Nero Claudius Caesar (Nero) - C. Suetonius Tranquillus
LUCAN was the son of Annaeus Mela, the brother of Seneca, the
philosopher. He was born at Corduba, the original residence of the
family, but came early to Rome, where his promising talents, and the
patronage of his uncle, recommended him to the favour of Nero; by whom he
was raised to the dignity of an augur and quaestor before he had attained
the usual age. Prompted by the desire of displaying his political
abilities, he had the imprudence to engage in a competition with his
imperial patron. The subject chosen by Nero was the tragical fate of
Niobe; and that of Lucan was Orpheus. The ease with which the latter
obtained the victory in the contest, excited the jealousy of the emperor,
who resolved upon depressing his rising genius. With this view, he
exposed him daily to the mortification of fresh insults, until at last
the poet's resentment was so much provoked, that he entered into the
conspiracy of Piso for cutting off the tyrant. The plot being
discovered, there remained for the unfortunate Lucan no hope of pardon:
and choosing the same mode of death which was employed by his uncle, he
had his veins opened, while he sat in a warm bath, and expired in
pronouncing with great emphasis the following lines in his Pharsalia:--
Scinditur avulsus; nec sicut vulnere sanguis
Emicuit lentus: ruptis cadit undique venis;
Discursusque animae diversa in membra meantis
Interceptus aquis, nullius, vita perempti
Est tanta dimissa via.--Lib. iii. 638.
----Asunder flies the man.
No single wound the gaping rupture seems,
Where trickling crimson flows in tender streams;
But from an opening horrible and wide
A thousand vessels pour the bursting tide;
At once the winding channel's course was broke,
Where wandering life her mazy journey took.--Rowe.
Some authors have said that he betrayed pusillanimity at the hour of
death; and that, to save himself from punishment, he (397) accused his
mother of being involved in the conspiracy. This circumstance, however,
is not mentioned by other writers, who relate, on the contrary, that he
died with philosophical fortitude. He was then only in the twenty-sixth
year of his age.
Lucan had scarcely reached the age of puberty when he wrote a poem on the
contest between Hector and Achilles. He also composed in his youth a
poem on the burning of Rome; but his only surviving work is the
Pharsalia, written on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey. This
poem, consisting of ten books, is unfinished, and its character has been
more depreciated than that of any other production of antiquity. In the
plan of the poem, the author prosecutes the different events in the civil
war, beginning his narrative at the passage of the Rubicon by Caesar. He
invokes not the muses, nor engages any gods in the dispute; but
endeavours to support an epic dignity by vigour of sentiment, and
splendour of description. The horrors of civil war, and the importance
of a contest which was to determine the fate of Rome and the empire of
the world, are displayed with variety of colouring, and great energy of
expression. In the description of scenes, and the recital of heroic
actions, the author discovers a strong and lively imagination; while, in
those parts of the work which are addressed either to the understanding
or the passions, he is bold, figurative, and animated. Indulging too
much in amplification, he is apt to tire with prolixity; but in all his
excursions he is ardent, elevated, impressive, and often brilliant. His
versification has not the smoothness which we admire in the compositions
of Virgil, and his language is often involved in the intricacies of
technical construction: but with all his defects, his beauties are
numerous; and he discovers a greater degree of merit than is commonly
found in the productions of a poet of twenty-six years of age, at which
time he died.----
PERSIUS was born at Volaterrae, of an equestrian family, about the
beginning of the Christian aera. His father dying when he was six years
old, he was left to the care of his mother, for whom and for his sisters
he expresses the warmest affection. At the age of twelve he came to
Rome, where, after attending a course of grammar and rhetoric under the
respective masters of those branches of education, he placed himself
under the tuition of Annaeus Cornutus, a celebrated stoic philosopher of
that time. There subsisted between him and this preceptor so great a
friendship, that at his death, which happened in the twenty-ninth year of
his age, he bequeathed to Cornutus a handsome sum of money, and his
library. The latter, however, accepting only the books, left the money
to Persius's sisters.
