 CHAPTER XVI. THE CONQUEST OF BRITAN, SECTIONS II AND III. SECTION II. ADMINISTRATION AND EXTENSION OF THE PROVENTS UNDER PLOTIUS, AUSTORIUS AND DEDUCE. The true conqueror of Britain was Aldous Plotius, and he remained there until 47 A.D., as legatus proprietore of the new province. During these years the progress of the conquest went on, chiefly in the west and south. Vespasian and his brother Flavius Sabinus played a prominent part in breaking the resistance of the natives. Vespasian is said to have fought thirty battles during his command in Britain, and to have captured twenty places. One of his chief achievements was the reduction of Vectus, the Isle of Wight. The Romans must also have penetrated to the border of Somersetshire at this period, for there have been found in the Mendepe hills two pigs of lead, with the names of Claudius and his son, dating from the year 49 A.D. In the east the Isseni, a powerful tribe, who held the regions which, after the English conquest became East Anglia, submitted to Roman overlordship. It may be said roughly that a line drawn from Aquasulis, Bath, to Londinium, passing through Kaleva, Silchester, and extended so as to take in Camalodunum, may roughly define the limits of Rome and Britain when Plotius was recalled. Plotius received the reward for an ovation, a rare distinction under the empire for anyone not belonging to the imperial family. The successor of Plotius was P. Astorius Scapula, and immediately on his arrival, toward the close of the season, he was called upon to subdue a rising of his Isseni. The Isseni were all the more formidable, as their strengths had not yet been weakened by war. They instigated the surrounding tribes to take up arms and choose as a battlefield a place enclosed by a rude barrier, with a narrow approach and impenetrable to cavalry. Astorius led the auxiliary troops without the strength of the legions, whose presence in other parts of the country was necessary, against these defenses, and attempted to break through them. He equipped the cavalry to do the duty of infantry, and succeeded in forcing the barriers. The rebels, finding escape impossible, fought desperately, and the general's son, Marcus Astorius, won the civic crown for saving a citizen's life. Those tribes, which were hesitated in between war and peace, were quieted by this defeat of the Isseni. But the main work of Astorius lay in the west. The peoples of the mountainous districts of Wales presented a stubborn resistance to the progress of Roman arms in that direction, and they were organized by the indomitable spirit of Caractacus, who, when his own people, the Trinvantes, were irretrievably overthrown, retreated to the west and there maintained with vigor and success the struggle for British independence. The remains of the British entrenchments in the counties which border on Wales are probably a record of the struggle. Glewom, Lodchester, seems at this time to have become the headquarters of the second legion, and Astorius probably drew a line of forts from this point across country to Camalodonum. Astorius first attacked the Dekanghi, an obscure tribe who dwelled probably in the neighborhood of Devah, Chester, and then advanced into the hilly land of the Silurs, whose habitation corresponded to Hereford, Monmouth, and South Wales. The position of Viroconium, Roxeter, was occupied as a stronghold against the Ordovices, and became for some time the headquarters of the 15th legion. The Britons were far inferior in military strength, but Caractacus knew how to take advantage of the intricacies of the country. After a struggle of three years, he changed the scene of war from the land of the Silurs northward to the territory of the Ordovices, and thus compelled the Roman army to retrace its steps under great difficulties. 51 AD. He then resolved on bringing the war to a final issue. He chose a position for the battle, in which it would be easy for his own forces and difficult for the Romans, either to advance or retreat, and piled up stone ramparts on some lofty hills, wherever the slope was gentle enough to admit of an approach. A river lay in front of his position, and he drew up. His men before the defenses. He made a stirring appeal to his followers to recover their freedom, and every warrior swore by the gods of his tribe to shrink neither from the wounds nor weapons. The Roman general was somewhat doubted by the enthusiasm of the foe, the river in front of him, the frowning hills behind, but the soldiers insisted on accepting battle. Having made a careful survey of the assailable points in the enemy's position, Osterios led his troops across the river without difficulty, and attacked the barrier. As long as it was a fight with missiles, the Romans had the worst of it. But when the Testudo was formed, and the soldiers advanced with locked shields, the rude fence was easily thrown down, and the barbarians were forced to retire up the heights. The Romans pursued them, and as the Britons had no defensive armor, their ranks were soon broken. When they turned to oppose the light-armed auxiliaries, the legionaries hewed them down behind with swords and javelins. When they turned round to resist the legionaries, they were attacked by the spears and sabers of the auxiliaries. It was a great and decisive victory. The wife and daughter of Caractacus were immediately captured, his brothers surrendered, and he was soon afterwards taken prisoner through the treachery of Cartimandua, queen of the brigands, to whom he had fled for refuge, and was sent to Rome. His fame was celebrated in Italy, and all they were eager to see is a hero who had defied the Roman power for nine years. The people of Rome were summoned as to a great spectacle. The Praetorian cohorts were drawn up in front of their camp. A procession of the clients of the British Prince defiled before the Emperor's Tribunal. The ornaments and chains of Caractacus and the spoils which he had won in war with other tribes were displayed. Then followed his brothers, his wife and his daughter. Last of all, the warrior himself. While all the others were caught into humility, Caractacus did not seek to move compassion either by word or look. Claudius pardoned him and his skinsfolk, and the captives, released from their chains, did homage to the Emperor and Agrippina, who sat on another throne beside him, although it was an unheard of thing that a woman should sit on the Tribunal of the Imperator surrounded by the standards. After this solemnity the senate assembled, and laudatory speeches were delivered on the capture of Caractacus, which was compared to the exhibition of Seafox by Scipio, or that of Perseus by Emilius Paulus. Caractacus was retained, like the Suavian Marobodus, in an honourable custody until his death, or Storius received the triumphal ornaments. This victory, although decisive, was by no means equivalent to the subjugation of Western Britain. The quarters of the second legion were established further west, at Isco Silurum, Carleon on the Ask, to be distinguished from Isco Dumno Niorum, etc. And it was exposed there to great dangers, sustaining several serious reverses. At the same time the great tribe of the brigands in the North, who held all the land north of the Trent, at least as far as the time, displayed signs of hostility to the Romans. Carapula did not long survive his victory. He died in 52 A.D., worn out, it was said, by the troublesome and exhausting warfare against the Silurs. During the following six years, under the administration of Aulus Didius Gallus, 52-57 A.D., and Veranius, 57-58 A.D., the limits of the province do not seem to have been extended. The governorship of Astorius Capola was also marked by the plantation of the first military colony. The ancient capital of Cunoherlinus was chosen to hold somewhat the same position in Britain that Lugudunum held in Gaul. It is remarkable that this place was preferred to Londinium, which was commercially the most considerable town in Britain. Where Cunoherlinus Camalodunum had assumed unimportance eclipsing that of all other British Opedui, though still apparently resembling the general type, in consisting of a large enclosed tract of some square miles, protected on the east, north and south, by the tidal marshes of the Column, and its small tributary, still called the Roman River, and on its assailable side, the west, by strong earthworks, in part still traceable, from stream to stream. The official name given to the new colony was Colonia Victrix, and the temple was erected to Claudius, for the purpose of establishing a provincial worship, like that which Augustus had instituted in Gaul. A theater and other buildings soon sprang up. But like Londinium and Verolamium, it was left unwalled and inadequately defended. When Didius arrived in the province, he found that one of the legions, under Molius Valens, had been defeated by the Silurus, who were scoring the country far and wide. Having dispersed them, he was obliged to turn his arms against the brigands. A chief of the tribe, named Venutius, was, since the capture of Caractacus, the foremost warrior and the ablest leader in the cause of British independence. He had for many years been faithful to Rome, and had been united in marriage to the Queen Cartimandua. But they quarreled and were divorced. A domestic war followed, and while the Queen held to the Romans, Venutius changed his attitude to them also. By wily stratagems, Carimandua got into her power the brothers and kinsmen of Venutius, and this led to an invasion of her kingdom by the flower of the British youth. Roman cohorts were sent to the assistance of the Queen, and effectually protected her. Dissaltary warfare seems to have continued during the following years, but no further events of importance are recorded in the governorship of Didius. Veranius, his successor, Anodominus 58, made some small raids upon the Suleus, but was prevented by death from continuing the war. Section 3. Governorship of Suetonius Paulinus. A new advance was made when the able and ambitious Suetonius Paulinus, who had distinguished himself in Mauritania, was appointed Legatus in 59 A.D. It was he probably who occupied Deva, and made it the quarters of the twentieth legion, the camp, as it came to be called Castra or Chester. Deva served as a post against north Wales, on the one side, and against the Brignens on the other. It is probable that he spent his first two years in subduing the northern parts of Wales, and in 61 A.D. he pushed forward with the fifteenth legion to exterminate the druidical worship in its extreme retreat. The British priesthood had retired to the island of Mona, the present Anglicy, where they hoped to be able to protect themselves by the strait. But Suetonius was not foiled. He prepared drafts for the transport of his infantry across the stream, and landed on the shore of the island in the face of a dense array of Britons, while in the background the woman, dressed in black, and with dishevelled hair, brandished torches, and the priests implicated curses and doves, who had come to disturb them. Panic seized the Romans, but not for long. The landing was forced, the enemy was utterly rooted, and the sacred groves were cut down or burned. It was probably in connection with this expedition, that Cegontium, whose name is still preserved, in Caer Seynod was founded. But while Suetonius was busy in the west, a great insurrection broke out in the east. The