends of Sextilis (August), on which day also the Senones set ablaze the captured city.

alii eo usque cura progressi sunt, ut totidem annos, mensesque et dies inter utraque incendia numer[ar]ent.

others carried their care so far that they counted just as many years, months, and days
between the two conflagrations.

[42] Ceterum Nero usus est patriae ruinis exstruxitque domum, in qua haud proinde gemmae et aurum miraculo essent, solita pridem et luxu vulgata, quam arva et stagna et in modum solitudinem hinc silvae, inde aperta spatia et prospetus, magistris et machinatoribus Severo et Celere, quibus ingenium et audacia erat etiam, quae natura denegavisset, per artem temptare et viribus principis inludere. namque ab lacu Averno navigabilem fossam usque ad ostia Tibernia depressuros promiserant squalenti litore aut per montes adversos. neque enim aliud umidum gignendis aquis occirrit quam Pomptinae paludes: cetera abrupta aut arentia, ac si perrumpi possent, intolerandus labor nec satis causae.

[42] However, Nero made use of his country’s ruins and constructed a house, in which gems and gold would not be so much a marvel—long since customary and made common by luxury—as fields and pools and, in the manner of a wilderness, here woods, there open spaces and prospects, with Severus and Celer as masters and engineers, who had the ingenuity and audacity even to attempt by art what nature had denied, and to sport with the resources of the princeps. For they had promised that they would sink a navigable canal from Lake Avernus all the way to the mouths of the Tiber—along a squalid shore or through opposing mountains. For nothing else moist for generating waters presents itself except the Pontine marshes: the rest are abrupt or arid; and even if they could be broken through, the labor would be intolerable and the cause insufficient.

Nero tamen, ut erat incredibilium cupitor, effodere proxima Averno iuga conisus est, manentque vestigia inritae spei.

Nero, however, as he was a coveter of incredible things, endeavored to excavate the ridges nearest to Avernus, and the traces of his vain hope remain.

[43] Ceterum urbis quae domui supererant non, ut post Gallica incendia, nulla distinctione nec passim erecta, sed dimensis vicorum ordinibus et latis viarum spatiis cohibitaque aedificiorum altitudine ac patefactis areis additisque porticibus, quae frontem insularum protegerent. eas proticus Nero sua pecunia exstructurum purgatasque areas dominis traditurum pollicitus est. addidit praemia pro cuiusque ordine et rei familiaris copiis, finivitque tempus, intra quod effectis domibus aut insulis apiscerentur.

[43] But as for the parts of the city that remained beyond his house, they were not, as after the Gallic fires, built up with no distinction nor at random, but with the ranks of the lanes measured out and with broad spaces of the roads, with the height of buildings restrained, with areas laid open and porticoes added to protect the front of the insulae. Those porticoes Nero promised to construct at his own expense, and to hand over the cleared plots to the owners. He added bounties according to each person’s rank and the resources of his family estate, and he fixed a time within which, once houses or insulae had been completed, they should acquire title.

ruderi accipiendo Ostienses paludes destinabat, utique naves, quae frumentum Tiberi subvecta[v]issent, onustae rudere decurrerent, aedificiaque ipsa certa sui parte sine trabibus saxo Gabino Albanove solidarentur, quod is lapis ignibus impervius est; iam aqua privatorum licentia intercepta quo largior et pluribus locis in publicum flueret, custodes; et subsidia reprimendis ignibus in propatulo quisque haberet; nec communione parietum, sed propriis quaeque muris ambirentur. ea ex utilitate accepta decorem quoque novae urbi attulere. erant tamen qui crederent veterem illam formam salubritati magis conduxisse, quoniam angustiae itinerum et altitudo tectorum non perinde solis vapore perrumperentur: at nunc patulam latitudinem et nulla umbra defensam graviore aestu ardescere.

he was designating the Ostian marshes for receiving the rubble, and in particular that the ships which had carried grain up the Tiber, laden with rubble, should run down; and that the buildings themselves, in a fixed part of their own structure, should be made solid without beams with Gabine or Alban stone, because that stone is impervious to fires; next, that the water, intercepted by the license of private persons, should, so that it might flow more copiously and in more places into the public, have guards; and that aids for repressing fires each should have in the open at hand; and that they should be surrounded not by the communion of party-walls, but each by its own walls. These things, taken up for utility, also brought decor to the new city. There were, however, those who believed that that old form had more conduced to salubrity, since the narrowness of the ways and the height of the roofs were not so broken through by the sun’s vapor: but now the gaping breadth, defended by no shade, blazes with a more oppressive heat.

[44] Et haec quidem humanis consiliis providebantur. mox petita [a] dis piacula aditique Sibyllae libri, ex quibus supplicatum Volcano et Cereri Proserpinaeque, ac propitiata Iuno per matronas, primum in Capitolio, deinde apud proximum mare, unde hausta aqua templum et simulacrum deae perspersum est; et sellisternia ac pervigilia celebravere feminae, quibus mariti erant.

Sed non ope humana, non largitionibus principis aut deum placamentis decedebat infamia, quin iussum incendium crederetur.

[44] And these things indeed were being provided by human counsels. Soon expiations were sought [a] from the gods and the Sibylline books were approached, from which it was prescribed that supplication be made to Vulcan and Ceres and Proserpina, and Juno was propitiated through the matrons, first on the Capitol, then at the nearest sea, whence, water having been drawn, the temple and the simulacrum of the goddess were sprinkled; and sellisternia and pervigilia were celebrated by women who had husbands.

But not by human aid, not by the emperor’s largesses or the placations of the gods did the infamy depart, but it was believed that the fire had been ordered.

ergo abolendo rumori Nero subdidit reos et quaesitissimis poenis adfecit, quos per flagitia invisos vulgus Chrestianos appellabat. auctor nominis eius Christus Tibero imperitante per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio adfectus erat; repressaque in praesens exitiablilis superstitio rursum erumpebat, non modo per Iudaeam, originem eius mali, sed per urbem etiam, quo cuncta undique atrocia aut pudenda confluunt celebranturque. igitur primum correpti qui fatebantur, deinde indicio eorum multitudo ingens haud proinde in crimine incendii quam odio humani generis convicti sunt.

therefore, for abolishing the rumor, Nero supplied culprits and afflicted them with the most exquisite penalties, those whom, hated for their flagitious deeds, the vulgar crowd called ‘Chrestians.’ The author of that name, Christus, under Tiberius ruling, had been subjected to punishment by the procurator Pontius Pilatus; and the baneful superstition, suppressed for the present, was again bursting forth, not only through Judea, the origin of that evil, but through the city as well, where all things atrocious or shameful from everywhere flow together and are celebrated. Accordingly, first those were seized who confessed; then, on their information, a huge multitude were convicted, not so much of the crime of the conflagration as of hatred of the human race.

et pereuntibus addita ludibria, ut ferarum tergis contecti laniatu canum interirent aut crucibus adfixi [aut flammandi atque], ubi defecisset dies, in usu[m] nocturni luminis urerentur. hortos suos ei spectaculo Nero obtulerat, et circense ludicrum edebat, habitu aurigae permixtus plebi vel curriculo insistens. unde quamquam adversus sontes et novissima exempla meritos miseratio oriebatur, tamquam non utilitate publica, sed in saevitiam unius absumerentur.

and to those perishing mockeries were added, so that, of wild beasts hides covered, they might perish by the mangling of dogs, or affixed to crosses [or to be set aflame besides], and, when the day had failed, for use[m] of nocturnal light they were burned. Nero had offered his gardens for that spectacle, and he was putting on a circus show, in the garb of a charioteer, mingled with the plebs or standing in his chariot. Whence although against the guilty and those deserving the utmost examples, commiseration
arose, as though they were being consumed not for public utility, but into the savagery of one.

[45] Interea conferendis pecuniis pervastata Italia, provinciae eversae sociique populi et quae civitatium liberae vocantur. inque eam praedam etiam dii cessere, spoliatis in urbe templis egestoque auro, quod triumphis, quod votis omnis populi Romani aetas prospere aut in metu sacraverat. enimvero per Asiam atque Achaiam non dona tantum, sed simulacra numinum abripiebatur, missis in eas provincias Acrato et Secundo Carrinate.