Priscian, Quintilian, and other ancient writers, spear of Persius's
satires as consisting of a book without any division. They have since,
however, been generally divided into six different satires, but by some
only into five. The subjects of these compositions are, the vanity of
the poets in his time; the backwardness of youth to the cultivation of
moral science; ignorance and temerity in political administration,
chiefly in allusion to the government of Nero: the fifth satire is
employed in evincing that the wise man also is free; in discussing which
point, the author adopts the observations used by Horace on the same
subject. The last satire of Persius is directed against avarice. In the
fifth, we meet with a beautiful address to Cornutus, whom the author
celebrates for his amiable virtues, and peculiar talents for teaching.
The following lines, at the same time that they show how diligently the
preceptor and his pupil were employed through the whole day in the
cultivation of moral science, afford a more agreeable picture of domestic
comfort and philosophical conviviality, than might be expected in the
family of a rigid stoic:
Tecum etenim longos memini consumere soles,
Et tecum primas epulis decerpere noctes.
Unum opus, et requiem pariter disponimus ambo:
Atque verecunda laxamus feria mensa.--Sat. v.
Can I forget how many a summer's day,
Spent in your converse, stole, unmarked, away?
Or how, while listening with increased delight,
I snatched from feasts the earlier hours of night?--Gifford.
The satires of Persius are written in a free, expostulatory, and
argumentative manner; possessing the same justness of sentiment as those
of Horace, but exerted in the way of derision, and not with the admirable
raillery of that facetious author. They are regarded by many as obscure;
but this imputation arises more from unacquaintance with the characters
and manners to which the author alludes, than from any peculiarity either
in his language or composition. His versification is harmonious; and we
have only to remark, in addition to similar examples in other Latin
writers, that, though Persius is acknowledged to have been both virtuous
and modest, there are in the fourth satire a few passages which cannot
decently admit of being translated. Such was the freedom of the Romans,
in the use of some expressions, which just refinement has now exploded.--
Another poet, in this period, was FABRICIUS VEIENTO, who wrote a severe
satire against the priests of his time; as also one (399) against the
senators, for corruption in their judicial capacity. Nothing remains of
either of those productions; but, for the latter, the author was banished
by Nero.
There now likewise flourished a lyric poet, CAESIUS BASSUS, to whom
Persius has addressed his sixth satire. He is said to have been, next to
Horace, the best lyric poet among the Romans; but of his various
compositions, only a few inconsiderable fragments are preserved.
To the two poets now mentioned must be added POMPONIUS SECUNDUS, a man of
distinguished rank in the army, and who obtained the honour of a triumph
for a victory over a tribe of barbarians in Germany. He wrote several
tragedies, which in the judgment of Quintilian, were beautiful
compositions.
FOOTNOTES:
[548] A.U.C. 593, 632, 658, 660, 700, 722, 785.
[549] A.U.C. 632.
[550] A.U.C. 639, 663.
[551] For the distinction between the praenomen and cognomen, see note,
p. 192.
[552] A.U.C. 632.
[553] The Allobroges were a tribe of Gauls, inhabiting Dauphiny and
Savoy; the Arverni have left their name in Auvergne.
[554] A.U.C. 695.
[555] A.U.C. 700.
[556] A.U.C. 711.
[557] A.U.C. 723.
[558] Nais seems to have been a freedwoman, who had been allowed to
adopt the family name of her master.
[559] By one of those fictions of law, which have abounded in all
systems of jurisprudence, a nominal alienation of his property was made
in the testator's life-time.
[560] The suggestion offered (note, p. 123), that the Argentarii, like
the goldsmiths of the middle ages, combined the business of bankers, or
money-changers, with dealings in gold and silver plate, is confirmed by
this passage. It does not, however, appear that they were artificers of
the precious metals, though they dealt in old and current coins,
sculptured vessels, gems, and precious stones.
