Tacitus: ANNALES

[1] Caede Messalinae convulsa principis domus, orto apud libertos certamine, quis deligeret uxorem Claudio, caelibis vitae intoleranti et coniugum imperiis obnoxio. nec minore ambitu feminae exarserant: suam quaeque nobilitatem formam opes contendere ac digna tanto matrimonio ostentare. sed maxime ambigebatur inter Lolliam Paulinam M. Lollii consularis et Iuliam Agrippinam Germanico genitam: huic Pallas, illi Callistus fautores aderant; at Aelia Paetina e familia Tuberonum Narcisso fovebatur.

[1] With Messalina’s slaughter the emperor’s household was convulsed, and a contest arose among the freedmen as to who should choose a wife for Claudius, impatient of a celibate life and subject to the commands of wives. Nor with less canvassing had the women flared up: each pressed her own nobility, beauty, and wealth, and displayed herself as worthy of so great a marriage. But the chief uncertainty was between Lollia Paulina, daughter of Marcus Lollius, a consular, and Julia Agrippina, begotten by Germanicus: for the latter Pallas, for the former Callistus stood by as supporters; while Aelia Paetina, from the family of the Tuberones, was favored by Narcissus.

ipse huc modo, modo illuc, ut quemque suadentium audierat, promptus, discordantis in consilium vocat ac promere sententiam et adicere rationes iubet.

he himself, now here, now there, as he had heard each of the persuaders, prompt, calls the discordant parties into council and orders them to bring forth their opinion and to add reasons.

[2] Narcissus vetus matrimonium, filiam communem (nam Antonia ex Paetina erat), nihil in penatibus eius novum disserebat, si sueta coniunx rediret, haudquaquam novercalibus odiis visura Britannicum, Octaviam, proxima suis pignora. Callistus improbatam longo discidio, ac si rursum adsumeretur, eo ipso superbam; longeque rectius Lolliam induci, quando nullos liberos genuisset, vacuam aemulatione et privignis parentis loco futuram. at Pallas id maxime in Agrippina laudare quod Germanici nepotem secum traheret, dignum prorsus imperatoria fortuna: stirpem nobilem et familiae [iuliae] claudiaeque posteros coniungeret, ne femina expertae fecunditatis, integra iuventa, claritudinem caesarum aliam in domum ferret.

[2] Narcissus was urging the old matrimony, and their common daughter (for Antonia was from Paetina), and he argued that nothing in his household would be new if the accustomed consort returned; by no means would she look upon Britannicus and Octavia, pledges nearest to her own, with stepmotherly hatreds. Callistus said that she had been disapproved through a long separation, and, if she were taken back again, for that very reason would be proud; and that it was far more proper to introduce Lollia, since she had begotten no children, vacant of emulation and about to be in a parent’s place to the stepchildren. But Pallas praised most in Agrippina that she would bring with her the grandson of Germanicus, altogether worthy of imperial fortune: she would unite the noble stock and the descendants of the Julian and Claudian house, lest a woman of proven fecundity, with youth intact, carry the renown of the Caesars into another house.

[3] Praevaluere haec adiuta Agrippinae inlecebris: ad eum per speciem necessitudinis crebro ventitando pellicit patruum ut praelata ceteris et nondum uxor potentia uxoria iam uteretur. nam ubi sui matrimonii certa fuit, struere maiora nuptiasque Domitii, quem ex Cn. Ahenobarbo genuerat, et Octaviae Caesaris filiae moliri; quod sine scelere perpetrari non poterat, quia L. Silano desponderat Octaviam Caesar iuvenemque et alia clarum insigni triumphalium et gladiatorii muneris magnificentia protulerat ad studia vulgi. sed nihil arduum videbatur in animo principis, cui non iudicium, non odium erat nisi indita et iussa.

[3] These proposals prevailed, aided by Agrippina’s allurements: by repeatedly visiting him under the appearance of kinship, she lures her uncle, so that, preferred before the rest and not yet a wife, she already wielded wifely power. For when she was assured of her own marriage, she began to lay larger plans and to contrive the nuptials of Domitius, whom she had borne to Gnaeus Ahenobarbus, and of Octavia, Caesar’s daughter; which could not be perpetrated without crime, because Caesar had betrothed Octavia to Lucius Silanus, and had put the young man forward, distinguished also in other ways, with the distinction of triumphal honors and the magnificence of a gladiatorial show, to win the favor of the crowd. But nothing seemed arduous in the mind of the princeps, who had neither judgment nor hatred except what was instilled and commanded.

[4] Igitur Vitellius, nomine censoris servilis fallacias obtegens ingruentiumque dominationum provisor, quo gratiam Agrippinae pararet, consiliis eius implicari, ferre crimina in Silanum, cuius sane decora et procax soror, Iunia Calvina, haud multum ante Vitellii nurus fuerat. hinc initium accusationis; fratrumque non incestum, sed incustoditum amorem ad infamiam traxit. et praebebat Caesar auris, accipiendis adversus generum suspicionibus caritate filiae promptior.

[4] Therefore Vitellius, covering servile fallacies under the name of censor and a purveyor of the dominations that were impending, so as to prepare the favor of Agrippina, let himself be entangled in her counsels, and brought charges against Silanus, whose indeed comely and procacious sister, Junia Calvina, had not long before been the daughter-in-law of Vitellius. Hence the beginning of the accusation; and he dragged to infamy not an incest of the siblings, but an unguarded love. And Caesar lent ears, more prompt—out of affection for his daughter—to receive suspicions against his son-in-law.

at Silanus insidiarum nescius ac forte eo anno praetor, repente per edictum Vitellii ordine senatorio movetur, quamquam lecto pridem senatu lustroque condito. simul adfinitatem Claudius diremit, adactusque Silanus eiurare magistratum, et reliquus praeturae dies in Eprium Marcellum conlatus est.

but Silanus,
unaware of the plots and by chance praetor in that year, is suddenly by an edict of Vitellius removed from the senatorial order,
although the senate had previously been enrolled and the lustrum concluded. At the same time Claudius severed the affinity, and
Silanus was driven to abjure the magistracy, and the remaining days of the praetorship were transferred to Eprius Marcellus.

[5] C. Pompeio Q. Veranio consulibus pactum inter Claudium et Agrippinam matrimonium iam fama, iam amore inlicito firmabatur; necdum celebrare sollemnia nuptiarum audebant, nullo exemplo deductae in domum patrui fratris filiae: quin et incestum ac, si sperneretur, ne in malum publicum erumperet metuebatur. nec ante omissa cunctatio quam Vitellius suis artibus id perpetrandum sumpsit. percontatusque Caesarem an iussis populi, an auctoritati senatus cederet, ubi ille unum se civium et consensui imparem respondit, opperiri intra palatium iubet.

[5] In the consulship of Gaius Pompeius and Quintus Veranius, the matrimony agreed between Claudius and Agrippina was now being made firm, now by rumor, now by illicit love; nor yet did they dare to celebrate the solemnities of the nuptials, there being no precedent for a brother’s daughter being led into the house of her paternal uncle: nay even incest was feared, and, if it were spurned, lest it should burst forth into public harm. Nor was the hesitation dropped before Vitellius, by his own arts, undertook to perpetrate it. And having inquired of Caesar whether he would yield to the commands of the people or to the authority of the senate, when he replied that he was one among the citizens and unequal to the consensus, he orders him to wait within the palace.

ipse curiam ingreditur, summamque rem publicam agi obtestans veniam dicendi ante alios exposcit orditurque: gravissimos principis labores, quis orbem terrae capessat, egere adminiculis ut domestica cura vacuus in commune consulat. quod porro honestius censoriae mentis levamentum quam adsumere coniugem, prosperis dubiisque sociam, cui cogitationes intimas, cui parvos liberos tradat, non luxui aut voluptatibus adsuefactus, sed qui prima ab iuventa legibus obtemperavisset.

he himself enters the Curia and, calling to witness that the highest interests of the commonwealth were at stake, asks leave to speak before others and begins: the most burdensome labors of a princeps, who takes up the orb of the earth, require supports, so that, free from domestic care, he may consult for the common good. What, moreover, could be a more honorable alleviation for a censorial mind than to take a consort, a partner in prosperities and in doubts, to whom he might entrust his innermost thoughts, to whom his little children, not one accustomed to luxury or pleasures, but one who from earliest youth had obeyed the laws.

[6] Postquam haec favorabili oratione praemisit multaque patrum adsentatio sequebatur, capto rursus initio, quando maritandum principem cuncti suaderent, deligi oportere feminam nobilitate puerperiis sanctimonia insignem. nec diu anquirendum quin Agrippina claritudine generis anteiret: datum ab ea fecunditatis experimentum et congruere artes honestas. id vero egregium, quod provisu deum vidua iungeretur principi sua tantum matrimonia experto.

[6] After he had premised these things with a favorable oration and much assent of the senators was following, once more taking up his opening, since all were urging that the prince should be married, he said that a woman ought to be chosen distinguished by nobility, by childbearings, by sanctity. Nor was there long need to inquire that Agrippina surpassed in the splendor of lineage: a proof of fecundity had been given by her, and her honorable arts were in harmony. That indeed was excellent, that by the foresight of the gods a widow should be joined to the prince, who had experienced only his own marriages.

audivisse a parentibus, vidisse ipsos abripi coniuges ad libita Caesarum: procul id a praesenti modestia. statueretur immo documentum, quo uxorem imperator acciperet. at enim nova nobis in fratrum filias coniugia: sed aliis gentibus sollemnia, neque lege ulla prohibita; et sobrinarum diu ignorata tempore addito percrebuisse.

they had heard from their parents, had themselves seen
wives snatched away at the Caesars’ pleasure: far is that from the present modesty. Rather let a precedent be established,
by which the emperor may take a wife. But indeed marriages with brothers’ daughters are new to us:
yet among other nations they are customary, and prohibited by no law; and unions with cousins, long unknown, have, with time added, become widespread.

morem accommodari prout conducat, et fore hoc quoque in iis quae mox usurpentur.

that custom be accommodated as it may conduce, and that this too will be among those things which will soon be put into practice.

[7] Haud defuere qui certatim, si cunctaretur Caesar, vi acturos testificantes erumperent curia. conglobatur promisca multitudo populumque Romanum eadem orare clamitat. nec Claudius ultra expectato obvius apud forum praebet se gratantibus, senatumque ingressus decretum postulat quo iustae inter patruos fratrumque filias nuptiae etiam in posterum statuerentur.

[7] There was no lack of those who, eagerly in rivalry, if Caesar should delay, proclaiming that they would act by force, burst out of the Curia. A mixed multitude masses together, and it shouts that the Roman People ask the same. Nor does Claudius, no longer waiting beyond what had been expected, present himself to the congratulators, meeting them at the Forum, and, entering the Senate, he demands a decree by which lawful marriages between paternal uncles and brothers’ daughters should be established even for the future.

nec tamen repertus est nisi unus talis matrimonii cupitor, Alledius Severus eques Romanus, quem plerique Agrippinae gratia impulsum ferebant. versa ex eo civitas et cuncta feminae oboediebant, non per lasciviam, ut Messalina, rebus Romanis inludenti. adductum et quasi virile servitium: palam severitas ac saepius superbia; nihil domi impudicum, nisi dominationi expediret.

and yet there was found only one suitor for such a matrimony, Alledius Severus, a Roman equestrian, whom many reported as having been impelled by Agrippina’s favor. From that point the commonwealth was turned, and everything obeyed the woman—not through lasciviousness, like Messalina, making sport of Roman affairs. It was a tightened and, as it were, virile servitude: openly severity and more often arrogance; nothing at home indecent, unless it were expedient to domination.

cupido auri immensa obtentum habebat, quasi subsidium regno pararetur.

immense cupidity for gold had its pretext, as though a subsidy were being prepared for the kingdom.

[8] Die nuptiarum Silanus mortem sibi conscivit, sive eo usque spem vitae produxerat, seu delecto die augendam ad invidiam. Calvina soror eius Italia pulsa est. addidit Claudius sacra ex legibus Tulli regis piaculaque apud lucum Dianae per pontifices danda, inridentibus cunctis quod poenae procurationesque incesti id temporis exquirerentur.

[8] On the day of the wedding Silanus committed death upon himself, whether he had prolonged his hope of life up to that point, or had chosen the day to heighten the ill-will. His sister Calvina was expelled from Italy. Claudius added sacred rites from the laws of King Tullus and piacular offerings to be given at the grove of Diana by the pontiffs, while all were laughing that punishments and expiations for incest were being sought at that time.

at Agrippina ne malis tantum facinoribus notesceret veniam exilii pro Annaeo Seneca, simul praeturam impetrat, laetum in publicum rata ob claritudinem studiorum eius, utque Domitii pueritia tali magistro adolesceret et consiliis eiusdem ad spem dominationis uterentur, quia Seneca fidus in Agrippinam memoria beneficii et infensus Claudio dolore iniuriae credebatur.

But Agrippina, lest she be noted only for evil malefactions, obtained pardon of exile for Annaeus Seneca and at the same time the praetorship, reckoning it a public joy on account of the renown of his studies; and so that the boyhood of Domitius might grow up under such a master and they might make use of that same man’s counsels toward a hope of domination, since Seneca was believed faithful to Agrippina in memory of the benefaction and hostile to Claudius from the pain of the injury.

[9] Placitum dehinc non ultra cunctari, sed designatum consulem Mammium Pollionem ingentibus promissis inducunt sententiam expromere, qua oraretur Claudius despondere Octaviam Domitio, quod aetati utriusque non absurdum et maiora patefacturum erat. Pollio haud disparibus verbis ac nuper Vitellius censet; despondeturque Octavia, ac super priorem necessitudinem sponsus iam et gener Domitius aequari Britannico studiis matris, arte eorum quis ob accusatam Messalinam ultio ex filio timebatur.

[9] Then it was resolved not to delay any longer, but with enormous promises they induce the consul-designate Mammius Pollio to express an opinion, whereby Claudius should be entreated to betroth Octavia to Domitius, which was not unsuitable to the age of either and was going to lay open greater things. Pollio gives his judgment in words not unlike those of Vitellius lately; and Octavia is betrothed, and, over and above the prior relationship, Domitius, now the fiancé and son-in-law, is made equal to Britannicus by his mother’s endeavors, by the artifice of those by whom, on account of the accused Messalina, vengeance from the son was feared.

[10] Per idem tempus legati Parthorum ad expetendum, ut rettuli, Meherdaten missi senatum ingrediuntur mandataque in hunc modum incipiunt: non se foederis ignaros nec defectione a familia Arsacidarum venire, set filium Vononis, nepotem Pharaatis accersere adversus dominationem Gotarzis nobilitati plebique iuxta intolerandam. iam fratres, iam propinquos, iam longius sitos caedibus exhaustos; adici coniuges gravidas, liberos parvos, dum socors domi, bellis infaustus ignaviam saevitia tegat. veterem sibi ac publice coeptam nobiscum amicitiam, et subveniendum sociis virium aemulis cedentibusque per reverentiam.

