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34 - A History of the Roman Empire From Augustus to Aurelius by John Bagnell Bury · A History of the Roman Empire From Augustus to Aurelius

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen, Section four of J. B. Bury's The Student's
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  Speaker 1: Roman Empire, Part one. This is a LibriVox recording. All
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
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  Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The Student's
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  Speaker 1: Roman Empire, Part one by John Bagnell Bury, Chapter seventeen,
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  Speaker 1: The Principate of Nero fifty four to sixty eight a d.
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  Speaker 1: Section four The Conspiracy of Piso to Jelinus was unwearied
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  Speaker 1: in scenting out pretenders to the principate. By this policy,
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  Speaker 1: he helped to fill the imperial coffers and to render
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  Speaker 1: himself indispensable. In sixty four A d. D. Junius Torquatis
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  Speaker 1: Silanus was accused of treason and driven to suicide. But
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  Speaker 1: a profound and widely spread discontent prevailed among the nobles,
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  Speaker 1: and a conspiracy was formed, which came to a head
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  Speaker 1: in the spring of sixty five. A d. C. Calpurnius Piso,
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  Speaker 1: whom the conspirators chose to fill the place of Nero,
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  Speaker 1: was one of the most prominent and popular men in
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  Speaker 1: Rome at this time. He lived in magnificent style, was
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  Speaker 1: lavish of his wealth, and was ready to place his
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  Speaker 1: powers of oratory at the service of the poor. He
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  Speaker 1: had winning manners, and his life was as dissolute as
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  Speaker 1: that of Nero or to Jelanus, he lazily consented to
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  Speaker 1: be the center of a plot, the dangers of which
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  Speaker 1: he was not sufficiently ambitious to share. What seemed to
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  Speaker 1: give this enterprise a considerable chance of success was the
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  Speaker 1: adherents of Faneus Rufus, the praetorian prefect, who was jealous
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  Speaker 1: and afraid of his powerful colleague to Jelinus. Along with Rufus,
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  Speaker 1: a number of the tribunes and officers who had been
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  Speaker 1: passed over by to Jelinus joined the conspiracy. Conspicuous among
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  Speaker 1: these was the tribune Subrius Flavius. Among the rest were
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  Speaker 1: the council designatet Plotius Leterenus, Antonius Natalus, a friend of
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  Speaker 1: Piso a Neeus, Lucreanus, the poet whose verses had incurred
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  Speaker 1: the disfavor of the Emperor, Claudius Senesio, a courtier constantly
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  Speaker 1: in attendance on Nero and so able to keep his
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  Speaker 1: associates aware of what was going on in the palace.
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  Speaker 1: Lucan's mother, and a freedwoman named Epicaierus were also initiated
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  Speaker 1: into the project. Epicaius tried to win over an officer
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  Speaker 1: of the fleet, Lucius Procolus, who was supposed to have
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  Speaker 1: a grudge against Nero, but he deceived her expectation by
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  Speaker 1: revealing the affair to the emperor. As however, she had
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  Speaker 1: mentioned no names, the conspirators were not discovered. They then
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  Speaker 1: decided to kill Nero during the Feast of Seras between
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  Speaker 1: the twelfth and nineteenth of April, at the games in
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  Speaker 1: the circus. The plan was the same as that which
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  Speaker 1: had been successfully adopted by the assassins of Julius Caesar.
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  Speaker 1: Latanus was to present a petition to Nero, and, clinging
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  Speaker 1: to his legs, throw him on the ground. The rest
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  Speaker 1: were to bury their weapons in his body. But Flavius Gavinus,
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  Speaker 1: who claimed to the first blow, foolishly betrayed the secret,
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  Speaker 1: which had hitherto been closely preserved. He made his will,
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  Speaker 1: gave the dagger which he had chosen for the deed
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  Speaker 1: to his freedmen Milicus to sharpen, got ready the appliances
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  Speaker 1: for binding up wounds, and gave his slaves and freedmen
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  Speaker 1: a luxurious feast. These unusual proceedings excited the suspicions of Milicus,
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  Speaker 1: who at daybreak sought and obtained an audience with Nero.
