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governors are not seldom sent even to the most important provinces, as Didius to Britain', Quadratus to Syria 2; and no less his own astonishing ignorance of, or indifference to, the immorality of his wife3, and the scandalous traffic of which the colossal fortunes amassed by his freedmen was patent evidence, must be held to go far to bear out the charge against him. It is probably also in the later period that the alleged judicial scandals, so far as they are well founded, must be placed; and if the account of the trial of Asiaticus is to be believed, any other such cases are probable. The story of his abject prostration during the crisis of Messalina and Silius must have been known to many and cannot well be a fabrication; and the description of his state of mind during the intrigues for his subsequent marriage", though resting, no doubt, on private sources only, derives credit from what was plainly matter of public record, his speech to the praetorians emphatically renouncing all idea of matrimony, the immediate sequence of a decree to enable him to marry Agrippina, and the extraordinary reasons announced by him for his selection 1o.

After this marriage, under the influence of a more imperious will, he is still further effaced, and appears to originate nothing. He does his wife's bidding in all that tends to advance herself and her son, and in destroying the last safeguards that surround Britannicus ". He moves a law, and expressly assigns the credit of it to Pallas 12; he proposes a gift of indemnity, expressly as a boon to his physician Xenophon 13. Otherwise, his chief function is to condemn and punish", which appears to have been no uncongenial task to him. For it is his cruelty, far more than any other quality, that has left an indelible stain upon his character 15, and requires as its most lenient explanation the supposition of such callous apathy as is the natural outcome of imbecility. The number of his victims is made to reach a formidable total of all ranks and classes 16; and we have hideous tales of the levity with which he

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ordered executions1 and forgot that he had ordered them 2, and of his keen delight in witnessing the butchery of the executioner and torturer 3. Many of these traits of utter insensibility must have been shown, not only in the privacy of the palace, but before the eyes of Rome; and if these are not to be set aside as fabrications, we have no reason to doubt the statement, that at the death, however deserved, of one who had been for some ten years his wife he 'showed no sign of hate, joy, resentment, sorrow, nor in short of any human feeling,' and that he had neither likes nor dislikes, except such as were instilled and dictated 5.'

III. Nero.

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS.

Early life down to the death of Claudius

First period of rule ( quinquennium Neronis ')

Murder of Agrippina and Octavia and ascendancy of Poppaea

Nero's increasing passion for exhibiting his singing and other accomplishments.
Effect of this and other scandals on public opinion

Effect produced by his earlier acts of bloodshed and by the circumstances of

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Subsequent reign of terror: probable reasons for the attack on Thrasea and
Soranus

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puted, but, as read by Haase, gives occisos senatores xxx, equites R. c.c. ceteros ccxxi, ὅσα ψαμαθός τε κόνις τε. Suet. (Cl. 29), who appears to follow Seneca, gives the number of senators as thirty-five, the knights at more than three hundred, but omits mention of the others. A sufficient number of names of senators put to death, forced to suicide, or otherwise made away with, can be made out from various sources (see above, pp. 11-14, etc.), to render it probable that, if we had the complete record of Tacitus before us, such a number as that given by Seneca or Suet. could be made up: we have small means of identifying the knights (see 11. 4, 1; 35, 6; 36, 4, and above 1. 1.); but Tacitus speaks (13. 43, 3) of equitum Romanorum agmina damnata': as to the third item, we are altogether in the dark, unless the stories alluded to in Suet. 34 and the vast number of 'sontes' in 12. 56, 5 may

illustrate it. It should also be observed that in such a list, just and unjust condemnations are massed together.

1 Seneca speaks (Lud. 6, 2) of a familiar wave of his hand by which he gave the sign for executions.

The

2 Suet. Cl. 39; Dio, 60. 14, 2. 'multi' of Suet. is probably one of his usual exaggerations, perhaps taken from Seneca, who (Lud. 14, 5) makes Claudius meet his victims in the lower world, and ask 'quo modo huc venistis?'