Isseni were the ring-leaders. This tribe, under its king, Brasutagus, had been suffered notwithstanding its former revolt, to retain its position of a client-tributory state. The heavy executions imposed by the Fiskus, and the violence and insolence of the imperial procurator in levying the Jews, excited general discontent. The British communities were compiled to borrow from Roman money-lenders in order to meet these executions, and Seneca is stated to have directly promoted the rebellion by suddenly calling in his investments. On the death of the king, the land of the Isseni was annexed to the province. Brasutagus had made the emperor his heir along with his two daughters, thinking that this compliment would secure his family and his kingdom from injury at the hands of the Romans. But it turned out quite the reverse. The agents of the imperial procurator plundered the house of the dead king on the plea of exacting the inheritance, and treated his family with outrage. His wife Boa Dikea was beaten with stripes, and his daughters were dishonored. His relations were made slaves, and the chief men of the tribe were stripped of their property. The Isseni were roused by these indignities, and the fear of wars, and they found allies in the Trinovantes, who, smarted under the violence of the veterans, settled at Camalodonum. These colonists drove the natives out of their houses in farms, and the priests, who officiated at the temple of the divine Claudius, levied heavy executions for the maintenance of the alien warship. The rebels chose a moment at which all the legions were far away, and marched against Camalodonum. The inhabitants pleaded help from the procurator Cattus de Chianus, who sent a reinforcement of 200 men without regular arms. But the place was undefended, either by force or by rampart, and secret accomplices in the revolt hindered them from taking fitting precautions. They did not even remove the women and old men, but all took refuge in the temple of Claudius, hoping that succor might come. An immense host of Britons surrounded the place, and the sanctuary was stormed after a siege of two days. All the defenders were put to death with their greatest cruelty. The tidings of the outbreak first reached Pettilius Cerealis, the commander of Legion IX, which, though its station at this moment is not known, was nearest the scene of the revolt. He hurried to attack the insurgents, but in a great battle the infantry was cut to pieces, and only the cavalry escaped. Pettilius could not do more than hold his entrenchments until the arrival of Suetonius, who was hastening eastward, with 14th Legion from Mona reinforced by the veterans of the 20th, which he picked up at Deva, legionaries and auxiliaries. In all, his forces amounted to about 10,000 men. He had intended that Legion II stationed at Isca Cilurum should also march eastward in this great emergency, but the commander disobeyed the summons on the plea doubtless of troubles with the Cilurus. In order not to dissipate his forces, Suetonius was obliged to leave the important and populous towns of Londinium and Verolamium to the fury and greed of the insurgents, who, having burnt the Claudian colony, were marching about, bent on destruction. The movements of the Roman general are very uncertain, but the decisive battle seems to have taken place in the neighborhood of Camalodonum. He chose his own battleground. The position which he selected was approached by a narrow defile and closed at the other end by a forest. In front extended an open plain, where there was no danger from ambush gates. In this position he could not be outflanked or surrounded in the rear, the chief dangers from the superior numbers of the enemy. The legions were drawn up in close array, around them the light armed cohorts, and the cavalry were massed on to the winks. The army of the Britons, consisting of both infantry and cavalry, were confident of victory, and had hampered themselves with their wives riding in wagons to witness their triumph. Boadikea, a woman of spirit and determination, had blazoned abroad among her people the treatment she had received, and drove about in her chariot along with her daughters from tribe to tribe, calling upon her countrymen to throw off the foreign yoke. But in spite of their numbers and their ardor, the Britons experienced a crushing defeat. At first the legion kept its post in the narrow defile, but when the pila, which were hurled with unerring aim on the advancing foe, had been exhausted, they rushed forward in a wedge-like column, and broke the British centre. The auxiliaries and the cavalry completed the victory, and the flight of the conquered enemy was impeded by the wagons. Their losses computed at nearly eighty-southen. Boadikea poisoned herself, and the commander of second legion, who had disobeyed orders, and thereby hept his troops from sharing the glory of the fourteenths, committed suicide. The number of Roman citizens and allies, who had perished at the hands of the rebels, is stated to have been about seventy-thousand, and it was necessary to begin the work of civilisation in the eastern districts all over again. Considerable reinforcements arrived from Gaul. The ninth legion was recruited again, and the whole army was brought together to stamp out the remaining sparks of rebellion. Soetonius took a terrible vengeance. He wasted the land of the enemy with fire and sword, and the famine which ensued made great havoc among the Isseni. Perhaps at this time the stronghold of Venta Issinorum was established to control the districts north of Camalodonum. Soetonius was a severe ruler. His councils were always of sternness, never of lenity. The orders of oppression were brought against him by a procurator, and Polyclatus, an imperial freedman, was sent to the island to investigate the matter. His decision was practically adverse to Soetonius, who was recalled, 61 A.D., and replaced in the command by Petronius Turpillianus, a man of more conciliatory temper. Under his auspices, southern Britain seemed to have become contented with Roman rule. The towns which had been sacked by the Isseni were rebuilt, and soon resumed their former prosperity, Camalodonum as the centre of the Roman administration, and Londinium as the centre of British commerce. By this time all the most important stations in the province were connected by Roman roads. The two most important roads, Watling Street, leading to the west, and Air Mean Street, to the north, through Camalodonum, met at Londinium. The chief seaports were Ruto Piae, Ridgeboro, and Porto Slemanus, which preserves its old name as Lumn. It is highly probable that these places, as well as inland centres, such as Calleva, Silchester, near Reading, and Corinium, Kiranchester, were already beginning to become centres of Roman civilization. End of Chapter 16. Chapter 17, Section 1 of J.B. Bury's The Student's Roman Empire Part 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Student's Roman Empire Part 1 by John Bagnale Bury, Chapter 17, The Principate of Nero, 54-68 A.D., Section 1. The Ascendancy of Seneca and Burris. The new princeps belonged to the house of the brazen beards, one of the most illustrious families of the Domitian gents. His father, Naus Domitius Ahino Barbis, a man infamous for his vices and crimes, is reported to have said on his child's birth that the offspring of such a father as himself and such a mother as Agrippina must turn out ill-oamened and disastrous to the state. The child lost his father at the age of three and was despoiled of his inheritance by the emperor Gaius. His mother was in banishment and his training devolved for a time upon his aunt Domitia Lepida. The Ascension of Claudius restored to him both his mother and his possessions, and under the eye of Agrippina he was brought up with a view to future greatness. It has been already mentioned that she recalled the philosopher Seneca from exile and entrusted to him the education of her son. This remarkable man, who played an important part in the administration of the Roman world during the early half of Nero's reign, professed to be a stoic, superior to the ordinary desires and ambitions of mankind, but he amassed an immense fortune and did not disdain the arts of a courtier. He was not a politician who amuses himself with philosophy, nor yet a pure philosopher who steps out of his sphere to give advice in politics. On the contrary, his theory was that philosophy should be applied to government and that thought should be combined with action. He may not have adhered over strictly to all his precepts of morality, but there can be no doubt that whatever were his faults he rose, quote, far above the ordinary pedagogues of his day, the cringing slave or the flattering freedman to whom the young patricians were, for the most part, consigned. Doubtless it was Seneca's principle of education to allure possibly to coax rather than drive his pupil into virtue. He yielded on many points in order to borrow influence on others. He deigned to purchase the youth's attention to severe studies by indulging his inclination to some less worthy amusements, end quote. The young prince was surrounded by the temptations which beset the patrician youth of Rome and accustomed to the indulgences which tend to relax the vigor of mind and body. His favorite studies were artistic, especially music and singing. In oratory he was not thought to be proficient. It was a matter of remark that he required the help of Seneca to compose the funeral oration of his uncle. The succession of Nero to the principate was readily acquiesced in by the people, the soldiers, and the Senate. Yet there was a feeling that Britannicus, as the real son of Claudius, had a better claim than the adopted Domitius. It is significant that the will of Claudius was not read, but was silently passed over. No one, however, felt called upon to undertake the cause of Britannicus. This may have been partly due to the fact that the infidelity of his mother had cast a slur on his birth. The senators may have even preferred an emperor whose claim was doubtful in the hope that they might exert more influence in the administration if he felt dependent on their good will. It must be remembered that, from a strictly constitutional point of view, Britannicus had no more claim to the principate than Nero, and Nero, through his mother, was descended in direct line from Augustus. The first speech of the new emperor in the Senate, dictated doubtless by Seneca, produced a favorable impression. He promised not to interfere with the Senate in the exercise of any of its functions, but to confine his activity to the armies. The senators lost no time in repealing a law of Claudius, by which lawyers were allowed to accept rewards for pleading causes, and in exempting questers from the burden of exhibiting gladiatorial shows which the same emperor had laid upon them. The early years of Nero's rule were marked by a struggle for power between his mother and his two chief advisors, Seneca and Burris. Agrippina had staked everything for power, and she did not intend to surrender the reins on her son's accession. It was not enough for her that Nero should rule. She desired to rule herself, and Nero was devoted to her. His first watchword was the best of mothers, and during the first months she behaved as the regent of the empire. On coins her head appeared along with that of the princeps, and she took upon