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  Speaker 1: Scavinus was arrested, but his examination led to nothing, and
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  Speaker 1: the plot would not have been discovered if Milicus had
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  Speaker 1: not remembered the frequent visits which his master received from Natalus.
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  Speaker 1: When Natalus was examined separately, his evidence did not agree
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  Speaker 1: with that of Schevinus, and in this way the accusation
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  Speaker 1: of the freedmen was proved to be well founded. Threats
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  Speaker 1: of torture and promises of mercy induced the two conspirators
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  Speaker 1: to vie with each other in revealing the names of
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  Speaker 1: their associates. Their conduct contrasted with the constancy of Epicaius,
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  Speaker 1: who submitted to tortures and in the end and strangled
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  Speaker 1: herself rather than betray her trust. The names of the
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  Speaker 1: military conspiracors had not been disclosed, and Phineus Rufus took
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  Speaker 1: his seat beside to Jelanus at the trial and sought
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  Speaker 1: to divert suspicion from himself by his zeal as a judge,
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  Speaker 1: But when one of the accused denounced him, he turned
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  Speaker 1: pale and could not defend himself. The proceedings against the
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  Speaker 1: victims were summary, but they were allowed to choose their
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  Speaker 1: own mode of death. Piso, who had shown irresolution and
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  Speaker 1: cowardice through the whole episode, and Latyranus were slain without resistance,
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  Speaker 1: and Piso made a cringing will in favor of the emperor.
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  Speaker 1: Among the first whose names were betrayed and who were
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  Speaker 1: condemned to die was the philosopher Seneca. It is not
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  Speaker 1: improbable that he was really implicated in the enterprise, and
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  Speaker 1: in any case, it seems to have been the wish
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  Speaker 1: of the military associates in the plot to elevate him
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  Speaker 1: instead of Piso, to the supreme power. If Nero had
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  Speaker 1: any wish to spare his former tutor, he was hindered
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  Speaker 1: by Popeia and to Juus. Seneca had just returned from
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  Speaker 1: Campania with his wife Paulina, and was staying at a
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  Speaker 1: country house four miles from the city when the message
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  Speaker 1: of death was brought. His wife declared her resolution of
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  Speaker 1: dying along with him, and they severed the veins of
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  Speaker 1: their arms. The flow of blood in Seneca's old frame
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  Speaker 1: was languid, and his agony was protracted as he lay
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  Speaker 1: slowly bleeding, he dictated a composition, which was afterwards published.
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  Speaker 1: To hasten his end, he swallowed poison, which however, had
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  Speaker 1: no effect on his drained body, and death was finally
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  Speaker 1: brought about by the steam of a hot bath. But
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  Speaker 1: Paulina was not permitted to die. Nero had no cause
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  Speaker 1: of hatred against her, and her arms were bound up
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  Speaker 1: by the orders of the soldiers. She lived some years longer,
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  Speaker 1: faithful to her husband's memory, and the lasting pallor of
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  Speaker 1: her skin was a monument of her attempt to die
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  Speaker 1: with him. The fate of this distinguished philosopher and that
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  Speaker 1: of his nephew, the poet Lucan gave the suboordi of
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  Speaker 1: conspiracy a certain celebrity. Lucan opened his veins in the bath,
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  Speaker 1: and as he felt the animation depart from his feet
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  Speaker 1: and hands, recited appropriate verses of his own, describing a
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  Speaker 1: wounded soldier bleeding to death. Subrius Flavius, a tribune of
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  Speaker 1: one of the Praetorian cohorts, distinguished himself by his bold
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  Speaker 1: words to Nero. When the tyrant asked him why he conspired,
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  Speaker 1: he replied, quote, because I hated you. None of the soldiers.
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  Speaker 1: Was more loyal as long as you deserved our affection.