3 Suet. Cl. 34. If there is any truth in the statement of Seneca (de Clem. 1. 23, 1), that more parricides were condemned under him in five years than in all the generations before, we should suspect that some at least were condemned unjustly to give him opportunities of witnessing the punishment.

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II. 38, 3. 5 12. 3, 3.

Period of the last two years of Nero's rule, and incidental allusions to it by
Tacitus

The general administration during the later years of Nero
Concluding remarks

PAGE

85 89

93

NOTE. Throughout this section, especial and constant obligations must be acknowledged to H. Schiller's 'Geschichte des Römischen Kaiserreichs unter der Regierung des Nero'; Berlin, 1872.

Our history of this prince in Tacitus is on the whole as complete as that of Tiberius: in both some notice is given of the previous life, and a full history is preserved of the greater part of the rule; in both an important portion is lost to us which is ill made up by what can be gleaned from other sources. In the case of Nero, the fact that the lost portion includes the end involves also the loss of any general judgment which the historian may have thought fit to give by way of summary.

We have the notice of his mother's marriage to Gnaeus Domitius, who united a descent on his mother's side from Octavia to the high lineage of his paternal family', and who afterwards narrowly escaped peril of his life by the opportune death of Tiberius 2. His son, originally named Lucius Domitius, was born at Antium on Dec. 15, 790, A.D. 373, and he himself died of a dropsy at Pyrgi about two years later. His death was almost immediately followed, or perhaps preceded, by the exile of Agrippina ; and the child, thus left practically an orphan, fell under the charge of his aunt Domitia Lepida, but returned after little more than a year to that of his mother on her restoration by Claudius". It is idle to speculate on the supposed effects of his aunt's neglect or indulgence at this early age 7; but his subsequent intimacy with her, kept up till she fell a victim to the jealousy of Agrippina thirteen years later, may not have been without a share in determining his propensities. Besides receiving back from Claudius his paternal inheritance, which Gaius had seized, the boy was further enriched by that of his step

1 4.75.
26. 47, 2; 48, 1.

3 Suet. Ner. 6.

Suet. Ner. 5. On his character, see above, p. 43, note. Suet. makes him remark cynically at the birth of his son, 'nihil ex se et Agrippina nisi detestabile et malo publico nasci potuisse.'

The date of this event is fixed by that of the detection of the conspiracy of Gaetulicus (see above, p. 18), and must have been about the end of 792, A.D. 39; so that, if Suet, (Ner. 6) is right in

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father Crispus Passienus', and would seem to have been under the 'tutela' of Asconius Labeo 2, and to have at this time received instruction from two persons, one of whom, named Burrus, must have known Greek, while the other was the ingenious but utterly profligate and unscrupulous Anicetus. The perils to which his own exalted rank, no less than his instrumentality, however passive, in his mother's schemes, exposed him, were skilfully turned to account by surrounding his boyhood with a halo of legend, and describing the assassins sent by Messalina as scared away by tutelary serpents. The sympathy enlisted by this and other such devices, manifesting itself in an unmistakeable preponderance of applause in favour of the grandson of Germanicus on his first public appearance with his younger rival Britannicus in the 'ludus Trojae' at the secular games, would naturally have increased his danger, had not Messalina been turned from her schemes of vengeance by the keener passion which in the next year impelled her to her death.

A new chapter in the youth's life opens in 802, A.D. 49, with the exaltation of his mother; who, though all her schemes centred in his advancement, disciplined him with the full force of her imperious nature, and, seeing that at this stage of his life the prestige of an education which none could hope to rival would be above all things helpful to him, lost no time in placing him under the instruction of the greatest literary genius of the age; who, being besides indebted

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3 This Burrus is mentioned in Jos. Ant. 20. 8, 9, as παιδαγωγὸς τοῦ Νέρωνος, τάξιν τὴν τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν ἐπιστολῶν πεπιστευμévos (ab epistulis Graecis'); which latter office we should suppose him from the words to have been still holding at the time spoken of (A.D. 60 or 61). It seems better, with Friedländer (i. 162) and others, to distinguish him from Afranius Burrus, than, with Mommsen (Hist. v. 529, 1; E. T. ii. 206, 1), to identify them. Josephus had already in the same chapter (20. 8, 1) mentioned the latter, and had correctly designated him, and would hardly, in mentioning the same person so shortly afterwards, have given a wholly different description of him without any apparent reason. Also the offices held by this person are those usually held by freedmen, whereas Afranius Burrus must have been a Roman knight, and is stated to have had a distinguished military career (12. 42, 2): nor is the

venality and corruption imputed by Josephus to the person here mentioned in accordance with the character generally attributed to the praefect.