[45] Meanwhile, for the gathering of monies, Italy was thoroughly ravaged, the provinces overthrown, the allied peoples, and those which are called the free communities. And into that plunder even the gods yielded, the temples in the city having been despoiled and the gold carried out, which, for triumphs and for vows, every age of the Roman people had consecrated, in prosperity or in fear. Indeed, throughout Asia and Achaia not gifts only, but the effigies of the divinities were being snatched away, Acratus and Secundus Carrinas having been sent into those provinces.

ille libertus cuicumque flagitio promptus, hic Graeca doctrina ore tenus exercitus animum bonis artibus non imbuerat. ferebatur Seneca, quo invidiam sacrilegii a semet averteret, longinqui ruris secessum oravisse, et postquam non concedebatur, ficta valetudine, quasi aeger nervis, cubiculum non egressus. tradidere quidam venenum ei per libertum ipsius, cui nomen Cleonicus, paratum iussu Neronis vitatumque a Seneca proditione liberti seu propria formidine, dum per simplice[m] victu[m] et agrestibus pomis, ac si sitis admoneret, profluente aqua vitam tolerat.

that freedman, ready for any flagitium; this man, exercised only lip-deep in Greek doctrina, had not imbued his mind with good arts. It was reported that Seneca, to avert from himself the odium of sacrilege, had begged leave for a retreat to distant countryside; and after it was not granted, with feigned ill-health, as if sick in his nerves, he did not leave his bedchamber. Some have handed down that poison was prepared for him by order of Nero, through his own freedman whose name was Cleonicus, and that it was avoided by Seneca through the freedman’s betrayal or by his own fear, while, on a simple diet and rustic fruits, and, if thirst admonished, with flowing water, he sustained life.

[46] Per idem tempus gladiatores apud oppidum Praeneste temptata eruptione praesidio militis, qui custos adesset, coerciti sunt, iam Spartacum et vetera mala rumoribus ferente populo, ut est novarum rerum cupiens pavidusque. nec multo post clades rei navalis accipitur, non bello (quippe haud alias tam immota pax), sed certum ad diem in Campaniam redire classem Nero iusserat, non exceptis maris casibus. ergo gubernatores, quamvis saeviente pelago, a Formiis movere; et gravi Africo, dum promunturium Miseni superare contendunt, Cumanis litoribus impacti triremium pleraasque et minora navigia passim amiserunt.

[46] At the same time the gladiators at the town of Praeneste, their attempted breakout having been checked by a military garrison which was present as guard, were restrained, the populace already, as it is desirous of novelties and timorous, spreading by rumor Spartacus and the old evils. And not long after a disaster to the naval force is reported, not in war (for indeed never otherwise was peace so unshaken), but Nero had ordered the fleet to return into Campania on a fixed day, without exception for the chances of the sea. Therefore the pilots, although the deep was raging, put out from Formiae; and with a heavy Africus, while they strove to round the promontory of Misenum, driven upon the Cumaean shores they lost most of the triremes and the smaller vessels everywhere.

[47] Fine anni vulgantur prodigia imminentium malorum nuntia: vis fulgurum non alias crebrior, et sidus cometes, sanguine inlustri semper [Neroni] expiatum; bicipites hominum aliorumve animalium partus abiecti in publicum aut in sacrificiis, quibus gravidas hostias immolare mos est, reperti. et in agro Placentino viam propter natus vitulus, cui caput in crure esset; secutaque haruspicum interpretatio, parari rerum humanarum aliud caput, sed non fore validum neque occultum, quin in utero repressum aut iter iuxta editum sit.

[47] At the end of the year portents are publicized, messengers of impending evils: a force of lightnings more frequent than at other times, and a comet-star, always expiated [for Nero] with illustrious blood; two-headed births of humans or of other animals, cast out into the public, or found in sacrifices in which it is the custom to immolate gravid victims. And in the Placentine countryside, near the road, a calf was born, whose head was upon its leg; and the interpretation of the haruspices followed: that another head of human affairs was being prepared, but that it would not be strong nor hidden—indeed that it would be repressed in the womb, or be brought forth near a road.

[48] Ineunt deinde consulatum Silius Nerva et Atticus Vestinus, coepta simul et aucta coniuratione, in quam certatim nomina dederant senatores eques miles, feminae etiam, cum odio Neronis, tum favore in C. Pisonem. is Calpurnio genere ortus ac multas insignesque familias paterna nobilitate complexus, claro apud vulgum rumore erat per virtutem aut species virtutibus similes. namque facundiam tuendis civibus exercebat, largitionem adversum amicos, et ignotis quoque comi sermone et congressu; aderant etiam fortuita, corpus procerum, decora facies; sed procul gravitas morum aut vuloptatum persimonia: levitati ac magnificentiae et aliquando luxu indulgebat.

[48] Then Silius Nerva and Atticus Vestinus enter upon the consulship, the conspiracy at once begun and increased, into which, vying with one another, senators, knights, and soldiers had given their names—women too—both from hatred of Nero and from favor toward C. Piso. He, sprung from the Calpurnian stock and by paternal nobility embracing many distinguished families, enjoyed a clear report among the common crowd for virtue, or for appearances similar to virtues. For he exercised eloquence in defending fellow-citizens, liberality toward friends, and, even to strangers, an affable manner in speech and in meeting; there were also fortuitous advantages—a tall frame, a comely face; but far off were gravity of morals and parsimony of pleasures: he indulged levity and magnificence, and at times luxury.

idque pluribus probabatur, qui in tanta vitiorum dulcedine summum imperium non restrictum nec praeseverum volunt.

and this was approved by many, who, in so great a sweetness of vices
want the supreme imperium not restricted nor over-severe.

[49] Initium coniurationi non a cupidine ipsius fuit; nec tamen facile memoraverim, qui primus auctor, cuius instinctu concitum sit quod tam multi sumpserunt. promptissimos Subrium Flavum tribunum praetoriae cohortis et Sulpicium Asprum centurionem extitisse constantia exitus docuit. et Lucanus Annaeus Plautiusque Lateranus [consul designatus] vivida odia intulere.

[49] The beginning of the conspiracy was not from his own desire; nor yet could I easily recall who first was the author, at whose instigation that was stirred up which so many undertook. That Subrius Flavus, tribune of the praetorian cohort, and Sulpicius Asper, a centurion, were the most prompt, the steadfastness of their end showed. And Annaeus Lucanus and Plautius Lateranus [consul designatus] brought to bear a lively hatred.

Lucanum propriae causae accendebant, quod famam carminum eius premebat Nero prohibueratque ostentare, vanu adsimulatione: Lateranum consulem designatum nulla iniuria, sed amor rei publicae sociavit. at Flavius Scaevinus et Afranius Quintianus, uterque senatorii ordinis, contra famam sui principium tanti facinoris capessivere: nam Scaevino dissoluta luxu menes et proinde vita somno languida; Quintianus mollitia corporis infamis et a Nerone probroso carmine diffamatus contumeliam ultum ibat.

Lucan was inflamed by his own causes, because Nero was suppressing the reputation of his poems and had forbidden him to display them, with empty dissimulation; the consul-designate Lateranus was associated not by any injury, but by love of the commonwealth. But Flavius Scaevinus and Afranius Quintianus, each of senatorial order, contrary to their repute took up the initiative of so great a deed: for in Scaevinus the mind, loosened by luxury, and correspondingly his life, was languid with sleep; Quintianus, infamous for softness of body and defamed by Nero with an insulting poem, was going to avenge the contumely.

[50] Ergo dum scelera principis, et finem adesse imperio diligendumque, qui fessis rebus succurreret, inter se aut inter amicos iaciunt, adgregavere Claudium Senecionem, Cervarium Proculum, Vulcacium Araricum, Iulium Augurinum, Munatium Gratum, Antonium Natalem, Marcium Festum, equites Romanos. ex quibus Senecio, e praecipua familiaritate Neronis, speciem amicitiae etiam tum retinens eo pluribus periculis conflictabatur; Natalis particeps ad omne secretum Pisoni erat; ceteris spes ex novis rebus petebatur. adscitae sunt super Subrium et Sulpicium, de quibus rettuli, militares manus Gavius silvanus et Statius Proxumus tribuni cohortium praetoriarum, Maximus Scaurus et Venetus Paulus centuriones.

[50] Therefore, while they toss about among themselves or among friends the crimes of the prince, that an end was at hand for his rule, and that one ought to be chosen who would come to the aid of wearied affairs, they aggregated Claudius Senecio, Cervarius Proculus, Vulcacius Araricus, Julius Augurinus, Munatius Gratus, Antonius Natalis, Marcius Festus, Roman equestrians. Of these, Senecio, from his special intimacy with Nero, still retaining the appearance of friendship, on that account was beleaguered by more dangers; Natalis was a participant with Piso in every secret; for the rest, hope was sought from a change of affairs. In addition, beyond Subrius and Sulpicius, of whom I have told, there were co-opted military hands: Gavius silvanus and Statius Proxumus, tribunes of the praetorian cohorts, and Maximus Scaurus and Venetus Paulus, centurions.

sed summum robur in Faenio Rufo praefecto videbatur, quem vita famaque laudatum per saevitiam impudicitiamque Tigellinus in animo principis anteibat, fatigabatque criminationibus ac saepe in metum adduxerat quasi adulterum Agrippinae et desiderio eius ultioni intentum. igitur ubi coniuratis praefectum quoque praetorii in partes descendisse crebro ipsius sermone facta fides, promptius iam de tempore ac loco caedis agitabant. et cepisse impetum Subrius Flavus ferebatur in scaena canentem Neronem adgrediendi, aut cum [ardente domo] per noctem huc illuc cursaret incustoditus.