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  Speaker 1: I began to hate you when you became an assassin
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  Speaker 1: of your mother and your wife, a charioteer, an actor,
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  Speaker 1: and an incendiary end quote the council. Vestines was included
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  Speaker 1: among the victims, although his guilt was not clear, and
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  Speaker 1: it is said that Nero wanted to get rid of
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  Speaker 1: him on account of his wife, Statlea Messalina. Nero married
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  Speaker 1: Messalina in the following year. Natalis was pardoned. Milicus was
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  Speaker 1: richly rewarded and received the name of Preserver. The praetorian
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  Speaker 1: guards received each man two thousand cestresses and were for
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  Speaker 1: the future provided with bread free of cost. Triumphal decorations
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  Speaker 1: were granted to the prefect, to Jelinus, Cocaeus Nerva and
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  Speaker 1: Petronius Terpilianus, who had helped in the judicial proceedings, and
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  Speaker 1: their statues were set up in the palladium. Consular insignia
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  Speaker 1: were conferred on Nimphidious Sabinus, who had succeeded Phineas Rufus
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  Speaker 1: as praetorian prefect. A temple was erected to Sallus. The
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  Speaker 1: dagger of Scavius was dedicated to Jupiter the Avenger, and
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  Speaker 1: the month of April was named Neronianus. It was even proposed,
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  Speaker 1: but the proposal was rejected to erect a temple to Nero.
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  Speaker 1: It is noteworthy that a full account of the judicial
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  Speaker 1: proceedings which were conducted by the Imperial Concilium was published
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  Speaker 1: both later in sixty five a d. And in the
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  Speaker 1: succeeding year. Executions took place which seemed to have been
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  Speaker 1: in some way connected with the conspiracy of Piso. Annaeus Mela,
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  Speaker 1: brother of Seneca and father of Lucan, was condemned on
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  Speaker 1: the ground of a forged letter of his son charging
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  Speaker 1: him with complication in Piso's plot. About the same time
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  Speaker 1: perished T. Petronius on the charge of a suspicious friendship
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  Speaker 1: with the conspirator Scaevinus, but really on account of the
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  Speaker 1: jealousy of T. Jelanus. Petronius was a man who made
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  Speaker 1: the pleasures of vice a fine art, and his judgment
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  Speaker 1: was regarded as the standard of taste in all matters
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  Speaker 1: of luxury. At Rome. He was the glass of fashion.
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  Speaker 1: His feasts were elegant, his debauchery refined. He was named
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  Speaker 1: Arbiter as the arbitrator or director of the Emperor's pleasures,
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  Speaker 1: and to Jelinus, who aspired to be Nero's sole guide
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  Speaker 1: in such things, envy the influence of Petronius. When the
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  Speaker 1: emperor was in Capania sixty six, a d to Jelanus
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  Speaker 1: caused Petronius to be detained at Cumme. Seeing that his
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  Speaker 1: fate was determined, the voluptuary was true to the principles
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  Speaker 1: of his life. In the moments of his death, having
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  Speaker 1: opened his veins, he bade the physician bind them up again,
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  Speaker 1: and repeating this operation at intervals. He spent his last
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  Speaker 1: hours at a banquet, amusing his friends with wanton verses.
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  Speaker 1: He also composed an account of the unnatural orgies of
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  Speaker 1: the Emperor and sent it to him under seal. This
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  Speaker 1: led to the banishment of a woman named Cilia, whom
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  Speaker 1: Nero suspected of having betrayed the scenes in the palace
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  Speaker 1: in which he had taken part. Having butchered so many
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  Speaker 1: illustrious men, Nero at length desired to destroy virtue herself
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  Speaker 1: by the death of Thrasia Petus and Pereeas Serranus and
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  Speaker 1: quote p. Clodius. Thracia Petus was more remarkable for what
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  Speaker 1: he was than for anything he did. He was the
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  Speaker 1: leader of the party of Opposition, which yearned helplessly for
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  Speaker 1: the restoration of the Republic and set up the younger
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  Speaker 1: Cato as their ideal. He was the embodiment of their
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  Speaker 1: virtues and their faults. Born at Patavium, he was simple
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  Speaker 1: in his habits, incorruptible in his morals, and out of
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  Speaker 1: sympathy with the luxury of Rome, he married Aria, the
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  Speaker 1: daughter of a man who had fallen in a conspiracy
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  Speaker 1: against Claudius, and whose wife had heroically slain herself. He
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  Speaker 1: and his son in law, Alvidius Priscus, used to crown
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  Speaker 1: themselves with garlands and celebrate the birthdays of Brutus and Cassius.