[10] At the same time envoys of the Parthians, sent to seek, as I have related, Meherdates, enter the senate and begin their mandates in this manner: that they are not ignorant of the foedus nor do they come by a defection from the Arsacid family, but that they are summoning the son of Vonones, the grandson of Phraates, against the domination of Gotarzes, intolerable alike to the nobility and to the plebs. already brothers, already kinsmen, already those more remote have been exhausted by slaughters; added are pregnant wives, little children, while, sluggish at home, ill-fated in wars, he cloaks his ignavia with savagery. their ancient friendship with us, begun privately and publicly, and that aid ought to be given to allies, their rivals in power yielding and giving way out of reverence.

ideo regum obsides liberos dari ut, si domestici imperii taedeat, sit regressus ad principem patresque, quorum moribus adsuefactus rex melior adscisceretur.

therefore the hostages of kings—their children—are given, so that, if the domestic rule grow wearisome,
there may be a return to the princeps and the Fathers, to whose manners being accustomed a better king might be adopted.

[11] Vbi haec atque talia dissertavere, incipit orationem Caesar de fastigio Romano Parthorumque obsequiis, seque divo Augusto adaequabat, petitum ab eo regem referens omissa Tiberii memoria, quamquam is quoque miserat. addidit praecepta (etenim aderat Meherdates), ut non dominationem et servos, sed rectorem et civis cogitaret, clementiamque ac iustitiam, quanto ignota barbaris, tanto laetiora capesseret. hinc versus ad legatos extollit laudibus alumnum urbis, spectatae ad id modestiae: ac tamen ferenda regum ingenia neque usui crebras mutationes.

[11] When they had discoursed of these and such things, Caesar begins an oration about Roman eminence and the deferences of the Parthians, and he equated himself with the deified Augustus, stating that a king had been sought from him, with any mention of Tiberius omitted, although he too had sent one. He added precepts (for Meherdates was present), that he think not of domination and slaves, but of a rector and citizens, and that clemency and justice—by how much they are unknown to barbarians, by so much the more gladsome—he should take up. Then turning to the envoys he extols with praises the city’s alumnus, of modesty proved for that end: and yet the dispositions of kings are to be borne, nor are frequent changes of use.

rem Romanam huc satietate gloriae provectam ut externis quoque gentibus quietem velit. datum posthac C. Cassio, qui Syriae praeerat, deducere iuvenem ripam ad Euphratis.

the Roman commonwealth advanced hither by a satiety of glory, so that it even wishes quiet for foreign nations. Thereafter it was given to C. Cassius, who was presiding over Syria, to conduct the youth to the bank of the Euphrates.

[12] Ea tempestate Cassius ceteros praeminebat peritia legum: nam militares artes per otium ignotae, industriosque aut ignavos pax in aequo tenet. ac tamen quantum sine bello dabatur, revocare priscum morem, exercitare legiones, cura provisu perinde agere ac si hostis ingrueret: ita dignum maioribus suis et familia Cassia per illas quoque gentis celebrata. igitur excitis quorum de sententia petitus rex, positisque castris apud Zeugma, unde maxime pervius amnis, postquam inlustres Parthi rexque Arabum Acbarus advenerat, monet Meherdaten barbarorum impetus acris cunctatione languescere aut in perfidiam mutari: ita urgeret coepta.

[12] At that time Cassius was preeminent over the rest in expertise of the laws: for the military arts, through peace
were unknown, and peace holds the industrious and the slothful on equal terms. And yet, so far as was granted without war, to recall
the ancient custom, to drill the legions, to act with care and provision just as if an enemy were pressing: thus he was worthy
of his ancestors, and the Cassian family was celebrated among those nations as well. Therefore, having summoned those at whose advice
the king had been sought, and having pitched camp at Zeugma, where the river is most pervious, after the illustrious Parthians
and Acbarus, king of the Arabs, had arrived, he warns Meherdates that the impetuous assaults of barbarians, keen at first, by delay
grow faint or turn into perfidy: thus he should press the undertakings.

quod spretum fraude Acbari, qui iuvenem ignarum et summam fortunam in luxu ratum multos per dies attinuit apud oppidum Edessam. et vocante Carene promptasque res ostentante, si citi advenissent, non comminus Mesopotamiam, sed flexu Armeniam petivit, id temporis importunam, quia hiems occipiebat.

which was spurned through the fraud of Acbarus, who, deeming the youth ignorant and his highest fortune to consist in luxury, detained him for many days at the town of Edessa. And though Carenes was summoning him and displaying ready resources, if they should arrive quickly, he did not make for Mesopotamia at close quarters, but by a detour sought Armenia, inopportune at that time, because winter was beginning.

[13] Exim nivibus et montibus fessi, postquam campos propinquabant, copiis Carenis adiunguntur, tramissoque amne Tigri permeant Adiabenos, quorum rex Izates societatem Meherdatis palam induerat, in Gotarzen per occulta et magis fida inclinabat. sed capta in transitu urbs Ninos, vetustissima sedes Assyriae, [et] castellum insigne fama, quod postremo inter Darium atque Alexandrum proelio Persarum illic opes conciderant. interea Gotarzes apud montem, cui nomen Sanbulos, vota dis loci suscipiebat, praecipua religione Herculis, qui tempore stato per quietem monet sacerdotes ut templum iuxta equos venatui adornatos sistant.

[13] Then, wearied by snows and mountains, after they were approaching the plains, they are joined to the forces of Carenes, and, the river Tigris having been crossed, they pass through the Adiabeni, whose king Izates had openly assumed alliance with Meherdates, but was inclining toward Gotarzes through secret and more trusty means. But the city Ninus, the most ancient seat of Assyria, [and] a stronghold distinguished in fame, was taken in passing—where in the last battle between Darius and Alexander the power of the Persians there collapsed. Meanwhile Gotarzes, by a mountain whose name is Sanbulos, was undertaking vows to the gods of the place, with a special religion of Hercules, who at a fixed time, in sleep, warns the priests to set beside the temple horses adorned for the hunt.

equi ubi pharetras telis onustas accepere, per saltus vagi nocte demum vacuis pharetris multo cum anhelitu redeunt. rursum deus, qua silvas pererraverit, nocturno visu demonstrat, reperiunturque fusae passim ferat.

when the horses have received quivers laden with missiles,
they wander through the passes and only at night, with quivers empty, return with much panting. Again the god, by a nocturnal vision, shows by what way he has ranged through the forests, and the wild beasts, laid low, are found strewn everywhere.

[14] Ceterum Gotarzes, nondum satis aucto exercitu, flumine Corma pro munimento uti, et quamquam per insectationes et nuntios ad proelium vocaretur, nectere moras, locos mutare et missis corruptoribus exuendam ad fidem hostis emercari. ex quis Izates Adiabeno, mox Acbarus Arabum cum exercitu abscedunt, levitate gentili, et quia experimentis cognitum est barbaros malle Roma petere reges quam habere. at Meherdates validis auxiliis nudatus, ceterorum proditione suspecta, quod unum reliquum, rem in casum dare proelioque experiri statuit.

[14] However Gotarzes, his army not yet sufficiently augmented, used the river Corma as a muniment, and, although he was being called to battle by taunts and by messengers, he wove delays, changed positions, and, with corrupters sent, sought to buy out the enemy’s loyalty to be stripped away. From among these, Izates of Adiabene, soon Acbarus of the Arabs, withdraw with their army, by native levity, and because by experience it has been learned that barbarians prefer to seek from Rome kings rather than to have them. But Meherdates, stripped of strong auxiliaries, with the treachery of the rest suspected, as the one thing remaining decided to give the matter over to chance and to try it by battle.

nec detrectavit pugnam Gotarzes deminutis hostibus ferox; concursumque magna caede et ambiguo eventu, donec Carenem profligatis obviis longius evectum integer a tergo globus circumveniret. tum omni spe perdita Meherdates, promissa Parracis paterni clientis secutus, dolo eius vincitur traditurque victori. atque ille non propinquum neque Arsacis de gente, sed alienigenam et Romanum increpans, auribus decisis vivere iubet, ostentui clementiae suae et in nos dehonestamento.

nor did Gotarzes decline the fight, fierce with the enemy diminished; and there was a clash with great slaughter and an ambiguous issue, until Carenes, having ridden farther forward with those in the way routed, was surrounded from the rear by a fresh mass. then, all hope lost, Meherdates, having followed the promises of Parraces, a client of his father, is overcome by his treachery and handed over to the victor. and he, reproaching him as not a kinsman nor of the stock of Arsaces, but a foreigner and a Roman, orders him, his ears cut off, to live— as an ostentation of his clemency and to our dishonor.

dein Gotarzes morbo obiit, accitusque in regnum Vonones Medos tum praesidens. nulla huic prospera aut adversa quis memoraretur: brevi et inglorio imperio perfunctus est, resque Parthorum in filium eius Vologesen translatae.

then Gotarzes died of disease, and Vonones, then presiding over the Medes, was summoned into the
kingdom. No prosperities or adversities of his could anyone recount: he was finished with a brief and
inglorious reign, and the affairs of the Parthians were transferred to his son Vologeses.

[15] At Mithridates Bosporanus amissis opibus vagus, postquam Didium ducem Romanum roburque exercitus abisse cognoverat, relictos in novo regno Cotyn iuventa rudem et paucas cohortium cum Iulio Aquila equite Romano, spretis utrisque concire nationes, inlicere perfugas; postremo exercitu coacto regem Dandaridarum exturbat imperioque eius potitur. quae ubi cognita et iam iamque Bosporum invasurus habebatur, diffisi propriis viribus Aquila et Cotys, quia Zorsines Siracorum rex hostilia resumpserat, externas et ipsi gratias quaesivere missis legatis ad Eunonen qui Aorsorum genti praesidebat. nec fuit in arduo societas potentiam Romanam adversus rebellem Mithridaten ostentantibus.

[15] But Mithridates the Bosporan, his resources lost, a wanderer, after he learned that Didius, the Roman leader, and the strength of the army had departed, with Cotys—raw in youth—left in the new kingdom, and a few cohorts with Julius Aquila, a Roman knight, scorning both, stirs up the nations and lures deserters; finally, an army having been assembled, he drives out the king of the Dandaridae and seizes his rule. When these things were learned, and he was now held to be on the point of invading the Bosporus, Aquila and Cotys, distrustful of their own forces—because Zorsines, king of the Siraces, had resumed hostilities—sought foreign support as well, sending envoys to Eunones, who presided over the nation of the Aorsi. Nor was an alliance difficult, as they were displaying Roman power against the rebellious Mithridates.

igitur pepigere, equestribus proeliis Eunones certaret, obsidia urbium Romani capesserent.

therefore they covenanted that Eunones would contend in equestrian battles, and the Romans would take up the sieges of the cities.

[16] Tunc composito agmine incedunt, cuius frontem et terga Aorsi, media cohortes et Bosporani tutabantur nostris in armis. sic pulsus hostis, ventumque Sozam, oppidum Dandaricae, quod desertum a Mithridate ob ambiguos popularium animos obtineri relicto ibi praesidio visum. exim in Siracos pergunt, et transgressi amnem Pandam circumveniunt urbem Vspen, editam loco et moenibus ac fossis munitam, nisi quod moenia non saxo sed cratibus et vimentis ac media humo adversum inrumpentis invalida erant; eductaeque altius turres facibus atque hastis turba bant obsessos.

[16] Then they advance in a composed column, whose front and rear the Aorsi protected, the middle the cohorts and the Bosporani, in our arms. Thus the enemy was driven back, and they came to Soza, a town of Dandarica, which, abandoned by Mithridates on account of the wavering minds of the populace, seemed fit to be held by leaving a garrison there. Next they proceed into the Siraci, and, having crossed the river Panda, they surround the city Uspen, elevated in position and fortified with walls and ditches, except that the walls, not of stone but of hurdles and wattles and filled with earth in the middle, were weak against assaulters; and towers raised higher were harassing the besieged with torches and spears.

ac ni proelium nox diremisset, coepta patrataque expugnatio eundem intra diem foret.

and, if night had not broken off the battle, the assault, begun and consummated, would have been within the same day.

[17] Postero misere legatos, veniam liberis corporibus orantis: servitii decem milia offerebant. quod aspernati sunt victores, quia trucidare deditos saevum, tantam multitudinem custodia cingere arduum: belli potius iure caderent, datumque militibus qui scalis evaserant signum caedis. excidio Vspensium metus ceteris iniectus, nihil tutum ratis, cum arma, munimenta, impediti vel eminentes loci amnesque et urbes iuxta perrumperentur.

[17] On the next day they sent envoys, begging pardon with their persons free: they were offering ten thousand for servitude. This the victors spurned, because to butcher men who had surrendered was savage, while to surround so great a multitude with a guard was arduous: let them rather fall by the law of war; and the signal for slaughter was given to the soldiers who had gotten up by ladders. By the destruction of the Uspenses fear was injected into the rest, thinking nothing safe, since arms, muniments, impeding or eminent positions, rivers and cities alike were being broken through.

igitur Zorsines, diu pensitato Mithridatisne rebus extremis an patrio regno consuleret, postquam praevaluit gentilis utilitas, datis obsidibus apud effigiem Caesaris procubuit, magna gloria exercitus Romani, quem incruentum et victorem tridui itinere afuisse ab amne Tanai constitit. sed in regressu dispar fortuna fuit, quia navium quasdam quae mari remeabant in litora Taurorum delatas circumvenere barbari, praefecto cohortis et plerisque auxiliarium interfectis.

therefore Zorsines, after long weighing whether he should look to Mithridates’ extremest affairs or to his native kingdom, after the tribal advantage prevailed, with hostages given, prostrated himself before the effigy of Caesar—a great glory of the Roman army, which it was established to have been, bloodless and victorious, a three-days’ march away from the river Tanais. But on the return the fortune was unlike, because some of the ships which were sailing back by sea, having been borne to the shores of the Tauri, were surrounded by the barbarians, and the prefect of a cohort, with very many of the auxiliaries, was slain.

[18] Interea Mithridates nullo in armis subsidio consultat cuius misericordiam experiretur. frater Cotys, proditor olim, deinde hostis, metuebatur: Romanorum nemo id auctoritatis aderat ut promissa eius magni penderentur. ad Eunonen convertit, propriis odiis [non] infensum et recens coniuncta nobiscum amicitia validum.

[18] Meanwhile Mithridates, with no succor in arms, considers whose mercy he might test. His brother Cotys, once a traitor, then an enemy, was feared: of the Romans no one of such authority was present that his promises would be held of great weight. He turned to Eunones, [not] hostile from personal hatreds and strong through a friendship recently conjoined with us.

igitur cultu vultuque quam maxime ad praesentem fortunam comparato regiam ingreditur genibusque eius provolutus 'Mithridates' inquit 'terra marique Romanis per tot annos quaesitus sponte adsum: utere, ut voles, prole magni Achaemenis, quod mihi solum hostes non abstulerunt.'

therefore, with his garb and visage adjusted as much as possible to his present fortune, he enters the royal palace and, prostrated at his knees, says, 'Mithridates, sought by the Romans on land and sea for so many years, I am here of my own accord: use, as you will, the progeny of great Achaemenes, which alone the enemies have not taken from me.'

