Dio's Rome Volume V Part 3

[Sidenote: A.D. 66 (a.u. 819)] [Sidenote:--1--] In the consuls.h.i.+p of Gaius Telesinus and Suetonius Paulinus one event of great glory and another of deep disgrace took place. For one thing Nero contended among the zither-players, and after Menecrates, [Footnote: This proper name is the result of an emendation by Reimar.]the teacher of this art, had celebrated a triumph for him in the hippodrome, he appeared as a charioteer. For the other, Tiridates presented himself in Rome, bringing with him not only his own children but those of Vologaesus, of Pacorus, and of Mon.o.bazus. They were the objects of interest in a quasi-triumphal procession through the whole country west from the Euphrates.

[Sidenote:--2--] Tiridates himself was in the prime of life, a notable figure by reason of his youth, beauty, family, and intelligence: and his whole train of servants together with the entourage of a royal court accompanied the advance. Three thousand Parthian hors.e.m.e.n and besides them numerous Romans followed his train. They were received by gaily decorated cities and by peoples who shouted their compliments aloud. Provisions were furnished them free of cost, an expenditure of twenty myriads for their daily support being thus charged to the public treasury. This went on without change for the nine months occupied in their journey. The prince covered the whole distance to the confines of Italy on horseback and beside him rode his wife, wearing a golden helmet in place of a veil, so as not to defy the traditions of her country by letting her face be seen.

In Italy he was conveyed in a two-horse carriage sent by Nero and met the emperor at Naples, which he reached by way of the Picentes. He refused, however, to obey the order to put down his dagger when he approached the Roman monarch, and he nailed it firmly to the scabbard. Yet he knelt upon the ground, and with arms crossed called him master and did obeisance.

[Sidenote:--3--] Nero manifested his approbation of this act and entertained him in many ways, one of which was a gladiatorial show at Puteoli. The person who directed the contests was Patrobius, one of his freedmen. He managed to make it a brilliant and costly affair, as is shown by the fact that on one of the days not a person but Ethiopians, men, women, and children, appeared in the theatre. By way of showing Patrobius some proper honor Tiridates shot at beasts from his elevated seat. And, if we may trust the report, he transfixed and killed two bulls together with one arrow.

[Sidenote:--4--] After this affair Nero took him up to Rome and set the diadem upon his head. The entire city had been decorated with lights and garlands, and great crowds of people were to be seen everywhere, the Forum, however, being especially full. The center was occupied by the populace, arranged according to rank, clad in white and carrying laurel branches: everywhere else were the soldiers, arrayed in s.h.i.+ning armor, their weapons and standards reflecting back the sunbeams. The very roof tiles of the buildings in this vicinity were completely hidden from view by the spectators who had ascended to these points of vantage. Everything was in readiness by the time night drew to a close and at daybreak Nero, wearing the triumphal garb and accompanied by the senate and the Pretorians, entered the Forum. He ascended the rostra and seated himself upon the chair of state. Next Tiridates and his suite pa.s.sed through rows of heavy-armed men drawn up on each side, took their stand close to the rostra, and did obeisance to the emperor as they had done before.

[Sidenote:--5--] At this a great roar went up which so alarmed Tiridates that for some moments he stood speechless, in terror of his life. Then, silence having been proclaimed, he recovered courage and quelling his pride made himself subservient to the occasion and to his need, caring little how humbly he spoke, in view of the prize he hoped to obtain. These were his words: "Master, I am the descendant of Arsaces, brother of the princes Vologaesus and Pacorus, and thy slave. And I have come to thee, my deity, to wors.h.i.+p thee as I do Mithra. The destiny thou spinnest for me shall be mine: for thou art my Fortune and my Fate."

Nero replied to him as follows: "Well hast thou done to come hither in person, that present in my presence thou mayest enjoy my benefits. For what neither thy father left thee nor thy brothers gave and preserved for thee, this do I grant thee. King of Armenia I now declare thee, that both thou and they may understand that I have power to take away kingdoms and to bestow them." At the end of these words he bade him come up the inclined plane built for this very purpose in front of the rostra, and Tiridates having been made to sit beneath his feet he placed the diadem upon his head. At this there was no end of shouts of all sorts.