[561] Pyrgi was a town of the ancient Etruria, near Antium, on the sea-
coast, but it has long been destroyed.
[562] A.U.C. 791; A.D. 39.
[563] The purification, and giving the name, took place, among the
Romans, in the case of boys, on the ninth, and of girls, on the tenth
day. The customs of the Judaical law were similar. See Matt. i. 59-63;
Luke iii. 21. 22.
[564] A.U.C. 806.
[565] Seneca, the celebrated philosophical writer, had been released
from exile in Corsica, shortly before the death of Tiberius. He
afterwards fell a sacrifice to the jealousy and cruelty of his former
pupil, Nero.
[566] Caligula.
[567] A.U.C. 809--A.D. 57.
[568] Antium, the birth-place of Nero, an ancient city of the Volscians,
stood on a rocky promontory of the coast, now called Capo d' Anzo, about
thirty-eight miles from Rome. Though always a place of some naval
importance, it was indebted to Nero for its noble harbour. The ruins of
the moles yet remain; and there are vestiges of the temples and villas of
the town, which was the resort of the wealthy Romans, it being a most
delightful winter residence. The Apollo Belvidere was discovered among
these ruins.
[569] A.U.C. 810.
[570] The Podium was part of the amphitheatre, near the orchestra,
allotted to the senators, and the ambassadors of foreign nations; and
where also was the seat of the emperor, of the person who exhibited the
games, and of the Vestal Virgins. It projected over the wall which
surrounded the area of the amphitheatre, and was raised between twelve
and fifteen feet above it; secured with a breast-work or parapet against
the irruption of wild beasts.
[571] A.U.C. 813.
[572] The baths of Nero stood to the west of the Pantheon. They were,
probably, incorporated with those afterwards constructed by Alexander
Severus; but no vestige of them remains. That the former were
magnificent, we may infer from the verses of Martial:
--------Quid Nerone pejus?
Quid thermis melius Neronianis.--B. vii. ch. 34.
What worse than Nero?
What better than his baths?
[573] Among the Romans, the time at which young men first shaved the
beard was marked with particular ceremony. It was usually in their
twenty-first year, but the period varied. Caligula (c. x.) first shaved
at twenty; Augustus at twenty-five.
[574] A.U.C. 819. See afterwards, c. xxx.
[575] A.U.C. 808, 810, 811, 813.
[576] The Sportulae were small wicker baskets, in which victuals or
money were carried. The word was in consequence applied to the public
entertainments at which food was distributed, or money given in lieu of
it.
[577] "Superstitionis novae et maleficae," are the words of Suetonius;
the latter conveying the idea of witchcraft or enchantment. Suidas
relates that a certain martyr cried out from his dungeon--"Ye have loaded
me with fetters as a sorcerer and profane person." Tacitus calls the
Christian religion "a foreign and deadly [exitiabilis] superstition,"
Annal. xiii. 32; Pliny, in his celebrated letter to Trajan, "a depraved,
wicked (or prava), and outrageous superstition." Epist. x. 97.
Tacitus also describes the excruciating torments inflicted on the Roman
Christians by Nero. He says that they were subjected to the derision of
the people; dressed in the skins of wild beasts, and exposed to be torn
to pieces by dogs in the public games, that they were crucified, or
condemned to be burnt; and at night-fall served in place of lamps to
lighten the darkness, Nero's own gardens being used for the spectacle.
Annal. xv. 44.
Traditions of the church place the martyrdoms of SS. Peter and Paul at
Rome, under the reign of Nero. The legends are given by Ordericus
Vitalis. See vol. i. of the edition in the Antiq. Lib. pp. 206, etc.,
with the notes and reference to the apocryphal works on which they are
founded.