[19] At Eunones claritudine viri, mutatione rerum et prece haud degeneri permotus, adlevat supplicem laudatque quod gentem Aorsorum, quod suam dextram petendae veniae delegerit. simul legatos litterasque ad Caesarem in hunc modum mittit: populi Romani imperatoribus, magnarum nationum regibus primam ex similitudine fortunae amicitiam, sibi et Claudio etiam communionem victoriae esse. bellorum egregios finis quoties ignoscendo transigatur: sic Zorsini victo nihil ereptum.

[19] But Eunones, moved by the man’s renown, by the change of affairs, and by a petition by no means degenerate, raises up the suppliant and praises him because for seeking pardon he has chosen the nation of the Aorsi and his own right hand. At the same time he sends envoys and letters to Caesar in this mode: that for the commanders of the Roman people, for the kings of great nations, the first friendship is from a similarity of fortune; for himself and for Claudius there is even a communion of victory. Illustrious endings of wars are achieved as often as they are settled by forgiving: thus to Zorsines, when conquered, nothing was snatched away.

pro Mithridate, quando gravius mereretur, non potentiam neque regnum precari, sed ne triumpharetur neve poenas capite expenderet.

on behalf of Mithridates, since he had deserved more gravely, he begged not for power nor a kingdom, but that he not be led in triumph nor pay penalties with his head.

[20] At Claudius, quamquam nobilitatibus externis mitis, dubitavit tamen accipere captivum pacto salutis an repetere armis rectius foret. hinc dolor iniuriarum et libido vindictae adigebat: sed disserebatur contra suscipi bellum avio itinere, importuoso mari; ad hoc reges ferocis, vagos populos, solum frugum egenum, taedium ex mora, pericula ex properantis, modicam victoribus laudem ac multum infamiae, si pellerentur. quin adriperet et servaret exulem, cui inopi quanto longiorem vitam, tanto plus supplicii fore.

[20] But Claudius, although mild toward external nobilities, nevertheless doubted whether it would be more correct to accept the captive by a pact of safety or to reclaim him by arms. On the one hand, the pain of injuries and a lust for vindicta were driving him; but it was argued on the contrary that war would have to be undertaken by a trackless route, on a harborless sea; in addition, fierce kings, wandering peoples, a soil needy of grain, tedium from delay, dangers from hurrying, slight praise for the victors and much infamy if they were driven back. Why not rather seize and keep the exile, for whom, being destitute, the longer the life, the more punishment there would be.

his permotus scripsit Eunoni, meritum quidem novissima exempla Mithridaten, nec sibi vim ad exequendum deese: verum ita maioribus placitum, quanta pervicacia in hostem, tanta beneficentia adversus supplices utendum; nam triumphos de populis regnisque integris adquiri.

Moved by these things he wrote to Eunones, that Mithridates indeed had merited the most extreme examples and that the power to execute it was not lacking to himself: but that thus it had been the decision of the ancestors, that as much obstinacy against a foe, so much beneficence was to be used toward suppliants; for over peoples and intact kingdoms triumphs are acquired.

[21] Traditus posthac Mithridates vectusque Romam per Iunium Cilonem, procuratorem Ponti, ferocius quam pro fortuna disseruisse apud Caesarem ferebatur, elataque vox eius in vulgum hisce verbis: 'non sum remissus ad te, sed reversus: vel si non credis, dimitte et quaere.' vultu quoque interrito permansit, cum rostra iuxta custodibus circumdatus visui populo praeberetur. consularia insignia Ciloni, Aquilae praetoria decernuntur.

[21] Afterwards, having been handed over, Mithridates, conveyed to Rome by Junius Cilo, procurator of Pontus, was reported to have spoken more fiercely than befitted his condition in the presence of Caesar, and his utterance was carried into the crowd in these words: ‘I have not been sent back to you, but have returned; or, if you do not believe it, release me and make inquiry.’ He also remained with an undismayed countenance, when, near the rostra, surrounded by guards, he was presented to the people’s view. Consular insignia are decreed to Cilo, praetorian to Aquila.

[22] Isdem consulibus atrox odii Agrippina ac Lolliae infensa, quod secum de matrimonio principis certavisset, molitur crimina et accusatorem qui obiceret Chaldaeos, magos interrogatumque Apollinis Clarii simulacrum super nuptiis imperatoris. exim Claudius inaudita rea multa de claritudine eius apud senatum praefatus, sorore L. Volusii genitam, maiorem ei patruum Cottam Messalinum esse, Memmio quondam Regulo nuptam (nam de G. Caesaris nuptiis consulto reticebat), addidit perniciosa in rem publicam consilia et materiem sceleri detrahendam: proin publicatis bonis cederet Italia. ita quinquagies sestertium ex opibus immensis exuli relictum.

[22] In the same consulship Agrippina, savage in hatred and hostile to Lollia because she had contended with her about the marriage of the princeps, contrives charges and an accuser to allege the Chaldaeans, the magi, and that the image of Apollo at Claros had been consulted about the emperor’s nuptials. Then Claudius, with the defendant unheard, after a long preface before the senate about her illustriousness—that she was born of the sister of Lucius Volusius, that Cotta Messalinus was her elder paternal uncle, and that she had once been married to Memmius Regulus (for about the marriage with Gaius Caesar he purposely kept silence)—added that her counsels were pernicious to the commonwealth and that the material for crime must be taken away: therefore, her goods being confiscated, let her depart from Italy. Thus 5,000,000 sesterces from her immense resources was left to the exile.

et Calpurnia inlustris femina pervertitur, quia formam eius laudaverat princeps, nulla libidine, sed fortuito sermone, unde ira Agrippinae citra ultima stetit. in Lolliam mittitur tribunus, a quo ad mortem adigeretur. damnatus et lege repetundarum Cadius Rufus accusantibus Bithynis.

and Calpurnia, an illustrious woman, is subverted, because the emperor had praised her form, with no lust, but in a fortuitous conversation, whence Agrippina’s anger stood short of the ultimate measures. Against Lollia a tribune is sent, by whom she was driven to death. And Cadius Rufus was condemned under the law of extortions, the Bithynians being the accusers.

[23] Galliae Narbonensi ob egregiam in patres reverentiam datum ut senatoribus eius provinciae non exquisita principis sententia, iure quo Sicilia haberetur, res suas invisere liceret. Ituraeique et Iudaei defunctis regibus Sohaemo atque Agrippa provinciae Syriae additi. Salutis augurium quinque et septuaginta annis omissum repeti ac deinde continuari placitum.

[23] To Narbonensian Gaul, on account of its outstanding reverence toward the Fathers, it was granted that the senators of that province, without the emperor’s opinion being sought, might be allowed, by the right under which Sicily was held, to visit their own properties. The Ituraeans and the Jews, their kings Sohaemus and Agrippa having died, were added to the province of Syria. The augury of Safety, omitted for 75 years, was resolved to be resumed and thereafter to be continued.

et pomerium urbis auxit Caesar, more prisco, quo iis qui protulere imperium etiam terminos urbis propagare datur. nec tamen duces Romani, quamquam magnis nationibus subactis, usurpaverant nisi L. Sulla et divus Augustus.

and he augmented the pomerium
of the city, in the ancient custom, by which it is granted to those who have extended the imperium to propagate also the boundaries of the city. Nor, however, had the Roman leaders, although great nations had been subjugated, made use of it except L. Sulla and the deified Augustus.

[24] Regum in eo ambitio vel gloria varie vulgata: sed initium condendi, et quod pomerium Romulus posuerit, noscere haud absurdum reor. igitur a foro boario, ubi aereum tauri simulacrum aspicimus, quia id genus animalium aratro subditur, sulcus designandi oppidi coeptus ut magnam Herculis aram amplecteretur; inde certis spatiis interiecti lapides per ima montis Palatini ad aram Consi, mox curias veteres, tum ad sacellum Larum, inde forum Romanum; forumque et Capitolium non a Romulo, sed a Tito Tatio additum urbi credidere. mox pro fortuna pomerium auctum.

[24] The ambition or glory of kings in this matter has been variously spread abroad: but to learn the beginning of founding, and that Romulus set the pomerium, I deem not absurd. therefore from the Forum Boarium, where we behold a bronze simulacrum of a bull, because that kind of animal is subjected to the plough, a furrow for marking out the town was begun so as to embrace the great altar of Hercules; thence stones set at fixed intervals through the lower parts of the Palatine hill to the Ara of Consus, soon the Old Curiae, then to the sacellum of the Lares, thence the Forum Romanum; and they believed that the Forum and the Capitolium were added to the city not by Romulus, but by Titus Tatius. afterward, in proportion to fortune, the pomerium was increased.

et quos tum Claudius terminos posuerit, facile cognitu et publicis actis perscriptum.

and what then Claudius set as boundaries, is easy to learn and is written out in the public acts.

[25] C. Antistio M. Suillio consulibus adoptio in Domitium auctoritate Pallantis festinatur, qui obstrictus Agrippinae ut conciliator nuptiarum et mox stupro eius inligatus, stimulabat Claudium consuleret rei publicae, Britannici pueritiam robore circumdaret: sic apud divum Augustum, quamquam nepotibus subnixum, viguisse privignos; a Tiberio super propriam stirpem Germanicum adsumptum: se quoque accingeret iuvene partem curarum capessituro. his evictus triennio maiorem natu Domitium filio anteponit, habita apud senatum oratione eundem in quem a liberto acceperat modum. adnotabant periti nullam antehac adoptionem inter patricios Claudios reperiri, eosque ab Atto Clauso continuos duravisse.

[25] In the consulship of Gaius Antistius and Marcus Suillius, the adoption of Domitius was hurried forward by the authority of Pallas, who, obliged to Agrippina as the conciliator of the marriage and soon entangled by her debauchery, was spurring Claudius to look out for the res publica, to gird the boyhood of Britannicus with strength: thus under the deified Augustus, although propped by grandsons, step-sons had flourished; by Tiberius, over and above his own stock, Germanicus had been taken up: that he too should gird himself with a youth who would take up a share of the cares. Overcome by these arguments, he puts Domitius, older by three years, before his own son, having delivered before the senate a speech in the same mode in which he had received it from the freedman. Experts were noting that no adoption before this is found among the patrician Claudii, and that they had endured unbroken from Attus Clausus.

[26] Ceterum actae principi grates, quaesitiore in Domitium adulatione; rogataque lex qua in familiam Claudiam et nomen Neronis transiret. augetur et Agrippina cognomento Augustae. quibus patratis nemo adeo expers misericordiae fuit quem non Britannici fortuna maerore adficeret.

[26] However, thanks were rendered to the princeps, with a more elaborately contrived adulation toward Domitius; and a law was carried by which he would pass into the Claudian family and assume the name Nero. Agrippina too is augmented with the cognomen “Augusta.” With these things accomplished, there was no one so devoid of compassion whom the fortune of Britannicus did not affect with sorrow.

desolatus paulatim etiam servilibus ministeriis perintem pestiva novercae officia in ludibrium vertebat, intellegens falsi. neque enim segnem ei fuisse indolem ferunt, sive verum, seu periculis commendatus retinuit famam sine experimento.

desolate, little by little he even, by servile ministrations, was turning the eager offices of his stepmother into a laughingstock, perceiving the falsity. For they report that his innate character was not sluggish, whether that is true, or, commended by perils, he retained a fame without trial.

[27] Sed Agrippina quo vim suam sociis quoque nationibus ostentaret in oppidum Vbiorum, in quo genita erat, veteranos coloniamque deduci impetrat, cui nomen inditum e vocabulo ipsius. ac forte acciderat ut eam gentem Rhenum transgressam avus Agrippa in fidem acciperet. Isdem temporibus in superiore Germania trepidatum adventu Chattorum latrocinia agitantium.

[27] But Agrippina, in order to ostentate her force to the allied nations as well, obtains that in the town of the Ubii, in which she had been born, veterans and a colony be led out and settled, to which a name was imposed from her own appellation. And it had chanced that that people, having crossed the Rhine, had been received into allegiance by her grandfather Agrippa. In the same times, in Upper Germany there was alarm at the advent of the Chatti practicing depredations.

dein P. Pomponius legatus auxiliaris Vangionas ac Nemetas, addito equite alario, [immittit>, monitos ut anteirent populatores vel dilapsis improvisi circumfunderentur. et secuta consilium ducis industria militum, divisique in duo agmina, qui laevum iter petiverant recens reversos praedaque per luxum usos et somno gravis circumvenere. aucta laetitia quod quosdam e clade Variana quadragesimum post annum servitio exemerant.

then P. Pomponius, auxiliary legate, sends in the Vangiones and the Nemetes, with alary cavalry added, [immittit>, having been warned to go ahead of the plunderers or to surround by surprise those who had straggled. And the industry of the soldiers followed the counsel of the leader, and, divided into two columns, those who had sought the left-hand route hemmed in men newly returned, who had used their booty for luxury and were heavy with sleep. Joy was increased because they had taken some out of slavery from the Varian disaster in the 40th year thereafter.

[28] At qui dextris et propioribus compendiis ierant, obvio hosti et aciem auso plus cladis faciunt, et praeda famaque onusti ad montem Taunum revertuntur, ubi Pomponius cum legionibus opperiebatur, si Chatti cupidine ulciscendi casum pugnae praeberent. illi metu ne hinc Romanus, inde Cherusci, cum quis aeternum discordant, circumgrederentur, legatos in urbem et obsides misere; decretusque Pomponio triumphalis honos, modica pars famae eius apud posteros in quis carminum gloria praecellit.

[28] But those who had gone by the right-hand and nearer shortcuts, meeting an enemy and one who had dared a battle line, inflict more slaughter, and, laden with booty and fame, return to Mount Taunus, where Pomponius with the legions was awaiting, if the Chatti, in a desire of avenging, should proffer the chance of battle. They, from fear lest on this side the Roman, on that the Cherusci, with whom they are in eternal discord, might encircle them, sent envoys to the city and hostages; and to Pomponius a triumphal honor was decreed, a modest portion of his renown with posterity, among whom the glory of his songs excels.

[29] Per idem tempus Vannius Suebis a Druso Caesare impositus pellitur regno, prima imperii aetate clarus acceptusque popularibus, mox diuturnitate in superbiam mutans et odio accolarum, simul domesticis discordiis circumventus. auctores fuere Vibilius Hermundurorum rex et Vangio ac Sido sorore Vannii geniti. nec Claudius, quamquam saepe oratus, arma certantibus barbaris interposuit, tutum Vannio perfugium promittens, si pelleretur; scripsitque Palpellio Histro, qui Pannoniam praesidebat, legionem ipsaque e provincia lecta auxilia pro ripa componere, subsidio victis et terrorem adversus victores, ne fortuna elati nostram quoque pacem turbarent.