[Sidenote:--6--] According to decree there also took place a celebration in the theatre. Not merely the stage but the whole interior of the theatre round about had been gilded, and all properties brought in had been adorned with gold, so that people came to refer to the very day as "golden." The curtains stretched across the sky-opening to keep off the sun were of purple and in the centre of them was an embroidered figure of Nero driving a chariot, with golden stars gleaming all about him. So much for the setting: and of course they had a costly banquet.

Afterward Nero sang publicly with zither accompaniment and drove a chariot, clad in the costume of the Greens and wearing a charioteer's helmet. This made Tiridates disgusted with him; but for Corbulo the visitor had only praise and deemed the one thing against him to be that he would put up with such a master. Indeed, he made no concealment of his views to Nero's face, but one day said to him: "Master, you have in Corbulo a good slave." The person addressed, however, did not comprehend his speech.--In all other matters he flattered the emperor and ingratiated himself most skillfully, with the result that he received all kinds of gifts, said to have possessed in the aggregate a value of five thousand myriads, and obtained permission to rebuild Artaxata. Moreover, he took with him from Rome many artisans, some of whom he got from Nero, and some whom he persuaded by offers of high wages. Corbulo, however, would not let them all cross into Armenia, but only the ones whom Nero had given him.

That caused Tiridates to admire him all the more and to despise his chief.

[Sidenote:--7--] The return was made not by the same route as he followed in coming,--through Illyric.u.m and north of the Ionian Gulf,--but instead he sailed from Brundusium to Dyrrachium. He viewed also the cities of Asia, which helped to increase his amazement at the strength and beauty of the Roman empire.

Tiridates one day viewed an exhibition of pancratium. One of the contestants fell to the ground and was being pummeled by his opponent.

When the prince saw it, he exclaimed: "That's an unfair contest. It isn't fair that a man who has fallen should be beaten."

On rebuilding Artaxata Tiridates named it Neronia. But Vologaesus though often summoned refused to come to Nero, and finally, when the latter's invitations became burdensome to him, sent back a despatch to this effect: "It is far easier for you than for me to traverse so great a body of water. Therefore, if you will come to Asia, we can then arrange [where we shall be able] to meet each other." [Such was the message which the Parthian wrote at last.]

[Sidenote:--8--] Nero though angry at him did not sail against him, nor yet against the Ethiopians or the Caspian Pylae, as he had intended. [He saw that the subjugation of these regions demanded time and labor and hoped that they would submit to him of their own accord:] and he sent spies to both places. But he did cross over into Greece, not at all as Flamininus or Mummius or as Agrippa and Augustus his ancestors had done, but for the purpose of chariot racing, of playing and singing, of making proclamations, and of acting in tragedies. Rome was not enough for him, nor Pompey's theatre, nor the great hippodrome, but he desired also a foreign tour, in order to become, as he said, victor in all the four contests. [Footnote: Literally "victor of the periodos." This was a name applied to an athlete who had conquered in the Pythian, Isthmian, Nemean and Olympian games.] And a mult.i.tude not only of Augustans but of other persons were taken with him, large enough, if it had been a hostile host, to have subdued both Parthians and all other nations. But they were the kind you would have expected Nero's soldiers to be, and the arms they carried were zithers and plectra, masks and buskins. The victories Nero won were such as befitted that sort of army, and he overcame Terpnus and Diodorus and Pammenes, instead of Philip or Perseus or Antiochus. It is probable that his purpose in forcing the Pammenes referred to, who had been in his prime in the reign of Gaius, to compete in spite of his age, was that he might overcome him and vent his dislike in abuse of his statues.