[578] Claudius had received the submission of some of the British
tribes. See c. xvii. of his Life. In the reign of Nero, his general,
Suetonius Paulinus, attacked Mona or Anglesey, the chief seat of the
Druids, and extirpated them with great cruelty. The successes of
Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, who inhabited Derbyshire, were probably the
cause of Nero's wishing to withdraw the legions; she having reduced
London, Colchester, and Verulam, and put to death seventy thousand of the
Romans and their British allies. She was, however, at length defeated by
Suetonius Paulinus, who was recalled for his severities. See Tacit.
Agric. xv. 1, xvi. 1; and Annal. xiv. 29.
[579] The dominions of Cottius embraced the vallies in the chain of the
Alps extending between Piedmont and Dauphiny, called by the Romans the
Cottian Alps. See TIBERIUS, c. xxxvii.
[580] It was a favourite project of the Caesars to make a navigable
canal through the Isthmus of Corinth, to avoid the circumnavigation of
the southern extremity of the Morea, now Cape Matapan, which, even in our
days, has its perils. See JULIUS CAESAR, c. xliv. and CALIGULA, c. xxi.
[581] Caspiae Portae; so called from the difficulties opposed by the
narrow and rocky defile to the passage of the Caucasus from the country
washed by the Euxine, now called Georgia, to that lying between the
Caspian and the sea of Azof. It commences a few miles north of Teflis,
and is frequently the scene of contests between the Russians and the
Circassian tribes.
[582] Citharoedus: the word signifies a vocalist, who with his singing
gave an accompaniment on the harp.
[583] It has been already observed that Naples was a Greek colony, and
consequently Greek appears to have continued the vernacular tongue.
[584] See AUGUSTUS, c. xcviii.
[585] Of the strange names given to the different modes of applauding in
the theatre, the first was derived from the humming of bees; the second
from the rattling of rain or hail on the roofs; and the third from the
tinkling of porcelain vessels when clashed together.
[586] Canace was the daughter of an Etrurian king, whose incestuous
intercourse with her brother having been detected, in consequence of the
cries of the infant of which she was delivered, she killed herself. It
was a joke at Rome, that some one asking, when Nero was performing in
Canace, what the emperor was doing; a wag replied. "He is labouring in
child-birth."
[587] A town in Corcyra, now Corfu. There was a sea-port of the same
name in Epirus.
[588] The Circus Maximus, frequently mentioned by Suetonius, was so
called because it was the largest of all the circuses in and about Rome.
Rudely constructed of timber by Tarquinius Drusus, and enlarged and
improved with the growing fortunes of the republic, under the emperors it
became a most superb building. Julius Caesar (c. xxxix) extended it, and
surrounded it with a canal, ten feet deep and as many broad, to protect
the spectators against danger from the chariots during the races.
Claudius (c. xxi.) rebuilt the carceres with marble, and gilded the
metae. This vast centre of attraction to the Roman people, in the games
of which religion, politics, and amusement, were combined, was, according
to Pliny, three stadia (of 625 feet) long, and one broad, and held
260,000 spectators; so that Juvenal says,
"Totam hodie Romam circus capit."--Sat. xi. 195.
This poetical exaggeration is applied by Addison to the Colosseum.
"That on its public shews unpeopled Rome."--Letter to Lord Halifax.
The area of the Circus Maximus occupied the hollow between the Palatine
and Aventine hills, so that it was overlooked by the imperial palace,
from which the emperors had so full a view of it, that they could from
that height give the signals for commencing the races. Few fragments of
it remain; but from the circus of Caracalla, which is better preserved, a
tolerably good idea of the ancient circus may he formed. For details of
its parts, and the mode in which the sports were conducted, see Burton's
Antiquities, p. 309, etc.
[589] The Velabrum was a street in Rome. See JULIUS CAESAR, c. xxxvii.
[590] Acte was a slave who had been bought in Asia, whose beauty so
captivated Nero that he redeemed her, and became greatly attached to her.