[29] At the same time Vannius, imposed over the Suebi by Drusus Caesar, was driven from his kingdom; in the first
season of his rule he was renowned and acceptable to his subjects, soon by its long duration changing into arrogance and into the hatred
of his neighbors, at the same time hemmed in by domestic discords. The instigators were Vibilius, king of the Hermunduri, and
Vangio and Sido, born of Vannius’s sister. Nor did Claudius, although often entreated, interpose arms between the contending barbarians,
promising to Vannius a safe refuge, if he should be expelled; and he wrote to Palpellius Hister, who
was presiding over Pannonia, to station a legion and auxiliaries chosen from the province itself along the bank, as a support to the vanquished
and a terror against the victors, lest, uplifted by fortune, they should disturb our peace as well.

nam vis innumera, Lugii aliaeque gentes, adventabant, fama ditis regni, quod Vannius triginta per annos praedationibus et vectigalibus auxerat. ipsi manus propria pedites, eques a Sarmatis Iazugibus erat, impar multitudini hostium, eoque castellis sese defensare bellumque ducere statuerat.

for an innumerable force, the Lugii and other nations, were approaching, drawn by the report of a wealthy kingdom, which Vannius for thirty years had enlarged by predations and revenues. for himself his own band was infantry; the cavalry was from the Sarmatian Iazyges—unequal to the multitude of enemies, and so he had resolved to defend himself by forts and to draw out the war.

[30] Sed Iazuges obsidionis impatientes et proximos per campos vagi necessitudinem pugnae attulere, quia Lugius Hermundurusque illic ingruerant. igitur degressus castellis Vannius funditur proelio, quamquam rebus adversis laudatus quod et pugnam manu capessiit et corpore adverso vulnera excepit. ceterum ad classem in Danuvio opperientem perfugit; secuti mox clientes et acceptis agris in Pannonia locati sunt.

[30] But the Iazyges, impatient of siege and roaming through the nearest plains, brought on the necessity of battle, because the Lugii and the Hermunduri had swooped in there. Therefore, having come down from the forts, Vannius is routed in the engagement, although, in adverse circumstances, he was praised because he both took up the fight with his own hand and, with his body turned toward the foe, received wounds. However, he fled for refuge to the fleet waiting on the Danube; his clients soon followed, and, lands having been granted, they were settled in Pannonia.

regnum Vangio ac Sido inter se partivere, egregia adversus nos fide, subiectis, suone an servitii ingenio, dum adipiscerentur dominationes, multa caritate, et maiore odio, postquam adepti sunt.

they divided the kingdom between Vangio and Sido, with distinguished fidelity toward us, to their subjects—whether by their own nature or by the disposition of servitude—while they were acquiring their dominions, much affection, and greater hatred after they had obtained them.

[31] At in Britannia P. Ostorium pro praetore turbidae res excepere, effusis in agrum sociorum hostibus eo violentius quod novum ducem exercitu ignoto et coepta hieme iturum obviam non rebantur. ille gnarus primis eventibus metum aut fiduciam gigni, citas cohortis rapit et caesis qui restiterant, disiectos consectatus, ne rursus conglobarentur infensaque et infida pax non duci, non militi requiem permitteret, detrahere arma suspectis cunctaque castris Avonam [inter] et Sabrinam fluvios cohibere parat. quod primi Iceni abnuere, valida gens nec proeliis contusi, quia societatem nostram volentes accesserant.

[31] But in Britain troubled affairs befell P. Ostorius, as propraetor, with the enemies poured out into the land of our allies, all the more violently because they did not suppose that a new leader, with an army unknown to him and winter having begun, would go forth to meet them. He, knowing that the first outcomes beget fear or confidence, snatches up the swift cohorts and, those who had resisted having been cut down, pursuing the scattered, lest they be massed again and a hostile and untrustworthy peace allow rest neither to the leader nor to the soldier, prepares to strip arms from those suspected and to confine everything by camps between the rivers Avon [between] and Severn. This the Iceni were the first to refuse, a strong tribe and not bruised by battles, because they had joined our alliance willingly.

hisque auctoribus circumiectae nationes locum pugnae delegere saeptum agresti aggere et aditu angusto, ne pervius equiti foret. ea munimenta dux Romanus, quamquam sine robore legionum socialis copias ducebat, perrumpere adgreditur et distributis cohortibus turmas quoque peditum ad munia accingit. tunc dato signo perfringunt aggerem suisque claustris impeditos turbant.

and at the urging of these, the surrounding nations chose a place for battle fenced with a rustic earthen rampart and with a narrow approach, so that it might not be passable to cavalry. the Roman commander, although without the strength of the legions and leading allied forces, undertakes to break through those defenses, and, the cohorts having been distributed, he also girds squads of infantry for the tasks. then, the signal having been given, they smash the rampart and throw into disorder those hampered by their own barriers.

atque illi conscientia rebellionis et obsaeptis effugiis multa et clara facinora fecere: qua pugna filius legati M. Ostorius servati civis decus meruit.

and they, with the conscience of rebellion and with the avenues of escape barricaded, did many and illustrious
deeds: in which battle the son of the legate, M. Ostorius, earned the honor for a citizen saved.

[32] Ceterum clade Icenorum compositi qui bellum inter et pacem dubitabant, et ductus in Decangos exercitus. vastati agri, praedae passim actae, non ausis aciem hostibus, vel si ex occulto carpere agmen temptarent, punito dolo. iamque ventum haud procul mari, quod Hiberniam insulam aspectat, cum ortae apud Brigantas discordiae retraxere ducem, destinationis certum, ne nova moliretur nisi prioribus firmatis.

[32] However, by the slaughter of the Iceni those who were wavering between war and peace were composed, and the army was led against the Decangi. The fields were laid waste, booty was driven everywhere, the enemies not daring a battle line; or, if from concealment they tried to nibble at the column, the trick was punished. And now they had come not far from the sea which looks toward the island Hibernia, when discords that had arisen among the Brigantes drew back the leader, fixed in his determination not to set new things in motion unless the former had been made firm.

et Brigantes quidem, paucis qui arma coeptabant interfectis, in reliquos data venia, resedere: Silurum gens non atrocitate, non clementia mutabatur, quin bellum exerceret castrisque legionum premenda foret. id quo promptius veniret, colonia Camulodunum valida veteranorum manu deducitur in agros captivos, subsidium adversus rebellis et imbuendis sociis ad officia legum.

and indeed the Brigantes, with the few who were taking up arms killed, and pardon given to the rest, settled down: the nation of the Silures was changed neither by atrocity nor by clemency, but would prosecute war and had to be pressed by the camps of the legions. to the end that this might come more readily, a colony at Camulodunum is settled with a strong hand of veterans into the captive fields, a subsidy against rebels and for imbuing the allies to the duties of the laws.

[33] Itum inde in Siluras, super propriam ferociam Carataci viribus confisos, quem multa ambigua, multa prospera extulerant ut certeros Britannorum imperatores praemineret. sed tum astu locorum fraude prior, vi militum inferior, transfert bellum in Ordovicas, additisque qui pacem nostram metuebant, novissimum casum experitur, sumpto ad proelium loco, ut aditus abscessus, cuncta nobis importuna et suis in melius essent, hinc montibus arduis, et si qua clementer accedi poterant, in modum valli saxa praestruit: et praefluebat amnis vado incerto, catervaeque armatorum pro munimentis constiterant.

[33] Thence a march was made into the Silures, relying, over and above their own ferocity, on the forces of Caratacus, whom many ambiguous and many prosperous turns had exalted so that he stood pre-eminent over the other commanders of the Britons. But then, in the cunning of the ground he was ahead by stratagem, in the strength of soldiers inferior; he transfers the war into the Ordovices, and, with those added who feared our peace, he tries the last hazard, a place for battle having been chosen, so that approaches and withdrawals, everything, should be disadvantageous to us and more favorable to his own: here with steep mountains, and, wherever there could be a gentle approach, he piles up stones in the manner of a rampart; and a river flowed in front with an uncertain ford, and masses of armed men had taken their stand as bulwarks.

[34] Ad hoc gentium ductores circumire hortari, firmare animos minuendo metu, accendenda spe aliisque belli incitamentis: enimvero Caratacus huc illuc volitans illum diem, illam aciem testabatur aut reciperandae libertatis aut servitutis aeternae initium fore; vocabatque nomina maiorum, qui dictatorem Caesarem pepulissent, quorum virtute vacui a securibus et tributis intemerata coniugum et liberorum corpora retinerent. haec atque talia dicenti adstrepere vulgus, gentili quisque religione obstringi, non telis, non vulneribus cessuros.

[34] To this the leaders of the nations went around exhorting, strengthening spirits by diminishing fear, by kindling hope and other incitements of war: enimvero Caratacus, flitting here and there, was declaring that that day, that battle-line would be the beginning either of recovering liberty or of eternal servitude; and he called upon the names of the ancestors who had driven back the dictator Caesar, by whose virtue they kept free from the axes and from tributes and preserved the inviolate bodies of their wives and children. As he spoke these and such things, the common crowd roared assent, each one bound by ancestral religion, vowing that they would yield neither to missiles nor to wounds.

[35] Obstupefecit ea alacritas ducem Romanum; simul obiectus amnis, additum vallum, imminentia iuga, nihil nisi atrox et propugnatoribus frequens terrebat. sed miles proelium poscere, cuncta vurtute expugnabilia clamitare; praefectique [et] tribuni paria disserentes ardorem exercitus intendebant. tum Ostorius, circumspectis quae impenetrabilia quaeque pervia, ducit infensos amnemque haud difficulter evadit.

[35] That alacrity astounded the Roman commander; at the same time the river set in their way, the added rampart, the overhanging ridges—nothing terrified save that it was atrocious and thronged with defenders. But the soldiery demanded battle, shouting that everything was conquerable by valor; and the prefects and tribunes, arguing the same, intensified the ardor of the army. Then Ostorius, after surveying what was impenetrable and what passable, leads the enraged men and gets across the river without difficulty.

ubi ventum ad aggerem, dum missilibus certabatur, plus vulnerum in nos et pleraeque caedes oriebantur: postquam facta testudine rudes et informes saxorum compages distractae parque comminus acies, decedere barbari in iuga montium. sed eo quoque inrupere ferentarius gravisque miles, illi telis adsultantes, hi conferto gradu, turbatis contra Britannorum ordinibus, apud quos nulla loricarum galearumve tegmina; et si auxiliaribus resisterent, gladiis ac pilis legionariorum, si huc verterent, spathis et hastis auxiliarium sternebantur. clara ea victoria fuit, captaque uxor et filia Carataci fratresque in deditionem accepti.

when it was come to the rampart, while they were contending with missiles, more wounds accrued to us and the greater part of the slaughter arose: after a testudo (tortoise-formation) had been made, the rough and formless joinings of stones were torn apart and, with the battle-line equalized at close quarters, the barbarians began to withdraw onto the ridges of the mountains. But into that, too, both the light-armed and the heavy soldier broke—those assailing with missiles, these with compressed step—while the ranks of the Britons were thrown into disorder, among whom there were no coverings of cuirasses or helmets; and if they withstood the auxiliaries, they were laid low by the swords and javelins of the legionaries; if they turned here, they were strewn by the spathae and spears of the auxiliaries. That victory was illustrious, and the wife and daughter of Caratacus were captured, and his brothers were accepted in surrender.

[36] Ipse, ut ferme intuta sunt adversa, cum fidem Cartimanduae reginae Brigantum petivisset, vinctus ac victoribus traditus est, nono post anno quam bellum in Britannia coeptum. unde fama eius evecta insulas et proximas provincias pervagata per Italiam quoque celebrabatur, avebantque visere, quis ille tot per annos opes nostras sprevisset. ne Romae quidem ignobile Carataci nomen erat; et Caesar dum suum decus extollit, addidit gloriam victo.

[36] He himself—since adverse fortunes are commonly insecure—when he had sought the fidelity of Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes, was bound and handed over to the victors, in the ninth year after the war in Britain had been begun. Whence his fame, borne aloft, overran the islands and the nearest provinces, and through Italy as well was celebrated; and they were avid to behold who that man was who for so many years had scorned our resources. Not even at Rome was the name of Caratacus inglorious; and Caesar, while he was exalting his own honor, added glory to the vanquished.

vocatus quippe ut ad insigne spectaclum populus: stetere in armis praetoriae cohortes campo qui castra praeiacet. tunc incedentibus regiis clientulis phalerae torques quaeque bellis externis quaesiverat traducta, mox fratres et coniunx et filia, postremo ipse ostentatus. ceterorum preces degeneres fuere ex metu: at non Caratacus aut vultu demisso aut verbis misericordiam requirens, ubi tribunali adstitit, in hunc modum locutus est.

For indeed the people had been summoned as to a notable spectacle: the Praetorian cohorts stood in arms on the field that lies before the camp. then
as the royal client-retainers were advancing, the phalerae, the torques, and whatever he had acquired in foreign wars were paraded; soon his brothers and his wife and his daughter, and at last he himself, were displayed. the prayers of the others were degenerate from fear: but not
Caratacus, either with downcast countenance or seeking mercy by words; when he stood at the tribunal, in this manner he spoke.

[37] 'Si quanta nobilitas et fortuna mihi fuit, tanta rerum prosperarum moderatio fuisset, amicus potius in hanc urbem quam captus venissem, neque dedignatus esses claris maioribus ortum, plurimis gentibus imperitantem foedere [in] pacem accipere. praesens sors mea ut mihi informis, sic tibi magnifica est. habui equos viros, arma opes: quid mirum si haec invitus amisi?

[37] 'If there had been as much moderation in prosperous affairs for me as there was nobility and fortune, I would have come into this city as a friend rather than as a captive, nor would you have disdained to receive, into a treaty [in] peace, one sprung from famous ancestors, commanding very many peoples. My present lot, as to me formless, so to you is magnificent. I had horses, men, arms, wealth: what wonder if I unwillingly lost these things?

nam si vos omnibus imperitare vultis, sequitur ut omnes servitutem accipiant? si statim deditus traderet, neque mea fortuna neque tua gloria inclaruisset; et supplicium mei oblivio sequeretur: at si incolumem servaveris, aeternum exemplar clementiae ero.' ad ea Caesar veniam ipsique et coniugi et fratribus tribuit. atque illi vinclis absoluti Agrippinam quoque, haud procul alio suggestu conspicuam, isdem quibus principem laudibus gratibusque venerati sunt.

for if you wish to command over all, does it follow that all should accept servitude? If, surrendered at once, I had been delivered over, neither my fortune nor your glory would have become illustrious; and oblivion would have followed my punishment: but if you preserve me unharmed, I shall be an eternal exemplar of clemency.' To these things Caesar granted pardon both to him himself and to his wife and brothers. And they, loosed from chains, also venerated Agrippina, conspicuous not far off on another platform, with the same praises and thanks with which they had venerated the princeps.

novum sane et moribus veterum insolitum, feminam signis Romanis praesidere: ipsa semet parti a maioribus suis imperii sociam ferebat.

a novel thing indeed, and unwonted to the customs of the ancients, that a woman preside over the Roman standards: she herself was asserting herself, for the party, to be a partner in the imperium from her ancestors.