herself to receive the ambassadors of foreign states. She hastened to remove from her path two enemies, the freedmen Narcissus and M. Salanas, procounsel of Asia. She feared the vengeance of the latter for the death of his brother Lucius, whom she had destroyed as a possible rival of her son. Nero, who cared only to enjoy the pleasures of his position and not to fulfill its duties, had himself little objection to his mother's political activity. But Burris and Seneca were resolved not to concede the assumption of such power to a woman, especially as it seemed likely to be cruelly and unscrupulously exercised. In order to counteract her influence, they encouraged Nero in an intrigue with a Greek freedwoman named Actae. Agrippina was incensed, and her violent language drove the emperor to attach himself more closely to the indulgent Seneca. She then changed her policy and attempted to bid against the philosopher by still greater indulgence. But the eyes of her son had been opened to her overbearing ambition. The first decisive triumph of the rivals of Agrippina was the disgrace of the freedman palace with whom she had closely leaked herself and on whose political experience she leaned. Nero, who had never liked him and would not submit to his councils, deprived him of his office and dismissed him from the court before February 13, 1855. This was felt as a serious blow by Agrippina, and she made a desperate move to recover her power by espousing the cause of her stepson Britannicus. She declared that he was the true heir of Claudius. She threatened to rush with him to the camp and asked the soldiers to judge between the daughter of Germanicus and Burris and Seneca. Whatever were her own crimes, she said, she had at least preserved the life of Britannicus. This action on her part proved fatal to the unlucky son of Claudius. Nero saw that his own seat was not secure as long as Britannicus lived, and he determined to remove him. The services of Locusta, which Agrippina had employed to hasten the death of Claudius, were now employed by her son to kill Britannicus. A warm wine cup was presented to the boy at table, and when he found it too hot, cold water was added into which a drop of deadly poison had been poured. He died instantaneously to the alarm of all those who were present and the unaffected consternation of Agrippina. The body was burnt the same night in the campus, in the midst of a great storm which was interpreted as a sign of divine wrath. It is impossible to know whether Seneca was privy to this deed or whether it was solely due to the calculation of Nero. It is clear that the death of Britannicus was a decisive check to the plans of Agrippina, and the question is whether Seneca would have been ready to go to the length of poisoning in order to foil her and preserve his own position. But there is no evidence to prove him guilty, and therefore we must suppose him innocent. The death of Britannicus was represented as natural, and Nero professed to lament the loss of a dear brother. He had no curious inquiries to fear from the Senate, for the Senate was content with the Emperor's policy, guided as it was by Seneca, and as long as the Senate was content, Fratricide and other crimes might be committed in the palace without interference. Popularity with the Senate was indeed the keynote of Seneca's policy. The Emperor refused statues of gold and silver. He declined the honor of letting the year begin with his birth month December. He dismissed the charge of a deliator against a knight and a senator. Such acts were counted to him for righteousness. Agrippina had lost her influence with Nero, and when, after the death of Britannicus, she posed as the protectress of Octavia, her son's wife, whom he treated with contemptuous neglect and attempted to form a party of her own, he became alarmed. He caused the guard which had hitherto attended her to be removed and forced her to leave the palace and take up her residence in the house which formerly belonged to her grandmother Antonia. At these signs of disfavor her friends fell away and Junia Solana, who had a private grudge against her, attempted to work her ruin by a false charge of conspiracy. Two suborned informers stated that she had plotted to overthrow her son and replace him by rebellious Plautius, who was as nearly related to Augustus as Nero himself. But on examination the charges fell through and Solana was banished. During the next three years Agrippina vanishes from the pages of history, though her influence was gone there seems to have been no open rupture. While Seneca and Burris administered the affairs of the empire and an unwanted activity was permitted to the senate, the emperor occupied his time in the licentious amusements of youth. Adopting a favorite pastime of profligate young nobles, he used to wander through the streets at night disguised in the garb of a slave to conceal his person and visit taverns and low haunts. He and his comrades used to seize goods exposed for sale and to sale those whom they encountered in their progress. The emperor himself bore on his face the marks of wounds received in these brawls. When it became known that Nero was in the habit of masquerading thus and many men and women of distinction had been insulted in his nocturnal escapades others assumed his name and followed his example so that the city was infested by gangs like the Mohawks who had in the last century used to make London dangerous at night. On one occasion a man of Centaurian rank named Julius Montanus happened to meet Nero in the darkness. He first repelled his assailant vigorously but afterwards recognized him and sent in a petition for pardon. Nero, angry at being recognized, asked, has he not then already dispatched himself seeing that he struck Nero and Montanus was obliged to destroy himself? But after this occurrence the emperor was more cautious and on such expeditions was always attended by a guard of soldiers and gladiators to interfere if necessary. The two most intimate companions of Nero were two profligate men of fashion Salveus Otho and Claudius Cinesio. In 58 AD his intimacy with Otho led to an entanglement with Otho's wife Papeia Sabina. She had been divorced from a former husband to marry Otho and she regarded her second husband as merely a stepping stone to a still higher alliance. She had determined to win the hand of Nero himself. The historian Tacitus has described with great art her copetry, her fascinations, her audacity, and her wickedness. Quote, she had all things except a high mind, end quote. In her Agrippina had indeed found a match. The emperor succumbed to her charms and got rid of Otho by appointing him Governor of Lusitania. In order to marry Nero it was necessary for Papeia to procure the divorce of Octavia, but she saw clearly that the chief obstacle to her plans was Agrippina who had always driven to maintain the nominal union of her son and her stepdaughter. So Papeia set herself to bring about a rupture between the emperor and his mother. She had friends and supporters in Seneca and Burris, the opponents of Agrippina, and she had made up her mind to step over the corpses of the two emperors into the palace of the Caesars. The daughter of Germanicus still possessed considerable influence with the Praetorians, and it would have been dangerous to resort to public measures against her. But Nero, led on by the persuasions of his mistress Papeia, did not shrink from contriving a scheme for her assassination. His old tutor Inesotus, whom he had raised to be captain of the fleet of Mycenum, undertook to construct a vessel which could be sunk without exciting suspicion, and if it could be managed that Agrippina should embark in it, her destruction would be imputed by the world to the winds and waves. At the Quincortis, a festival of Minerva lasting five days in the month of March, Nero invited his mother to his villa near Baille. She landed at Baille between Baille and Cape Mycenum and completed her journey in a litter, but after the banquet, when night had fallen, she was induced to return to Baille in the vessel which had been prepared for her destruction. But the mechanism did not do its work with the expected success, and Agrippina succeeded in swimming to shore whence she proceeded to her villa on the Lucrine Lake. One of her maids, Asaronia, who in order to save her own life called out, I am the Empress, was struck with oars and drowned. Agrippina saw through the treachery which she had so narrowly escaped, but pretended to regard it as an accident, and sent her freedman Acherinas to bear to Nero the news of her fortune of escape. Nero, who had been waiting in agitation to learn that his mother was no more, was terror-stricken at the tidings that the plan had miscarried. He applied for help in his difficulty to Burris and Seneca, who, however, seemed to have had no part in the plot. But Anisotus undertook to finish the work. It was pretended that a dagger was found in the possession of Acherinas, the freedman of Agrippina, and that she had conspired against the Emperor's life. Anisotus, accompanied by a captain and a military tribune, hastened to the Lucrine Villa. They found her lying on a couch with a single attendant, all the others having deserted her at the approach of the assassins, and at their appearance the last slave fled. She was dispatched with many wounds crying, strike the womb which bore Nero. She was buried by slaves and menester a faithful freedman, slew himself on her pyre, 59 A.D. If the matricide felt stings of remorse, they were speedily alleviated by the congratulations which poured in on him from every side, on having escaped the plots of his mother. He wrote a letter to the Senate, explaining the circumstances of her death, and there is no reason to suppose that this false account, embellished by the Art of Seneca, and confirmed by the testimony of Burris, was not generally believed. This is an instance of the way in which the Senate served the Princeps as a means of reaching the public ear. The true story was probably known only to a few initiated persons, and there was nothing improbable in a woman who had killed her husband planning to kill her son. Otherwise the great sympathy which was expressed for Nero is unintelligible. The Senate decreed that thanksgivings should be offered for the Emperor's safety, and that golden statues of Minerva and the Emperor should be erected in the Senate House. The Queen Quartrus were hence forward to be celebrated by public games and Agrippina's birthday to be regarded as a day of ill omen. All those persons who had been sent into exile owing to her influence were permitted to return. Nero's entry into Rome was like a triumph. He ascended to the capital and offered thanks to the gods for his preservation. CHAPTER XVII The Ascendancy of Popeia and Tigolinus Agrippina, with all her unscrupulous ambition, had a high conception of the imperial dignity of which Nero was totally devoid. After her death there was no restraint to hinder him from following his bent and indulging his theatrical and artistic tastes in a manner which set at defiance all the national prejudices of the Romans. His great desire was to appear in public in tragic costume and delight the ears of his subjects by singing and playing on the lyre or to guide a chariot with his own hands in the circus. When Seneca represented that such acts hardly befitted the dignity of the Emperor, Nero answered him