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• The Annals of Tacitus.
• Book IV.
• Book V.
• Book VI.
• Book XI.
• Book XII.
• Book XIII.
• Book XIV.
• Book XV.
• Book XVI.

BOOK XVI.

The SUMMARY.

FAlse hopes of mighty Treasures in Africa, and thence the vanity, and wild prodigality of Nero. He contends for the public prize at the Quinquennial Games. The death of Poppæa, and her royal funeral. C. Cassius and L. Silanus banished; the latter murdered, with several others. An uncommon tempest in Campania. Anteius and Ostorius doomed to die; as also Mella, Crispinus and Petronius. Thrasea Pætus obnoxious to Nero for his distinguished virtue; thence accused and marked for destruction; as also Bareas Soranus, and his daughter Servilia. Her signal defence and tenderness towards her father. The remarkable behaviour and end of Thrasea.

FOrtune thereafter exposed Nero to public-derision, through the intoxication of his own vanity, and the wild promises made him by Cesellius Bassus a Carthaginian, one of a restless and chimerical spirit, who from the impulse of a nocturnal dream gathered certain high hopes, and, sure of success, sailed to Rome, where, having by money procured access to the Prince, he set forth, “That in his lands was discovered a cave of enormous profundity, where lay immense store of gold, never reduced into form or coin, but in rude and ponderous lumps, such as were used by the ancients; that indeed the antiquity of the place was apparent in the structure and ruins, as here appeared heaps of huge massy bricks, there pillars still erect; and all this wealth had for so many ages lain buried and reserved to multiply the riches and felicities of the present reign. For the rest, what could be learnt from conjecture was, that Dido the Phœnician, she who fled from Tyre, having founded Carthage, had buried this treasure, lest her new people might be debauched by excessive opulence, and become virious and ungovernable; or lest the Princes of Numidia, who upon other accounts bore her malevolence, might from the ardent thirst of gold be instigated to make war upon her.”

This struck Nero, who little weighing the credibility of the account, or the faith and veracity of him that brought it, nor so much as dispatching inspectors to examine whether the particulars represented were true, heightened yet more the rumour of the discovery; and, as if it had been so much certain spoil already acquired, he sent over some to transport it to Rome, nay, to accelerare its arrival, furnished them with light galleys manned by setts of chosen and expert rowers. Nor did any other subject employ the conversation of the public at that time, while with the credulous multitude it passed for true, but from men of discernment met a different censure. And, as the Quinquennial Games happened then for the second time to be in a course of celebration, the Poets and Orators, in their panegyrics upon the Prince, borrowed from thence their chief themes; “for that the earth was no longer satisfied with yielding only her wonted bounties of fruits and grain, or gold incorporated with other ore, but teemed, in his reign, with productions altogether new; and to him the Gods presented treasures already stored;” with many other fictions abounding in pompous eloquence, nor less remarkable for servile debasement and flattery, secure as they were of his prompt faith to believe whatever they could feign.

In the mean time, he rioted in prodigality without all measure, from these fantastical hopes, and utterly consumed his ancient treasures, as if others in their stead now spontaneously accrued, sufficient to supply him in a course of profusion for many years. Nay, out of this imaginary fund he was already distributing largesses; and the vain expectation of great riches became one of the causes of public poverty. When Bassus had perforated and hollowed all his grounds, with many adjacent fields, for a great compass round, hunting from place to place after the promised cave, which now he averred to be here, then to be there, attended not only with a number of soldiers, but by a multitude of boors employed as labourers in that work; he at last renounced his phrenzy, and, wondering that his dreams had never proved false before, and that this was the first time he felt their delusion, discharged himself by a voluntary death from the agonies of shame and dread. Some authors say, that he was thrown into prison, and anon released, but his fortune seized in the room of this treasure Royal.

During the prosecution of this affair, as the time was at hand for disputing the prizes in the Quinquennial Games, the Senate, in order to avert in some degree, the disgrace which Nero must incur by appearing a competitor there, offered to assert to him by decree “the victory in Song;” nay, even to adjudge him “the crown of Eloquence;” meaning by such distinction from the fathers, to throw a veil over his Theatrical debasement. But Nero declared, “That he needed not the interposition and partiality of the Senate, nor any authority of theirs, since he himself was a match for all his competitors, and would only by the equitable determination of the Judges, purchase the just praise and recompence of his skill.” He then presented himself publicly, but first upon the Stage peculiar to the festival, and there rehearsed a Poem of his own composing; but anon, upon the clamour and importunity of the vulgar herd, “that he would display to the public the whole fruits of his studies” (for this was the phrase which they used) he entered the Great Theatre and practised a sedulous obedience to all the laws of the Harp, such as not to sit down however fatigued, not to wipe the sweat from his face, save only with the vestment he wore, thence to keep dry his mouth and nose. In conclusion, bowing the knee and with his hands lifted up, paying veneration to the multitude, he awaited with fictitious awe the determination of his Judges. In truth, the commonalty of Rome, ever wont to humour and encourage the acting and gesticulations of common players, ecchoed their applauses of Nero with measured notes and symphony, and clapped in tune according to the rules of concert. You would have thought that they had really rejoyced, and it is probable their rejoicings were sincere, from an utter insensibility of public honour, or of the crying reproach which debased the Roman state.