[38] Vocati posthac patres multa et magnifica super captivitate Carataci disseruere, neque minus id clarum quam quod Syphacem P. Scipio, Persen L. Paulus, et si qui alii vinctos reges populo Romano ostendere. censentur Ostorio triumphi insignia, prosperis ad id rebus eius, mox ambiguis, sive amoto Carataco, quasi debellatum foret, minus intenta apud nos militia fuit, sive hostes miseratione tanti regis acrius ad ultionem exarsere. praefectum castrorum et legionarias cohortis extruendis apud Siluras praesidiis relictas circumfundunt.

[38] Afterwards the Fathers, when called, discoursed many and magnificent things concerning the captivity of Caratacus, nor was that less renowned than that Syphax was shown by P. Scipio, Perseus by L. Paulus, and any others who displayed kings in chains to the Roman people. The insignia of a triumph are decreed to Ostorius, his affairs being prosperous for that, soon thereafter dubious, whether, with Caratacus removed, as though the war had been fought to an end, the military effort among us was less intent, or the enemies, out of compassion for so great a king, blazed up more keenly to vengeance. They surround the camp-prefect and the legionary cohorts left behind for constructing garrisons among the Silures.

ac ni cito nuntiis ex castellis proxi mis subventum foret copiarum obsidio occidione obcubuissent: praefectus tamen et octo centuriones ac promptissimus quisque e manipulis cecidere. nec multo post pabulantis nostros missasque ad subsidium turmas profligant.

and, had relief not quickly been brought by messengers from the nearest
forts, the forces, under siege, would have perished by slaughter: nevertheless the prefect and eight centurions and each most forward man from the maniples fell. nor long after, they rout our foragers and the squadrons sent to succor.

[39] Tum Ostorius cohortis expeditas opposuit; nec ideo fugam sistebat, ni legiones proelium excepissent: earum robore aequata pugna, dein nobis pro meliore fuit. effugere hostes tenui damno, quia inclinabat dies. crebra hinc proelia et saepius in modum latrocinii per saltus per paludes, ut cuique sors aut virtus, temere proviso, ob iram ob praedam, iussu et aliquando ignaris ducibus.

[39] Then Ostorius opposed the unencumbered cohorts; nor even so would he have checked the flight, had not the legions taken up the battle: by their strength the fight was made equal, then it turned in our favor. the enemies escaped with slight loss, because the day was inclining. thence frequent battles, and more often in the manner of latrociny, through forest passes and through marshes, as each one’s lot or valor (determined), with a plan taken at random, for wrath, for prey, by order, and sometimes with the leaders unaware.

ac praecipua Silurum pervicacia, quos accendebat vulgata imperatoris Romani vox, ut quondam Sugambri excisi aut in Gallias traiecti forent, ita Silurum nomen penitus extinguendum. igitur duas auxiliaris cohortis avaritia praefectorum incautius populantis intercepere; spoliaque et captivos largiendo ceteras quoque nationes ad defectionem trahebant, cum taedio curarum fessus Ostorius concessit vita, laetis hostibus, tamquam ducem haud spernendum etsi non proelium, at certe bellum absumpsisset.

and
the especial pertinacity of the Silures, whom the publicized utterance of the Roman imperator inflamed—that just as once the Sugambri had been cut down or transported into Gaul, so the name of the Silures must be utterly extinguished. Accordingly they intercepted two auxiliary cohorts, which, through the avarice of their prefects, were plundering too incautiously; and by largessing spoils and captives they were drawing other nations too into defection, when Ostorius, weary with the tedium of cares, departed life—to the enemies’ delight, as though a leader not to be scorned had been taken away, who, even if not by a battle, would certainly have consumed the war.

[40] At Caesar cognita morte legati, ne provincia sine rectore foret, A. Didium suffecit. is propere vectus non tamen integras res invenit, adversa interim legionis pugna, cui Manlius Valens praeerat; auctaque et apud hostis eius rei fama, quo venientem ducem exterrerrent, atque illo augente audita, ut maior laus compositis et, si duravissent, venia iustior tribueretur. Silures id quoque damnum intulerant lateque persultabant, donec adcursu Didii pellerentur.

[40] But when Caesar learned of the death of the legate, lest the province be without a rector, he appointed A. Didius in his stead. He, having traveled in haste, nevertheless did not find affairs intact, since in the meantime there had been an adverse battle of the legion, which Manlius Valens was commanding; and the report of this was augmented even among the enemies, to terrify the leader as he came, and with him too augmenting the things heard, so that greater praise might be assigned to matters when composed and, if they had persisted, a more just indulgence might be granted. The Silures also had inflicted that loss and were leaping about far and wide, until at the arrival of Didius they were driven off.

sed post captum Caratacum praecipuus scientia rei militaris Venutius, e Brigantum civitate, ut supra memoravi, fidusque diu et Romanis armis defensus, cum Cartimanduam reginam matrimonio teneret; mox orto discidio et statim bello etiam adversus nos hostilia induerat, sed primo tantum inter ipsos certabatur, callidisque Cartimandua artibus fratrem ac propinquos Venutii intercepit. inde accensi hostes, stimulante ignominia, ne feminae imperio subderentur, valida et lecta armis iuventus regnum eius invadunt. quod nobis praevisum, et missae auxilio cohortes acre proelium fecere, cuius initio ambiguo finis laetior fuit.

but after Caratacus was captured,
Venutius, preeminent in the science of military affairs, from the community of the Brigantes, as I have mentioned above, long faithful and defended by Roman arms,
since he held Queen Cartimandua in marriage; soon, a rupture having arisen and straightway in war,
he even took up hostile measures against us; but at first the struggle was only between themselves, and by the crafty arts of Cartimandua
she seized Venutius’s brother and kinsmen. Then the enemy, inflamed, with ignominy goading them on
that they should not be subjected to a woman’s rule, a strong and hand-picked youth in arms invade her kingdom. This
was foreseen by us, and cohorts sent for aid fought a keen battle, whose beginning was ambiguous but whose end was happier.

neque dispari eventu pugnatum a legione, cui Caesius Nasica praeerat; nam Didius senectute gravis et multa copia honorum per ministros agere et arcere hostem satis habebat. haec, quamquam a duobus pro praetoribus pluris per annos gesta, coniunxi ne divisa haud perinde ad memoriam sui valerent: ad temporum ordinem redeo.

nor was the fighting by the legion, which Caesius Nasica commanded, with a different outcome; for Didius, weighed down by old age and with a great abundance of honors, used to conduct affairs through his ministers and considered it enough to ward off the enemy. These things, although carried out by two propraetors for several years, I have joined together, lest, divided, they should not equally avail for their own remembrance: I return to the order of the times.

[41] Ti. Claudio quintum Servio Cornelio Orfito consulibus virilis toga Neroni maturata quo capessendae rei publicae habilis videretur. et Caesar adulationibus senatus libens cessit ut vicesimo aetatis anno consulatum Nero iniret atque interim designatus proconsulare imperium extra urbem haberet ac princeps iuventutis appellaretur. additum nomine eius donativum militi, congiarium plebei.

[41] Under Tiberius Claudius, for the fifth time, and Servius Cornelius Orfitus as consuls, the manly toga was hastened for Nero, in order that he might seem fit for taking up the res publica. And Caesar gladly yielded to the flatteries of the senate, that in the twentieth year of his age Nero should enter the consulship, and that meanwhile, as consul-designate, he should have proconsular imperium outside the city and be called princeps of the youth. Added in his name was a donative to the soldiery, a congiary to the plebs.

et ludicro dircensium, quod adquirendis vulgi studiis edebatur, Britannicus in praetexta, Nero triumphali veste travecti sunt: spectaret populus hunc decore imperatorio, illum puerili habitu, ac perinde fortunam utriusque praesumeret. simul qui centurionum tribunorumque sortem Britannici miserabantur, remoti fictis causis et alii per speciem honoris; etiam libertorum si quis incorrupta fide, depellitur tali occasione. obvii inter se Nero Britannicum nomine, ille Domitium salutavere.

and at the circus spectacle of the Dircenses, which was put on for acquiring the favor of the crowd, Britannicus in the praetexta, Nero in triumphal vesture, were carried in procession: let the people behold this one with imperatorial decor, that one in a boyish habit, and accordingly pre-suppose the fortune of each. At the same time those among the centurions and tribunes who commiserated the lot of Britannicus were removed on fictitious causes, and others under the appearance of honor; even of the freedmen, if anyone with incorrupt faith, he is driven away on such an occasion. Meeting one another, Nero saluted him by the name Britannicus; he in turn greeted him as Domitius.

quod ut discordiae initium Agrippina multo questu ad maritum defert: sperni quippe adoptionem, quaeque censuerint patres, iusserit populus, intra penatis abrogari; ac nisi pravitas tam infensa docentium arceatur, eruptura in publicam perniciem. commotus his quasi criminibus optimum quemque educatorem filii exilio aut morte adficit datosque a noverca custodiae eius imponit.

which, as
the beginning of discord, Agrippina reports to her husband with much complaint: that the adoption is indeed being scorned, and that what
the Fathers have decreed and the People has ordered is being abrogated within the Penates; and unless the depravity of teachers so hostile
is warded off, it will burst forth into public perdition. Moved by these as if by criminal charges, he afflicts every best
educator of his son with exile or death, and imposes over his custody those assigned by the stepmother.

[42] Nondum tamen summa moliri Agrippina audebat, ni praetoriarum cohortium cura exolverentur Lusius Geta et Rufrius Crispinus, quos Messalinae memores et liberis eius devinctos credebat. igitur distrahi cohortis ambitu duorum et, si ab uno regerentur, intentiorem fore disciplinam adseverante uxore, transfertur regimen cohortium ad Burrum Afranium, egregiae militaris famae, gnarum tamen cuius sponte praeficeretur. suum quoque fastigium Agrippina extollere altius: carpento Capitolium ingredi, qui honos sacerdotibus et sacris antiquitus concessus veneratio nem augebat feminae, quam imperatore genitam, sororem eius qui rerum potitus sit et coniugem et matrem fuisse, unicum ad hunc diem exemplum est.

[42] Not yet, however, did Agrippina dare to attempt the highest measures, unless Lusius Geta and Rufrius Crispinus were released from the care of the praetorian cohorts, whom she believed to be mindful of Messalina and bound to her children. Accordingly, with the cohorts being torn apart by the canvassing of two men, and with his wife asserting that, if they were governed by one, the discipline would be more intent, the regimen of the cohorts is transferred to Burrus Afranius, of outstanding military fame, yet aware at whose will he was being placed in command. Agrippina too raised her own elevation higher: to enter the Capitol in a carriage, which honor, granted from ancient times to priests and sacred rites, increased the veneration of the woman—who, born of an emperor, and sister of him who had possessed the state, and who had been both a wife and a mother—is to this day a unique example.

inter quae praecipuus propugnator eius Vitellius, validissima gratia, aetate extrema (adeo incertae sunt potentium res) accusatione corripitur, deferente Iunio Lupo senatore. is crimina maiestatis et cupidinem imperii obiectabat; praebuissetque auris Caesar, nisi Agrippinae minis magis quam precibus mutatus esset, ut accusatori aqua atque igni interdiceret. hactenus Vitellius voluerat.

Amid these things, her principal propugnator Vitellius, with very strong favor, in extreme old age (so uncertain are the affairs of the powerful), is seized by an accusation, Junius Lupus, a senator, bringing it. He was objecting charges of treason against the majesty and a cupidity for command; and the Caesar would have lent an ear, had he not been altered more by Agrippina’s threats than by her prayers, to interdict fire and water to the accuser. To this extent Vitellius had wished.

[43] Multa eo anno prodigia evenere. insessum diris avibus Capitolium, crebris terrae motibus prorutae domus, ac dum latius metuitur, trepidatione vulgi invalidus quisque obtriti; frugum quoque egestas et orta ex eo fames in prodigium accipiebatur. nec occulti tantum questus, sed iura reddentem Claudium circumvasere clamoribus turbidis, pulsumque in extremam fori partem vi urgebant, donec militum globo infensos perrupit.

[43] Many prodigies occurred in that year. The Capitol was beset by ill-omened birds, houses were overthrown by frequent earthquakes, and, while wider fear was felt, in the panic of the crowd the feeble were crushed; the scarcity of grain also and the famine arising therefrom was taken as a portent. Nor were there only covert complaints, but they surrounded Claudius as he was rendering judgments with turbulent shouts, and, having driven him into the farthest part of the forum, they pressed him by force, until with a mass of soldiers he broke through those hostile.

quindecim dierum alimenta urbi, non amplius superfuisse constitit, magnaque deum benignitate et modestia hiemis rebus extremis subventum. at hercule olim Italia legionibus longinquas in provincias commeatus portabat, nec nunc infecunditate laboratur, sed Africam potius et Aegyptum exercemus, navisbusque et casibus vita populi Romani permissa est.

it was established that provisions for fifteen days for the city, no more, remained, and by the great benignity of the gods and the modesty of the winter, aid was brought to things at the last extremity. But, by Hercules, once upon a time Italy with its legions used to carry supplies to far provinces; nor even now is there suffering from infecundity, but rather we exploit Africa and Egypt, and the life of the Roman people has been entrusted to ships and to chances.

[44] Eodem anno bellum inter Armenios Hiberosque exortum Parthis quoque ac Romanis gravissimorum inter se motuum causa fuit. genti Parthorum Vologeses imperitabat, materna origine ex paelice Graeca, concessu fratrum regnum adeptus; Hiberos Pharasmanes vetusta possesione, Armenios frater eius Mithridates obtinebat opibus nostris. erat Pharasmanis filius nomine Radamistus, decora proceritate, vi corporis insignis et patrias artis edoctus, claraque inter accolas fama.

[44] In the same year a war that arose between the Armenians and the Iberians became the cause of very grave mutual commotions for the Parthians as well as the Romans. Over the nation of the Parthians Vologeses exercised command, of maternal origin from a Greek concubine, having attained the kingdom by the concession of his brothers; the Iberians Pharasmanes held by ancient possession, the Armenians his brother Mithridates was holding by our resources. There was a son of Pharasmanes by the name Radamistus, comely in tallness, distinguished for strength of body and instructed in his native arts, and with a bright fame among the neighbors.

is modicum Hiberiae regnum senecta patris detineri ferocius crebriusque iactabat quam ut cupidinem occultaret. igitur Pharasmanes iuvenem potentiae promptum et studio popularium accinctum, vergentibus iam annis suis metuens, aliam ad spem trahere et Armeniam ostentare, pulsis Parthis datam Mithridati a semet memorando: sed vim differendam et potiorem dolum quo incautum opprimerent. ita Radamistus simulata adversus patrem discordia tamquam novercae odiis impar pergit ad patruum, multaque ab eo comitate in speciem liberum cultus primores Armeniorum ad res novas inlicit, ignaro et ornante insuper Mithridate.