[Sidenote: A.D. 67 (?)] [Sidenote:--9--] Had he done only this, he would have been the subject of ridicule. So how could one endure to hear about, let alone seeing, an emperor, an Augustus, listed on the program among the contestants, training his voice, practicing certain songs, wearing long hair on his head but with his chin shaven, throwing his toga over his shoulder in the races, walking about with one or two attendants, eyeing his adversaries suspiciously and ever and anon throwing out a word to them in the midst of a boxing match; how he dreaded the directors of the games and the wielders of the whip and spent money on all of them secretly to avoid being shown up in his true colors and whipped; and how all that he did to make himself victor in the citharoedic contest only contributed to his defeat in the Contest of the Caesars? How find words to denounce the wickedness of this proscription in which it was not [Footnote: [Greek: oi]

supplied by Reiske.] Sulla that bulletined the names of others, but Nero bulletined his own name? What victory less deserves the name than that by which one receives the olive, the laurel, the parsley, or the fir-tree garland, and loses the political crown? And why should one bewail these acts of his alone, seeing that he also by treading on the high-soled buskins lowered himself from his eminence of power, and by hiding behind the mask lost the dignity of his sovereignty to beg in the guise of a runaway slave, to be led like a blind man, to conceive, to bear children, to go mad [to drive a chariot], as he acted out time after time the story of Oedipus, and of Thyestes, of Heracles and Alemeon, and of Orestes? The masks he wore were sometimes made to resemble the characters and sometimes had his own likeness. The women's masks were all fas.h.i.+oned to conform to the features of Sabina [in order that though dead she might still move in stately procession. All the situations that common actors simulate in their acting he, too, would undertake to present, by speech, by action, by being acted upon,--save only that] golden chains were used to bind him: apparently it was not thought proper for a Roman emperor to be bound in iron shackles.

[Sidenote:--10--] All this behavior, nevertheless, the soldiers and all the rest saw, endured, and approved. They ent.i.tled him Pythian Victor, Olympian Victor, National Victor, Absolute Victor, besides all the usual expressions, and of course added to these names the honorific designations belonging to his imperial office, so that every one of them had "Caesar"

and "Augustus" as a tag.

He conceived a dislike for a certain man because while he was speaking the man frowned and was not overlavish of his praises; and so he drove him away and would not let him come into his presence. He persisted in his refusal to grant him audience, and when the person asked: "Where shall I go, then?" Phoebus, Nero's freedman, replied: "To the deuce!"

No one of the people ventured either to pity or to hate the wretched creature. One of the soldiers, to be sure, on seeing him bound, grew indignant, ran up, and set him free. Another in reply to a question: "What is the emperor doing?" had to answer: "He is in labor pains," for Nero was then acting the part of Canace. Not one of them conducted himself in a way at all worthy of a Roman. Instead, because so much money fell to their share, they offered prayers that he might give many such performances and they in this way get still more.

[Sidenote:--11--] And if things had merely gone on like this, the affair, while being a source of shame and of ridicule alike, would still have been deemed free from danger. But as a fact he devastated the whole of Greece precisely as if he had been despatched to some war and without regard to the fact that he had declared the country free, also slaying great numbers [of men, women and children. At first he commanded the children and freedmen of those who were executed to leave him half their property at their death, and allowed the original victims to make wills in order to make it seem less likely that he had killed them for their money; and he invariably took all that was bequeathed to him, if not more. In case any one left to him or to Tigillinus less than they were expecting, the wills were of no avail.--Later he deprived persons of their _entire_ property and banished all their children at once by one decree. Not even this satisfied him, but he destroyed not a few of the exiles.] For no one could begin to enumerate all the confiscated possessions of men allowed to live and all the votive offerings that he stole from the very temples in Rome. [The despatch-bearers hurried hither and thither with no piece of news other than "kill this man!" or that that man was dead. No private messages, only state doc.u.ments, were delivered; for Nero had taken many of the foremost men to Greece under pretence of needing some a.s.sistance from them merely in order that they might perish there. [Sidenote:--12--] The whole population of Rome and Italy he surrendered like captives to a certain Helius, a Caesarian. The latter had been given absolutely complete authority, so that he might confiscate, banish, and put to death (even before notifying Nero) ordinary persons, knights, and senators alike.]

Thus the Roman domain was at that time a slave to two emperors at once,--Nero and Helius; and I do not feel able to say which was the worse.