She is supposed to be the concubine of Nero mentioned by St. Chrysostom,
as having been converted by St. Paul during his residence at Rome. The
Apostle speaks of the "Saints in Caesar's household."--Phil. iv. 22.
[591] See Tacitus, Annal. xv. 37.
[592] A much-frequented street in Rome. See CLAUDIUS, c. xvi.
[593] It is said that the advances were made by Agrippina, with flagrant
indecency, to secure her power over him. See Tacitus, Annal. xiv. 2, 3.
[594] Olim etiam, quoties lectica cum matre veheretur, libidinatum
inceste, ac maculis vestis proditum, affirmant.
[595] Tacitus calls him Pythagoras, which was probably the freedman's
proper name; Doryphorus being a name of office somewhat equivalent to
almoner. See Annal. B. xv.
[596] The emperor Caligula, who was the brother of Nero's mother,
Agrippina.
[597] See before, c. xiii. Tiridates was nine months in Rome or the
neighbourhood, and was entertained the whole time at the emperor's
expense.
[598] Canusium, now Canosa, was a town in Apulia, near the mouth of the
river Aufidus, celebrated for its fine wool. It is mentioned by Pliny,
and retained its reputation for the manufacture in the middle ages, as we
find in Ordericus Vitalis.
[599] The Mazacans were an African tribe from the deserts in the
interior, famous for their spirited barbs, their powers of endurance, and
their skill in throwing the dart.
[600] The Palace of the Caesars, on the Palatine hill, was enlarged by
Augustus from the dimensions of a private house (see AUGUSTUS, cc. xxix.,
lvii.). Tiberius made some additions to it, and Caligula extended it to
the Forum (CALIGULA, c. xxxi.). Tacitus gives a similar account with
that of our author of the extent and splendour of the works of Nero.
Annal. xv. c. xlii. Reaching from the Palatine to the Esquiline hill, it
covered all the intermediate space, where the Colosseum now stands. We
shall find that it was still further enlarged by Domitian, c. xv. of his
life is the present work.
[601] The penates were worshipped in the innermost part of the house,
which was called penetralia. There were likewise publici penates,
worshipped in the Capitol, and supposed to be the guardians of the city
and temples. Some have thought that the lares and penates were the same;
and they appear to be sometimes confounded. They were, however,
different. The penates were reputed to be of divine origin; the lares,
of human. Certain persons were admitted to the worship of the lares, who
were not to that of the penates. The latter, as has been already said,
were worshipped only in the innermost part of the house, but the former
also in the public roads, in the camp, and on sea.
[602] A play upon the Greek word moros, signifying a fool, while the
Latin morari, from moror, means "to dwell," or "continue."
[603] A small port between the gulf of Baiae and cape Misenum.
[604] From whence the "Procul, O procul este profani!" of the poet; a
warning which was transferred to the Christian mysteries.
[605] See before, c. xii.
[606] Statilius Taurus; who lived in the time of Augustus, and built the
amphitheatre called after his name. AUGUSTUS, c. xxiv. He is mentioned
by Horace, Epist. i. v. 4.
[607] Octavia was first sent away to Campania, under a guard of
soldiers, and after being recalled, in consequence of the remonstrances
of the people, by whom she was beloved, Nero banished her to the island
of Pandataria.
[608] A.U.C. 813.
[609] Seneca was accused of complicity in the conspiracy of Caius Piso.
Tacitus furnishes some interesting details of the circumstances under
which the philosopher calmly submitted to his fate, which was announced
to him when at supper with his friends, at his villa, near Rome.--
Tacitus, b. xiv. xv.
[610] This comet, as well as one which appeared the year in which
Claudius died, is described by Seneca, Natural. Quaest. VII. c. xvii. and
xix. and by Pliny, II. c. xxv.
[611] See Tacitus, Annal. xv. 49-55.
[612] The sixteenth book of Tacitus, which would probably have given an
account of the Vinician conspiracy, is lost. It is shortly noticed by
Plutarch.
[613] See before, c. xix.