But far different was the behaviour of such as dwelt in the municipal cities of Italy (for the countries of Italy as yet retained their primitive severity, and the sober manners of the ancients) as also of such as came from the remote Provinces, where they were unacquainted with the like wantonness and revellings, and attended then at Rome upon embassies, or their own private affairs; neither of these could bear this dishonourable spectacle, or were capable of discharging a task so unmanly; so that while, with irregular and aukward efforts in clapping, they marred the feats of the disciplined clappers, they were frequently bastonaded by the soldiers, who stood in several clusters amongst the crowd, to watch that not a moment should pass either in unequal and ill-concerted acclamations, or in cold and lifeless silence. Certain it is, that many Roman Knights while they strove to retire, were through the streightness of the crammed passages, and the weight of the multitude, pressed to death; and that others, by never stirring night and day from their seats, were there seized with mortal maladies: for they dreaded even more than maladies the deadly consequence of their absence from this Imperial revel; since, besides the several concealed spies, there were a number of observers, who publicly noted names and faces, and all the symptoms of pleasure or melancholy in every particular of the assembly. Hence it was that, upon the vulgar and ignoble, instant pains were inflicted; towards those of illustrious quality his hate was for the present smothered, but soon after discharged in deadly vengeance. It was reported, “That Vespasian was by Phoebus, Nero’s freedman, bitterly reproached and even charged as a criminal, for having nodded, and hardly found protection even by the prayers and mediation of worthy and honourable friends; that perdition still hung over him, and he only escaped it by the grandeur of his ensuing destiny.”

The diversions of the Theatre were followed by the death of Poppæa, occasioned by a casual fit of passion in her husband, who killed her with a blow of his foot upon her pregnant womb; for, to poison I cannot ascribe it, as some writers have done, rather through antipathy to Nero, than love of truth; seeing he vehemently coveted children, and was governed by a passionate fondness for his wife. Her corps was not consumed to ashes, according to the rites of the Romans, but after the manner of foreign Monarchs, embowelled, and replete with spices, reposited in the sepulchre of the Julian family. Her obsequies, however, were publicly celebrated, and from the public Rostrum her panegyric was delivered by the Emperor, who magnified “her beauty and happy lot, to have been the mother of an infant now enrolled amongst the Deities,” with many other blind endowments of fortune, which he enumerated as so many virtues. The death of Poppæa begat in Rome every appearance of sadness and mourning, but secretly instilled much joy into the hearts of all who remembered her lewdness and cruelty; and, besides the reproach of this murder, Nero earned fresh detestation by forbidding Caius Cassius from assisting at her funeral, the first signal of his impending doom, nor was his doom long postponed. In the same fate Silanus too was involved, and each of them consigned to destruction, without guilt or offence in either, only that both were men of high and signal distinction, Cassius for his hereditary opulence and the exemplary gravity of his manners, Silanus for the ancient splendor of his race, and the popularity and eminent modesty of his youth. Nero therefore sent to the Senate a speech in writing, and in it argued for “the necessity of removing both from any share in the administration of the state.” To Cassius particularly he objected, “That amongst the Images of his ancestors, he preserved in high reverence that of Caius Cassius, thus inscribed, The leader of the party, for that, he too was meditating the scheme of a civil war, and a revolt from the family of the Cæsars; but since in his design of exciting insurrections, he would not employ only the influence of a name so obnoxious, he had engaged Lucius Silanus, a youth splendid in descent, of a tempestuous spirit, and one whom he set as a stale to produce and animate a public revolution.”

He fell afterwards directly upon Silanus himself, with great bitterness, urging against him the very same imputations which he had formerly objected to his uncle Torquatus, “That already he assumed the port of a Prince, in his house had established officers of Imperial state, and raised his freedmen to several dignities, some to be Auditors of the Revenues, some to be Masters of Requests; others to be principal Secretaries;” ridiculous imputations, and as false as ridiculous! For, dread of the prevailing tyranny kept Silanus under more awe and precaution, and, from the late bloody doom of his uncle, he had learnt a terrible lesson of circumspection. Nero next prompted certain persons to assume the name of voluntary informers and forge an accusation against Lepida the wife of Cassius, aunt to Silanus, “That with her nephew she had been guilty of incest, and in sacrifice had practised magical rites of direful tendency.” As accomplices were seized and arraigned Vulcatius Tullinus and Marcellus Cornelius, two Senators, with Calpurnius Fabatus a Roman Knight, men who, by appealing to Cæsar, did thence divert their instant condemnation; and as Nero was thenceforth intent upon more exalted atchievements in cruelty, they whom he considered as smaller delinquents, entirely escaped his rage.

The Senate then proceeded to pronounce against Cassius and Silanus sentence of perpetual banishment, but, to the judgment of Cæsar referred the punishment of Lepida. Cassius was transported into Sardinia, and, in regard of his great age, the short remains of his life were spared. Silanus, under colour of sending him away to the isle of Naxos, was removed to Ostia, and afterwards confined in Barium, a city of Apulia; while there, with the spirit of a wise man, he supported a lot most unworthy of his virtue and innocence, a Centurion commissioned for the assassination, laid hold on him, and advised him to cut his veins: he answered, “That to die was the firm purpose of his soul, but upon an executioner he would not confer the glory of fulfilling that purpose.” Yet the Centurion perceiving him a man of great strength, and though destitute of arms, resolute and daring, and more disposed to acts of wrath than those of dismay, ordered his soldiers to secure him: nor did Silanus fail to make vigorous resistance, and to distribute blows with as much energy as by naked hands could be exerted, till at last he fell by the sword of the Centurion, but under a multitude of wounds all received before, like those of a brave man who falls facing the enemy in the day of battle.