In most respects they behaved entirely alike, and the one point of difference was that the descendant of Augustus was emulating zither-players, whereas the freedman of Claudius was emulating Caesars. I consider the acts of Tigillinus as a part of Nero's career because he was constantly with him: but Polyc.l.i.tus and Calvia Crispinilla by themselves plundered, sacked, despoiled all the places they could get at. The former was a.s.sociated with Helius at Rome, and the latter with Sabina, born Sporus. Calvia had been entrusted with the care of the boy and with the oversight of the wardrobe, though a woman and of high rank; and she saw to it that all were stripped of their possessions.

[Sidenote:--13--] Now Nero called Sporus Sabina not merely on account of the fact that by reason of resemblance to her he had been made a eunuch, but because the boy like the mistress had been solemnly contracted to him in Greece, with Tigillinus to give the bride away, as the law ordained.

All the Greeks held a festal celebration of their marriage, uttering all the customary good wishes (as they could not well help) even to the extent of praying that legitimate children might be born to them. After that Nero took to himself two bedfellows, Pythagoras to treat as a man and Sporus as a woman. The latter, in addition to other forms of address, was termed lady, queen, and mistress.

Yet why should one wonder at this, seeing that this monarch would fasten naked boys and girls to poles, and then putting on the hide of a wild beast would approach them and satisfy his brutal l.u.s.t under the appearance of devouring parts of their bodies? Such were the indecencies of Nero.

When he received the senators he wore a short flowered tunic with muslin collar, for he had already begun to transgress precedent in wearing ungirt tunics in public. It is stated also that knights belonging to the army used in his reign for the first time saddle-cloths during their public review.

[Sidenote:--14--] At the Olympic games he fell from the chariot he was driving and came very near being crushed to death: yet he was crowned victor. In acknowledgment of this favor he gave to the h.e.l.lanodikai the twenty-five myriads which Galba later demanded back from them. [And to the Pythia he gave ten myriads for giving some responses to suit him: this money Galba recovered.] Again, whether from vexation at Apollo for making some unpleasant predictions to him or because he was merely crazy, he took away from the G.o.d the territory of Cirrha and gave it to the soldiers. In fact, he abolished the oracle, slaying men and throwing them into the rock fissure from which the divine _afflatus_ arose. He contended in every single city that boasted any contest, and in all cases requiring the services of a herald he employed for that purpose Cluvius Rufus, an ex-consul. Athens and the Lacedaemonians were exceptions to this rule, being the only places that he did not visit at all. He avoided the second because of the laws of Lycurgus, which stood in the way of his designs, and the former because of the story about the Furies.--The proclamation ran: "Nero Caesar wins this contest and crowns the Roman people and his world." Possessing according to his own statement a world, he went on singing and playing, making proclamations, and acting tragedies.

[Sidenote:--15--] His hatred for the senate was so fierce that he took particular pleasure in Vatinius, who kept always saying to him: "I hate you, Caesar, for being of senatorial rank."--I have used the exact expression that he uttered.--Both the senators and all others were constantly subjected to the closest scrutiny in their entrances, their exits, their att.i.tudes, their gestures, their outcries. The men that stuck constantly by Nero, listened attentively, made their applause distinct, were commended and honored: the rest were both degraded and punished, so that some, when they could endure it no longer (for they were frequently expected to be on the _qui vive_ from early morning until evening), would feign to swoon and would be carried out of the theatres as if dead.

[Sidenote:--16--] As an incidental labor connected with his sojourn in Greece he conceived a desire to dig a ca.n.a.l across the isthmus of the Peloponnesus, and he did begin the task. Men shrank from it, however, because, when the first workers touched the earth, blood spouted from it, groans and bellowings were heard, and many phantoms appeared. Nero himself thereupon grasped a mattock and by throwing up some of the soil fairly compelled the rest to imitate him. For this work he sent for a large number of men from other nations as well.