He was boasting of the modest kingdom of Hiberia being held back by his father’s old age more fiercely and more frequently than to conceal his desire. Therefore Pharasmanes, fearing the youth—prompt for power and girt with the zeal of the partisans—as his own years were now declining, sought to draw him to another hope and to hold out Armenia, reminding him that, the Parthians having been driven out, it had been given to Mithridates by himself: but that force should be deferred, and fraud was preferable, by which they might overwhelm the incautious man. Thus Radamistus, with a discord against his father feigned, as if unequal to the hatreds of a stepmother, proceeds to his uncle, and, by much courtesy from him, in the semblance of a free man’s treatment, he entices the foremost men of the Armenians to new measures, Mithridates being unaware and, moreover, adorning it besides.

[45] Reconciliationis specie adsumpta regressusque ad patrem, quae fraude confici potuerint, prompta nuntiat, cetera armis exequenda. interim Pharasmanes belli causas confingit: proelianti sibi adversus regem Albanorum et Romanos auxilio vocanti fratrem adversatum, eamque iniuriam excidio ipsius ultum iturum; simul magnas copias filio tradidit. ille inruptione subita territum exutumque campis Mithridaten compulit in castellum Gorneas, tutum loco ac praesidio militum, quis Caelius Pollio praefectus, centurio Casperius praeerat.

[45] The guise of reconciliation having been assumed and he having returned to his father, he reports as ready what could be effected by fraud, the rest to be executed by arms. Meanwhile Pharasmanes forges causes of war: that, as he himself was battling against the king of the Albanians and calling the Romans to aid, his brother had opposed him, and that injury he would go to avenge by the destruction of the man himself; at the same time he entrusted great forces to his son. He, by a sudden irruption, drove Mithridates—terrified and driven from the plains—into the fortress of Gorneas, secure by its site and by a garrison of soldiers, over which Caelius Pollio was prefect, with the centurion Casperius in command.

nihil tam ignarum barbaris quam machinamenta et astus oppugnationum: at nobis ea pars militiae maxime gnara est. ita Radamistus frustra vel cum damno temptatis munitionibus obssidium incipit; et cum vis neglegeretur, avaritiam praefecti emercatur, obtestante Casperio, ne socius rex, ne Armenia donum populi Romani scelere et pecunia verterentur. postremo quia multitudinem hostium Pollio, iussa patris Radamistus obtendebant, pactus indutias abscedit, ut, nisi Pharasmanen bello absterruisset, Vmmidium Quadratum praesidem Syriae doceret quo in statu Armenia foret.

Nothing is so unknown to barbarians as the machinery and astuteness of assaults; but to us that branch of warfare is most well-known. Thus, with the fortifications tried in vain or with loss, Radamistus begins a siege; and when force was disregarded, he buys off the greed of the prefect, Casperius adjuring them not to allow an allied king, not to allow Armenia, the gift of the Roman people, to be overturned by crime and money. Finally, because Pollio was putting forward the multitude of the enemy, and Radamistus the orders of his father, he, having bargained for a truce, withdrew, to inform Ummidius Quadratus, governor of Syria, in what state Armenia was, unless he had frightened Pharasmanes away from war.

[46] Digressu centurionis velut custode exolutus praefectus hortari Mithridaten ad sanciendum foedus, coniunctionem fratrum ac priorem aetate Pharasmanen et cetera necessitudinum nomina referens, quod filiam eius in matrimonio haberet, quod ipse Radamisto socer esset: non abnuere pacem Hiberos, quamquam in tempore validiores; et satis cognitam Armeniorum perfidiam, nec aliud subsidii quam castellum commeatu egenum: ne dubia tentare armis quam incruentas condiciones mallet. cunctante ad ea Mithridate et suspectis praefecti consiliis, quod paelicem regiam polluerat inque omnem libidinem venalis habebatur, Casperius interim ad Pharasmanen pervadit, utque Hiberi obsidio decedant expostulat. ille propalam incerta et saepius molliora respondens, secretis nuntiis monet Radamistum obpugnationem quoquo modo celerare.

[46] With the centurion having departed, the prefect, as if released from a guard, began to exhort Mithridates to sanction a foedus, recounting the conjunction of the brothers and that Pharasmanes was prior in age and the other names of kinship, that he had his daughter in marriage, that he himself was father-in-law to Radamistus: the Iberians did not refuse peace, although for the moment stronger; and the perfidy of the Armenians was well enough known, nor was there any other succor than a fortress needy of supplies: that he should prefer bloodless conditions rather than to try doubtful things by arms. As Mithridates hesitated at these things and the counsels of the prefect were suspected, because he had polluted the royal concubine and was held venal for every lust, meanwhile Casperius makes his way to Pharasmanes and demands that the Iberians withdraw from the siege. He, answering openly with uncertainties and more often with softer replies, by secret messages warns Radamistus to hasten the assault by whatever means.

augetur flagitii merces, et Pollio occulta corruptione impellit milites ut pacem flagitarent seque praesidium omissuros minitarentur. qua necessitate Mithridates diem locumque foederi accepit castelloque egreditur.

the wages of the flagitious crime are increased, and Pollio by covert corruption impels the soldiers to demand peace and to threaten that they would abandon the garrison. By this necessity Mithridates accepted a day and place for the treaty and goes out from the fort.

[47] Ac primo Radamistus in amplexus eius effusus simulare obsequium, socerum ac parentem appellare; adicit ius iurandum, non ferro, non ferro, non veneno vim adlaturum; simul in lucum propinquum trahit, provisum illic sacrificii paratum dictitans, ut diis testibus pax firmaretur. mos est regibus, quoties in societatem coeant, implicare dextras pollicesque inter se vincire nodoque praestringere: mox ubi sanguis in artus [se] extremos suffuderit, levi ictu cruorem eliciunt atque invicem lambunt. id foedus arcanum habetur quasi mutuo cruore sacratum.

[47] And at first Radamistus, poured out into his embrace, pretended obsequium, calling him father-in-law and parent; he adds a sworn oath, that he would bring no violence not with iron, not with iron, not with poison; at the same time he draws him into a nearby grove, repeatedly saying that provision for a sacrifice had been made there and it was prepared, so that with the gods as witnesses the peace might be made firm. it is the custom of kings, whenever they join in societas, to entwine their right hands and to bind their thumbs to each other and constrict them with a knot: soon, when the blood has suffused itself into the outermost limbs, with a light stroke they draw out the blood and lick it in turn. that pact is held arcanum, as if consecrated by mutual blood.

sed tunc qui ea vincla admovebat, decidisse simulans genua Mithridatis invadit ipsumque prosternit; simulque concursu plurium iniciuntur catenae. ac compede, quod dedecorum barbaris, trahebatur; mox quia vulgus duro imperio habitum, probra ac verbera intentabat. et erant contra qui tantam fortunae commutationem miserarentur; secutaque cum parvis liberis coniunx cuncta lamentatione complebat.

but then the man who was applying those bonds,
pretending that Mithridates’ knees had given way, attacks him and throws him down; and at the same time, with the rush
of several, chains are thrown on him. And in a fetter, which is a disgrace to barbarians, he was being dragged; soon, because the populace, kept under harsh
rule, was threatening reproaches and beatings. And there were, on the contrary, those who pitied so great a commutation of fortune; and his consort, following with their little children, was filling everything with lamentation.

diversis et contectis vehiculis abduntur, dum Pharasmanis iussa exquirerentur. illi cupido regni fratre et filia potior animusque sceleribus paratus; visui tamen consuluit, ne coram interficeret. et Radamistus, quasi iuris iurandi memor, non ferrum, non venenum in sororem et patruum expromit, sed proiectos in humum et veste multa gravique opertos necat.

they are concealed in various and covered vehicles, while the orders of Pharasmanes were being sought. He—his desire for the kingdom stronger than brother and daughter, and his spirit prepared for crimes—yet took thought for his sight, that he not kill them in his presence. And Radamistus, as if mindful of his sworn oath, brings forth not iron, not poison against his sister and his paternal uncle, but kills them, cast down upon the ground and covered with much and heavy clothing.

filii quoque Mithridatis quod caedibus parentum inlacrimaverant trucidati sunt.

The sons also of Mithridates, because they had wept over their parents’ slaughter, were butchered.

[48] At Quadratus cognoscens proditum Mithridaten et regnum ab interfectoribus obtineri, vocat consilium, docet acta et an ulcisceretur consultat. paucis decus publicum curae, plures tuta disserunt: omne scelus externum cum laetitia habendum; semina etiam odiorum iacienda, ut saepe principes Romani eandem Armeniam specie largitionis turbandis barbarorum animis praebuerint: poteretur Radamistus male partis, dum invisus infamis, quando id magis ex usu quam si cum gloria adeptus foret. in hanc sententiam itum.

[48] But Quadratus, recognizing that Mithridates had been betrayed and that the kingdom was being held by the slayers, calls a council, sets forth the acts, and consults whether he should avenge it. To a few, public honor was a concern; more argued for what was safe: every external crime ought to be held with joy; the seeds also of hatreds should be sown, since Roman princes have often proffered that same Armenia under the appearance of largess for the disturbing of the barbarians’ minds: let Radamistus possess what was ill-gotten, so long as he is hated and infamous, since that is more to our use than if he had attained it with glory. In this sense the decision went.

ne tamen adnuisse facinori viderentur et diversa Caesar iuberet, missi ad Pharasmanen nuntii ut abscederet a finibus Armeniis filiumque abstraheret.

lest, however, they might seem to have assented to the crime and Caesar should order contrary measures, envoys were sent to Pharasmanes to withdraw from the Armenian frontiers and to remove his son.

[49] Erat Cappadociae procurator Iulius Paelignus, ignavia animi et deridiculo corporis iuxta despiciendus, sed Claudio perquam familiaris, cum privatus olim conversatione scurrarum iners otium oblectaret. is Paelignus auxiliis provincialium contractis tamquam reciperaturus Armeniam, dum socios magis quam hostis praedatur, abscessu suorum et incursantibus barbaris praesidii egens ad Radamistum venit; donisque eius evictus ultro regium insigne sumere cohortatur sumentique adest auctor et satelles. quod ubi turpi fama divulgatum, ne ceteri quoque ex Paeligno coniectarentur, Helvidius Priscus legatus cum legione mittitur rebus turbidis pro tempore ut consuleret.

[49] There was a procurator of Cappadocia, Julius Paelignus, to be despised alike for slackness of spirit and for the ridicule of his body, yet very intimate with Claudius, since, when a private man once, he used to enliven idle leisure by the conversation of buffoons. This Paelignus, the auxiliaries of the provincials having been gathered as though about to recover Armenia, while he plundered allies rather than enemies, with his own men withdrawing and the barbarians making incursions, being in want of protection, came to Radamistus; and, overcome by his gifts, he even urges him to assume the royal insignia, and stands by as adviser and satellite to the one assuming it. When this had been spread abroad by shameful report, lest others too be inferred from Paelignus’s example, Helvidius Priscus, a legate, is sent with a legion to take thought for the troubled situation as the occasion required.

igitur propere montem Taurum transgressus moderatione plura quam vi composuerat, cum rediret in Syriam iubetur ne initium belli adversus Parthos existeret.

therefore swiftly
having crossed Mount Taurus, he had settled more by moderation than by force; when he was returning into Syria he was ordered
that the inception of war against the Parthians should not arise.

[50] Nam Vologeses casum invadendae Armeniae obvenisse ratus, quam a maioribus suis possessam externus rex flagitio obtineret, contrahit copias fratremque Tiridaten deducere in regnum parat, ne qua pars domus sine imperio ageret. incessu Parthorum sine acie pulsi Hiberi, urbesque Armeniorum Artaxata et Tigranocerta iugum accepere. deinde atrox hiems et parum provisi commeatus et orta ex utroque tabes perpellunt Vologesen omittere praesentia.

[50] For Vologeses, thinking that the occasion of invading Armenia had come, which, possessed by his ancestors, a foreign king was holding in scandal, gathers his forces and prepares to conduct his brother Tiridates into the kingdom, lest any part of the house should act without a sovereignty. At the mere advance of the Parthians, without a battle, the Iberians were driven off, and the cities of the Armenians, Artaxata and Tigranocerta, accepted the yoke. Then a savage winter, provisions too little provided, and a pestilence arising from both, compel Vologeses to abandon the matters at hand.

vacuamque rursus Armeniam Radamistus invasit, truculentior quam antea, tamquam adversus defectores et in tempore rebellaturos. atque illi quamvis servitio sueti patientiam abrumpunt armisque regiam circumveniunt.

and once again Radamistus invaded empty Armenia, more truculent than before, as if against defectors and in due time about to rebel. And they, although accustomed to servitude, break off their patience and with arms surround the royal palace.

[51] Nec aliud Radamisto subsidium fuit quam pernicitas equorum, quis seque et coniugem abstulit. sed coniunx gravida primam utcumque fugam ob metum hostilem et mariti caritatem toleravit; post festinatione continua, ubi quati uterus et viscera vibrantur, orare ut morte honesta contumeliis captivitatis eximeretur. ille primo amplecti adlevare adhortari, modo virtutem admirans, modo timore aeger ne quis relicta poteretur.

[51] Nor was there any other aid for Radamistus than the swiftness of the horses, by which he carried off himself and his wife. But the gravid consort endured the first stage of flight somehow, on account of hostile fear and love for her husband; afterward, with continuous haste, when the womb is shaken and the viscera are quivering, she begged that by an honorable death she might be exempted from the contumelies of captivity. He at first would embrace, lift up, and encourage—now admiring her virtue, now sick with fear lest someone should take possession of her if left behind.

postremo violentia amoris et facinorum non rudis destringit acinacen vulneratamque ripam ad Araxis trahit, flumini tradit ut corpus etiam auferretur: ipse praeceps Hiberos ad patrium regnum pervadit. interim Zenobiam (id mulieri nomen) placida in eluvie spirantem ac vitae manifestam advertere pastores, et dignitate formae haud degenerem reputantes obligant vulnus, agrestia medicamina adhibent cognitoque nomine et casu in urbem Artaxata ferunt; unde publica cura deducta ad Tiridaten comiterque excepta cultu regio habita est.

at last, by the vehemence of love and no novice in crimes,
he draws the acinaces and drags the wounded woman to the bank of the Araxes, he entrusts her to the river so that even the body might be carried off:
he himself, headlong, makes his way through to the Iberians to his paternal kingdom. meanwhile, Zenobia (that was the woman’s name), breathing in a placid floodwater and manifestly alive, was noticed by shepherds, and, considering her by the dignity of her form to be by no means baseborn,
they bind the wound, apply rustic medicaments, and, her name and case having been learned, carry her into the city
of Artaxata; whence, with public care, she was conducted to Tiridates and, graciously received, was held in regal state.