Nor with less dispatch and intrepidity did Lucius Vetus and his mother-in-law Sextia, with Pollutia his daughter, undergo their bloody doom. Towards them the Prince had long borne much vindictive rancour and hate, as those whose lives were so many standing reproaches upon him, for the murder of Rubellius Plautus, son-in-law to Lucius Vetus. But the first handle for manifesting this his hatred and cruelty, was administered by a freedman of Vetus, his name Fortunatus, who having abused his trust and defrauded his Lord, added malice to robbery, and became his accuser. Into a partnership in this traiterous plot he assumed Claudius Demianus, one who for his villainies in Asia was by Vetus, then Proconsul there, sent in bonds to Rome, but now by Nero, in recompence of this his accusation, released. The accused, when he was apprized of this combination, and that against the credit of his freedman his life was staked, retired to a seat of his own in the neighbourhood of Formiæ, whither a Guard of soldiers followed, and there secretly beset him; with him too was his daughter. She, besides the agonies which she felt from the present awakening peril, had a soul before sorely embittered by a long course of sorrow, ever since she had first beheld the assassins sent to butcher Plautus her husband; and, as she had passionately hugged his bleeding neck, she still preserved the garments stained by his blood, still persevered a widow, devoted to unrelenting grief and wailings, and a stranger to all nourishment, except what just saved her from the grave. Upon this occasion, at the request of her father, she travelled to Naples, and, since she was denied access to Nero, she besieged his gates, and watched his coming forth, imploring him “to hear the defence of an innocent man, nor to a traiterous freedman sacrifice one who had been once his collegue in the Consulship.” And this her petition she continued to urge importunately, sometimes with the lamentable moanings of a woman, sometimes with a spirit surpassing her sex, and an accent vehement and imperious; till the implacable Emperor by his behaviour convinced her, that he was no more to be softened by distress and supplications, than moved by the apprehensions of public odium.

Hence she reported to her father, “That he must banish all hope, and meet a fate which he could not fly.” Tydings at the same time arrived, “That the Senate was hastening his trial and proceeding to a sentence terrible and merciless.” Nor were there wanting some who persuaded him to bequeath to Nero the bulk of his fortune, as the best expedient “to secure the remainder to his grand-children,” a proposal by him rejected, nor would he stain the whole course of his life, spent almost in the fulness of liberty, by closing it with an act of servitude, but amongst his domestics distributed whatever sums of money were then in his possession, with orders, “to appropriate to themselves and remove away whatever they found portable, leaving only three couches for the use of their coarses.” Then all three opened their veins, in one and the same chamber, with one and the same steel, and, each covered for decency with a single rayment, were with dispatch conveyed into warm baths; the father’s eyes intent upon his daughter, those of the old Lady upon her grand-daughter, and hers upon both; all praying with emulation for a speedy issue of fleeting life, each wishing to expire first, wishing to leave behind such dear relations still alive, though hastening to die. Fortune observed the order of seniority and nature, the oldest first expired, and the youngest last. After they were buried, they were accused, and voted to “capital punishment according to the precedent of antiquity;” but against this Nero interposed, and would needs indulge them to die without prescription of form. Such were the instances of derision added to slaughters already perpetrated! Publius Gallus a Roman Knight, who had been intimate with Fenius Rufus, and not unacceptable to Vetus, was for such offence prohibited fire and water. To the freedman and accuser, in recompence of the meritorious pains and service, a place in the Theatre was assigned amongst the officers belonging to the Tribunes. And as the name of April was changed into that of Nero, so was May into that of Claudius, and June into that of Germanicus. Cornelius Orfitus, from whose motion these alterations proceeded, declared, “That he had therefore proposed abolishing the name of June, for that two of the Junii Torquati already executed for treason, had thence rendered that name abominable.”

This year, one stained with so many accumulated acts of tyranny and blood, was by the Gods too branded with devouring tempests and mortality. By the violence of whirl-winds, the country of Campania was ravaged, villages were overturned, the plantations torn up, the fruits of the earth scattered, and the extensive devastation carried as far as the neighbourhood of Rome; where, at the same time a fierce pestilence was, without any discernable malignity in the air, sweeping away all conditions of men. Full of coarses were the houses, full of funerals the streets; nor sex nor age was spared by the impartial malady; to the same swift destruction yielded the bondmen and free, amidst the tears and wailings of their wives and children, who, whilst they were yet attending and lamenting their expiring parents and husbands, were themselves snatched away, and frequently burnt in the same funeral pile with those they lamented. As fast as the rest, perished illustrious Roman Knights and Senators, but less bewailed, since by a deadly contagion common to all, they escaped falling by the cruelty of the Prince. The same year recruits were raised in Narbon Gaul, and through Africa and Asia, for supplying the Legions in Illyrium, from whence had been discharged all such as were enfeebled by infirmity or age. To the inhabitants of Lyons, as a relief for their late calamity by fire, the Emperor presented a hundred thousand crowns, to repair the damages of their city, a sum once presented voluntarily by the Community of Lyons to Rome, during a time when she was under public distractions and embarrasment.