with appeals to the superior culture of the Greeks and the example of his uncle Gaius. Seneca and Burrus, seeing that there was no help for it, tried at least to limit the performances of the Emperor to a select audience. A circus was erected in the Vatican Valley, and there a privileged number of courtiers were permitted to admire the skill of the imperial charioteer. But if his guides thought that he would be satisfied with this concession they were mistaken. It only stimulated him to more public exhibitions. He was resolved to appear as a singer and an actor. He seized the occasion on which his beard was first clipped to institute a feast called Juvenalia to be celebrated within the palace. Numerous invitations were issued, and noble young Romans were induced to contend as singers and dancers for the prizes which the Emperor offered. Nero himself descended on the stage with his lyre in hand and a band of young men, called Augustiani, were enrolled to applaud the excellence of his singing. Burrus is described as looking on, grieving, but applauding 59 A.D. In the following year the Emperor instituted another feast called by his own name, Neronia, modeled strictly on the great Greek games and to be held every five years. In the musical contests he took part himself. These exhibitions were far more harmless than the horrible gladiatorial shows, but they outraged national prejudice and are spoken of with disgust by Roman historians. Nero's ideals were altogether Greek, and he cared little for the spectacles of the arena. Brought up by Seneca in the Stoic philosophy he had imbibed at least the spirit of the cosmopolitanism and was not influenced in the least by the political traditions of Rome. The year 62 A.D. was a turning point in Nero's reign. Hitherto he had been under the constraint of Burrus and Seneca, who, while they indulged judiciously, his licentious and frivolous tastes, had prevented him from exerting his imperial power to the detriment of the state. Thus the first five years of Nero's reign became proverbial for good government, the quinquinium neuronis. The death of Burrus early in 62 A.D. was the beginning of a change for the worse. The influence of Seneca, deprived of his friend's support, immediately began to wane. It seems to have been almost impossible to exercise an important influence in political affairs, except in concert with the Praetorian Prefect, and Seneca could not act with the new Prefects, Saphonius to Jolinus and Phanius Rufus, as he had acted with Burrus. But his estrangement from his former pupil was chiefly due to the enmity of Popeia, who was jealous of the old courtier's influence over her lover. It was mainly due to Burrus and to Seneca that she had not yet succeeded in displacing Octavia and marrying the emperor. Burrus, when asked to consent to the divorce, had replied with characteristic bluntness, quote, if you put away the daughter of Claudius, at least restore the empire which was her dowry, end quote. Popeia now endeavored to remove Seneca from her path, as she had before removed Agrippina. His riches were imputed to him as a crime, and he was charged with the design of corrupting the populace for treasonable purposes. It was said, too, that he had boasted his own superiority to the emperor in verse writing and oratory. Miro's jealousy and fears were easily aroused, and his altered manner showed the philosopher the dangerous position in which he stood. He took the precaution of giving up all the outward pomp which he had hitherto maintained and meditated a complete abandonment of public life. Of the two praetorian prefects who had succeeded Burrus, Rufus remained insignificant, but Tijalinus, a man of obscure birth and no principles, soon worked himself into the emperor's confidence by humoring and sharing in his vices. If he had only been the companion of his debaucheries, it might have mattered little to the general welfare, but he was also the instigator of cruelty. The tyranny which marked Miro's later years dates from the appearance of Tijalinus on the scene. The two acts which inaugurated it were the executions of rebellious Plautus and Cornelius Sulla. On the appearance of a comet in the year sixty, which was supposed to be token the fall of the princeps, rumors spoke of rebellious Plautus as the probable successor. Miro advised him, and the advice was equivalent to a command to retire to his estates in Asia, and there he had lived quietly ever since. Tijalinus represented to the emperor that Plautus was still dangerous, in consequence of his reputation, his wealth, and the proximity of Asia to the Syrian armies. Accordingly a centurion with sixty soldiers were sent from Rome, with a eunuch of the palace, to remove the obnoxious noble, and Plautus, although he was warned by his friends beforehand and might have fled to Persia, calmly awaited his fate. Cornelius Sulla, the husband of Antonia, daughter of Claudius by Patina, had been suspected of disloyalty four years before and ordered to reside in Massilia. He was not rich, but his noble descent, his connection with the Claudian house, combined with the suspicions that he had previously aroused, decided his doom. After this specimen of tyranny no senator could consider himself safe, and the tone of the senate now changes from independence to servility. Tijalinus and Popeia were triumphant and Seneca left the field. The time had now come for Popeia to accomplish her great project and induce Nero to divorce Octavia. Tijalinus helped her. A charge was got up of criminal intercourse with an Alexandrian flute player, and the Praetorian prefect conducted the investigation. Under torture some of the empress's slave women acknowledged the guilt of their mistress, but most of them denied it. On such evidence there was no pretext for putting the accused to death as Popeia wished, and Nero contented himself with divorcing her on the ground of barrenness. The palace of Burris and the possessions of Plautus were assigned for her maintenance, and she was commanded to retire to Campania. But the universal sympathy, which the lot of this unfortunate and innocent lady aroused among all classes, proved her destruction. A rumor was suddenly spread that the emperor had recalled his wife. It was quite groundless, for Nero had already married Popeia, whose statues were erected in the public places in the city. But the people rushed in excitement to the capital, thanked the gods that the emperor had recognized the just claim of the true daughter of the Caesars, and thrust down the images of Popeia while they bore those of Octavia in triumph. The soldiers of Tejalines dispersed the masses when they gathered round the imperial palace. Popeia saw that while her rival lived, her position was insecure, and she easily persuaded her husband to consent to the execution of Octavia. Anna Cetis, the prefect of the fleet of Massenum, who had proved himself so useful in compassing the death of Agrippina, again supplied his services for the destruction of a second victim. He laid a confession before the emperor that he had committed adultery with Octavia and was sentenced to banishment at Sardinia, where he lived in luxury and died a natural death. Octavia was banished to the island of Pandeteria, where she was executed June 9, 62 AD. Her head was cut off and carried to Popeia, who could now breathe freely. By a decree of the Senate sacrifices of Thanksgiving were offered to the gods, and, says Cetis, it may be henceforward understood without special mention that, quote, whenever the princeps ordered banishments or executions, thanksgivings were paid to the gods, and the ceremonies which formerly marked prosperous events were then the tokens of some public disaster, end quote. In the following year, 63 AD, Popeia bore a daughter to Nero. The Senate decreed her the title Augusta, which had not been granted to Octavia. But from this time forward, this title no longer possessed the same political importance which it had for Livia and Agrippina. Nero was overjoyed at the birth of the child who was named Claudia, but she died after three months, and then his grief was as extravagant as his joy. Claudia was enrolled in the rank of a divae like Drusilla, the sister of Gaius. Popeia herself died two years later in premature childbirth, owing, it is said, to an accidental kick from Nero. She also was consecrated the first empress since Livia who had received that honor. Under the new order of things, Popeia and Tijalinus having taken the place of Seneca and Burris, the luxury and cruelty which prevailed in the reign of Gaius and the gluttony of the court of Fadias were renewed. Nero's debauchery was practiced as publicly as his acting and chariot driving. Banquets were spread in all the public places of the city, and the emperor used the whole city as if it had been his private house. The luxury of these rebels devised by the genius of Tijalinus was notorious, and the citizens were permitted to be spectators of the emperor's licentiousness. On one occasion a feast was laid out on a large raft which was totaled along by ships in the basin of Agrippa. The vessels were adorned with gold and ivory and were rode by men of abandoned character. On the banks of the basin stood disreputable houses filled with women of noble birth. Nero himself is said to have crowned his infamy by going through all the rites of the marriage ceremony, the veil, the dowry, the torches, the auspices, with a man named Pythodorus. Although the stories told by the ancient historians of the debaucheries of Nero and his court may be exaggerated, yet there can be no doubt that exhibitions of wantonness took place with a shameless publicity which seems almost incredible to a modern reader. The extravagance and prodigality which went hand in hand with the vices of the court emptied the imperial coffers and brought about a financial crisis just as had happened in the similar case of Gaius. The earlier years of Nero had been signalized by a liberal and enlightened financial policy. Claudius had left him a well-filled treasury such as Tiberius had left to Gaius and he made a serious attempt to relieve the burdens of the masses upon whom the indirect taxes fell so heavily. In the year fifty-eight a remarkable proposal was made by the emperor to do away with the Vectigalia and, as we should say, establish free trade. There is no reason to suppose that this measure was intended to be confined as some have supposed to Roman citizens or to the city of Rome. Its object was both to relieve the people and to set aside a mode of taxation which was attended with much injustice and fraud. There can be no doubt that it was proposed to make up the loss to the treasury by increasing the direct taxes which fell upon the producers and capitalists who would have profited by the remission of the duties. But the emperor's project did not take it a trial. His experienced advisors represented to him that it would mean the ruin of the state. The opposition doubtless came from those privileged classes which had invested large capital in the farming of taxes and who would have suffered if the duty on inheritances had been raised. But although this bold design fell through, it led to some important changes which alleviated the hardships of the taxation in its various forms. One measure commanded the publication of the exact amounts of all dues to the state so as to prevent the tax collectors from exacting too much. Charges