[52] Fausto Sulla Salvio Othone consulibus Furius Scribonianus in exilium agitur, quasi finem principis per Chaldaeos scrutaretur. adnectebatur crimini Vibia mater eius, ut casus prioris (nam relegata erat) impatiens. pater Scriboniani Camillus arma per Dalmatiam moverat; idque ad clementiam trahebat Caesar, quod stirpem hostilem iterum conservaret.

[52] In the consulship of Faustus Sulla and Salvius Otho, Furius Scribonianus is driven into exile, on the charge that he was searching out the end of the princeps through the Chaldeans. His mother Vibia was being attached to the crime, as unable to endure her former mishap (for she had been relegated). Scribonianus’s father, Camillus, had raised arms throughout Dalmatia; and Caesar was interpreting this to his clemency, that he was preserving a hostile stock a second time.

neque tamen exuli longa posthac vita fuit: morte fortuita an per venenum extinctus esset, ut quisque credidit, vulgavere. de mathematicis Italia pellendis factum senatus consultum atrox et inritum. laudati dehinc oratione principis qui ob angustias familiaris ordine senatorio sponte cederent, motique qui remanendo impudentiam paupertati adicerent.

nor, however, was the exile’s life long thereafter: whether he had been extinguished by chance death or by poison, as each believed, they spread abroad. about the astrologers to be expelled from Italy a senatorial decree was made, harsh and ineffectual. then, by an oration of the emperor, those were praised who, on account of the straits of their private means, would of their own accord withdraw from the senatorial order, and removed were those who, by remaining, were adding impudence to poverty.

[53] Inter quae refert ad patres de poena feminarum quae servis coniungerentur; statuiturque ut ignaro domino ad id prolapsae in servitute, sin consensisset, pro libertis haberentur. Pallanti, quem repertorem eius relationis ediderat Caesar, praetoria insignia et centies quinquagies sestertium censuit consul designatus Barea Soranus. additum a Scipione Cornelio grates publice agendas, quod regibus Arcadiae ortus veterrimam nobilitatem usui publico postponeret seque inter ministros principis haberi sineret.

[53] Among which matters he refers to the Fathers about the penalty of women who should join themselves with slaves; and it is established that, with the master unaware, those who had slipped into that should be held in servitude, but if he had consented, they should be regarded as freedmen. For Pallas, whom Caesar had published as the finder of that report, the consul-designate Barea Soranus proposed praetorian insignia and fifteen million sesterces. It was added by Scipio Cornelius that public thanks should be given, because, sprung from the kings of Arcadia, he subordinated a most ancient nobility to public utility and allowed himself to be held among the ministers of the princeps.

adseveravit Claudius contentum honore Pallantem intra priorem paupertatem subsistere. et fixum est [aere] publico senatus consultum quo libertinus sestertii ter milies possessor antiquae parsimoniae laudibus cumulabatur.

Claudius asserted that Pallas, content with the honor, was subsisting within his prior poverty. And
a senatorial decree was fixed at public expense on [bronze], by which the freedman, a possessor of 300,000,000 sesterces, was heaped with praises for ancient
parsimony.

[54] At non frater eius, cognomento Felix, pari moderatione agebat, iam pridem Iudaeae impositus et cuncta malefacta sibi impune ratus tanta potentia subnixo. sane praebuerant Iudaei speciem motus orta seditione, postquam * * * congnita caede eius haud obtemperatum esset, manebat metus ne quis principum eadem imperitaret. atque interim Felix intempestivis remediis delicta accendebat, aemulo ad deterrima Ventidio [Cumano>, cui pars provinciae habebatur, ita divisis ut huic Galilaeorum natio, Felici Samaritae parerent, discordes olim et tum contemptu regentium minus coercitis odiis.

[54] But his brother, by the cognomen Felix, was not acting with equal moderation, long since imposed upon Judaea, and, propped up by such power, reckoning all malefactions for himself to be with impunity. Truly the Jews had afforded the semblance of a movement, a sedition having arisen, after, * * * when the slaughter of him was known, obedience had not been rendered; there remained a fear lest someone of the princes should command the same. And meanwhile Felix, by untimely remedies, was inflaming the delicts, with Ventidius [Cumano> as a rival toward the worst, to whom a part of the province was held, so divided that to this man the nation of the Galileans, to Felix the Samaritans, were obedient, discordant long since and then, through the contempt of the rulers, with hatreds less coerced.

igitur raptare inter se, immittere latronum globos, componere insidias et aliquando proeliis congredi, spoliaque et praedas ad procuratores referre. hique primo laetari, mox gliscente pernicie cum arma militum interiecissent, caesi milites; arsissetque bello provincia, ni Quadratus Syriae rector subvenisset. nec diu adversus Iudaeos, qui in necem militum proruperant, dubitatum quin capite poenas luerent: Cumanus et Felix cunctationem adferebant, quia Claudius causis rebellionis auditis ius statuendi etiam de procuratoribus dederat.

therefore they snatched from one another, sent in bands of brigands, set ambushes, and at times
met in battles, and carried the spoils and booty to the procurators. and these at first rejoiced; soon, as the ruin swelled, when they had thrown in the arms of the soldiers, the soldiers were cut down; and the province would have blazed with war, had not Quadratus, rector of Syria, come to the rescue. nor was there long any doubt, as against the Jews who had burst forth into the slaughter of soldiers, that they would pay the penalty with their heads: Cumanus and Felix brought delay, because Claudius, the causes of the rebellion having been heard, had given the right of determining even concerning the procurators.

sed Quadratus Felicem inter iudices ostentavit, receptum in tribunal, quo studia accusantium deterrerentur; damnatusque flagitiorum quae duo deliquerant Cumanus, et quies provinciae reddita.

but Quadratus displayed Felix among the judges, received into the tribunal, in order that the zeal of the accusers might be deterred; and Cumanus was condemned for the outrages which the two had committed, and the peace of the province was restored.

[55] Nec multo post agrestium Cilicum nationes, quibus Clitarum cognomentum, saepe et alias commotae, tunc Troxobore duce montis asperos castris cepere atque inde decursu in litora aut urbes vim cultoribus et oppidanis ac plerumque in mercatores et navicularios audebant. obsessaque civitas Anemuriensis, et missi e Syria in subsidium equites cum praefecto Curtio Severo turbantur, quod duri circum loci peditibusque ad pugnam idonei equestre proelium haud patiebantur. dein rex eius orae Antiochus blandimentis adversum plebem, fraude in ducem cum barbarorum copias dissociasset, Troxobore paucisque primoribus interfectis ceteros clementia composuit.

[55] Not long after, the nations of rustic Cilicians, who bear the cognomen of the Clitae, often on other occasions also in commotion, then under the leader Troxobor seized the rough mountains with camps, and from there by a descent upon the shores or the cities they ventured violence against cultivators and oppidans, and most often against merchants and shipowners. And the Anemurian city was besieged, and the horsemen sent from Syria as a relief force, together with their prefect Curtius Severus, are thrown into disorder, because the hard places around, suitable for foot-soldiers for fighting, did not permit an equestrian engagement. Then King Antiochus of that coast, by blandishments toward the plebs, and by fraud against the leader, when he had dissociated the forces of the barbarians, with Troxobor and a few chiefs slain, settled the rest by clemency.

[56] Sub idem tempus inter lacum Fucinum amnemque Lirim perrupto monte, quo magnificentia operis a pluribus viseretur, lacu in ipso navale proelium adornatur, ut quondam Augustus structo trans Tiberim stagno, sed levibus navigiis et minore copia ediderat. Claudius triremis quadriremisque et undeviginti hominum milia armavit, cincto ratibus ambitu, ne vaga effugia forent, ac tamen spatium amplexus ad vim remigii, gubernantium artes, impetus navium et proelio solita. in ratibus praetoriarum cohortium manipuli turmaeque adstiterant, antepositis propugnaculis ex quis catapultae ballistaeque tenderentur.

[56] About the same time, between Lake Fucinus and the river Liris, the mountain having been broken through, in order that the magnificence of the work might be viewed by more people, a naval battle was made ready on the lake itself, as once Augustus, with a pool constructed across the Tiber, had put on, but with light vessels and a smaller force. Claudius armed triremes and quadriremes and nineteen thousand men, with the circuit enclosed by rafts, lest there be straying escapes, and yet he embraced space for the force of the oarsmen, the skills of the helmsmen, the charges of the ships and the things usual in battle. On the rafts detachments of the praetorian cohorts and squadrons stood by, ramparts having been set in front, from which catapults and ballistae were launched.

reliqua lacus classiarii tectis navibus obtinebant. ripas et collis montiumque edita in modum theatri multitudo innumera complevit, proximis e municipiis et alii urbe ex ipsa, visendi cupidine aut officio in principem. ipse insigni paludamento neque procul Agrippina chlamyde aurata praesedere.

the remaining stretches of the lake the fleet marines held with decked ships. the banks and the hills
and the mountain heights, in the manner of a theater, an innumerable multitude filled, from the nearest municipal towns and others from the city
itself, out of a desire of seeing or out of duty toward the emperor. he himself, in a conspicuous paludamentum, and not far off Agrippina,
in a gilded chlamys, sat in state.

pugnatum quamquam inter sontis fortium virorum animo, ac post multum vulnerum occidioni exempti sunt.

The fighting, although among the guilty, was with the spirit of brave men; and after many wounds they were exempted from slaughter.

[57] Sed perfecto spectaculo apertum aquarum iter. incuria operis manifesta fuit, haud satis depressi ad lacus ima vel media. eoque tempore interiecto altius effossi specus, et contrahendae rursum multitudini gladiatorum spectaculum editur, inditis pontibus pedestrem ad pugnam.

[57] But with the spectacle completed, the water-course was opened. neglect of the work was manifest, it not having been sufficiently depressed to the lake’s bottom or even its middle. and, with time interposed, the tunnels were excavated deeper, and, to draw the multitude together again, a spectacle of gladiators is put on, bridges having been set in place, for a pedestrian combat on foot.

quin et convivium effluvio lacus adpositum magna formidine cunctos adfecit, quia vis aquarum prorumpens proxima trahebat, convulsis ulterioribus aut fragore et sonitu exterritis. simul Agrippina trepidatione principis usa ministrum operis Narcissum incusat cupidinis ac praedarum. nec ille reticet, impotentiam muliebrem nimiasque spes eius arguens.

indeed even the banquet set beside the lake’s outflow afflicted all with great fear, because the force of the waters, bursting forth, was dragging away those nearest, while the more distant were torn loose, or men were terrified by the crash and the sound. At the same time Agrippina, using the emperor’s trepidation, accuses Narcissus, the minister of the work, of cupidity and of plunder. Nor does he keep silent, arraigning her womanish lack of self-restraint and her excessive hopes.

[58] D. Iunio Q. Haterio consulibus sedecim annos natus Nero Octaviam Caesaris filiam in matrimonium accepit. utque studiis honestis [et] eloquentiae gloria enitesceret, causa Iliensium suscepta Romanum Troia demissum et Iuliae stirpis auctorem Aeneam aliaque haud procul fabulis vetera facunde executus perpetrat, ut Ilienses omni publico munere solverentur. eodem oratore Bononiensi coloniae igni haustae subventum centies sestertii largitione.

[58] In the consulship of D. Junius and Q. Haterius, Nero, sixteen years old, received Octavia, Caesar’s daughter, into matrimony. And that he might shine by honorable studies and the glory of eloquence, having undertaken the cause of the Ilians, he, having set forth with eloquence that the Roman stock was descended from Troy and that Aeneas was the author of the Julian lineage, and other ancient matters not far from fables, achieved that the Ilians were released from every public burden. By the same orator aid was brought to the colony of Bononia, consumed by fire, by a largess of 10,000,000 sesterces.

reddita Rhodiis libertas, adempta saepe aut firmata, prout bellis externis meruerant aut domi seditione deliquerant; tributumque Apamensibus terrae motu convulsis in quinquennium remissum.

liberty was restored to the Rhodians, often taken away or confirmed, as they had merited by foreign wars or had offended at home by sedition; and the tribute to the Apameans, convulsed by an earthquake, was remitted for five years.

[59] At Claudius saevissima quaeque promere adigebatur eiusdem Agrippinae artibus, quae Statilium Taurum opibus inlustrem hortis eius inhians pervertit accusante Tarquitio Prisco. legatus is Tauri Africam imperio proconsulari regentis, postquam revenerant, pauca repetundarum crimina, ceterum magicas superstitiones obiectabat. nec ille diutius falsum accusatorem, indignas sordis perpessus vim vitae suae attulit ante sententiam senatus.

[59] But Claudius was driven to bring forth whatever was most savage by the same Agrippina’s arts, who, coveting his gardens, overthrew Statilius Taurus, illustrious in resources, with Tarquitius Priscus as accuser. legate that man of Taurus, while he governed Africa with proconsular imperium, after they had returned, alleged a few charges of extortion; but otherwise he was objecting magical superstitions. and he, no longer enduring a false accuser and the unworthy filth, brought violence upon his life before the senate’s sentence.

Tarquitius tamen curia exactus est; quod patres odio delatoris contra ambitum Agrippinae pervicere.

Tarquitius, however, was driven out of the Curia; because the Fathers, out of hatred of the delator, prevailed against Agrippina’s ambition.

[60] Eodem anno saepius audita vox principis, parem vim rerum habendam a procuratoribus suis iudicatarum ac si ipse statuisset. ac ne fortuito prolapsus videretur, senatus quoque consulto cautum plenius quam antea et uberius. nam divus Augustus apud equestris qui Aegypto praesiderent lege agi decretaque eorum proinde haberi iusserat ac si magistratus Romani constituissent; mox alias per provincias et in urbe pleraque concessa sunt quae olim a praetoribus noscebantur: Claudius omne ius tradidit, de quo toties seditione aut armis certatum, cum Semproniis rogationibus equester ordo in possessione iudiciorum locaretur, aut rursum Serviliae leges senatui iudicia redderent, Mariusque et Sulla olim de eo vel praecipue bellarent.

[60] In the same year the voice of the princeps was more often heard, that matters adjudicated by his procurators should have equal force as if he himself had decreed them. And, lest he seem to have slipped into it by chance, provision was made also by a decree of the senate, more fully and more abundantly than before. For the deified Augustus had ordered that among the equestrians who presided over Egypt, cases be conducted by law and their decrees be regarded just as if Roman magistrates had established them; soon afterward, elsewhere through the provinces and in the city, very many things were granted which once were cognized by the praetors: Claudius transferred the whole jurisdiction, about which so often there had been contest by sedition or by arms—when by the Sempronian bills the equestrian order was placed in possession of the courts, or again the Servilian laws restored the courts to the senate—and Marius and Sulla once upon a time fought wars over this, or even especially about this.

sed tunc ordinum diversa studia, et quae vicerant publice valebant. C. Oppius et Cornelius Balbus primi Caesaris opibus potuere condiciones pacis et arbitria belli tractare. Matios posthac et Vedios et cetera equitum Romanorum praevalida nomina referre nihil attinuerit, cum Claudius libertos quos rei familiari praefecerat sibique et legibus adaequaverit.

but then the differing partisanships of the orders prevailed, and those who had conquered carried weight in public. Gaius Oppius and Cornelius Balbus, by the resources of the first Caesar, could handle the conditions of peace and the arbitrations of war. To rehearse thereafter the Matii and the Vedii and the other powerful names of the Roman equestrians would be to no purpose, since Claudius made the freedmen whom he had set over his household estate equal to himself and to the laws.