In the Consulship of Caius Suetonius and Lucius Telesinus; Antistius Sosianus, one doomed, as I have above related, to perpetual exile, for certain virulent verses by him composed against Nero, becoming afterwards apprized of the honour and distinction paid to informers, and of the Emperor’s propensity to acts of rage and blood; being withal a man of a restless spirit, and no wise slack to embrace occasions of advantage, courted the friendship of Pammenes, and through the similitude of their lot obtained it. For Pammenes too was an exile of the same place, one celebrated for his science in the mysteries of Astrology, and thence engaged in numerous friendships. He judged, that, without some important purpose, so many messengers and so many quærists to consult him, could not be thus daily arriving, and learnt withal that, from Publius Anteius a yearly stipend was allowed him; nor was it any secret to Sosianus that Anteius, for his zeal and attachment to Agrippina, was exposed to the malice and jealousy of Nero; that his opulence was sufficiently signal to stimulate that rapacious Prince, and that from this source only, multitudes had suffered their deadly bane. With this view he intercepted letters from Anteius, and even stole the papers containing the calculation of his nativity, and the future events of his life, which were secretly kept in the custody of Pammenes. He besides found the scheme by him drawn concerning the birth and fortune of Ostorius Scapula, and then wrote forthwith to the Emperor, “That might he obtain a short respite from banishment, he had mighty discoveries to communicate, such as were highly conducing to the personal safety of the Prince; for that Anteius and Ostorius were meditating some sudden attempt upon the state, and diving sollicitously into their own destiny and that of Cæsar.” Immediately light pinnaces were dispatched away, and Sosianus transported with expedition to Rome, where, upon the first divulging of his discovery, Anteius and Ostorius were by all men considered rather already under the sentence of death, than such as were to be tried for their lives; insomuch that none dared appear to witness the execution of Anteius his will, till Tigellinus authorized it, having first given him warning, to lose no time, but forthwith execute his last testament.” He then swallowed a draught of poison, but growing tired and impatient of its slow operation, accelerated his death by opening his veins.

Ostorius was then abiding at an estate of his in a remote quarter of Italy, upon the borders of Liguria, and thither a Centurion was sent with orders to slay him with all dispatch. The motive for such precipitation sprung from this source; Ostorius was a man of a high military renown, distinguished in Britain with a Civic Crown, of prodigious bodily strength, and, from his experience in war, eminently qualified for feats of arms: Hence Nero, who ever lived under continual dread, and, since the discovery of the late conspiracy, in the utmost dismay and affright, was scared, lest that brave officer should take up arms and fall upon him. The Centurion, when he had beset with Guards every issue from the villa, to prevent all escape, acquainted Ostorius with his orders from the Emperor: Ostorius, without delay, upon his own person turned the edge of that bravery which he had so often exerted with applause against the foe; and, seeing that from his veins, though largely opened, there flowed but little blood, he dispatched himself by a poynard, using so far the help of one of his slaves, as to make him hold up the weapon steadily; then grasping and strengthning the slave’s hand with his own, he run his throat upon the fatal steel.

Were I even recounting the rage of foreign wars, and a series of deaths undergone for the Commonweal, in a detail of events and disasters, all like the above, resembling one another, I should doubtless succumb under the weary task, and propose no other than to surfeit my readers, justly loathing a recital of the fall of citizens, however honourable yet tragical and without end: Yet more irksome is the present work, in which such a deluge of blood tyrannically spilt at home, and the general and slavish passiveness under the Tyrant, are considerations that gnaw the soul and oppress it under anguish and sorrow. By such therefore as shall peruse this History, I desire it may be remembered (and it is the only apology I claim) that from no hatred of mine, but the duty of an Historian, I mention those who thus tamely submitted to perish: They perished, in truth, to satiate the vengeance of the Gods against the Roman State, which vengeance falling upon particulars, in a continued course of slaughters, its operations cannot justly be displayed in one general description, like the slaughter of armies, or the storming and subduing of cities. To the posterity of illustrious Men let this occasional compliment be paid, that as they are not buried, like the common herd, but their obsequies distinguished from the promiscuous sepulture of the vulgar; so, by recounting the circumstances of their dying, they may receive and ever retain peculiar marks of remembrance.

For, within the compass of a few days, Annæus Mella, Cerialis Anicius, Rufius Crispinus, and Caius Petronius, suffered, as it were all in a band, the violence of their fate. Mella and Crispinus were Roman Knights, in figure and estimation considerable as Senators; the latter particularly had been once Captain of the Prætorian Guards, and distinguished with the ornaments of the Consulship, but lately banished, as an accomplice in the conspiracy, into Sardinia, where, upon notice received that he was doomed to die, he slew himself. Mella, who was brother to Gallio and Seneca, forbore suing for the great Offices of State, from a wayward ambition, that a Roman Knight might be seen to vie in authority with Senators of Consular dignity: He likewise judged that acting as Comptroller to the Prince, in the ministration of his private revenues, was a quicker road to wealth. Add, that he was the father of Lucan, a circumstance from whence accrued a vast accession to his fame and splendour: But after the untimely fate of his son, while with special sharpness and ardour he was recovering his effects, against himself he excited an accuser, Fabius Romanus, one of Lucan’s intimate friends. He feigned, “That in the conspiracy, the father and son were equally confederate;” and having counterfeited Letters to this purpose, in the hand of Lucan, presented them to Nero, who after perusal, ordered them to be carried to the accused, after whose riches he ravenously hunted. Mella anticipated his sentence by a passage to death, in those days, as the quickest, most frequently chosen, and broached his veins, when by Will he had bequeathed to Tigellinus and his son-in-law Cossutianus Capito, an immense legacy in money, in order to secure the remainder. It is added that, in his will he inserted complaints concerning the rigour and iniquity of his doom, “That he died guiltless of every crime deserving death, whilst Rufius Crispinus and Anicius Cerialis, men virulently dissaffected to the Prince, were suffered to live.” But all this was believed to have been a fiction, purposely framed to justify the execution of these two; for Crispinus was already slain, and over Cerialis the same bloody fate was impending: Nor indeed was it long ere he became his own executioner; but fell with less commiseration than the rest, for that by him, it was remembered, had been disclos’d to Caligula a plot concerted to destroy that Tyrant.