But the chief strength seemed to lie in the prefect Faenius Rufus, whom, though praised for his life and reputation, Tigellinus, by cruelty and shamelessness, outstripped in the emperor’s mind; and he wearied him with accusations and had often driven him into fear, on the charge that he was Agrippina’s adulterer and, out of longing for her, bent on revenge. Therefore, when among the conspirators credence was established—by his own frequent talk—that the prefect of the praetorian guard too had gone over to their side, they now more readily took counsel about the time and place of the killing. And it was reported that Subrius Flavus had conceived the impulse of attacking Nero as he sang on the stage, or when, with the [house burning], he ran here and there through the night unguarded.

hic occasio solitudinis, ibi ipsa frequentia tanti decoris testis pulcherrima animum exstimulaverunt, nisi impunitatis cupido retinuisset, magnis semper conatibus adversa.

Here the opportunity of solitude, there the very crowd, the fairest witness of such splendor,
would have spurred his spirit, had not the desire for impunity
held him back, ever adverse to great undertakings.

[51] Interim cunctantibus prolatantibusque spem ac metum Epicharis quaedam, incertum quonam modo sciscitata (neque illi ante ulla rerum honestarum cura fuerat), accendere et arguere coniuratos; ac postremum lentitudinis eorum pertaesa et in Campania agens primores classiariorum Misenensium labefacere et conscientia inligare conisa est tali initio. erat [na]uarchus in ea classe Volusius Proculus, occidendae matris Neroni inter ministros, non ex magnitudine sceleris provectus, ut rebatur. is mulieri olim cognitus, seu recens orta amicitia, dum merita erga Neronem sua et quam in inritum cecidissent aperit adicitque questus et destinationem vindictae, si facultas oreretur, spem dedit posse impelli et plures conciliare: nec leve auxilium in classe, crebras occasiones, quia Nero multo apud Puteolos et Misenum maris usu laetabatur.

[51] Meanwhile, as they hesitated and prolonged hope and fear, a certain Epicharis, having somehow inquired into the matter (it is uncertain in what way)—nor had she previously had any concern for honorable things—began to kindle and to arraign the conspirators; and at last, wearied with their slowness and living in Campania, she tried to shake the foremost of the Misenian fleet-men and to bind them by complicity, with the following beginning. In that fleet there was a navarch, Volusius Proculus, one of Nero’s agents in the killing of his mother, not advanced in proportion to the magnitude of the crime, as he thought. He, known to the woman formerly, or with a friendship newly arisen, while he discloses his services toward Nero and how they had fallen to no effect, and adds complaints and a fixed resolve for vengeance, if opportunity should arise, gave hope that he could be impelled and win over more: nor would help be slight in the fleet, and there were frequent occasions, because Nero took much delight in the use of the sea at Puteoli and Misenum.

ergo Epicharis plura; et omnia scelera principis orditur, neque sancti quid[quam] manere. sed provisum, quonam modo poenas eversae rei publicae daret: accingeretur modo navare operam et militum acerrimos ducere in partes, ac digna pretia exspectaret. nomina tamen coniuratorum reticuit.

Therefore Epicharis said more; and she begins to recount all the crimes of the prince, that nothing sacred remains. But it had been provided by what manner he might exact penalties for the overturned commonwealth: let him only gird himself to ply his service and lead the keenest of the soldiers into their party, and expect worthy rewards. Nevertheless she kept back the names of the conspirators.

unde Proculi indicium inritum fuit, quamvis ea, quae audierat, ad Neronem detulisset. accita quippe Epicharis et cum indice composita nullis testibus innisum facile confutavit. sed ipsa in custodia retenta est, suspectante Nerone haud falsa esse etiam quae vera non probabantur.

whence Proculus’ disclosure proved invalid, although he had reported to Nero what he had heard. For Epicharis, having been summoned and confronted with the informer, easily confuted an accusation unsupported by any witnesses. But she herself was kept in custody, Nero suspecting that even those things which were not proven true were nevertheless not false.

[52] Coniuratis tamen metu proditionis permotis placitum maturare caedem apud Baias in villa Pisonis, cuius amoenitate captus Caesar crebro ventitabat balneasque et epulas inibat omissis excubiis et fortunae suae mole. sed abnuit Piso, invidiam praetendens, si sacra mensae diique hospitales caede qualiscumque principis cruentarentur: melius apud urbem in illa invisa et spoliis civium exstructa domo vel in publico patraturos quod pro re publica suscepissent. haec in commune, ceterum timore occulto, ne L. Silanus exilia nobilitate disciplinaque C. Cassii, apud quem educatus erat, ad omnem claritudinem sublatus imperium invaderet, prompte daturis, qui a coniuratione integri essent quique miserarentur Neronem tamquam per scelus interfectum.

[52] Nevertheless, with the conspirators stirred by fear of betrayal, it was decided to hasten the killing at Baiae, in Piso’s villa, whose amenity had captivated the Caesar: he kept coming frequently and would enter upon baths and banquets, with the sentries dismissed and the burden of his exalted fortune laid aside. But Piso refused, putting forward the odium that would arise if the sacred rites of the table and the hospitable gods were bloodied by the slaughter of a princeps of whatever sort: they would more suitably accomplish, near the city, in that hated house built with the spoils of citizens, or in public, what they had undertaken for the republic. These were his reasons in common; but there was a hidden fear, lest L. Silanus, raised to every distinction by his eminent nobility and by the disciplina of C. Cassius, with whom he had been brought up, should invade the imperium—the gift to be readily granted by those who were intact from the conspiracy and who would pity Nero as though slain by crime.

plerique Vestini quoque consulis acre ingenium vitavisse Pisonem crediderunt, ne ad libertatem oreretur, vel delecto imperatore alio sui muneris rem publicam faceret. etenim expers coniurationis erat, quamvis super eo crimine Nero vetus adversum insontem odium expleverit.

many believed that Piso had also avoided the keen spirit of the consul Vestinus, lest it should arise for liberty, or, with another emperor chosen, he should make the republic a work of his own office. For indeed he was devoid of the conspiracy, although on account of that charge Nero fulfilled his long-standing hatred against an innocent man.

[53] Tandem statuere circensium ludorum die, qui Cereri celebratur, exsequi destinata, quia Caesar rarus egressu domoque aut hortis clausus ad ludicra circi ventitabat promptioresque aditus erant laetitia spectaculi. ordinem insidiis composuerant, ut Lateranus, quasi subsidium rei familiari oraret, deprecabundus et genibus principis accidens prosterneret incautum premeretque, animi validus et corpore ingens; tum iacentem et impeditum tribuni et centuriones et ceterorum ut quisque audentiae habuisset, adcurrerent, trucidarentque, primas sibi partes expostulante Scaevino, qui pugionem templo Salutis [in Etruria] sive, ut alii tradidere, Fortunae Ferentino in oppido detraxerat gestabatque velut magno operi sacrum. interim Piso apud aedem Cereris opperiretur, unde eum praefectus Faenius et ceteri accitum ferrent in castra, comitante Antonia, Claudii Caesaris filia, ad eliciendum vulgi favorem, quod Cl. Plinius memorat.

[53] At last they resolved to carry out their design on the day of the circus games, which is celebrated for Ceres, because Caesar, seldom in going out and shut up in his house or gardens, kept coming to the circus amusements, and the approaches were readier thanks to the joy of the spectacle. They had arranged the order of the ambush, that Lateranus, as if he were begging a subsidy for his household estate, in supplication and falling at the princeps’s knees, would throw the unwary man down and pin him, strong in spirit and huge in body; then, him lying and entangled, the tribunes and centurions and, of the others, as each had daring, would run up and butcher him—Scaevinus demanding for himself the first part—who had taken down a dagger from the temple of Salus [in Etruria] or, as others have handed down, of Fortuna in the town of Ferentinum, and was carrying it as though sacred to a great enterprise. Meanwhile Piso was to wait at the temple of Ceres, whence the prefect Faenius and the others would bring him, once summoned, into the camp, with Antonia, daughter of Claudius Caesar, accompanying, to elicit the favor of the crowd, as Cl. Pliny records.

nobis quoquo modo traditum non occultare in animo fuit, quamvis absurdum videretur aut inane[m] ad spem Antoniam nomen et periculum commodavisse, aut Pisonem notum amore uxoris alii matrimonio se obstrinxisse, nisi si cupido dominandi cunctis adfectibus flagrantior est.

it was our intention not to conceal whatever had been handed down to us,
however transmitted, although it seemed absurd
either that Antonia had lent her name and peril to an inane hope,
or that Piso, known for love of his wife, had bound himself to another in matrimony, unless
the desire of dominion is more burning than all affections.