[Sidenote:--17--] For this and other purposes he needed great sums of money; and as he was a promoter of great enterprises and a liberal giver and at the same time feared an attack from the persons of most influence while he was thus engaged, he destroyed many excellent men. Of most of these I shall omit any mention, merely saying that the stock complaint under which all of them were brought before him was uprightness, wealth, and family: all of them either killed themselves or were slaughtered by others. I shall pause to consider only Corbulo and (of the Sulpicii Scribonii) Rufus and Proculus. These two deserve attention because they were in a way brothers and contemporaries, never doing anything separately but united in purpose and in property as they were in family: they had for a long time administered the affairs of the Germanies and had come to Greece at the summons of Nero, who affected to want something from them. A complaint of the kind which that period so prodigally afforded was lodged against them. They could obtain no hearing on the matter nor even get within sight of Nero; and as this caused them to be slighted by all persons without exception, they began to long for death and so met their end by slitting open their veins.--And I notice Corbulo, because the emperor, after giving him also a most courteous summons and invariably calling him (among other names) "father" and "benefactor," then, as this general approached Cenchrea, commanded that he be slain before he had even entered his presence. Some explain this by saying that Nero was about to sing with zither accompaniment and could not endure the idea of being seen by Corbulo while he wore the long ungirded tunic. The condemned man, as soon as he understood the import of the order, seized a sword, and dealing himself a l.u.s.ty blow exclaimed: "Your due!" Now for the first time in his career was he ready to believe that he had done ill both in sparing the zither-player and in going to him unarmed.

[Sidenote:--18--] This is the substance of what took place in Greece. Does it add much to mention that Nero ordered Paris the dancer killed because he wished to learn dancing from him and was disappointed? Or that he banished Caecina Tuscus, governor of Egypt, for bathing in the tub that had been specially constructed for his coming visit to Alexandria?

In Rome about this same time Helius committed many acts of outrage. One of these was his killing of a distinguished man, Sulpicius Camerinus, together with his son; the complaint against them was that whereas they were called _Pythici_ after some of their ancestors they would not abandon possession of this name, thus blaspheming Nero's Pythian victories by the use of a similar t.i.tle.--And when the Augustans offered to build a shrine to the emperor worth a thousand librae, the whole equestrian order was compelled to help defray the expense they had undertaken.--As for the doings of the senate, it would be a task to describe them all in detail.

For so many sacrifices and days of thanksgiving were announced that the whole year would not hold them all.

[Sidenote:--19--] Helius having for some time sent Nero repeated messages urging him to return as quickly as possible, when he found that no attention was paid to them, went himself to Greece on the seventh day and frightened him by saying that a great conspiracy against him was on foot in Rome. This news made him embark at double quick rate. There was some hope of his peris.h.i.+ng in a storm and many rejoiced, but to no purpose: he came safely to land. And cause for destroying some few persons was found in the very fact that they had prayed and hoped that he might perish.

[Sidenote: A.D. 68 (a.u. 821)] [Sidenote:--20--] So, when he marched into Rome, a portion of the wall was torn down and a section of the gates broken in, because some a.s.serted that each of these ceremonies was customary upon the return of garlanded victors from the games. First entered men wearing the garlands which, had been won, and after them others with boards borne aloft on spears, upon which were inscribed the name of the set of games, the kind of contest, and a statement that "Nero Caesar first of all the Romans from the beginning of the world has conquered in it." Next came the victor himself on a triumphal car in which Augustus once had celebrated his many victories: he wore a vesture of purple sprinkled with gold and a garland of wild olive; he held in his hand the Pythian laurel. By his side in the vehicle sat Diodorus the Citharoedist. After pa.s.sing in this manner through the hippodrome and through the Forum in company with the soldiers and the knights and the senate he ascended the Capitol and proceeded thence to the palace.

[Sidenote: A.D. 68 (a.u. 821)] The city was all decked with garlands, was ablaze with lights and smoky with incense, and the whole population,--the senators themselves most of all,--kept shouting aloud: "Vah, Olympian Victor! Vah Pythian Victor! Augustus! Augustus! Hail to Nero the Hercules, hail to Nero the Apollo!! The one National Victor, the only one from the beginning of time! Augustus! Augustus! O, Divine Voice! Blessed are they that hear thee!"--Why should I employ circ.u.mlocutions instead of letting you see their very words? The actual expressions used do not disgrace my history: no, the concealment of none of them rather lends it distinction.