against them for extortion were to have precedence in the courts, and claims for arrears were not to be made after a year. The duties on corn imported to Italy from the provinces were lightened. The expenses which fell on the fiscous were heavy. Every year Nero presented 60 million cestresses or 480 thousand pounds to the state. This sum was chiefly devoted to defray the cost of supplying the city with corn, but it also included an advance to the arrarium which was never able to meet its claims without aid from the fisc. The wars in Armenia and Britain were also costly over and above the ordinary expenses of maintaining the administration and the armies throughout the empire. The consequence was that when the outlay of the court became extravagant under the guidance of Tijalinas and Nero's other licentious friends, the funds ran short and the emperor was driven to resort to the same measures to replenish his treasury as had been adopted by his uncle Gaius. The methods of dilation and confiscation were again introduced. The rich were accused on false or trifling charges and their possessions appropriated by the fisc. Among the first victims who were sacrificed were two rich freedmen, Nero's secretary De Riferis, who had presumed to oppose his master's marriage with Popeia, and the old Pallas, who had amassed an immense fortune which, when he was deposed from his office, he had been suffered to retain. As Pallas had become wealthy by defrauding the imperial treasury which he administered under Claudius, there was no glaring injustice in confiscating his fortune. Seneca offered to place his wealth in the emperor's disposal, but the offer was refused. But the most important effect of the financial difficulties was the fatal measure to which the government resorted of depreciating the gold and silver coinage. This began as early as the years 61 and 62. Forty-five instead of forty ore and ninety-six instead of eighty denari were struck out of a pound of gold. The coinage never recovered itself and from Nero's reign we must date the bankruptcy which reached a climax in the third century. The immense amount of silver which was drafted from the empire to eastern Asia in return for oriental luxuries must be taken into account as a cause of the debasement of the silver coinage. Nero further robbed the senate of their right of coining copper, a right the importance of which has been already explained. Section 3 The Great Fire in Rome If Nero succeeded in replenishing his coffers by fair means and foul, an event happened in 64 AD which demanded all the resources of the fiscous. Fires were common in Rome, but on the night of July 18 of that year a conflagration broke out which in magnitude exceeded anything that had been experienced before. It began among some shops full of inflammable material at the southeast end of the Great Circus, where the valleys west of the salient and south of the Palatine meet. Driven by high wind the flames consumed the wooden benches and structures of the Circus and spread rapidly and irresistibly over the Palatine, the Velia, and the Esquiline, where, near the gardens of Masonus, their course was stayed. But in another direction also the fire made its way and consumed many buildings on the eventine in the Foramboreum and the Volabrum. It raged for seven nights and six days, and when all thought that it was over it broke out again in the campus Martius, destroyed the buildings of the Aemilion Gardens which belonged to Tijolinus and spread to the foot of the Capitoline and the Quirinal. It was said that of the fourteen regions, seven completely and four partially were reduced to ashes. But it has been shown that this must be an exaggeration, although the damage done was enormous. Among the public buildings which were consumed were the Temple of Jupiter Stator founded by Romulus, the Regia of Numa, and the Temple of Vesta, the Temple of Diana dedicated by Servius on the eventine, the Ara Magna ascribed by legend to Evander, all ancient monuments said to date from the time of the kings. More serious and from a practical point of view was the destruction of the splendid edifices of Augustus on the Palatine, the Palace, and the Temple of Apollo. The new buildings in the campus Martius near the Flominion Circus had also seriously suffered. Numbers of priceless works of the great Greek sculptors, which no wealth could ever replace, perished in the flames and countless memorials and trophies of Roman history must have been lost forever. In this emergency Nero showed himself in the most favorable light. He was absent at Antium when the fire broke out and he returned to the city as the conflagration was approaching the palace. He left nothing undone in his attempts to quell the flames. He rushed about the city by himself without attendants or guards to the places which were most in danger, and when at length the fire ceased to spread he did all he could to help and relieve the terrible distress of the homeless and shelterless thousands who had lost all their belongings. The public buildings and the imperial gardens were opened to receive them and a temporary shelter was erected in the campus. The price of corn was lowered to three cestresses of bushel and contributions were levied for the relief of the sufferers. The rebuilding of Rome was begun with vigor. It must have involved a vast outlay, and Nero was determined that the city should arise from its ashes and on a more rational and salubrious plan. The mistakes of the old architecture were comprehended and avoided. The streets were made wider, the houses lower and partly at least of stone. Arcades were built outside the new houses for protection from sun and rain, but the new palace, the golden houses it was called, planned by the architects Severus and Seller, was the wonder of the restored Rome. It was not so much the splendor of the house that excited wonder as the fields, the ponds, the wooded solitudes, the views of the park. Italy and the provinces were required to contribute to the restoration of their mistress city, and treasures of art which adorned the cities and temples of the Greek lands were carried off to replace those which Rome had lost. There is no reason to suppose that the outbreak of this great fire was other than accidental, but the multitudes suspected incendiaries and a wild rumor was circulated that the emperor himself was privy to the burning of the city. Various motives were attributed for such a monstrous act. It was said that he wished to outlive the destruction of his mother's city, or that he desired to rebuild Rome and call it by his own name, or that his artistic sense was offended by the architectural ugliness of the city. It is also related that he regarded the ravages of the flames from the palace of Masonas with delight and sang a scene from his own play on the capture of Troy. For this anecdote there may be some foundation in fact, but the charge of incendiarism which even contemporaries brought against Nero was assuredly false. He had nothing to gain and everything to lose by the destruction of Rome. The solicitude which he had always showed for the welfare of the populace and the efforts which he made to save the Palatine are hardly consistent with such a supposition. Nor is it conceivable that, at a moment when he was pressed by financial difficulties, he would have gone out of his way to burden the treasury with the enormous expenses required for the rebuilding of the city and the maintenance of the sufferers. The emperor had many enemies whose interest it was to place him in the worst light, and we can easily understand that they either originated or fostered the rumor. But it was generally believed that incendiaries were at work, and there were police investigations which led to the arrest and punishment of a number of people – quote – whom the vulgar called Christians, end quote. Here for the first time the Christian sect appears on the stage of profane history, and the remarkable words in which Tacitus describes it deserve to be quoted, quote, Christus, from whom this name was derived, was executed when Tiberius was imperator by Pontius Pilatus the procurator. The pernicious superstition, checked for the time being, again broke out, not only in Judea its original home, but even in the city, the meeting place of all horrible and immoral practices from all quarters of the world, end quote. This description represents the popular belief that the Christians practiced all sorts of horrors in their secret assemblies, such as cannibalism and incest. Those who were known to be Christians and confessed the creed when they were charged with it, were first arrested, and some of these under torture betrayed the names of many others who were secretly Christians but were not known as such. The prisoners were not tried strictly on the charge of incendiarism, and Tacitus seems to have no doubt of their innocence of this crime, which could not be brought home to them. But as hatred of the human race was in popular credence imputed to Christians, they were thought capable of it. A considerable number were condemned, really because they were proved to be Christians but nominally on the ground that they were incendiaries. They were put to death with mockery. Some wrapped in skins were torn to pieces by dogs. Others, arrayed in the tunica molesta, were set on fire to serve as torches by night. Nero gave up his Vatican gardens to the spectacle of these tortures, and at the same time exhibited a show in the circus there, appearing himself dressed as a charioteer. The sacrifice of these victims soothed the exasperation of the populace, and the emperor's callousness even brought about a revulsion of feeling. The Christians of Rome were sacrificed because Nero required scapegoats, but the question arises why were the Christians, who as yet had attracted little public attention, selected for the purpose? Contemporary literature shows that at this time the Jews were objects of general hatred and suspicion, and it might seem more natural that they should have been suspected and punished by the government. It is impossible to answer the question with certainty, but it has been plausibly suggested that the Jews themselves may have shifted the charge from their own body upon the Christians whom they hated bitterly. They might have been the more easily able to affect this through the influence of Popea Sabina, of whose leaning towards the Jews and their religion there is undoubted evidence. 