[54] Sed mirum quam inter diversi generis ordines, aetates sexus, dites pauperes taciturnitate omnia cohibita sint, donec proditio coepit e domo Scaevini. qui pridie insidiarum multo sermone cum Antonio Natale, dein regressus domum testamentum obsignavit, promptum vagina pugionem, de quo supra rettuli, vetustate obtusum increpans, asperari saxo et in mucronem ardescere iussit eamque curam liberto Milicho mandavit. simul adfluentius solito convivium initum, servorum carissimi libertate et alii pecunia donati; atque ipse maestus et magnae cogitationis manifestus erat, quamvis laetitiam vagis sermonibus simularet.

[54] But strange how among orders of diverse kind, ages, sexes, rich and poor, everything was kept in check by taciturnity, until betrayal began from the house of Scaevinus. He, on the day before the ambush, after much talk with Antonius Natalis, then, returning home, sealed his testament, and, chiding the dagger drawn from the sheath—the one about which I related above—blunted by age, he ordered it to be roughened on a stone and to burn into a point, and he entrusted that care to the freedman Milichus. At the same time a banquet more affluent than usual was begun, the dearest of the slaves were endowed with liberty and others with money; and he himself was gloomy and manifestly of great cogitation, although he simulated cheerfulness with wandering speeches.

postremo vulneribus ligamenta quibusque sistitur sanguis par[ar]i iubet [id]que eundem Milichum monet, sive gnarum coniurationis et illuc usque fidum, seu nescium et tunc primum arreptis suspicionibus, ut plerique tradidere. de consequentibus [consentitur]. nam cum secum servilis animus praemia perfidiae reptuavit simulque immensa pecunia et potentia obversabantur, cessit fas et salus patroni et acceptae libertatis memoria. etenim uxoris quoque consilium adsumpserat, muliebre ac deterius: quippe ultro metum intentabat, multosque astitisse libertos ac servos, qui eadem viderint: nihil profuturum unius silientium, at praemia penes unum fore, qui indicio praevenisset.

finally he orders bandages for wounds and whatever staunches blood to be prepared, and he gives this same charge to Milichus—whether he was aware of the conspiracy and faithful up to that point, or unaware and then for the first time, suspicions having been seized, as most have handed down. as to what followed, there is agreement. for when, with himself, a servile mind reckoned the rewards of perfidy and at the same time immense money and power loomed before him, right and the safety of his patron and the memory of the liberty received gave way. indeed, he had also taken his wife’s counsel—womanish and worse: for she of her own accord was pressing fear, and said that many freedmen and slaves had been present who had seen the same things: that the silence of one would be of no avail, but that the rewards would rest with the one who should forestall the others by an information.

[55] Igitur coepta luce Milichus in hortos Servilianos pergit; et cum foribus arceretur, magna et atrocia adferre dictitans deductusque ab ianitoribus ad libertum Neronis Epaphroditum, mox ab eo ad Neronem, urgens periculum, graves coniuratos et cetera, quae audiverat coniectaverat, docet; telum quoque in necem eius paratum ostendit accirique reum iussit. is raptus per milites et defensionem orsus, ferrum, cuius argueretur, olim religione patria cultum et in cubiculo habitum ac fraude liberti subreptum respondit. tabulas testamenti saepius a se et incustodia dierum observatione signatas.

[55] Therefore, at day-break Milichus proceeds into the Servilian Gardens; and when he was being kept from the doors, repeatedly saying that he was bringing great and atrocious matters, and being conducted by the doorkeepers to Nero’s freedman Epaphroditus, soon by him to Nero, he informs him—pressing the danger—of the weighty conspirators and the rest which he had heard and surmised; he also shows the weapon prepared for his slaughter, and he ordered the defendant to be summoned. He, snatched up by the soldiers and having begun a defense, replied that the blade of which he was accused had long been kept in honor by ancestral religion and kept in his bedroom and had been filched by the freedman’s fraud. The tablets of the will had often been sealed by him, too, in the unguarded observance of the days.

pecunias et libertates servis et ante dono datas, sed ideo tunc largius, quia tenui iam re familiari et instantibus creditoribus testamento diffideret. enimvero liberales semper epulas struxisse, [dum ageret] vitam amoenam et duris iudicibus parum probatam. fomenta vulneribus nulla iussu suo, sed quia cetera palam vana obiecisset, adiungere crimen, [cu]ius se pariter indicem et testem faceret.

moneys and manumissions for slaves had also previously been given as a gift, but for that reason more lavishly then, because, with his family estate already scant and creditors pressing, he distrusted a will. indeed, that he had always spread liberal banquets, [while he lived] a pleasant life and one little approved by harsh judges. that the poultices for the wounds were in no way by his order; but because he had alleged the rest to be openly vain, he was adding a charge, [of wh]ich he would make himself equally informer and witness.

adicit dictis constantiam; incusat ultro intestabilem et consceleratum, tanta vocis ac vultus securitate, ut labaret indicium, nisi Milichum uxor admonuisset Antonium Natalem multa cum Scaevino ac secreta collocutum et esse utrosque C. Pisonis intimos.

he adds firmness to his statements; he in turn accuses
him as legally disqualified and thoroughly criminal, with such composure of voice and countenance, that the evidence would have wavered,
had not Milichus’s wife reminded them that Antonius Natalis had conversed much
with Scaevinus and in secret, and that both were intimates of Gaius Piso.

[56] Ergo accitur Natalis, et diversi interrogantur, quisnam is sermo, qua de re fuisset. tum exorta suspicio, quia non congruentia responderant, inditaque vincla. et tormentorum adspectum ac minas non tulere: prior tamen Natalis, totius conspirationis magis gnarus, simul arguendi peritior, de Pisone primum fatetur, deinde adicit Annaeum Senecam, sive internuntius inter eum Pisonemque fuit, sive ut Neronis gratiam pararet, qui infensus Senecae omnes ad eum opprimendum artes conquirebat.

[56] Therefore Natalis is summoned, and they are questioned separately, what that
talk was, and what it had been about. Then suspicion arose, because they had not given congruent
answers, and bonds were put on. And they did not endure the sight of tortures and threats:
Natalis, however, first, more knowing of the whole conspiracy, at the same time
more skilled in accusing, confesses first about Piso; then he adds Annaeus
Seneca—whether he was a go-between between him and Piso, or to prepare Nero’s
favor, who, hostile to Seneca, was hunting out all arts
to crush him.

tum cognito Natalis indicio Scaevinus quoque pari imbecillitate, an cuncta iam patefacta credens nec ullum silentii emolumentum, edidit ceteros. ex quibus Lucanus Quintianusque et Senecio diu abnuere: post promissa impunitate corrupti, quo tarditatem excusarent, Lucanus Aciliam matrem suam, Quintianus Glitium Gallum, Senecio Annium Pollionem, amicorum praecipuos, nominavere.

then, once Natalis’s information was recognized, Scaevinus too, with equal imbecility—or believing that all things were now laid bare and that there was no emolument of silence—disclosed the rest. of these, Lucan and Quintianus and Senecio long refused; after impunity had been promised, corrupted so as to excuse their tardity, Lucan named Acilia, his mother, Quintianus named Glitius Gallus, Senecio named Annius Pollio, the principal of their friends.

[57] Atque interim Nero recordatus Volusii Proculi indico Epicharin attineri ratusque muliebre corpus impar dolori tormentis dilacerari iubet. at illam non verbera, non ignes, non ira eo acrius torquentium, ne a femina spernerentur, pervicere, quin obiecta denegaret. sic primus quaestionis dies contemptus.

[57] And meanwhile Nero, recalling that on the information of Volusius Proculus
Epicharis was being held, and thinking a woman's body unequal to pain, orders it to be torn by torments.
But neither blows nor fires, nor the wrath the more keen
of the torturers, lest they be scorned by a woman, prevailed to prevent her from denying the charges laid.
Thus the first day of inquisition was contemned.

postero cum ad eosdem cruciatus retraheretur gestamine sellae (nam dissolutis membris insistere nequibat), vinclo fasciae, quam pectori detraxerat, in modum laquei ad arcum sellae restricto indidit cervicem et corporis pondere conisa tenuem iam spiritum expressit, clariore exemplo libertina mulier in tanta necessitate alienos ac prope ignotos protegendo, cum ingenui et viri et equites Romani senatoresque intacti tormentis carissima suorum quisque pignorum proderent.

on the next day, when she was being dragged back to the same tortures in a conveyance of a chair (for, with her limbs loosened,
she was unable to stand), with the bond of a bandage, which she had stripped from her breast, in the manner
of a noose fastened to the arch of the chair, she put her neck in and, straining with the weight of her body,
squeezed out her breath, now slight; with a more illustrious example, a freedwoman,
in so great a necessity protecting outsiders and those nearly unknown, while freeborn men
and men and Roman equites and senators, untouched by torments, were betraying, each one, the dearest pledges
of their own.