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  Speaker 1: Thracia distinguished himself in the Senate by his rough independence.
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  Speaker 1: He withdrew without voting when the motion was made to
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  Speaker 1: condemn the memory of Agrippina. He declined to take any
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  Speaker 1: part in the Nerhoonian Games. He did not attend the
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  Speaker 1: funeral of Popeia. When one Antistheus was condemned to death
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  Speaker 1: for mocking the emperor. In verse, Thracia endeavored to moderate
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  Speaker 1: the flattery of the Senate. It was said that he
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  Speaker 1: never sacrificed for the emperor's safety. He and his party
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  Speaker 1: were always protesting against the government in insignificant matters and
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  Speaker 1: asserting their independence and trifles. Their republican idea was an anachronism,
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  Speaker 1: their rhetoric was hollow. Activity was chiefly confined to society.
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  Speaker 1: In literature, Thracia was a stoic, and he composed a
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  Speaker 1: life of his model. Cato. Lucan's Parsalia was a characteristic
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  Speaker 1: work of this party of opposition, which, throughout the whole
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  Speaker 1: period of the Julian and Claudian dynasties, fostered its utopias
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  Speaker 1: and repeated its shallow phrases. It must be owned that
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  Speaker 1: they had the courage of their opinions, and that their
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  Speaker 1: bitterness against the Principate was natural enough, for its institution
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  Speaker 1: had destroyed the political power of the senatorial order. Nor
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  Speaker 1: could they see, as clearly as we can see now,
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  Speaker 1: that even imperial despotism was a lesser evil for the
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  Speaker 1: Roman world than the government of the Senate. In the
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  Speaker 1: last days of the Republic, the courageous obstinacy of Thracia
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  Speaker 1: led to his destruction. All his little sins of omission
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  Speaker 1: and commission against the majesty of the Emperor, were marshaled
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  Speaker 1: by Capito Kosutianus, a son in law of Tegellanus, and
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  Speaker 1: another delatur Eprius Marcellus, And at the same time Berea
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  Speaker 1: Soranus was accused, on various charges, among others, that he
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  Speaker 1: had been intimate with rebellious Plautus. The chief witness against
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  Speaker 1: him was p Ignatius cellar, a Stoic philosopher. The daughter
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  Speaker 1: of Siranus. Servilia was also charged with treasonable divination concerning Nero.
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  Speaker 1: The cases were tried by the Senate, and all three
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  Speaker 1: were condemned. Calvidius Priscus, who was likewise accused of neglecting
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  Speaker 1: his duties as senator, was banished. Dracia adopted the usual
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  Speaker 1: mode of death among condemned nobles, and opened his veins
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  Speaker 1: forbidding his wife Aria to follow her mother's example. As
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  Speaker 1: the first blood spouted, he said a libation to Jove,
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  Speaker 1: the Deliverer. In the meantime, Nero had been busy with
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  Speaker 1: those pursuits for which he imagined he had a special calling.
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  Speaker 1: He had appeared publicly on the stage at Neapolis sixty four,
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  Speaker 1: a d where from the Greek character of the city,
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  Speaker 1: he expected a favorable reception, and he received such enthusiastic
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  Speaker 1: applies that he determined to exhibit his skill to Greece herself.
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  Speaker 1: He had made preparations for a visit to that country,
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  Speaker 1: but the project was not carried out until two years later.
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  Speaker 1: In the meantime, he celebrated the Neuronia a second time
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  Speaker 1: sixty five, a d read his poems to a delighted
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  Speaker 1: audience and appeared as a cythorotis. It was considered almost
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  Speaker 1: high treason not to appear in the theatre on such occasions.