Concerning Caius Petronius some few particulars are to be recapitulated. He was one who in sleep wasted the day, and to the civil offices and gay delights of life devoted the night: As others by a course of pains and vigilance had acquired a name and character; Petronius was by signal idleness and indolence raised to notice and renown. Nor yet was he esteemed either a prodigal of his fortune or a slave to his grosser appetites, like many who thus brutally lavish and devour their estates. Petronius was curious and refined in his luxury; and since his actions and sayings were frank and unrestrained, all accompanied with an air of negligence, the more so they were, the more pleasing they were, as bearing thence the impression of pure simplicity and artless nature. However, while he exercised the Proconsular Government of Bithynia, and presently after the Consulship it self, he manifested himself a man of spirit and vigour, and equal to great affairs. Then relapsing into a habit of sensuality and vice, or affecting to appear vitious and sensual, he was by Nero associated with the select few, who composed his fraternity of intimates, and established master of elegance. Insomuch that to the Emperor, in the midst of all his affluent enjoyments, nothing appeared delicious and ravishing, if it came not recommended by the taste and approbation of Petronius. Hence the hate and envy of Tigellinus towards one, in credit, his rival, in the science of pleasures, his superiour. He had therefore recourse to the cruelty of the Prince, a passion to which all his other depraved appetites ever gave place. Against Petronius he objected an intimacy with the conspirator Scevinus, corrupted one of his slaves to accuse his master, precluded him from all defence, and to sudden bonds committed most of his domesties.

Nero happened at that time to be upon the road to Campania, and Petronius having accompanied him as far as Cuma, was there by order put under durance; nor would he longer bear to protract his fate, by humouring the impulse of hopes or fears; nor yet did he hastily throw away life, but ordering his veins to be cut, directed them again to be closed and bound, then to be opened by intervals, just as his fancy moved him, discoursing the while to his friends, but upon no subject serious or profound, nor in strains and sentences whence he could aim at the renown of magnanimity in braving of death. To them too he attended while they recited, no solemn solemn sayings concerning the Immortality of the Soul, nor the Systems of Philosophers, but gay Sonnets, with Verses musical and flowing. With bounties he rewarded some of his slaves, with chastisements others: He even diverted himself with walking out, nay, refreshed himself with sleep, on design, that his death, though in reality doomed, might appear like one altogether casual. Neither followed he in his last Will the example and stile of most, who perished like himself under the tyranny. Petronius flattered neither Nero, nor Tigellinus, nor any of the partizans of power, but under the names of lewd women and pathics, described all the secret abominations of the Emperor, with every practice of impurity by him used and admired as singular and new. To Nero he transmitted this picture of himself, carefully sealed, then broke his signet, that after his death it might not be perfidiously used and become a snare to the innocent.

While Nero was doubting and recollecting, by what means could be divulged all the various devices of lubricity in which he consumed the night, his suspicion fixed upon Silia, one the better known for having married a Senator; one too by the Prince associated into all the essays and diversity of his pollutions, and thoroughly intimate with Petronius. On pretence therefore that she had not concealed what she had there seen and undergone, she was doomed to banishment; a sacrifice in effect to his own personal hate. To that of Tigellinus he made another, and to his vengeance surrendered Numicius Thermus, once Prætor, for that a freedman belonging to Thermes had uttered certain criminal imputations upon Tigellinus, an offence which the speaker expiated under exquisite torments, and his innocent Lord by a bloody doom.

After the slaughter of so many men signal in name and quality, Nero, at length, became possessed with a passion to hew down virtue itself, by devoting to butchery Thrasea Pætus and Bareas Soranus, both, long since, the objects of his hate. But against Thrasea he was incensed from separate causes, for that he had withdrawn from the Senate, when the affair of Agrippina and the merits of her death came under debate there, as above I have remembered: In the solemnizing too of the preludes intitled Juvenales, he had manifested a behaviour far from courtly or acceptable; an indignity which pierced the Prince the deeper, for that Thrasea himself had, at Padua, the place of his nativity, chanted in the habit of a Tragedian, during the celebration of the Cestic Games, instituted there by the founder, Antenor from Troy. Moreover when Antistius the Prætor, was about to have been by the Senate condemned to execution, for a virulent Satire by him composed against Nero, Thrasea proposed a mitigation of the sentence, and carried it. Add that when celestial honours were decreed to Poppæa, he was purposely absent, nor afterwards attended her funeral: Offences which by Capito Cossutianus were carefully saved from falling under oblivion: Besides the native bent of his spirit, abandoned to all feats of villainy, he bore special rancour towards Thrasea, since it was he who had supported the deputies from Cilicia in their charge upon Capito for extortion there, and by his credit obtained judgment against him.