[58] Non enim omittebant Lucanus quoque et Senecio et Quintianus passim conscios edere, magis magisque pavido Nerone, quamquam multiplicatis excubiis semet saepsisset. quin et urbem per manipulos occupatis moenibus, insesso etiam mari et amne, velut in custodiam dedit. volitabantque per fora, per domos, rura quoque et proxima municipiorum pedites equitesque, permixti Germanis, quibus fidebat princeps quasi externis.

[58] For Lucan too, and Senecio and Quintianus, did not desist from disclosing accomplices everywhere, while Nero grew more and more panic-stricken, although he had hedged himself in with multiplied watches. Moreover, he even handed the city over, as it were, into custody, the walls occupied by maniples, the sea and the river likewise held. And foot-soldiers and horsemen flitted through the forums, through homes, the countryside too and the nearest municipia, mingled with Germans, in whom the princeps trusted as if they were outsiders.

continua hinc et vincta agmina trahi ac foribus hortorum adiacere. atque ubi dicendam ad causam introissent, [non stud]ia tantum erga coniuratos, sed fortuitus sermo et subiti occursus, si convivium, si spectaculum simul inissent, pro crimine accipi, cum super Neronis ac Tigellini saevas percunctationes Faenius quoque Rufus violenter urgueret, nondum ab indicibus nominatus et quo fidem inscitiae pararet, atrox adversus socios. idem Subrio Flavo adsistenti adnuentique, an inter ipsam cognitionem destringeret gladium caedemque patraret, renuit infregitque impetum iam manum ad capulum referentis.

from here continuous and bound ranks were being dragged and were lying near the doors of the gardens.
and when they had gone in to plead their case,
not only [ze]al toward the conspirators, but chance talk and sudden encounters—if they had entered a banquet, if a spectacle together—were taken as a charge,
while, over and above Nero’s and Tigellinus’s savage interrogations, Faenius Rufus also was pressing violently,
not yet named by the informers and, in order to procure credence for his ignorance, fierce against his associates.
to Subrius Flavus, as he stood by and nodded, the same man—whether he should draw the sword in the very course of the hearing and perpetrate the slaughter—refused and broke the impulse of the one already bringing his hand back to the hilt.

[59] Fuere qui prodita coniuratione, dum auditur Milichus, dum dubitat Scaevinus, hortarentur Pisonem pergere in castra aut rostra escendere studiaque militum et populi temptare. si conatibus eius conscii adgregarentur, secuturos etiam integros; magnamque motae rei famam, quae plurimum in novis consiliis valeret. nihil adversum haec Neroni provisum.

[59] There were those who, the conspiracy having been betrayed, while Milichus is being heard, while Scaevinus hesitates, encouraged Piso to proceed to the camp or to ascend the rostra and to try the enthusiasms of the soldiers and the people. If those conscious of his attempts would join themselves, even the untouched would follow; and the great rumor of a matter set in motion, which in new counsels avails most. Nothing against these things had been provided by Nero.

etaim fortes viros subitis terreri, nedum ille scaenicus, Tigellino scilicet cum paelicibus suis comitante, arma contra cieret. multa experiendo confieri, quae segnibus ardua videantur. frustra silentium et fidem in tot consciorum animis et corporibus sperare: cruciatui aut praemio cuncta pervia esse.

even strong men are terrified by sudden emergencies, much less would that stage-actor, Tigellinus of course accompanying him with his concubines, rouse arms in opposition. many things are brought to pass by trying, which to the sluggish seem arduous. in vain to hope for silence and good faith in the minds and bodies of so many privy persons: everything is accessible to torture or to reward.

venturos qui ipsum quoque vincirent, postremo indigna nece adficerent. quanto laudabilius periturum, dum amplectitur rem publicam, dum auxilia libertati invocat! miles potius deesset et plebes desereret, dum ipse maioribus, dum posteris, si vita praeriperetur, mortem adprobaret.

that there would come those who would even bind him, and at last would inflict an unworthy death. How much more laudable to perish, while he embraces the Republic, while he invokes aid for liberty!
let the soldier rather be lacking and the plebs desert, provided that he himself, to his ancestors,
to posterity—if life were snatched away—would approve his death.

immotus his et paululum in publico versatus, post domi secretus animum adversum suprema firmabat, donec manus militum adveniret, quos Nero tirones aut stipendiis recentes delegerat: nam vetus miles timebatur tamquam favore imbutus. obiit abruptis brachiorum venis. testamentum foedis adversus Neronem adulationibus amori uxoris dedit, quam degenerem et sola corporis forma commendatam amici matrimonio abstulerat.

Unmoved by these things and
having for a little while moved about in public, afterwards, secluded at home, he was bracing his mind against the last things, until the band of soldiers should arrive, whom Nero had selected as tyros or fresh in their stipends; for the veteran soldiery was feared as imbued with favor. He died with the veins of his arms severed. He devoted his testament, with foul flatteries in regard to Nero, to love of his wife, whom, degenerate and commended only by the form of her body, he had taken away from a friend’s marriage.

nomen mulieri Satria Galla, priori marito Domitius Silus: hic patientia, illa impudica Pisonis infamiam propagavere.

The woman’s name was Satria Galla, her former husband Domitius Silus: this man, by patience, and that woman, by impudicity, propagated Piso’s infamy.

[60] Proximam necem Plautii Laterani consulis designati Nero adiungit, adeo propere, ut non complect liberos, non illud breve mortis arbitrium permitteret. raptus in locum servilibus poenis sepositum manu Statii tribuni trucidatur, plenus constantis silentii nec tribuno obiciens eandem conscientiam.
Sequitur caedes Annaei Senecae, laetissima principi, non quia coniurationis manifestum compererat, sed ut ferro grassaretur, quando venenum non processerat.

[60] Nero adds the next slaying, of Plautius Lateranus, consul-designate, so hurriedly that he did not allow him to embrace his children, nor permit that brief choice of death. Snatched away to a place set apart for servile punishments, he is butchered by the hand of the tribune Statius, full of steadfast silence and not reproaching the tribune with the same complicity.
There follows the killing of Annaeus Seneca, most delightful to the princeps, not because he had found clear proof of conspiracy, but so that he might go to work with iron, since the poison had not succeeded.

solus quippe Natalis et hactenus prompsit, missum se ad aegrotum Senecam, uti viseret conquerereturque, cur Pisonem aditu arceret: melius fore, si amicitiam familiari congressu exercuissent. et respondisse Senecam sermone mutuos et crebra conloquia neutri conducere; ceterum salutem suam incolumitate Pisonis inniti. haec ferre Gavius Silvanus tribunus praetoriae cohortis, et an dicta Natalis suaque responsa nosceret percunctari Senecam iubetur.

For indeed only Natalis disclosed thus much: that he had been sent to the ailing Seneca, to visit him and to complain why he was barring Piso from access; that it would be better if they exercised their friendship by familiar congress. And that Seneca replied that mutual speech and frequent colloquies were conducive to neither; moreover, that his own safety rested upon the incolumity of Piso. Gavius Silvanus, tribune of the praetorian cohort, is ordered to convey these things and to ask Seneca whether he recognized the statements of Natalis and his own replies.

is forte an prudens ad eum diem ex Campania remeaverat quartumque apud lapidem suburbano rure substiterat. illo propinqua vespera tribunus venit et villam globis militum saepsit; tum ipsi cum Pompeia Paulina uxore et amicis duobus epulanti mandata imperatoris edidit.

he, whether by chance or by design, had returned from Campania by that day and had halted at the fourth milestone in a suburban countryside estate. With evening near, the tribune came and fenced the villa with clusters of soldiers; then, as he was feasting with Pompeia Paulina his wife and two friends, he delivered the emperor’s mandates.

[61] Seneca missum ad se Natalem conquestumque nomine Pisonis, quod a visendo eo prohiberetur, seque rationem valetudinis et amorem quietis excusavisse respondit. cur salutem privati hominis incolumitati suae anteferret, causam non habuisse; nec sibi promptum in adulationes ingenium. idque nulli magis gnarum quam Neroni, qui saepius libertatem Senecae quam servitium expertus esset.

[61] Seneca replied that Natalis had been sent to him and had complained in the name
of Piso, that he was being prohibited from visiting him, and that he himself had excused the consideration of his health and
the love of quiet. Why he should prefer the safety of a private man
to his own security, he had had no cause; nor was his nature prompt
to adulations. And this was known to none more than to Nero, who
had more often experienced Seneca’s liberty than servitude.

ubi haec a tribuno relata sunt Poppaea et Tigellino coram, quod erat saevienti principi intimum consiliorum, interrogat an Seneca voluntariam mortem pararet. tum tribunus nulla pavoris signa, nihil triste in verbis eius aut vultu deprensum confirmavit. ergo regredi et indicere mortem iubetur.

when these things had been reported by the tribune in the presence of Poppaea and Tigellinus—who was in the most intimate of counsels with the raging princeps—he asks whether Seneca was preparing a voluntary death. then the tribune affirmed that no signs of fear, nothing grim had been detected in his words or countenance. therefore he is ordered to return and declare death.

tradit Fabius Rusticus non eo quo venerat intinere redi[sse] t[ribun]um, sed flexisse ad Faenium praefectum et expositis Caesaris iussis an obtemperaret interrogavisse, monitumque ab eo ut exsequeretur, fatali omnium ignavia. nam et Silvanus inter coniuratos erat augebatque scelera, in quorum ultionem consenserat. voci tamen et adspectui pepercit intromisitque ad Senecam unum ex centurionibus, qui necessitatem ultimam denuntiaret.