[61] Rettulit dein de immunitate Cois tribuenda multaque super antiquitate eorum memoravit: Argivos vel Coeum Latonae parentem vetustissimos insulae cultores; mox adventu Aesculapii artem medendi inlatam maximeque inter posteros eius celebrem fuisse, nomina singulorum referens et quibus quisque aetatibus viguissent. quin etiam dixit Xenophontem, cuius scientia ipse uteretur, eadem familia ortum, precibusque eius dandum ut omni tributo vacui in posterum Coi sacram et tantum dei ministram insulam colerent. neque dubium habetur multa eorundem in populum Romanum merita sociasque victorias potuisse tradi: sed Claudius facilitate solita quod uni concesserat nullis extrinsecus adiumentis velavit.

[61] Then he reported about immunity to be granted to the Coans and recalled many things concerning their antiquity: that the Argives or Coeus, father of Latona, were the most ancient cultivators of the island; soon, with the advent of Aesculapius, the art of healing was introduced and had been most celebrated among his posterity, naming the individuals one by one and in what ages each had flourished. Indeed he also said that Xenophon, whose science he himself made use of, was sprung from the same family, and that by his entreaties it should be granted that the Coans, in the future free from every tribute, might honor the island as sacred and solely ministrant of the god. Nor is it doubted that many merits of these same men toward the Roman people and allied victories could have been recounted; but Claudius, with his customary facility, veiled what he had granted to one with no extrinsic aids.

[62] At Byzantii data dicendi copia, cum magnitudinem onerum apud senatum deprecarentur, cuncta repetivere. orsi a foedere, quod nobiscum icerant, qua tempestate bellavimus adversus regem Macedonum, cui ut degeneri Pseudophilippi vocabulum impositum, missas posthac copias in Antiochum Persen Aristonicum et piratico bello adiutum Antonium memorabant, quaeque Sullae aut Lucullo aut Pompeio obtulissent, mox recentia in Caesares merita, quando ea loca insiderent quae transmeantibus terra marique ducibus exercitibusque, simul vehendo commeatu opportuna forent.

[62] But at Byzantium, the opportunity of speaking having been given, when they were deprecating before the senate the magnitude of the burdens, they recounted everything. beginning from the treaty which they had struck with us, at the time when we waged war against the king of the Macedonians, upon whom, as degenerate, the appellation “Pseudo-Philip” had been imposed, they recalled that thereafter forces had been sent against Antiochus, Perseus, Aristonicus, and that in the piratic war Antonius had been aided, and what they had offered to Sulla or to Lucullus or to Pompey, then their recent services to the Caesars, since they occupied those places which would be opportune for commanders and armies transiting by land and sea, along with the carrying of supply.

[63] Namque artissimo inter Europam Asiamque divortio Byzantium in extrema Europa posuere Graeci, quibus Pythium Apollinem consulentibus, ubi conderent urbem, redditum oraculum est, quaererent sedem caecorum terris adversam. ea ambage Chalcedonii monstrabantur, quod priores illuc advecti, praevisa locorum utilitate, peiora legissent. quippe Byzantium fertili solo, fecundo mari, quia vis piscium immensa Pontum erumpens et obliquis subter undas saxis exterrita omisso alterius litoris flexu hos ad portus defertur.

[63] For at the very tight separation between Europe and Asia the Greeks placed Byzantium at the extremity of Europe,
to whom, consulting Pythian Apollo as to where they should found a city, an oracle was returned
that they should seek a seat opposite the lands of the blind. By that circumlocution the Chalcedonians were indicated, because earlier
borne thither, though the usefulness of the places was foreseen, they had chosen the worse. For Byzantium has fertile soil, a fecund sea,
since the immense force of fish, bursting out of the Pontus and, frightened by rocks slanting beneath the waves, with the bend of the other
shore left aside, is carried to these harbors.

unde primo quaestuosi et opulenti; post magnitudine onerum urgente finem aut modum orabant, adnitente principe, qui Thraecio Bosporanoque bello recens fessos iuvandosque rettulit. ita tributa in quinquennium remissa.

whence at first they were profitable and opulent; afterward, as the magnitude of the burdens pressed, they begged for an end or a limit, with the emperor lending his efforts, who declared that, worn out by the recent Thracian and Bosporan war, they were to be helped. thus the tributes were remitted for five years.

[64]M. Asinio M'. Acilio consulibus mutationem rerum in deterius portendi cognitum est crebris prodigiis. signa ac tentoria militum igne caelesti arsere; fastigio Capitolii examen apium insedit; biformis hominum partus et suis fetum editum cui accipitrum ungues inessent. numerabatur inter ostenta deminutus omnium magistratuum numerus, quaestore, aedili, tribuno ac praetore et consule paucos intra mensis defunctis.

[64] In the consulship of Marcus Asinius and Manius Acilius it was learned that a mutation of affairs for the worse was portended by frequent prodigies. The standards and the tents of the soldiers burned with celestial fire; upon the pediment of the Capitol a swarm of bees settled; there was a biform birth of human beings, and among swine a fetus was produced in which the talons of hawks were present. Counted among the omens, too, was the diminished number of all magistracies, several quaestors, aediles, tribunes, praetors, and consuls having died within a few months.

sed in praecipuo pavore Agrippina, vocem Claudii, quam temulentus iecerat, fatale sibi ut coniugum flagitia ferret, dein puniret, metuens, agere et celerare statuit, perdita prius Domitia Lepida muliebribus causis, quia Lepida minore Antonia genita, avunculo Augusto, Agrippinae sobrina prior ac Gnaei mariti eius soror, parem sibi claritudinem credebat. nec forma aetas opes multum distabant; et utraque impudica, infamis, violenta, haud minus vitiis aemulabantur quam si qua ex fortuna prospera acceperant. enimvero certamen acerrimum, amita potius an mater apud Neronem praevaleret: nam Lepida blandimentis ac largitionibus iuvenilem animum devinciebat, truci contra ac minaci Agrippina, quae filio dare imperium, tolerare imperitantem nequibat.

but in extreme alarm Agrippina, fearing the utterance of Claudius, which he had thrown out when intoxicated—that it was his fate to bear the flagitious acts of his wives and then to punish them—decided to act and to accelerate, after first destroying Domitia Lepida on womanish grounds, because Lepida, born of Antonia the Younger, with Augustus as her maternal uncle, Agrippina’s first cousin and the sister of her husband Gnaeus, believed herself equal to her in renown. nor did beauty, age, or wealth differ much; and each, unchaste, infamous, violent, rivaled the other no less in vices than in whatever prosperous things they had received from fortune. indeed the contest was most bitter, whether an aunt or a mother would prevail with Nero: for Lepida with blandishments and largesses was binding the youthful spirit, while Agrippina, truculent and minacious, who could give imperium to her son, could not tolerate him as one imperitating.

[65] Ceterum obiecta sunt quod coniugem principis devotionibus petivisset quodque parum coercitis per Calabriam servorum agminibus pacem Italiae turbaret. ob haec mors indicta, multum adversante Narcisso, qui Agrippinam magis magisque suspectans prompsisse inter proximos ferebatur certam sibi perniciem, seu Britannicus rerum seu Nero poteretur; verum ita de se meritum Caesarem, ut vitam usui eius impenderet. convictam Messalinam et Silium; pares iterum accusandi causas esse, si Nero imperitaret; Britannico successore nullum principi metum: at novercae insidiis domum omnem convelli, maiore flagitio quam si impudicitiam prioris coniugis reticuisset.

[65] But the charges alleged were that she had sought the prince’s consort by devotions, and that, with columns of slaves through Calabria too little restrained, she was disturbing the peace of Italy. For these things death was decreed, with much opposition from Narcissus, who, suspecting Agrippina more and more, was reported to have declared among his intimates that a sure perdition had been brought upon himself, whether Britannicus or Nero should obtain power; yet that he had so merited of Caesar as to expend his life for his use. That Messalina and Silius had been convicted; that there would be equal causes for accusation again, if Nero were to rule; with Britannicus as successor, no fear for the princeps: but that by the stepmother’s plots the whole house was being torn apart—a greater scandal than if he had kept silent about the unchastity of the former wife.

quamquam ne impudicitiam quidem nunc abesse Pallante adultero, ne quis ambigat decus pudorem corpus, cuncta regno viliora habere. haec atque talia dictitans amplecti Britannicum, robur aetatis quam maturrimum precari, modo ad deos, modo ad ipsum tendere manus, adolesceret, patris inimicos depelleret, matris etiam interfectores ulcisceretur.

although not even impudicity was now absent, with Pallas as adulterer, so that no one might doubt that decorum, pudency, the body—everything—she held cheaper than a kingdom. Saying these things and the like repeatedly, he would embrace Britannicus, pray for the robustness of age as the most early possible, now stretch his hands to the gods, now to him himself, that he might grow up, drive away his father’s enemies, and even avenge his mother’s killers.

[66] In tanta mole curarum valetudine adversa corripitur, refovendisque viribus mollitia caeli et salubritate aquarum Sinuessam pergit. tum Agrippina, sceleris olim certa et oblatae occasionis propera nec ministrorum egens, de genere veneni consultavit, ne repentino et praecipiti facinus proderetur; si lentum et tabidum delegisset, ne admotus supremis Claudius et dolo intellecto ad amorem filii rediret. exquisitum aliquid placebat, quod turbaret mentem et mortem differret.

[66] Under so great a mole of cares he is seized by adverse health, and for the restoring of his strengths, by the softness of the climate and the salubrity of the waters, he proceeds to Sinuessa.
Then Agrippina, long since certain of the crime and quick at the offered opportunity, and not in need of agents, consulted about the kind of poison, lest by something sudden and precipitous the deed be betrayed; if she had selected a slow and wasting one, lest, when brought near his last moments and the trick understood, Claudius should return to the love of his son. Something exquisite pleased her, which would throw the mind into turmoil and defer death.

deligitur artifex talium vocabulo Locusta, nuper veneficii damnata et diu inter instrumenta regni habita. eius mulieris ingenio paratum virus, cuius minister e spadonibus fuit Halotus, inferre epulas et explorare gustu solitus.

is selected
an artificer of such things by the name Locusta, recently condemned for poisoning and long held among the instruments of the kingdom. By that woman’s ingenuity a poison was prepared, whose minister, from among the eunuchs, was Halotus, accustomed to bring in the courses and to test them by taste.

[67] Adeoque cuncta mox pernotuere ut temporum illorum scriptores prodiderint infusum delectabili boleto venenum, nec vim medicaminis statim intellectam, socordiane an Claudii vinolentia; simul soluta alvus subvenisse videbatur. igitur exterrita Agrippina et, quando ultima timebantur, spreta praesentium invidia provisam iam sibi Xenophontis medici conscientiam adhibet. ille tamquam nisus evomentis adiuvaret, pinnam rapido veneno inlitam faucibus eius demisisse creditur, haud ignarus summa scelera incipi cum periculo, peragi cum praemio.

[67] And to such a degree did all things soon become well-known that the writers of those times have handed down that poison was infused into a delectable boletus (mushroom), nor was the force of the medicament immediately understood, whether through sluggishness or Claudius’s vinolence; at the same time a loosened belly seemed to have brought succor. therefore, terrified, Agrippina, and, since the last extremities were being feared, scorning the odium of those present, employs the already-provided complicity of the physician Xenophon. he, as though he were aiding the efforts of one vomiting, is believed to have let down into his throat a feather smeared with swift poison, not unaware that the highest crimes are begun with danger, completed with reward.

[68] Vocabatur interim senatus votaque pro incolumitate principis consules et sacerdotes nuncupabant, cum iam exanimis vestibus et fomentis obtegeretur, dum quae res forent firmando Neronis imperio componuntur. iam primum Agrippina, velut dolore victa et solacia conquirens, tenere amplexu Britannicum, veram paterni oris effigiem appellare ac variis artibus demorari ne cubiculo egrederetur. Antoniam quoque et Octaviam sorores eius attinuit, et cunctos aditus custodiis clauserat, crebroque vulgabat ire in melius valetudinem principis, quo miles bona in spe ageret tempusque prosperum ex monitis Chaldaeorum adventaret.

[68] Meanwhile the senate was being convoked and vows for the incolumity of the princeps were being pronounced by the consuls and priests, although he, already lifeless, was being covered with garments and poultices, while measures were being arranged for consolidating Nero’s imperium. And now first Agrippina, as if overcome by grief and seeking consolations, held Britannicus in an embrace, addressed him as the true effigy of his father’s face, and by various arts delayed him so that he might not go out of the bedchamber. She also detained Antonia and Octavia, his sisters, and had closed all the approaches with guards, and she was frequently spreading the report that the princeps’s health was going for the better, in order that the soldiers might act in good hope and that the favorable time, from the monitions of the Chaldaeans, might be approaching.

[69] Tunc medio diei tertium ante Idus Octobris, fortibus palatii repente diductis, comitante Burro Nero egreditur ad cohortem, quae more militiae excubiis adest. ibi monente praefecto faustis vocibus exceptus inditur lecticae. dubitavisse quosdam ferunt, respectantis rogitantisque ubi Britannicus esset: mox nullo in diversum auctore quae offerebantur secuti sunt.

[69] Then, at mid-day, on the third day before the Ides of October, with the stout doors of the palace suddenly drawn apart, Nero, with Burrus accompanying, goes out to the cohort, which according to military custom is present on guard. There, at the prefect’s prompting, greeted with auspicious cries, he is put into a litter. They say that some hesitated, looking back and asking where Britannicus was; soon, with no leader urging a contrary course, they went along with what was being presented.

inlatusque castris Nero et congruentia tempori praefatus, promisso donativo ad exemplum paternae largitionis, imperator consalutatur. sententiam militum secuta patrum consulta, nec dubitatum est apud provincias. caelestesque honores Claudio decernuntur et funeris sollemne perinde ac divo Augusto celebratur, aemulante Agrippina proaviae Liviae magnificentiam.

and, borne into the camp,
Nero, after a preface of things congruent to the time, with a donative promised after the example of his paternal largess,
is saluted as imperator. The senatorial decrees followed the sentiment of the soldiers, nor was there any doubt among the
provinces. And celestial honors are decreed to Claudius, and the solemnity of the funeral is celebrated just as for the deified Augustus,
Agrippina emulating the magnificence of her great-grandmother Livia.

testamentum tamen haud recitatum, ne antepositus filio privignus iniuria et invidia animos vulgi turbaret.

the testament, however, was not recited, lest the stepson, set before the son, should disturb the minds of the crowd by the injustice and invidiousness.