To all these crimes of Thrasea’s he added many more: “He had avoided the solemnity of renewing at the beginning of the year, the annual oath then taken to the Emperor; he had forborn to assist at the susception of yearly vows for the preservation and prosperity of the Prince, though he were at the same time invested with the Quindecemviral Priesthood: He had never made oblations for the safety of the Prince, nor for his voice divine. He, who had been formerly so assiduous in attending, so indefatigable in affairs; he who was wont to interest himself in every decree, as a promoter or opponent of the most trivial and common, had not now in three years once entered the Senate. In an instance so recent as that of Silanus and Vetus, when the fathers assembled with such warmth and rapidity, to obviate and punish two men so dangerous, he only attended to the personal affairs of his clients. What else was all this but an open revolt, a party declared against the administration? and, if in many particulars the same daring insolence were once found, what but a public war could ensue? As of old (pursued Capito) this city, one ever addicted to divisions and strife, was wont to discourse of Cæsar and Cato, as her two great chiefs and competitors then; so now with the same factious spirit it is discoursed of thee, Nero, and of Thrasea. Nay, he has his professed followers and partizans, or rather a body of champions at arms; men who in truth are not yet arrived to his boldness and contumacy in counsel and speeches, but study an exact conformity to his mien and manners, to a behaviour rigid and melancholy, on purpose to upbraid thee for a life of gayety and voluptuousness. To this man only is thy imperial life of no concernment; with him alone all thy accomplishments pass unregarded: The events of thy reign the most prosperous, are by him treated with scorn; and is it not equally true, that with thy misfortunes and sorrows he is not satiated? Such is the contumacy of his spirit, that he would not believe Poppæa to be a Deity; and from the same spirit it proceeds that he would not swear to the validity and observance of all the public Acts of Julius Cæsar and of Augustus, Princes promoted to deification. It is thus he contemns the Worship of the Deities, thus cancels the Laws of the State. Through the Provinces and amongst the several Armies, the Journals of the Roman people are perused with the greater curiosity and care, that thence may be learnt what transactions there are which bear not the name and sanction of Thrasea. In short, let us either embrace these institutions and politics, if they excel our own; or from a turbulent faction thirsting after innovations, let their Oracle and Leader be snatched away. Pupils and champions formed by the same sect were the Tuberones and Favonii formerly, names grating and grievous even to the ancient Commonwealth. It is only to subvert the Empire, that they use the fair sound and pretence of Liberty; if their evil purposes succeed, Liberty itself will be the next object of their violence. In vain hast thou banished Cassius from the State, if afterwards thou dost suffer a party, which emulate the Brutus’s to gather strength and numbers in it. For the rest, to the Senate and our management leave the judgment and fate of Thrasea, nor to that assembly do thou write aught about him.” Naturally furious was the soul of Cossutianus, and now further stimulated by Nero, who to him joined as his assistant in the accusation Marcellus Eprius, an Orator of great acrimony and vehemence.

The task of accusing Bareas Soranus was already bespoke and undertaken by Ostorius Sabinus a Roman Knight, who arraigned his conduct in the administration of Asia, where he had governed as Proconsul with such signal vigilance and justice, as thence to incur fresh jealousy and rancour from the Emperor. As another offence too, he had bestowed much pains about a popular work, that of opening the Port of Ephesus, and had besides left unpunished the Citizens of Pergamos for having resolutely opposed Acratus, one of Nero’s freedmen, when he would have robbed their City of her pictures and statues. These were his real crimes; those openly imputed were, “his friendship with Plautus, and his intrigues to ingratiate himself with the Asiatics, in order to engage them in novel designs.” A particular juncture was chosen for awarding them their doom, that of the arrival of Tiridates to receive the Crown of Armenia; perhaps with design that, while the public attention and rumour were engaged in concernments from abroad, domestic iniquity and bloodshed might pass in quietness and obscurity: Or perhaps Nero meant on this occasion to display the might and terrors of Imperial power, and the slaughter of illustrious men, as a feat of Majesty Royal.

Now while the whole City thronged out to receive the Emperor, and to behold a foreign King, Thrasea had orders to forbear attending the entry, yet was no wise cast down, but composed a Memorial to Nero: In it he besought to know “the allegations against him, and averred that he would vindicate himself, were he but apprized of the crimes, and had opportunity of clearing his innocence.” Nero received the Memorial greedily, as he hoped that Thrasea, under the influence of terror, might have written somewhat tending to magnify the grandeur and glory of the Prince, and to stain his own renown; but finding himself disappointed, and dreading withal the countenance, the spirit, and free speech of that great man, he ordered the Senate to be summoned. Thrasea then consulted with his friends and kindred, whether he should attempt a defence, or be silent. Their advices varied: They who counselled his repairing to the Senate, said “That they were assured of his magnanimity there, and nothing would escape him, but what would procure him fresh glory. To the timorous only and the sluggard it belonged to hide the meanness of their end in shade and obscurity. It was fit the people should behold such a man going forth boldly to encounter death; it was fit the Senate should hear his words more than human, pronounced as it were by the mouth of some Deity, a miracle which might possibly soften even the heart of Nero. But though he should persevere in barbarity; yet surely in different esteem with posterity, would be the memory of a demise so worthy and distinguished, from that of such as chose stupidly to perish in passive silence.”