[Sidenote:--21--] When he had finished these ceremonies, he announced a series of horse-races, and transferring to the hippodrome these crowns and all the rest that he had secured by victories in chariot racing, he put them about the Egyptian obelisk. The number of them was one thousand eight hundred and eight. After doing this he appeared as charioteer.--A certain Larcius, a Lydian, approached him with an offer of twenty-five myriads if he would play and sing for them. Nero would not take the money, disdaining to do anything for pay; and so Tigillinus collected it, as the price of not putting Larcius to death. However, the emperor did appear on the stage with an accompanied song and he also gave a tragedy. In the equestrian contests he was seldom absent, and sometimes he would voluntarily let himself be defeated in order to make it more credible that he really won at other times.

Dio 62nd Book: "And he inflicted uncounted woes on many cities."

[Sidenote:--22--] This was the kind of life Nero led, this was the way he ruled. I shall narrate also how he was put down and driven from his throne.

While Nero was still in Greece, the Jews revolted openly and he sent Vespasian against them. The inhabitants of Britain and of Gaul, likewise, oppressed by the taxes, experienced an even keener distress, which added fuel to the already kindled fire of their indignation.

--There was a Gaul named Gaius Julius Vindex [an Aquitanian], descended from the native royal race and on his father's side ent.i.tled to rank as a Roman senator. He was strong of body, had an intelligent mind, was skilled in warfare and was full of daring for every enterprise. [He was to the greatest degree a lover of freedom and was ambitious; and he stood at the head of the Gauls.] Now this Vindex made an a.s.sembly of the Gauls, who had suffered much during the numerous forced levies of money, and were still suffering at Nero's hands. And ascending a tribunal he delivered a long and detailed speech against Nero, saying that they ought to revolt from the emperor and join him in an attack [upon him],--"because," said he, "he has despoiled the whole Roman world, because he has destroyed all the flower of their senate, because he debauched and likewise killed his mother, and does not preserve even the semblance of sovereignty. Murders, seizures and outrages have often been committed and by many other persons: but how may one find words to describe the remainder of his conduct as it deserves? I have seen, my friends and allies,--believe me,--I have seen that man (if he is a man, who married Sporus and was given in marriage to Pythagoras) in the arena of the theatre and in the orchestra, sometimes with the zither, the loose tunic, the cothurnus, [Footnote: The two kinds of footwear mentioned here appear in the Greek as _chothornos_ and _embates_ respectively. These words are often synonymous, and both may refer, as a rule, to _high_ boots. In the present pa.s.sage, however, some kind of contrast is evidently intended, and the most acceptable solution of the question is that given by Sturz, in his edition, who says that the _chothornos_ seems to have been used by Nero only in singing, whereas he wore the _embates_ (as also the mask) while acting.] sometimes with wooden shoes [Footnote: see previous footnote] and mask. I have often heard him sing, I have heard him make proclamations, I have heard him perform tragedy. I have seen him in chains, I have seen him dragged about, pregnant, bearing children, going through all the situations of mythology, by speech, by being addressed, by being acted upon, by acting. Who, then, will call such a person Caesar and emperor and Augustus? Let no one for any consideration so abuse those sacred t.i.tles. They were held by Augustus and by Claudius. This fellow might most properly be termed Thyestes and Oedipus, Alcmeon and Orestes.

These are the persons he represents on the stage and it is these t.i.tles that he has a.s.sumed rather than the others. Therefore now at length rise against him: come to the succor of yourselves and of the Romans; liberate the entire world!"

[Sidenote:--23--] Such words falling from the lips of Vindex met with entire approval from all. Vindex was not working to get the imperial office for himself but chose Servius Sulpicius Galba for that position: this man was distinguished for his upright behavior and knowledge of war, was governor of Spain, and had a not inconsiderable force. He was also nominated by the soldiers as emperor.

It is stated that Nero having offered by proclamation two hundred and fifty myriads to the person who should kill Vindex, the latter when he heard of it remarked: "The person who kills Nero and brings his head to me may take mine in return." That was the sort of man Vindex was.