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  Speaker 1: Towards the close of the following year sixty six, Neuro
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  Speaker 1: visited Greece, where he appeared at all the public spectacles
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  Speaker 1: and danced and sang without any reserve. Those towns in
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  Speaker 1: which musical contests were held had sent invitations to him,
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  Speaker 1: offering him prizes, and the four Great Games at Olympia, Delphi, Isthmus,
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  Speaker 1: and Nomaea, which were regularly celebrated in successive years, were
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  Speaker 1: crowded into the space of one year for his sake,
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  Speaker 1: so he could win the glory of being a periodonicos
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  Speaker 1: or victor at all four. Besides this irregularity, a musical
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  Speaker 1: contest was held at Olympia. Contrary to want, he also
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  Speaker 1: competed in a chariot race, and is said to have
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  Speaker 1: received the prize, though his horses in chariot fell. The
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  Speaker 1: proclamation was made in this form quote Nero the Emperor
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  Speaker 1: is victorious and crowns the people of the Romans and
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  Speaker 1: the world, which is his end. Quote. Nero was attended
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  Speaker 1: on his Greek tour by a large train of courtiers
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  Speaker 1: and praetorian guards, and he seems to have indulged in
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  Speaker 1: debauchery with less reserve than ever. He had a profound
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  Speaker 1: admiration for Greece and the Greek people, and he could
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  Speaker 1: not brook that they should hold the position of mere provincials.
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  Speaker 1: He determined to reward them for their kindness to himself
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  Speaker 1: and their appreciation of his artistic talents. So he enacted
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  Speaker 1: at Corinth the scene which two and a half centuries
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  Speaker 1: before had been enacted by Flaminius. He proclaimed in the
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  Speaker 1: market place the freedom of the Greeks. The province of
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  Speaker 1: Achaea was done away with. The proclamation of Nero was
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  Speaker 1: very different in practical effect from that of Flaminius. It
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  Speaker 1: was harmless, It did not mean civil war, it merely
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  Speaker 1: relieved or favored portion of the empire from the burden
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  Speaker 1: of taxation. Nero's Greek visit was also marked by a
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  Speaker 1: serious attempt to cut through the Isthmus of Corinth, a
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  Speaker 1: project which had been most recently entertained by his uncle Gaius.
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  Speaker 1: Nero inaugurated the beginning of the work himself, but after
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  Speaker 1: his departure it was abandoned. Nero's visit to Greece was
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  Speaker 1: marked by the destruction of three consular legates of whose
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  Speaker 1: power or ambition the Emperor was jealous or afraid. The
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  Speaker 1: most important of these was Corbulo, whom we have already
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  Speaker 1: met in the Rhine, and whose exploits in the East
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  Speaker 1: will be recorded in the following chapter. The other two
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  Speaker 1: were Scrobinius Rufus and Scrobinius Prochilus, brothers, who at this
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  Speaker 1: time were the legatai of the two Germanys. It is
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  Speaker 1: unknown what accusations were preferred against them, or who were
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  Speaker 1: their enemies. While the emperor was absent, he left a
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  Speaker 1: freedman named Helius as his representative in Rome, and he
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  Speaker 1: could probably have found no one more faithfully devoted to
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  Speaker 1: his interests. At the beginning of the year sixty eight,
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  Speaker 1: a d serious signs of discontent were apparent in the provinces,
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  Speaker 1: and plots in the western armies against the emperor were suspected.
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  Speaker 1: Pelias crossed over to Greece and urged Nero to return
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  Speaker 1: if he would save his power. He entered Rome, born
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  Speaker 1: in the chariot in which Augustus had triumphed. Crowned with
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  Speaker 1: the Olympian wreaths, he was hailed as Nero Apollo and
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  Speaker 1: Nero Hercules and coins were struck on which he was
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  Speaker 1: depicted as a flute player. But although he was flattered
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  Speaker 1: on all sides, he soon left Rome for Capania, where
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  Speaker 1: he breathed more freely. End of Chapter seventeen, Section four