Those who gave different counsel, and were for his waiting the issue at home, acknowledged the same things of the behaviour and merit of Thrasea; “but, if he went, over him was impending much cruel mockery, and many bitter contumelies: It behoved him to avoid having his ears assailed with invectives and the lashes of reproach. It was not Cossutianus only, nor Eprius that were prompt to outrages: There were others besides, who, perhaps, would assault him with violent hands and blows, to humour the savage brutality of the Emperor, and the precedent begun by the violent and bad, might, through dread, be followed even by the merciful and upright. He ought therefore to with-hold from that venerable body, which he had so long adorned, an occasion of so transcendent a wickedness and reproach, and to leave it to uncertainty and conjecture, what would have been the spirit and decree of the Senate, upon the seeing of Thrasea defend himself before them as a criminal arraigned. To hope that ever Nero would be moved to a sense of shame for his crying enormities, was rash and vain: Much more to be dreaded was his flying into fresh rage, and his discharging the same upon the wife, and houshold of Thrasea, and upon every other object of his tenderness and care. Upon the whole; he ought to measure the glory of his latter end by that of the worthies, by whose steps and studies he had squared his life, and die in the strength of his integrity, in the fulness of fame.” In the consultation there assisted Rusticus Arulenus, a young man of great spirit and fervour. From this temper and a passion for fame, he offered to thwart the Decree of Senate, by interposing against it; for he was Tribune of the people. Thrasea restrained his temerity, and cautioned him against attempting “methods in themselves wild, to the person accused unavailing, and to the person attempting them certainly fatal: For himself; he had finished his course, and from the rule of life which for so many years he had without varying observed, he must not now depart. Into public offices Arulenus had but just entered, and upon his own choice it rested, how far to engage in transactions future: But it much imported him to weigh well beforehand what path he ought to pursue, when during such times he engaged in offices of State.” For the rest; to the result of his own meditation he left it, whether it were proper for him to appear in the Senate.

On the day following, two Cohorts of the Prætorian Guards under arms, environed the Temple of Venus the Prolific; a number of men dressed in the city robe, but armed with swords no wise concealed, had beset the entrance of the Senate; and in the great Squares, and several Temples, were every where posted bands of soldiers in array. Through the midst of this scene of terror, and under the awe of objects so formidable and even menacing, the Senators passed to their assembly. There he, who was the Emperor’s Quæstor, recited a speech by him sent, in which, without descending to name particulars, he upbraided the fathers, “That they deserted the functions of the State, and from their example the Roman Knights too were lapsed into sloth and inaction. Hence what marvel, that Senators from the remote Provinces failed to attend, when many who had arrived at the Consulship, and been distinguished with Sacerdotal dignities, chose to withdraw from the public, and rather to devote themselves to solitude and pleasant amusements in their Gardens?”

This speech was, as it were, a weapon presented to the accusers, and greedily they snatched it. Cossutianus having begun the charge, it was by Marcellus pursued with greater acrimony and vehemence: “The Commonwealth, the Commonwealth, he fiercely cried, was here concerned in her tenderest and most essential part: Such were the frowardness and contumacy of inferiours, that thence the gentleness and clemency of him, who bore rule, were checked and diminished: Over-mild and acquiescing had, to that day, been the temper of the Fathers, who could thus suffer so many capital criminals to evade chastisement, could suffer Thrasea so long revolted from public obedience, suffer his son-in-law Helvidius Priscus immersed in the same rebellious measures, Paconius Agrippinus too, one who possessed from his father an hereditary rancour towards the Emperors, with Curtius Montanus, employed in composing abominable Poems replete with treason. For himself; he wanted to behold Thrasea, him who had been Consul, now filling his place in the Senate, him who was a Pontiff, assisting at the solemnity where public vows were made, him who was a fellow-citizen, renewing with the rest the oath of fidelity; unless he had already renounced every institution of our ancestors, civil and sacred, openly acted the traitor, and now declared himself a public enemy. In a word; as he was wont to perform the part of an active Senator, wont to defend and protect such as had lampooned and defamed the Prince, let him resume his place, let him offer his sentiments, what he wished to have corrected, and what to have changed: Much more easily would they bear him carping at every particular transaction, than condemning by his sullen silence the whole administration at once. What was it that grieved him? Was it the profound peace established over the whole earth, or the public victories gained by our armies without the loss of men? Far be it from the Senate to suffer such a man to gratify an ambition so malignant and depraved, a man who sorrowed for the felicities of the State, one to whom the public Places, the Theatres and the Temples, appeared so many desarts, wild and strange, and one who was continually threatening to relinquish his country and roam an exile. With him our Decrees here passed for none, our Magistrates for none; with him this Metropolis was no longer Rome. He ought therefore to cease to live in that City, since he had long since divested himself of all tenderness for her, and now could not bear her sight.”

As in these and the like flights of fury, Marcellus, even in his person horrid and grim, was raging against Thrasea, with eyes, voice and visage all on fire, the Senate no longer manifested that usual air of sadness, which from the frequency of returning dread and peril, was become customary there: A terror altogether new, more deep and alarming possessed them, while to their sight were presented such a number of soldiers, their arms, and separate bands. Their imaginations were also filled with the tragical lot of the person accused, the venerable person of Thrasea: And there were who commiserated that of Helvidius, “who must be doomed to punishment, merely for an alliance with a man void of blame. Against Agrippinus too what else was charged but the tragical fate of his father, a man who, in truth, had fallen himself an innocent victim to the cruelty of Tiberius. Nay, banishment must be the doom of Montanus, a young man and virtuous, for no Libel by him written, but purely because by his Writings he had signalized his genius and parts.”

In the mean while entered Ostorius Sabinus, the accuser of Soranus, and against him urged “the friendship between him and Rubellius Plautus; and that in his Proconsular administration of Asia, he had rather consulted his own popularity and lustre than the public good and utility, by nourishing animosity and tumults in the provincial Cities:” Stale imputations, and long since prepared by the accuser. But now he offered a recent charge, and in the crimes and peril of the father involved the daughter, “That she had with large sums feed the Magicians:” A transaction resulting purely from the passionate tenderness of Servilia (for this was the young Lady’s name) towards her father, as well as from the unwariness of her youth: Yet the whole of her consultation was “only about the conservation of her house, whether the wrath of Nero might not come to be appeased, and whether no tragical judgment would follow the cognizance of the Senate.” For this she was brought into the Senate; and before the Tribunal of the two Consuls, but at opposite sides, stood the father and daughter, he full of years, she under twenty, and, since the late banishment of Annius Pollio her husband, in a state of widowhood, solitary and sad. Her father’s face upon this occasion she could not bear to behold, since she, as it seemed, had wofully heightened his danger and sufferings.