[614] This destructive fire occurred in the end of July, or the
beginning of August, A.U.C. 816, A.D. 64. It was imputed to the
Christians, and drew on them the persecutions mentioned in c. xvi., and
the note.
[615] The revolt in Britain broke out A.U.C. 813. Xiphilinus (lxii. p.
701) attributes it to the severity of the confiscations with which the
repayment of large sums of money advanced to the Britons by the emperor
Claudius, and also by Seneca, was exacted. Tacitus adds another cause,
the insupportable tyranny and avarice of the centurions and soldiers.
Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, had named the emperor his heir. His widow
Boadicea and her daughters were shamefully used, his kinsmen reduced to
slavery, and his whole territory ravaged; upon which the Britons flew to
arms. See c. xviii., and the note.
[616] Neonymphon; alluding to Nero's unnatural nuptials with Sporus or
Pythagoras. See cc. xxviii. xxix. It should be neonymphos.
[617] "Sustulit" has a double meaning, signifying both, to bear away,
and put out of the way.
[618] The epithet applied to Apollo, as the god of music, was Paean; as
the god of war, Ekataebaletaes.
[619] Pliny remarks, that the Golden House of Nero was swallowing up all
Rome. Veii, an ancient Etruscan city, about twelve miles from Rome, was
originally little inferior to it, being, as Dionysius informs us, (lib.
ii. p. 16), equal in extent to Athens. See a very accurate survey of
the ruins of Veii, in Gell's admirable TOPOGRAPHY OF ROME AND ITS
VICINITY, p. 436, of Bohn's Edition.
[620] Suetonius calls them organa hydralica, and they seem to have been
a musical instrument on the same principle as our present organs, only
that water was the inflating power. Vitruvius (iv. ix.) mentions the
instrument as the invention of Ctesibus of Alexandria. It is also well
described by Tertullian, De Anima, c. xiv. The pneumatic organ appears
to have been a later improvement. We have before us a contorniate
medallion, of Caracalla, from the collection of Mr. W. S. Bohn, upon
which one or other of these instruments figures. On the obverse is the
bust of the emperor in armour, laureated, with the inscription as
AURELIUS ANTONINUS PIUS AUG. BRIT. (his latest title). On the reverse is
the organ; an oblong chest with the pipes above, and a draped figure on
each side.
[621] A fine sand from the Nile, similar to puzzuclano, which was
strewed on the stadium; the wrestlers also rolled in it, when their
bodies were slippery with oil or perspiration.
[622] The words on the ticket about the emperor's neck, are supposed, by
a prosopopea, to be spoken by him. The reply is Agrippina's, or the
people's. It alludes to the punishment due to him for his parricide. By
the Roman law, a person who had murdered a parent or any near relation,
after being severely scourged, was sewed up in a sack, with a dog, a
cock, a viper, and an ape, and then thrown into the sea, or a deep river.
[623] Gallos, which signifies both cocks and Gauls.
[624] Vindex, it need hardly be observed, was the name of the propraetor
who had set up the standard of rebellion in Gaul. The word also
signifies an avenger of wrongs, redresser of grievances; hence vindicate,
vindictive, etc.
[625] Aen. xii. 646.
[626] The Via Salaria was so called from the Sabines using it to fetch
salt from the coast. It led from Rome to the northward, near the gardens
of Sallust, by a gate of the same name, called also Quirinalis, Agonalis,
and Collina. It was here that Alaric entered.
[627] The Via Nomentana, so named because it led to the Sabine town of
Nomentum, joined the Via Salara at Heretum on the Tiber. It was also
called Ficulnensis. It entered Rome by the Porta Viminalis, now called
Porta Pia. It was by this road that Hannibal approached the walls of
Rome. The country-house of Nero's freedman, where he ended his days,
stood near the Anio, beyond the present church of St. Agnese, where there
was a villa of the Spada family, belonging now, we believe, to Torlonia.