18. The Principate of Nero, 54-68 AD. Section 4. The Conspiracy of Piso To Jelenos was unwirried in sending out pretenders to the Principate. By this policy he helped to fill the imperial coffers and to render himself indispensable. In 64 AD, D. Junius Torquatis Silanus was accused of treason and driven to suicide, but a profound and widely spread discontent prevailed among the nobles, and a conspiracy was formed which came to a head in the spring of 65 AD. C. Calpurnius Piso, whom the conspirators chose to fill the place of Nero, was one of the most prominent and popular men in Rome at this time. He lived in magnificent style, was lavish of his wealth, and was ready to place his powers of oratory at the service of the poor. He had winning manners, and his life was as disillute as that of Nero or To Jelenos. He lazily consented to be the center of a plot, the dangers of which he was not sufficiently ambitious to share. What seemed to give this enterprise a considerable chance of success was the adherence of Fanius Rufus, the Praetorian Prefect, who was jealous and afraid of his powerful colleague To Jelenos. Along with Rufus a number of the tribunes and officers who had been passed over by To Jelenos joined the conspiracy. Conspicuous among these was the tribune Subrius Flavius. Among the rest were the council-designate, Claudius Lateranus, Antonius Natalis, a friend of Piso, Aeneas Lucanus, the poet, whose verses had incurred the disfavor of the emperor, Claudius Senesio, a courtier constantly in attendance on Nero, and so able to keep his associates aware of what was going on in the palace. Lucan's mother and a freedwoman named Epicurus were also initiated into the project. Epicurus tried to win over an officer of the fleet, Volusius Procullus, who was supposed to have a grudge against Nero, but he deceived her expectation by revealing the affair to the emperor. As, however, she had mentioned no names, the conspirators were not discovered. They then decided to kill Nero during the Feast of Ceres between the 12th and 19th of April at the Games in the Circus. The plan was the same as that which had been successfully adopted by the assassins of Julius Caesar. Lateranus was to present a petition to Nero and clinging to his legs throw him on the ground. The rest were to bury their weapons in his body. But Flavius Scavennis, who claimed the first blow, foolishly betrayed the secret which had hitherto been closely preserved. He made his will, gave the dagger, which he had chosen for the deed, to his freedmen Milicus to sharpen, got ready the appliances for binding up wounds, and gave his slaves and freedmen a luxurious feast. These unusual proceedings excited the suspicions of Milicus, who at daybreak sought and obtained an audience with Nero. Scavennis was arrested, but his examination led to nothing, and the plot would not have been discovered if Milicus had not remembered the frequent visits which his master received from Natalis. When Natalis was examined separately, his evidence did not agree with that of Scavennis, and in this way the accusation of the freedmen was proved to be well founded. Threats of torture and promises of mercy induced the two conspirators to vie with each other in revealing the names of their associates. Their conduct contrasted with the constancy of Epicaris, who submitted to tortures and in the end strangled herself rather than betray her trust. The names of the military conspirators had not been disclosed, and Phaneus Rufus took his seat beside Tejelenis at the trial, and sought to divert suspicion from himself by his zeal as a judge. But when one of the accused denounced him, he turned pale and could not defend himself. The proceedings against the victims were summary, but they were allowed to choose their own mode of death. Piso, who had shown a resolution and cowardice through the whole episode, and Lateranus were slain without resistance, and Piso made a cringing will in favor of the Emperor. Among the first whose names were betrayed and who were condemned to die was the philosopher Seneca. It is not improbable that he was really implicated in the enterprise, and in any case it seems to have been the wish of the military associates in the plot to elevate him instead of Piso to the supreme power. If Nero had any wish to spare his former tutor, he was hindered by Popeia and Tejelenis. Seneca had just returned from Campania with his wife Paulina, and was staying at a country house four miles from the city. When the message of death was brought, his wife declared her resolution of dying along with him, and they severed the veins of their arms. The flow of blood in Seneca's old frame was languid, and his agony was protracted. As he lay slowly bleeding, he dictated a composition which was afterwards published. To hasten his end he swallowed poison, which, however, had no effect on his drained body, and death was finally brought about by the steam of a hot bath. But Paulina was not permitted to die. Nero had no cause of hatred against her, and her arms were bound up by the orders of the soldiers. She lived some years longer, faithful to her husband's memory, and the lasting pallor of her skin was a monument of her attempt to die with him. The fate of this distinguished philosopher and that of his nephew, the poet Lucan, gave the subordinate conspiracy a certain celebrity. Lucan opened his veins in the bath, and, as he felt the animation depart from his feet and hands, recited appropriate verses of his own, describing a wounded soldier bleeding to death. Subrius Flavus, a tribune of one of the Praetorian cohorts, pushed himself by his bold words to Nero. When the tyrant asked him why he conspired, he replied, quote, because I hated you, none of the soldiers was more loyal as long as you deserved our affection. I began to hate you when you became an assassin of your mother and your wife, a charioteer, an actor, and an incendiary." The council vestedness was included among the victims, although his guilt was not clear, and it is said that Nero wanted to get rid of him on account of his wife Statlia Messalina. Nero married Messalina in the following year. Natalis was pardoned, Milicus was richly rewarded, and received the name of Preserver. The Praetorian guards received each man two thousand cestresses, and were for the future provided with bread free of cost. Triumphal decorations were granted to the Prefect to Jelenus, Coccheus Nerva, and Petronius Terpelianus, who had helped in the judicial proceedings, and their statues were set up in the Palladium. Consular insignia were conferred on Nymphidius Sabanus, who had succeeded Phaneus Rupus as Praetorian Prefect. A temple was erected to Salus, the Dagger of Scavius was dedicated to Jupiter the Avenger, and the month of April was named Nero-Nianus. It was even proposed, but the proposal was rejected, to erect a temple to Nero. It is noteworthy that a full account of the judicial proceedings, which were conducted by the Imperial Consilium, was published. Both later in 65 A.D. and in the succeeding year, executions took place which seemed to have been in some way connected with the conspiracy of Piso. Aeneas Mela, brother of Seneca and father of Lucan, was condemned on the ground of a forged letter of his son, charging him with complication in Piso's plot. At the same time perished T. Petronius on the charge of a suspicious friendship with the conspirator Scavenus, but really on account of the jealousy of Tejelenus. Petronius was a man who made the pleasures of vice a fine art, and his judgment was regarded as the standard of taste in all matters of luxury at Rome. He was the glass of fashion. His feasts were elegant, his debauchery refined. He was named Arbiter as the arbitrator or director of the emperor's pleasures, and Tejelenus, who aspired to be Nero's sole guide in such things, envied the influence of Petronius. When the emperor was in Capanha 66 A.D., Tejelenus caused Petronius to be detained at Cume. Seeing that his fate was determined, the voluptuary was true to the principles of his life in the moments of his death. Having opened his veins, he bade the physician bind them up again, and repeating this operation at intervals, he spent his last hours at a banquet amusing his friends with wanton verses. He also composed an account of the unnatural orgies of the emperor and sent it to him under seal. This led to the banishment of a woman named Silia, whom Nero suspected of having betrayed the scenes in the palace in which she had taken part. Having butchered so many illustrious men, Nero at length desired to destroy virtue herself by the death of Thresiapetus and Piraeus Seranus. P. Clodius Thresiapetus was more remarkable for what he was than for anything he did. He was the leader of the party of opposition which yearned, helplessly, for the restoration of the republic and set up the younger Cato as their ideal. He was the embodiment of their virtues and their faults. Born at Petavium he was simple in his habits, incorruptible in his morals, and out of sympathy with the luxury of Rome. He married Aria, the daughter of a man who had fallen in a conspiracy against Clodius and whose wife had heroically slain herself. He and his son-in-law, Helvidius Priscus, used to crown themselves with garlands and celebrate the birthdays of Brutus and Cassius. Thresiapetus distinguished himself in the senate by his rough independence. He withdrew without voting when the motion was made to condemn the memory of Agrippina. He declined to take any part in the Neuronian games. He did not attend the funeral of Popeia. When one Antistias was condemned to death for mocking the emperor in verse, Thresiapetus endeavored to moderate the flattery of the senate. It was said that he never sacrificed for the emperor's safety. He and his party were always protesting against the government in insignificant matters and asserting their independence and trifles. Their republican idea was an anachronism. Their rhetoric was hollow. Their activity was chiefly confined to society and literature. Thresiapetus was a stoic, and he composed a life of his model, Cato. Lucan's farsalia was a characteristic work of this party of opposition, which, throughout the whole period of the Julian and Claudian dynasties, fostered its utopias and repeated its shallow phrases. It must be owned that they had the courage of their opinions and that their bitterness against the principate was natural enough, for its institution had destroyed the political power of the senatorial order. Nor could they see, as clearly as we can see now, that even imperial despotism was a lesser evil for the Roman world than the government of the senate in the last days of the republic. The courageous obstinacy of Thresiapetus led to his destruction. All his little sins of omission and commission against the majesty of the emperor were marshaled by Capito Cossutianus, a son-in-law of Tejelonus, and another delator, Epirus Marcellus. And at the same time Barea Seranus was accused on various charges, among others that he had been intimate with rebellious Plautus. The chief witness against him was P. Ignatius Seller, a stoic philosopher. The daughter of Seranus, Servilia, was also charged with treasonable divination concerning Nero. The cases were tried by the senate, and all three were condemned. Helvidius Priscus, who was likewise accused of neglecting his duties as senator, was banished. Thresiapet adopted the usual mode of death among condemned nobles and opened his veins, forbidding his wife Aria to follow her mother's example. As the first blood spouted, he said, a libation to Jove the Deliverer. In the meantime Nero had been busy with those pursuits for which he imagined he had a special calling. He had appeared publicly on the stage at Neapolis, sixty-four A.D., where, from the Greek character of the city, he expected a favorable reception, and he received such enthusiastic applause that he determined to exhibit his skill to Greece herself. He had made preparations for a visit to that country, but the project was not carried out until two years later. In the meantime he celebrated the neuronia a second time, sixty-five A.D., read his poems to a delighted audience, and appeared as a Scythorotus. It was considered almost high treason not to appear in the theatre on such occasions. Towards the close of the following year, sixty-six, Nero visited Greece, where he appeared at