Fabius Rusticus relates that the tribune did not return by the route by which he had come, but turned aside to Faenius, the prefect, and, having set out Caesar’s orders, asked whether he should obey; and that he was advised by him to carry them out—by the fated sloth of all. For Silvanus too was among the conspirators and was augmenting the crimes whose avenging he had agreed upon. Yet he spared both voice and countenance and admitted to Seneca one of the centurions to announce the ultimate necessity.

[62] Ille interritus poscit testamenti tabulas; ac denegante centurione conversus ad amicos, quando meritis eorum referre gratiam prohoberetur, quod unum iam et tamen pulcherrimum habeat, imaginem vitae suae relinquere testatur, cuius si memores essent, bonarum artium famam tam constantis amicitiae [pretium] laturos. simul lacrimas eorum modo sermone, modo intentior in modum coercentis ad firmitudinem revocat, rogitans ubi praecepta sapientiae, ubi tot per annos meditata ratio adversum imminentia? cui enim ignaram fuisse saevitiam Neronis?

[62] He, undaunted, demands the testamentary tablets; and when the centurion denied them, turning to his friends, since he was being prohibited from returning gratitude to their merits, he attests that this one thing now, and yet most beautiful, he has: to leave behind the image of his life; if they were mindful of this, they would carry the fame of good arts as the [price] of so steadfast a friendship. At the same time he calls back their tears now by speech, now more intently in the manner of one restraining, to firmness, asking where are the precepts of wisdom, where the reasoning meditated through so many years against impending things? For to whom had Nero’s savagery been unknown?

neque aliud superesse post matrem fratremque interfectos, quam ut educatoris praeceptorisque necem adiceret.

nor did anything else remain after his mother and brother had been slain, except that he should add the slaying of his educator and preceptor.

[63] Ubi haec atque talia velut in commune disseruit, complectitur uxorem, et paululum adversus praesentem fortitudinem mollitus rogat oratque temperaret dolori [neu] aeternum susciperet, sed in contemplatione vitae per virtutem actae desiderium mariti solaciis honestis toleraret. illa contra sibi quoque destinatam mortem adseverat manumque percussoris exposcit. tum Seneca gloriae eius non adversus, simul amore, ne sibi unice dilectam ad iniurias relinqueret, "vitae" inquit "delenimenta monstraveram tibi, tu mortis decus mavis: non invidebo exemplo.

[63] When he had discussed these and such things as if in common, he embraces his wife, and, a little softened in contrast to his present fortitude, he asks and entreats that she temper her grief, and not take it on as eternal, but in the contemplation of a life carried through by virtue to endure the longing for her husband with honest consolations. She, on the contrary, asserts that death has been destined for herself as well, and demands the hand of the striker. Then Seneca, not opposed to her glory, and at the same time out of love, lest he leave one uniquely beloved by himself to injuries, says, “I had pointed out to you the alleviations of life; you prefer the honor of death: I will not begrudge you the example.”

sit huius tam fortis exitus constantia penes utrosque par, claritudinis plus in tuo fine." post quae eodem ictu brachia ferro exsolvunt. Seneca, quoniam senile corpus et parco victu tenuatum lenta effugia sanguini praebebat, crurum quoque et poplitum venas abrumpit; saevisque cruciatibus defessus, ne dolore suo animum uxoris infringeret atque ipse visendo eius tormenta ad impatientiam delaberetur, suadet in aliud cubiculum abscedere. et novissimo quoque momento suppeditante eloquentia advocatis scriptoribus pleraque tradidit, quae in vulgus edita eius verbis invertere supersedeo.

“let the constancy of this so brave an exit be equal with us both; let there be more of renown in your end.” After which, by the same stroke, they opened their arms with the steel. Seneca, since his senile body, thinned by a sparing diet, was affording slow escapes to the blood, also severed the veins of his legs and of the hollows of the knees; and, wearied by savage torments, lest by his own pain he break his wife’s spirit and lest he himself, by seeing her torments, slip into impatience, he advises her to withdraw into another chamber. And even at the very last moment, eloquence supplying, with scribes summoned he dictated many things, which, though published to the public, I forbear to reproduce in his very words.

[64] At Nero nullo in Paulinam proprio odio, ac ne glisceret invidia crudelitas, [iubet] inhiberi mortem. hortantibus militibus servi libertique obligant brachia, premunt sanguinem, incertum an ignarae. nam, ut est vulgus ad deteriora promptum, non defuere qui crederent, donec implacabilem Neronem timuerit, famam sociatae cum marito mortis petivisse, deinde oblata mitiore spe blandimentis vitae evictam; cui addidit paucos postea annos, laudabili in maritum memoria et ore ac membris in eum pallorem albentibus, ut ostentui esset multum vitalis spiritus egestum.

[64] But Nero, with no particular hatred toward Paulina, and lest the odium of cruelty should swell, [orders] that death be checked. At the soldiers’ urging, the slaves and freedmen bind her arms, they press the blood, uncertain whether she was unaware. For, as the common crowd is prompt to the worse, there were not lacking those who believed that, until she came to fear implacable Nero, she had sought the fame of a death shared with her husband, then, when a gentler hope was offered, was overcome by the blandishments of life; to whom he added a few years thereafter, with praiseworthy memory toward her husband, and with her face and limbs whitening into that pallor, so that it might be for ostentation that much vital spirit had been drained out.

Seneca interim, durante tractu et lentitudine mortis, Statium Annaeum, diu sibi amicitiae fide et arte medicinae probatum, orat provisum pridem venenum, quo d[am]nati publico Atheniensium iudicio exstinguerentur, promeret; adlatumque hausit frustra, frigidus iam artus et cluso corpore adversum vim veneni. postremo stagnum calidae aquae introiit, respergens proximos servorum addita voce libare se liquorem illum Iovi liberatori. exim balneo inlatus et vapore eius exanimatus, sine ullo funeris sollemni crematur.

Meanwhile Seneca, while the prolongation and slowness of death endured, asks Statius Annaeus, long approved by him for the faith of friendship and the art of medicine, to bring forth the poison prepared long before, by which the condemned were extinguished by the public judgment of the Athenians; and what was brought he drained in vain, his limbs already cold and his body closed against the force of the poison. at last he entered a pool of hot water, sprinkling the nearest of the slaves, with the added words that he was offering that liquid to Jupiter the Liberator. then carried into the bath and rendered breathless by its steam, he is cremated without any funeral solemnity.

ita codicillis praescripserat, cum etiam tum praedives et praepotens supremis suis consuleret.

thus he had prescribed in his codicils, since even then, still very wealthy and prepotent, he was taking thought for his last affairs.

[65] Fama fuit Subrium Flavum cum centurionibus occulto consilio, neque tamen ignorante Seneca, destinavisse, ut post occisum opera Pisonis Neronem Piso quoque interficeretur tradereturque imperium Senecae, quasi insonti et claritudine virtutum ad summum fastigium delecto. quin et verba Flavi vulgabantur, non referre dedecori, si citharoedus demoveretur et tragoedus succederet (quia ut Nero cithara, ita Piso tragico ornatu canebat).

[65] There was a rumor that Subrius Flavus, with the centurions, by a secret counsel—nor, however, with Seneca unaware—had intended that, after Nero had been slain by the agency of Piso, Piso likewise should be killed and the imperium be handed over to Seneca, as to an innocent man and, by the clarity of his virtues, chosen for the highest summit. Nay, even the words of Flavus were being spread about: that it would reflect no disgrace if the cithara-player were removed and the tragedian should succeed (for, just as Nero sang to the cithara, so Piso sang in tragic attire).

[66] Ceterum militaris quoque conspiratio non ultra fefellit, accensis [quoque] indicibus ad prodendum Faenium Rufum, quem eundem conscium et inquisitorem non tolerabant. ergo instanti minitantique renidens Scaevinus neminem ait plura scire quam ipsum, hortaturque ultro redderet tam bono principi vicem. non vox adversum ea Faenio, non silentium, sed verba sua praepediens et pavoris manifestus, ceterisque ac maxime Cervario Proculo equite Romano ad convincendum eum conisis, iussu imperatoris a Cassio milite, qui ob insigne corporis robur adstabat, corripitur vinciturque.