The accuser now questioned her, “Whether she had not turned into money her bridal Ornaments, and even stript from her neck her collar of jewels, in order to defray the expence of magic Rites and Sacrifices?” At first she cast herself down, and lay along upon the floor, then after a flood of tears, after long sobbing and silence, she rose, and embracing the Altars, particularly that of Venus; “No mischievous Divinities, said she, have I invoked; no incantations have I tried, nor was aught else the burden of my rash and disastrous supplications, than that thou Cæsar, and you Fathers of the Senate, would to this my dear and indulgent parent, beset with terrors and affliction, graciously afford protection and safety. With this view I presented my jewels, my precious rayment, and other decorations peculiar to my quality; as I would have presented my blood and life, had my blood and life been required. To these Foretellers, men till now utterly unknown to me, it belongs to declare whose ministers they are, and what mysteries they use: By myself the Prince’s name was not once pronounced otherwise than with those of the Deities. Yet to all this proceeding of mine, whatever it were, my unfortunate father was an utter stranger; and if it is a crime, I alone am the delinquent.” These words alarmed Soranus, and while she was yet uttering them, he interrupted her; he cried out with earnestness, “That his daughter went not with him to the Province, such too was her tender age, that she could have no possible acquaintance with Plautus: In the crimes of her husband she was no wise engaged; her only blame was that of filial piety over-strained: Let her cause be therefore disjoined from his; his own fate, whatever it should prove, he was ready to undergo.” This said, he was hastening to embrace his daughter, who flew to meet him, but the Consular Lictors stepped between and prevented them.

To the witnesses next an immediate hearing was given, and however high the barbarous spirit of the accuser had already raised common compassion for the accused, equally high was the indignation excited by the appearing of Publius Egnatius as an evidence; a client and follower of Soranus, now bought with a price to overwhelm his patron and his friend. As he professed the rigid Sect of the Stoics, his testimony was from this circumstance to derive weight and consideration; for into such solemnity he had framed his countenance and whole exteriour, as to display the semblance of a man worthily disposed and virtuously employed, but possessed a soul traiterous and ensnaring, replete with avarice and every depraved appetite, all artfully concealed. But now the force of money, more prevalent than art, having laid open so much hypocrisy and imposture, furnished an instructive example, that as we guard against such as are branded for notorious frauds and contaminated with open villainies; so with no less care ought we to guard against men, who, under the fair guise of righteous life and acquirements, hide hollow hearts, alike prompt to profess and to betray friendships. On that same day, however, was exhibited a different and honourable example by Cassius Asclepiodotus, a man, for his signal opulence, of the foremost rank in Bithynia; yet without regarding what risk he incurred, the same devotion and reverence, with which he had courted Soranus during the sunshine of his fortune, he ceased not to pay him, though now sinking under malignant fate. Hence he was despoiled of his whole fortune, and doomed to exile. Such was the lukewarmness and indifference of the Deities, alike unmoved by patterns of righteousness and those of iniquity! To Thrasea, to Soranus and Servilia, was granted the choice of their own deaths: Helvidius and Paconius were to be banished from Italy: Montanus, for the sake of his father, had his pardon, with an exception annexed, “That he should never be admitted to any Office in the State.” To Eprius, one of the accusers, was decreed a reward of more than thirty thousand pounds, to Cossutianus another, the like sum; and to Ostorius the third, as many thousand crowns, besides another recompence, that of the ornaments of the Quæstorship.

The Quæstor attending the Consul was, now in the close of the day, dispatched to Thrasea, then in his gardens. He was at that instant frequented by a numerous assembly of men and women, illustrious for their quality, but was chiefly attentive to Demetrius, a professor of the Cynic School. With this Philosopher, as far as could be conjectured by the intenseness of his looks, and by certain words, which, when they happened to raise their voices, were over-heard, he was reasoning and inquiring about the nature of the Soul, and concerning its departure from the body, till he was interrupted by the arrival of Domitius Cæcilianus. This was one of his most intimate friends, and related to him what the Senate had decreed. As upon these sad tydings the company melted into plaints and tears, Thrasea pressed them, “forthwith to retire, nor to tempt danger by involving themselves in the fate of a person condemned:” And as Arria his wife was earnest to emulate the example of her mother, and to share with her husband in his last lot, he besought her, “to preserve her life, nor deprive their common daughter of her only remaining refuge.”

He then went forth into a gallery, and there the Quæstor from the Senate found him, filled rather with chearfulness than with any opposite passion, since he had learnt that against Helvidius his son-in-law, nothing worse was decreed than his banishment from Italy. Haveing now had delivered to him in form the sentence of the Senate, he took Helvidius and Demetrius into his chamber, and extending both his arms, the veins of both were cut: As the blood sprang, he called the Quæstor nigher, and with it besprinkling the floor; “Let us, said he to him, make this libation to Jove the Deliverer. Look here, young man, and consider; may Heaven too grant there be no Omen in my words: But into such times thy birth and age have thrown thee, as may justly require thee to fortify thy spirit by examples of magnanimity.” After this, as from the slow approaches of death, grievous torments were ensuing, he turned towards Demetrius****

The rest of this Annal is last.