6

See 14. 3, 5, and note.
See 11. 11, 6, and note.

II. 11, 5; 12, I.

The two boys were then nine and six years old. 7 II. 12, 2.

8 See the contrast drawn in 12. 64, 4, between her treatment of him and that of his aunt.

The antecedents of Seneca can here be only briefly noted. Born at Corduba probably three or four years before the Christian era, he had been brought in childhood to Rome, where his father the rhetorician had reached equestrian rank. The son had attained the quaestorship (ad Helv. 19. 2), and was a leading senatorial pleader by the time of Gaius, who had marked him for death in a fit of jealousy, but hearing that he was likely soon to die naturally, dismissed him from consideration (Dio, 59. 19, 7) with some contemptuous remarks on his composi

to her for his restoration from an eight years' banishment, and for his advancement to the praetorship', might be relied upon to understand that he was summoned for a double purpose, and was also to lend all the resources of his versatile intellect to the furtherance of her schemes 2.

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As to the actual course of instruction, we are told that the boy touched all subjects desultorily, that his mother dissuaded him from philosophy as unsuitable to his position, that his teacher, seeking to enlist his admiration for his own style, discouraged the study of the great orators of antiquity, that not only during the most youthful period of his rule, but for some years afterwards, his more formal utterances were all composed for him; and the pursuits in which his energy found scope were assuredly not inspired by Seneca, who may probably have understood that the ulterior purposes indicated above were the most real end to be served by his presence.

It remains only to note the stages of his advancement. Those who had overthrown Messalina thought it their interest to supplant Britannicus; and anything could be got out of Claudius in his present mood": so immediately after Agrippina's marriage an address from the senate procures the betrothal of Octavia to the stepson 10; a tale magnified by Vitellius having previously sufficed to set aside the already affianced

tions and style (see above, p. 17, 5). In the first year of Claudius, Messalina procured his relegation to Corsica, on a charge of adultery with Julia, daughter of Germanicus (Dio, 60. 8, 4), which, as coming from such a source, is generally disbelieved. The only assumption of his guilt in Tacitus is placed in the mouth of his enemy and accuser Suillius (13. 42, 3), and his banishment is alluded to as iniuria (12. 8, 3); but Dio, who is persistently hostile to him elsewhere, not only (61. 10, 1) takes this charge as proved, but also accuses him of similar misconduct with Agrippina; any intimacy with whom was probably supposed by Roman scandal to take this form. Of his extant writings, the 'Consolatio ad Marciam' has been thought to date before his exile; the Consolationes'' ad Helviam' and 'ad Polybium,' which (besides some epigrams) were certainly written during it, show how readily he could adapt himself to the mood of Stoicism or flattery. If Dio (1. 1.) is to be believed, he even wrote at this time a panegyric on Messalina and the freedmen, which he afterwards suppressed.

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The censure 'primum ex iis, qui rerum potiti essent, Neronem alienae facundiae eguisse' (13. 3, 3), is palliated by his youth; but the same was still the case five years afterwards (14. 11, 4), and perhaps still later. On the other hand, Nero is made to speak of himself as owing to his teacher the acquisition of a power of impromptu reply (14. 55, 1).

7 See 13. 3, 7. An exception may seem due in respect of his turn for versifying; but Seneca was believed to have followed rather than guided his bent in this direction (14. 52, 3).

8 Arte eorum quis ob accusatum Messalinam ultio ex filio timebatur' (12. 9, 2).

Nihil arduum videbatur in animo principis,' &c. (12. 3, 3).

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