[Sidenote:--24--] Rufus, governor of Germany, set out to make war on Vindex; but when he reached Vesontio he sat down to besiege the city, for the alleged reason that it had not received him. Vindex came against him to the aid of the city and encamped not far off. They then sent messages back and forth to each other and finally held a conference together at which no one else was present and made a mutual agreement,--against Nero, as it was thought. After this Vindex set his army in motion for the apparent purpose of occupying the town: and the soldiers of Rufus, becoming aware of their approach, and thinking the force was marching straight against them, set out without being ordered to oppose their progress. They fell upon the advancing troop while the men were off their guard and in disarray, and so cut down great numbers of them. Vindex seeing this was afflicted with so great grief that he slew himself. For he felt, besides, at odds with Heaven itself, in that he had not been able to attain his goal in an undertaking of so great magnitude, involving the overthrow of Nero and the liberation of the Romans.

This is the truth of the matter. Many afterwards inflicted wounds on his body, and so gave currency to the erroneous supposition that they had themselves killed him.

[Sidenote:--25--] Rufus mourned deeply his demise, but refused to accept the office of emperor, although his soldiers frequently obtained it. He was an energetic man and had a large, wide-awake body of troops. His soldiers tore down and shattered the image of Nero and called their general Caesar and Augustus. When he would not heed them, one of the soldiers thereupon quickly inscribed these words on one of his standards.

He erased the terms, however, and after a great deal of trouble brought the men to order and persuaded them to submit the question [Footnote: [Greek: ta pragmata] supplied by Polak.] to the senate and the people. It is hard to say whether this was merely because he did not deem it right for the soldiers to bestow the supreme authority upon any one (for he declared this to be the prerogative of the senate and the people), or because he was entirely highminded and felt no personal desire for the imperial power, to secure which others were willing to do everything.

[Sidenote:--26--] [Nero was informed of the Vindex episode as he was in Naples viewing the gymnastic contest just after luncheon. He was naturally far from sorry, and leaping from his seat vied in prowess with some athlete. He did not hurry back to Rome but merely sent a letter to the senate, in which he asked them to regard leniently his non-arrival, because he had a sore throat, implying that when he did come he wanted to sing to them. And he continued to devote the same care and attention to his voice, to his songs, and to the zither tunes, not only just then but also subsequently: so he would not try a tone of his intended program. If he was at any time compelled by circ.u.mstances to make some exclamation, yet somebody, reminding him that he was to appear as citharoedist, would straightway check and control him.

In general he still behaved in his accustomed manner and he was pleased with the news brought him because he had been expecting in any event to overcome Vindex and because he thought he had now secured a justifiable ground for money-getting and murders. He enjoyed the same degree of luxury; and upon the completion and adornment of the heroum of Sabina he gave it a brilliant dedication, taking care to have inscribed upon it: "The Women have built This to Sabina, the G.o.ddess Venus." And the writing told the truth: for the building had been constructed with money of which a great part had been stolen from women. Also he had his numerous little jokes, of which I shall mention only one, omitting the rest.] One night he suddenly summoned in haste the foremost senators and knights, apparently to make some communication to them regarding the political situation. When they were a.s.sembled, he said: "I have discovered a way by which the water organ"--I must write exactly what he said--"will produce a greater and more harmonious volume of sound." Such were his jokes about this period. And little did he reck that both sets of doors, those of the monument and those of the bedchamber of Augustus, opened of their own accord in one and the same night, or that at Albanum it rained so much blood that rivers of it flowed over the land, or that the sea retreated a good distance from Egypt and covered a large portion of Lycia.

[Sidenote:--27--] But when he heard about Galba's being proclaimed emperor by the soldiers and about the desertion of Rufus, he fell into great fear: he made preparations in person at Rome and he sent against the rebels Rubrius Gallus and some others.

On learning that Petronius, [Footnote: _P. Petronius Turpilia.n.u.s_.]

whom he had sent ahead against the rebels with the larger portion of the army, also favored the cause of Galba, Nero reposed no further hope in arms.

Being abandoned by all without exception he began forming plans to kill the senators, burn the city to the ground, and sail to Alexandria. He dropped this hint in regard to his future course: "Even though we be driven from our empire, yet this little artistic gift of ours shall support us there." To such a pitch of folly had he come as to believe that he could live for a moment as a private citizen and would be able to appear as a musician.

He was on the point of putting those measures into effect when the senate first withdrew the guard that surrounded Nero, then entered the camp, and declared Nero an enemy but chose Galba in his place as emperor.