all the public spectacles and danced and sang without any reserve. Those towns in which musical contests were held had sent invitations to him offering him prizes, and the four great games at Olympia, Delphi, Gismas, and Namia, which were regularly celebrated in successive years, were crowded into the space of one year for his sake, so he could win the glory of being a periodonikos or victor at all four. Besides this irregularity, a musical contest was held at Olympia, contrary to want. He also competed in a chariot race and is said to have received the prize, though his horses in chariot fell. The proclamation was made in this form, Nero the Emperor is victorious and crowns the people of the Romans and the world which is his. Nero was attended on his Greek tour by a large train of courtiers and Praetorian guards, and he seems to have indulged in debauchery with less reserve than ever. He had a profound admiration for Greece and the Greek people, and he could not brook that they should hold the position of mere provincials. He determined to reward them for their kindness to himself and their appreciation of his artistic talents, so he enacted at Corinth the scene which, two and a half centuries before, had been enacted by Flaminias. He proclaimed in the marketplace the freedom of the Greeks. The province of Achaia was done away with. The proclamation of Nero was very different in practical effect from that of Flaminias. It was harmless, it did not mean civil war. It merely relieved a favored portion of the empire from the burden of taxation. Nero's Greek visit was also marked by a serious attempt to cut through the isthmus of Corinth, a project which had been most recently entertained by his uncle Gaius. Nero inaugurated the beginning of the work himself, but after his departure it was abandoned. Nero's visit to Greece was marked by the destruction of three consular legates of whose power or ambition the emperor was jealous or afraid. The most important of these was Corbulo, whom we have already met in the Rhine and whose exploits in the east will be recorded in the following chapter. The other two were Scrobinius Rufus and Scrobinius Proculus, brothers, who at this time were the legatai of the two Germanys. It is unknown what accusations were preferred against them or who were their enemies. While the emperor was absent, he left a freedman named Helius as his representative in Rome, and he could probably have found no one more faithfully devoted to his interests. At the beginning of the year 68 AD, serious signs of discontent were apparent in the provinces, and plots in the western armies against the emperor were suspected. Helius crossed over to Greece and urged Nero to return if he would save his power. He entered Rome, born in the chariot in which Augustus had triumphed, crowned with the Olympian wreath. He was hailed as Nero Apollo and Nero Hercules, and coins were struck on which he was depicted as a flute player. But although he was flattered on all sides, he soon left Rome for Copania, where he breathed more freely. The events which led to the fall of Nero began in Gaul, although it was not from Gaul that the final blow was to come. See Julius Vindex sprung of a noble Celtic family, but thoroughly Romanized and adopted into the imperial gents was governor of Gallia Lugudunensis. At the beginning of 68 AD, he raised the standard of revolt. It is not quite clear what his ultimate intentions were, but he seems to have conceived the idea of a kingdom of Gaul, ruled by himself, nominally perhaps dependent on the empire, like the former kingdom of Mauritania. But it was practically an attempt to throw off the Roman yoke. Vindex may be regarded as a successor of Vercingatorix and Sacravir. He collected from various parts of Gaul a force of about 100,000 men. The districts of the Arverni and the Sequani joined in the movement, and the town of Vienna on the Rhône was a sort of center for the rebellion. But Lugudunum, the capital of the three provinces, held aloof as did the Lingones and the Traveri on the borders of Germany. The troops which Vindex gathered were ill-disciplined and ill-armed. The enterprise was hopeless unless he could induce some of the Western armies to take part in it. His attempts to win the armies of the Rhône were fruitless, but he was more successful in Hither Spain. We have already met Galba, the governor of that province. He had distinguished himself slightly both on the Rhône and in Africa. He was already in his 73rd year, and in his childhood had seen Augustus, who had said to him according to report, quote, Thou shalt one day taste our empire, end quote. It is probable that Galba had already thought of rebellion before he received the overtures from Vindex. Oracles were afloat that an emperor was to arise from Spain. The revolt of Vindex and the pressure of his lieutenant, T. Vinius, decided the old man, and as he belonged to the senatorial party, his declaration of rebellion took the form of declaring himself to be the servant of the Senate. After considerable hesitation, on April 2nd, he named himself the Legatus Senatus Populic Romani in a speech delivered from his tribunal, and made preparations for war. In Spain he was supported by Otho, Legatus of Lusitania, and Cicina, Craster of Betica, but their adherence was of little consequence if the legions of the Rhône and Claudius Maeser, Governor of Africa, held aloof. In the meantime the issue of the revolt of Vindex had been decided. When the news was brought, Nero returned to Rome and took measures for its suppression. Those troops, which were already on their march from Germany and Britain to prosecute a war against the Sarmatians, received orders to return. But the quelling of the rebellion was due to Virginus Rufus, the Legatus of Upper Germany, who resisted all the endeavors of Vindex to gain him over. Alarmed by the national character of the movement, Virginus advanced with his own legions reinforced by a division from the lower province to Vassontio, which was threatened by the Gallic militia of the rebel. Vassontio, whose name has become Vassanson, was a very important place, for added the roads from lower Germany and northwestern Gaul, from the Rhine and from the Jura Mountains, met. Here a great battle took place. The legions were completely victorious and Vindex was slain. It was not loyalty to Nero that had influenced the Germanic army to repel the advances of Vindex. It was rather the Gallic character of the revolt. This is shown by the fact that after the victory they proclaimed their general imperator. But he resisted the temptation. He was a man of lowly birth and perhaps thought he had no chance of being accepted by the nobility of Rome. In the inscription for his tomb, which he composed before his death, he mentions as the two creditable actions of his life the victory over Vindex and his refusal of the empire. After the failure of the revolt in Gaul, the situation of Galba seemed hopeless and he despaired himself. But he was saved by the emperor's want of resolution and the treachery of the ministers. When the news of the defection in Spain arrived in Rome, Nero confiscated Galba's property and himself assumed the consulship. He made preparations for an expedition against Galba and appointed Petronius Terpialanus as the commander. A new legion was organized from the troops of the fleet and called Legioclasica. But the Praetorian guards, who were devoted to the Julian house, seemed to have remained quietly in their camp instead of taking the field as we should have expected. The prefect Tijalinus vanishes from the scene and plays no part in the catastrophe of his master. His fall was probably due to the intrigues of Nymphidius Sabines, the other prefect, who nominally embraced the cause of Galba, but was really aiming at securing the empire for himself. If Nero had not utterly lost his head, he was secure in the loyalty of the Praetorian guards, notwithstanding the aspirations of the prefect. But he was a coward and his irresolution drove his supporters away. Dalda's satisfaction prevailed in Rome. Corn was dear and when a ship arrived from Egypt, which proved to be laden not with corn, but with sand for the emperor's arena, the discontent became acute. It was reported that Nero entertained the idea of abandoning Rome and sailing to Alexandria to make that city the capital of an eastern empire, the idea which Antonius had almost realized. The senate was naturally eager to overthrow the tyrant, who hated it in favor of Galba, but feared to compromise itself until the Praetorian guards had declared themselves. In order to draw them from their devotion to Nero, Nymphidius resorted to an artifice. He persuaded the emperor, who was distracted with fear, to repair from the palace to the civilian gardens, which lay close to the Tiber on the road to Ostia. He then went to the camp and informed the soldiers that Nero had deserted them and left Rome. They were easily convinced that it was their interest to support Galba, and the widely prefect promised them, in Galba's name, a donative of 30,000 satyrsas each. He knew that Galba would never fulfill the promise, and he hoped by means of the consequent dissatisfaction to secure his own ends. Meanwhile, in the civilian gardens, the emperor was devising councils of despair. He was gradually deserted by his courtiers and most of his slaves and freedmen, and the Praetorian cohort, which was keeping guard at the palace, left its post at midnight. At length he determined to flee from Rome, but could induce no friend to share his danger except a few freedmen. One officer scornfully quoted Virgil, is it so hard to die? One of the imperial freedmen, named Phaeon, offered his master the refuge of Avila about four miles northeast of Rome on the Via Patinaria, a crossroad connecting the Via Solaria and the Via Nomantana. Thither he started by night, accompanied by Phaeon, Epaphroditus, and two other freedmen. The historians have not failed to invest the night ride and the last scene of Nero's life with dramatic coloring. The Via Nomantana went close to the Praetorian camp and shouts in honor of Galba reached the ears of the fugitives as they passed. The night was wild with lightning and earthquakes. Nero crept into the villa by a narrow entrance at the back in order not to arouse the suspicions of the slaves. Thither he lay on straw for hours, unable to make up his mind to die. What an artist I am to perish, he said, but when a slave of Phaeon arrived with the news that the senate had condemned him to death Mori Maiorum and that he was being sought for everywhere, he made up his mind to escape a cruel execution. The tramp of horses feet was heard in the distance when he pressed a dagger to his throat and it was driven home by a pathroditus. As he was dying a centurion entered and pretended that he had come to help him. Too late that was fidelity indeed were Nero's last words. He perished on June 9, 68 AD. His body was burnt and the ashes were buried honorably in the sepulcher of the Dometian gents on the Pinzian hill. At first the tidings of his fall caused universal joy. The senate, who as soon as the decision of the Praetorian guards was known, had hastened to sentence him to a punishment which was almost obsolete, condemned his memory and ordered his statues to be overthrown. The intense hatred which the senatorial party felt towards Nero is most clearly seen in literature. But among the