[66] However, the military conspiracy too did not deceive any longer, the informers being incited [also] to betray Faenius Rufus, whom they could not tolerate as both accomplice and inquisitor. Therefore, as he pressed and threatened, Scaevinus, smiling, says that no one knows more than himself, and even urges him to repay in turn so good a prince. From Faenius there was neither a word in reply to this nor silence, but he tripped over his own words and was manifest in his fear; and while the others, and most of all Cervarius Proculus, a Roman knight, were striving to convict him, by order of the emperor he is seized and bound by the soldier Cassius, who was standing by on account of his notable bodily strength.

[67] Mox eorundem indicio Subrius Flavus tribunus pervertitur, primo dissimilitudinem morum ad defensionem trahens, neque se armatum cum inermibus et effeminatis tantum facinus consociaturum; dein, postquam urgebatur, confessionis gloriam amplexus interrogatusque a Nerone, quibus causis ad oblivionem sacramenti processisset, "oderam te," inquit. "nec quisquam tibi fidelior militum fuit, dum amari meruisti: odisse coepi, postquam parricida matris et uxoris, auriga et histrio et incendiarius extitisti." ipsa rettuli verba, quia non, ut Senecae, vulgata erant, nec minus nosci decebat militaris viri sensus incomptos et validos. nihil in illa coniuratione gravius auribus Neronis accidisse constitit, qui ut faciendis sceleribus promptus, ita audiendi quae faceret insolens erat.

[67] Soon by the same men’s information Subrius Flavus the tribune is overthrown, at first drawing the dissimilarity of character to his defense, that he, armed, would not associate himself in so great a crime with unarmed and effeminate men; then, after he was pressed, having embraced the glory of confession and asked by Nero for what causes he had proceeded to an oblivion of the sacrament, “I hated you,” he said. “Nor was any of the soldiers more faithful to you, while you deserved to be loved: I began to hate, after you turned out a parricide of mother and wife, a charioteer and a histrion and an incendiary.” I have set down the very words, because they had not, as Seneca’s, been made public, nor was it less fitting that the unadorned and strong sentiments of a military man be known. It is agreed that nothing in that conspiracy fell more grievously upon the ears of Nero, who, just as he was prompt for doing crimes, so was unaccustomed to hearing the things he did.

poena Flavi Veianio Nigro tribuno mandatur. is proximo in agro scrobem effodi iussit, quam Flavus ut humilem et angustam increpans, circumstantibus militibus, "ne hoc quidem," inquit, "ex disciplina." admonitusque fortiter protendere cervicem, "utinam," ait "tu tam fortiter ferias!" et ille multum tremens, cum vix duobus ictibus caput amputavisset, saevitiam apud Neronem iactavit, sesquiplaga interfectum a se dicendo.

The punishment of Flavus was entrusted to Veianius Niger, a tribune. He ordered a pit to be dug in the nearest field; which pit Flavus, rebuking as low and narrow, with the soldiers standing around, said, “Not even this is according to discipline.” And when he was admonished to stretch out his neck bravely, he said, “Would that you strike as bravely!” And he, trembling greatly, when he had scarcely cut off the head with two blows, boasted of his savagery before Nero, saying that he had slain him with a blow and a half.

[68] Proximum constantiae exemplum Sulpicius Asper centurio praebuit, percunctanti Neroni, cur in caedam suam conspiravisset, breviter respondens non aliter tot flagitiis eius subveniri potuisse. tum iussam poenam subiit. nec ceteri centuriones in perpetiendis suppliciis degeneravere: at non Faenio Rufo par animus, sed lamentationes suas etiam in testamentum contulit.

[68] The next example of constancy was supplied by Sulpicius Asper, a centurion; to Nero, asking why he had conspired for his own slaughter, he replied briefly that in no other way could there be succor against so many of his flagitious deeds. Then he underwent the ordered penalty. Nor did the other centurions degenerate in enduring their punishments: but Faenius Rufus did not have an equal spirit, and he even committed his lamentations into his testament.

Opperiebatur Nero, ut Vestinus quoque consul in crimen traheretur, violentum et infensum ratus, sed ex coniuratis consilia cum Vestino non miscuerant quidam vetustis in eum simultatibus, plures, quia praecipitem et insociabilem credebant. ceterum Neroni odium adversus Vestinum ex intima sodalitate coeperat, dum hic ignaviam principis penitus dognitam despicit, ille ferociam amici metuit, saepe asperis facetiis inlusus, quae ubi multum ex vero traxere, acrem sui memoriam relinquunt. accesserat repens causa, quod Vestinus Statiliam Messalinam matrimonio sibi iunxerat, haud nescius inter adulteros eius et Caesarem esse.

Nero was awaiting that the consul Vestinus too might be drawn into a charge, reckoning him violent and inimical; but of the conspirators some had not mixed counsels with Vestinus on account of old rivalries against him, more because they believed him headlong and unsociable. However, in Nero hatred against Vestinus had begun from their most intimate sodality: while this man despised the princeps’s cowardice, thoroughly known, that man feared the ferocity of his friend, having often been mocked by harsh facetiae, which, when they draw much from the truth, leave a sharp remembrance of themselves. There had been added a sudden cause, that Vestinus had joined Statilia Messalina to himself in marriage, not unaware that among her adulterers was Caesar.

[69] Igitur non crimine, non accusatore existente, quia speciem iudicis induere non poterat, ad vim dominationis conversus Gerellanum tribunum cum cohorte militum immittit. iubetque praevenire conatus consulis, occupare velut arcem eius, opprimere delectam iuventutem, quia Vestinus imminentes foro aedes decoraque servitia et pari aetate habebat. cuncta eo die munia consulis impleverat conviviumque celebra[ba]t, nihil metuens an dissimulando metu, cum ingressi milites vocari eum a tribuno dixere.

[69] Therefore, with no charge, no accuser existing, since
he could not assume the appearance of a judge, he turned to the force of domination
and sent in the tribune Gerellanus with a cohort of soldiers. And he orders
the consul’s attempts to be forestalled, his “citadel,” as it were, to be seized, his chosen youth
to be overborne, because Vestinus had houses overhanging the Forum and comely
slaves, and of the same age. He had completed all the duties of a consul that day
and was celebrat[ing] a banquet, fearing nothing—whether not fearing, or by dissembling fear—
when the soldiers entered and said that he was being called by the tribune.

ille nihil demoratus exsurgit, et omnia simul properantur: clauditur cubiculo, praesto est medicus, abscinduntur venae, vigens adhuc balneo infertur, calida aqua mersatur, nulla edita voce, qua semet miseraretur. circumdati interim custodia qui simul discubuerant, nec nisi provecta nocte omissi sunt, postquam pavorem eorum, ex mensa exitium opperientium, et imaginatus et inridens Nero satis supplicii luisse ait pro epulis consularibus.

he, delaying nothing,
rises up, and all things at once are hurried: he is shut in his bedchamber, the medic is at hand,
the veins are cut; still vigorous he is borne into the bath, he is immersed in warm water,
no voice uttered by which he might pity himself. meanwhile those who had reclined together were surrounded with a guard, and were not released except when night was advanced,
after Nero, both imagining and deriding their fear, as they awaited destruction from the table,
said that they had paid enough penalty for a consular banquet.

[70] Exim Annaei Lucani caedem imperat is profluente sanguine ubi frigescere pedes manusque et paulatim ab extremis cedere spiritum fervido adhuc et compote mentis pectore intellegit, recordatus carmen a se compositum, quo vulneratum militem per eius modi mortis imaginem obisse tradiderat, versus ipsos rettulit, eaque illi suprema vox fuit. Senecio posthac et Quintianus et Scaevinus non ex priore vitae mollitia, mox reliqui coniuratorum periere, nullo facto dictove memorando.

[70] Then he orders the slaughter of Annaeus Lucanus; he, with blood flowing, when he perceives, with his breast still hot and his mind still in control, that his feet and hands are growing cold and that his breath is gradually retreating from the extremities, recalling a carmen composed by himself, in which he had handed down that a wounded soldier had died through the image of such a death, recited those very verses, and that was his final voice. Senecio thereafter and Quintianus and Scaevinus, not in the softness of their earlier life, soon the rest of the conspirators, perished, with no deed or word memorable.

[71] Sed compleri interim urbs funeribus, Capitoliam victimis; alius filio, fratre alius aut propinquo aut amico interfectis, agere grates dies, ornare lauru domum, genua ipsius advolvi et dextram osculis fatigare. atque ille gaudium id credens Antonii Natalis et Cervarii Proculi festinata indicia impunitate remuneratur. Milichus praemiis ditatus conservatoris sibi nomen Graeco eius rei vocabulo adsumpsit.