mass of the people a reaction soon set in. Many people doubted the reality of his death and looked for his reappearance and under succeeding emperors three false Nero's arose and obtained a following. King Vologesis of Parthia sent an embassy requesting the senate and the new princeps to hold the memory of Nero in honor. Christians saw in Nero the Antichrist and thought that as such he would come again. Nero was the last of the true Caesars, the last we may say of the Julian line. Strictly he belonged by adoption to the Cloudii, yet the Cloudian and Julian houses had been so closely connected since the union of Augustus with Livia that politically little distinction was made between them. Nero was not only the adopted son of Claudius, he was also through his mother, the great great grandson of Augustus and the grandson of Germanicus, who belonged by adoption to the Julian gens. Thus it was felt when Nero perished without an heir that the line of the great dictator had come to an end and a new epoch was beginning. The features of Nero were handsome, but his expression was not pleasant. His face were a sort of scowl perhaps due to his defective sight. His body was ill-made, he had a prominent stomach and thin legs. In his later years his skin was blotched from excesses, but his health was good. As a professional singer he was very careful about his voice. His effeminacy was shown in the arrangement of his hair and in the looseness of the syncture which found his dress when he appeared in public. His capricious tyranny recalls, in many respects, the extravagances of Gaius. Like Gaius he was a lover of the incredible. But while the mad Gaius had almost a genius for devising absurdities on a colossal scale, Nero was merely extravagant on the beaten tracks of luxury. He gave immense presence to his favorites and tried to outdo his predecessors in the spaciousness of his buildings. He projected a canal from Puteoli to Rome as well as the cutting of the Isthmus. He did not aspire to divinity like Gaius but rather at being preeminent among men in receiving their admiration. He was vain rather than proud. He adopted superstitions from the East and practiced magic. In his later years the senators seemed to have kept quite aloof from his court and he hated them cordially. No flattery pleased him more than when a courtier said, I hate you, Nero, because you are a senator. Section 6 Nero's administration. The peculiarity of Nero's principate was that it was marked by good government under a bad emperor. Nero himself was devoid of political insight and spent no care on the administration. Yet in general policy and in the conduct of military affairs there is little to blame if there is little to praise in his government in the early years of his reign. This was not due to the princeps. It was partly due to well-trained ministers, to Seneca and Burrus especially. But it was also due to the excellence of the machine which Caesar the dictator and Augustus had set going. It is perhaps as well that the political views of the ministers were strictly limited by the system of Augustus. They did not introduce any new idea into the government. It was a more serious defect that their activity was mainly confined to the interests of the capital. They concerned themselves less with the welfare of the provinces. It must be admitted, however, that they appointed able officers to the commands on the frontiers. The revival of the power of the senate in Nero's early years has been already noticed. In 56 AD the management of the errarium was transferred from the quaesters to two prefects of Fratorian standing who were to be appointed by the emperor and hold office for three years. This perhaps served to give the emperor more control over the money which the fisk advanced to the errarium. In the same year the tribunes were deprived of their rights of intercession and inflicting fines. It was probably in this reign that the independence of the senate was diminished by the emperor's extension of the right of condemnation to the consulate which had hitherto been exempted from this influence. But the most serious aggression of Nero against the senate was his appropriation of the right of issuing copper coinage which had hitherto been reserved for the senate. He also entertained the idea of abolishing the senatorial privilege of holding the high commands in the provinces and armies, in fact of abolishing the senate altogether and carrying on the business of the state by means of the knights and freedmen. In the field of civil legislation several useful measures were passed, among which may be mentioned that which forbade the exhibitions of gladiators and beasts in the provinces. In provincial administration the reign of Nero was marked by numerous processes for extortion, both in senatorial and in imperial provinces, instituted by the subjects against their governors. Cestius Proculus, accused by the Cretans, was acquitted. P. Cellar, procounsel of Asia, died before his case was decided. Tarquidius Priscus, accused by Bithynia, was condemned, and Pettius Blasius, accused by Cyrenaica, was degraded from the senate. In the imperial provinces Cossutianus Capito was prosecuted by Cilicia and condemned but pardoned by Nero owing to the influence of his father-in-law to Jelinas. Sardinia accused Vispanius Blanus and obtained his condemnation, but Epirus Marcellus, accused by Lycia, was acquitted. Some of these processes came before the senate, others before the emperor. In 57 AD an edict was issued forbidding provincial governors and procurators to exhibit spectacles. Many had been in the habit of doing this in order to reconcile the people to their unjust administration. These facts proved that the subjects were still exposed to injustice from their governors and also that under Nero they were encouraged to complain. A new procuratorial province was created, Pontus Polemaniacus and Alpes Cotier was placed under procurators. The districts of the Cotian and Maritime Alps had been Romanized since their pacification under Augustus and now received the Ayus Latinum. Possibly the Penning Alps also became a procuratorial province as early as Nero. The preservation of the Latin nationality occupied the serious attention of the government. New blood was imported into Italy from the provinces and a considerable number of towns were colonized including Antium, Beneventum, Capua, Tarentum, Nuceria, Puteoli. The process of Roman civilization in Spain is shown by the fact that the three legions placed there by Augustus were reduced under Nero to two. It has been already mentioned that Nero gave the Greeks their freedom. As this act deprived the Senate of a province, he made up the loss to the Errarium by transferring to the Senate the imperial province of Sardinia and Corsica. In the middle of Nero's reign an important colonization took place in, an important colonization took place in Moesia which was constantly threatened by invasions of barbarians from the north and seems to have suffered from depopulation. The Legatus Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Alianus settled 100,000 inhabitants of the land beyond the Danube in the Moesian territory. They were obliged to pay a certain tribute and also doubtless to perform military service in case of need. He also extended the sphere of the Roman influence on the north shore of the Uxine by annexing to the empire the town of Liras. The advance of Roman arms in Britain has already been related. The war for Armenia and the rebellion in Judea will be described in subsequent chapters. The project of an overland water route from the Mediterranean to the North Sea was proposed by Lucius Vettus the Legatus of Upper Germany 55 to 56 A.D. It was merely required to cut a canal connecting the Arar the Seon with the Mocella. Thus ships might sail up the Rhon turn into the Arar at Legudinum, reach the Mocella by the projected channel, and descend the Mocella into the Rhine. But the jealousy of Aelius Gracilis the Legatus of Belgica frustrated the execution of this plan which would have necessitated the bringing of the legions of Germany into Belgica. Gracilis frightened Vettus by suggesting that the emperor would be annoyed at the undertaking of such a large work by a subject. In the lower province some trouble was caused by the eastern Frisians who were independent whereas the western Frisians were tributary. Emboldened by the long peace they migrated with all their people to the bank of the Old Rhine and established themselves in unoccupied lands reserved for pasturing the beasts which supplied the Roman troops with food. Their leaders, we cannot properly speak of kings, were Veritas and Malarex. They had built their houses, sowed the fields, and were using the soil as their own when the Legatus dubius Avetis threatened to attack them unless they either returned to their old abodes or obtained from the emperor a grant of land. Veritas and Malarex preferred the second alternative and went themselves to Rome to beg Caesar for the boon. They were obliged to wait some days on Nero's pleasure and spent the time in seeing the sights of Rome. They were shown Pompey's theater in order that they might apprehend the greatness of the people. They took their seats among the general public, and as they could not appreciate the entertainment, they asked questions about the places assigned to the various ranks, the fourteen benches of the knights and the orchestra where the senators sat. Observing some persons in foreign dress among the senators and learning that they were the envoys of nations who were distinguished by their bravery and friendship to Rome, they exclaimed that the Germans were excelled by none in valor or loyalty and took their seats among the senators. The incident was good naturally received by the spectators who regarded it as an example of old-fashioned impulsiveness. The result of the embassy was that the two chieftains received Roman citizenship, but their nation was commanded to evacuate the territory which they had occupied. They refused to obey, and it was necessary for some auxiliary cavalry to drive them out. But no sooner were the frisians ejected than the same lands were seized by another and more powerful people, the Ampsivari, who lived in the neighborhood of the Amesia and were driven out of their territory by the Chausi. Because of these homeless exiles, seeking a new habitation, was pleaded by Boyoculus, an old man who was influential among these nations and loyal to Rome. On the occasion of the Truscan revolt in the disastrous year 9 A.D., he had been imprisoned by Armenias and had since then served under Tiberius and Germanicus. But Avitus refused to accede to the request, and the Ampservarians called on the Bruch Terri, Tank Terri, and other tribes to help them to take by force what the Romans refused to give. Avitus sent a message to Cotilius Mansia, who had succeeded Vetus as legatus of Upper Germany, requesting him to make a hostile demonstration beyond the Rhine, and he himself promptly invaded the land of the Tank Terri and threatened to exterminate them if they associated themselves with the Ampservarians. The Bruch Terri were scared in the same way, and the Ampservarians were then isolated and forced to retreat. Wandering as outcasts from one territory to another, received now as friends and now as foes, their entire youth was finally slain, and those who could not fight were divided as booty.