[71] But meanwhile the city was being filled with funerals, the Capitoline with victims; one man, his son having been slain, another his brother, or a kinsman or a friend slain, would spend days giving thanks, deck the house with laurel, roll himself at his knees and weary his right hand with kisses. And he, believing that to be joy, rewards the hurried disclosures of Antonius Natalis and Cervarius Proculus with impunity. Milichus, enriched with rewards, assumed to himself the name of “Conservator,” by the Greek vocable for that thing.

e tribunis Gavius Silvanus, quamvis absolutus, sua manu cecidit: Statius Proxumus veniam, quam ab imperatore acceperat, vanitate exitus conrupit. exuti dehinc tribunatu Pompeius * * * , Gaius Martialis, Flavius Nepos, Statius Domitius, quasi principem non quidem odissent, sed tamen ex[is]timarentur. Novio Prosco per amicitiam Senecae et Glitio Gallo atque Annio Pollioni infamatis magis quam convictis data exilia.

Among the tribunes, Gavius Silvanus, although acquitted, fell by his own hand: Statius Proxumus ruined the pardon which he had received from the emperor by the vanity of his exit. Thereafter, stripped of the tribunate were Pompeius * * *, Gaius Martialis, Flavius Nepos, [and] Statius Domitius, on the ground not indeed that they had hated the princeps, yet that they were nevertheless regarded as having done so. To Novius Priscus, on account of friendship with Seneca, and to Glitius Gallus and Annius Pollio, exiles were given, men defamed rather than convicted.

Priscum Artoria Flaccilla coniux comitata est, Gallum Egnatia Maximilla, magnis primum et integris opibus, post ademptis; quae utraqe gloriam eius auxere. pellitur et Rufrius Crispinus occasione coniurationis, sed Neroni invisus, quod Poppaeam quondam matrimonio tenuerat. Verginium [Flavum et Musonium] Rufum claritudo nominis expulit: nam Verginius studia iuvenum eloquentia, Musonius praeceptis sapientiae fovebat.

Priscus was accompanied by his wife Artoria Flaccilla,
Gallus by Egnatia Maximilla, with great and unimpaired resources at first, afterwards taken away; both of which increased his glory. Rufrius Crispinus also is driven out on the occasion of the conspiracy, but was hateful to Nero, because he had once held Poppaea in marriage. Verginius [Flavus and Musonius] Rufus was expelled by the renown of the name: for Verginius fostered the pursuits of the young by eloquence, Musonius by the precepts of wisdom.

Cluvidieno Quieto, Iulio Agrippae, Blitio Catulino, Petronio Prisco, Iulio Altino, velut in agmen et numerum, Aegaei maris insulae permittuntur. at Ca[e]dicia uxor Scaevini et Caesennius Maximus Italia prohibentur, reos fuisse se tantum poena experti. Acilia mater Annaei Lucani sine absolutione, sine supplicio dissimulata.

Cluvidienus Quietus, Julius
Agrippa, Blitius Catulinus, Petronius Priscus, Julius Altinus, as if into the ranks
and the roll, are consigned to the islands of the Aegean Sea. But Ca[e]dicia, the wife
of Scaevinus, and Caesennius Maximus are forbidden Italy, having experienced only so much
punishment, that they had been defendants. Acilia, the mother of Annaeus Lucanus, without acquittal, without
punishment, was passed over in silence.

[72] Quibus perpetratis Nero et contione militum habita bina nummum milia viritim manipularibus divisit addiditque sine pretio frumentum. quo ante ex modo annonae utebantur. tum quasi gesta bello expositurus, vocat senatum et triumphale decus Petronio Turpi[li]ano consulari, Cocceio Nervae praetori designato, Tigellino praefecto praetorii tribuit, Tigellinum et Nervam ita extollens, ut super triumphales in foro imagines apud Palatium quoque effigies eorum sisteret.

[72] With these things completed, Nero, and after an assembly of the soldiers had been held, distributed two
thousand sesterces apiece to the rank-and-file, and added grain at no price;
previously they used it according to the rate of the grain-supply. Then, as if about to set forth
deeds done in war, he summons the senate and grants the triumphal distinction to Petronius Turpi[li]anus,
a consular; to Cocceius Nerva, praetor-designate; to Tigellinus, prefect
of the praetorian guard—so exalting Tigellinus and Nerva that, beyond
the triumphal images in the Forum he also set up their effigies by the Palatine
as well.

consularia insignia Nymphidio [Sabino decrecta, de quo] qu[i]a nunc primum oblatus est, pauca repetam: nam et ipse pars Romanarum cladium erit. igitur matre libertine ortus, quae corpus decorum inter servos libertosque principum vulgaverat, ex C. Caesare se genitum ferebat, quoniam forte quadam habitu procerus et torvo vultu erat, sive C. Caesar, scortorum quoque cupiens, etiam matri eius inlusit. * * *

the consular insignia to Nymphidius [Sabinus, decreed, about whom] be[c]ause he is now for the first time introduced, I will briefly recount a few things: for he too will be a part of the Roman calamities. Accordingly, born of a freedwoman mother, who had made common her handsome body among the slaves and freedmen of the princes, he claimed himself begotten from Gaius Caesar, since by a certain chance he was tall in build and with a grim countenance; or else Gaius Caesar, desirous of strumpets as well, also made sport with his mother. * * *

[73] Sed Nero [vocato senatu], oratione inter patres habita, edictum apud populum et conlata in libros indicia confessionesque damnatorum adiunxit. etenim crebro vulgi rumore lacerabatur, tamquam viros [claros] et insontes ob invidiam aut metum extinxisset. ceterum coeptam adultamque et revictam coniurationem neque tunc dubitavere, quibus verum noscendi cura erat, et fatentur, qui post interitum Neronis in urbem regressi sunt.

[73] But Nero [with the senate summoned], having delivered an oration among the fathers, added an edict before the people and the proofs and confessions of the condemned, collated into books. For he was frequently torn by the rumor of the crowd, as though he had extinguished men [renowned] and innocent out of envy or fear. Moreover, neither then did those doubt, who had a concern for knowing the truth, that the conspiracy had been begun, brought to adulthood, and overmastered; and those who returned to the city after the death of Nero acknowledge it.

at in senatu cunctis, ut cuique plurimum maeroris, in adulationem demissis, Iunium Gallionem, Senecae fratris morte pavidum et pro sua incolumitate supplicem, increpuit Salienus Clemens, hostem et parricidam vocans, donec consensu patrum deterritus est, ne publicis malis abuti ad occasionem privati odii videretur, neu compostia aut obliterata mansuetudine principis novam ad saevitiam retraheret.

but in the senate, as all—each in proportion to his grief—sank down into adulation, Junius Gallio,
frightened by the death of his brother Seneca and a suppliant for his own safety,
was rebuked by Salienus Clemens, calling him an enemy and a parricide, until
he was deterred by the consensus of the Fathers, lest he seem to be abusing public ills as an occasion
for private hatred, and lest, with the princeps’s mildness composed or wiped out,
he drag him back to new savagery.

[74] Tum [decreta] dona et grates deis decernuntur, propriusque honos Soli, cum est vetus aedes apud circum, in quo facinus parabatur, qui occulta coniurationis [suo] numine retexisset; utque circensium Cerialium ludicrum pluribus equorum cursibus celebraretur mensisque Aprilis Neronis cognomentum acciperet; templum Saluti exstrueretur eius loco, ex quo Scaevinus ferrum prompserat. ipse eum pugionem apud Capitolium sacravit inscripsitque Iovi Vindici, [quod] in praesens haud animadversum post arma Iulii Vindicis ad auspicium et praesagium futurae ultionis trahebatur. reperio in commentariis senatus Cerialem Anicium consulem designatum pro sententia dixisse, ut templum divo Neroni quam maturrime publica pecunia poneretur.

[74] Then [decreed] gifts and thanks are decreed to the gods, and a special honor to Sol, since there is an old shrine by the Circus, in which the foul deed was being prepared, which had re-woven (i.e., laid bare) the hidden things of the conjuration by its [own] numen; and that the Cerial circus spectacle be celebrated with more courses of horses, and that the month of April receive Nero’s cognomen; that a temple to Salus be built on that spot from which Scaevinus had drawn the steel. He himself consecrated that poniard at the Capitol and inscribed it to Jupiter the Avenger, [which], not noticed at the time, after the arms of Julius Vindex was drawn as an auspice and presage of future vengeance. I find in the commentaries of the senate that Anicius Cerialis, consul designate, spoke in his opinion that a temple to the deified Nero be set up as soon as possible with public money.

quod quidem ille decernebat tamquam mortale fastigium egresso et venerationem hominum merito, [sed ipse prohibuit, ne interpretatione] quorundam ad omen [dolum] sui exitus verteretur: nam deum honor principi non ante habetur, quam agere inter homines desierit.

which indeed that man was decreeing, as for one who had departed the mortal pinnacle and deserved the veneration of men, [but he himself forbade, lest by the interpretation] of certain persons it be turned into an omen [deceit] of his own exit: for the honor of a god is not held for a princeps before he has ceased to act among men.