The History of Rome: Rise and Fall of the Empire. John Bagnell Bury
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Nero’s sole guide in such things, envied the influence of Petronius. When the Emperor was in Campania (66 A.D.), Tigellinus caused Petronius to be detained at Cumae. Seeing that his fate was determined, the voluptuary was true to the principles of his life in the moments of his death. Having opened his veins, he bade the physician bind them up again, and repeating this operation at intervals, he spent his last hours at a banquet, amusing his friends with wanton verses. He also composed an account of the unnatural orgies of the Emperor, and sent it to him tinder seal. This led to the banishment of a woman named Silia, whom Nero suspected of having betrayed the scenes in the palace in which she had taken part.
“Having butchered so many illustrious men, Nero at length desired to destroy virtue herself by the death of Thrasea Paetus and Barea Soranus”. P. Clodius Thrasea Paetus was more remarkable for what he was than for anything he did. He was the leader of the party of opposition which yearned, helplessly, for the restoration of the Republic and set up the younger Cato as their ideal. He was the embodiment of their virtues and their faults. Burn at Patavium, he was simple in his habits, incorruptible in his meals, and out of sympathy with the luxury of Rome. He married Arria, the daughter of a man who had fallen in a conspiracy against Claudius, and whose wile had heroically slain herself. He and his son-in-law, Helvidius Priscus, used to crown themselves with garlands, and celebrate the birthdays of Brutus and Cassius. Thrasea distinguished himself in the senate by his rough independence. He withdrew, without voting, when the motion was made to condemn the memory of Agrippina; he declined to take any part in the Neronian games; he did not attend the funeral of Poppaea. When one Antistius was condemned to death for mocking the Emperor in verse, Thrasea endeavored to moderate the flattery of the senate. It was said that he never sacrificed for the Emperor’s safety. He and his party were always protesting against the government in insignificant matters, and asserting their independence in trifles. Their republican ideal was an anachronism; their rhetoric was hollow. Their activity was chiefly confined to society and literature. Thrasea was a Stoic, and he composed a life of his model, Cato. Lucan’sPharsalia was a characteristic work of this party of opposition, which, throughout the whole period of the Julian and Claudian dynasties, fostered its utopias and repeated its hollow phrases. It must be owned that they had the courage of their opinions, and that their bitterness against the Principate was, natural enough; for its institution had destroyed the political power of the senatorial order. Nor could they see, as clearly as we can see now, that even imperial despotism was a lesser evil for the Roman world than the government of the senate in the last days of the Republic.
The courageous obstinacy of Thrasea led to his destruction. All his little sins of omission and commission against the majesty of the Emperor were marshaled by Capito Cossutianus, a son-in-law of Tigellinus, and another delator, Eprius Marcellus; and at the same time Barea Soranus was accused on various charges; among others, that he had been intimate with Rubellius Plautus. The chief witness against him was P. Egnatius Celer, a Stoic philosopher. The daughter of Soramis, Servilia, was also charged with treasonable divination concerning Nero. The cases were tried by the senate, and all three were condemned. Helvidius Priscus, who was likewise accused of neglecting his duties as senator, was banished. Thrasea adopted the usual mode of death among condemned nobles, and opened his veins, forbidding his wife Arria to follow her mother’s example. As the first blood spouted, he said, “A libation to Jove the Deliverer!”
In the meantime Nero had been busy with those pursuits for which he imagined that he had a special calling. He had appeared publicly on the stage at Neapolis (64 A.D.), where, from the Greek character of the city, he expected a favorable reception, and he received such enthusiastic applause that he determined to exhibit his skill to Greece herself. He had made preparations for a visit to that country, but the project was not carried out until two years later. In the meantime he celebrated the Neronia a second time (65 A.D.), read his poems to a delighted audience, and appeared as a citharoedus. It was considered almost high treason not to appear in the theatre on such occasions. Towards the close of the following year (66) Nero visited Greece, where he appeared at all the public spectacles, and danced and sang without any reserve. Those towns in which musical contests were held hail sent invitations to him, offering him prizes, and the four great games at Olympia, Delphi, Isthmus, and Nemea, which were regularly celebrated in successive years, were crowded into the space of one year for his sake, so that he could win the glory of being a periodonikos or victor at all four. Besides this irregularity, a musical contest was held at Olympia, contrary to wont. He also competed in a chariot-race, and is said to have received the prize, though his horses and chariot fell. The proclamation was made in this form: “Nero the Emperor is victorious, and crowns the People of the Romans and the world which is his”. Nero was attended on his Greek tour by a large train of courtiers and praetorian guards, and he seems to have indulged in debauchery with less reserve than ever. He had a profound admiration for Greece and the Greek people, and he could not brook that they should hold the position of mere provincials. He determined to reward them for their kindness to himself and their appreciation of his artistic talents. So he enacted at Corinth the scene which, two-and-a-half centuries before, had been enacted by Flamininus. He proclaimed in the market-place the freedom of the Greeks; the province of Achaia was done away with. The proclamation of Nero was very different in practical effect from that of Flamininus. It was harmless; it did not mean civil war; it merely relieved a favored portion of the Empire from the burden of taxation. Nero’s Greek visit was also marked by a serious attempt to cut through the Isthmus of Corinth, a project which had been most recently entertained by his uncle Gaius. Nero inaugurated the beginning of the work himself, but after his departure it was abandoned.
Nero’s visit to Greece was marked by the destruction of three consular legates, of whose power or ambition the Emperor was jealous or afraid. The most important of these was Corbulo, whom we have already met on the Rhine, and whose exploits in the east will be recorded in the following chapter. The other two were Scribonius Rufus and Scribonius Proculus, brothers, who at this time were the legati of the two Germanies. It is unknown, what accusations were preferred against them, or who were their enemies. While the Emperor was absent, he left a freedman named Helius as his representative in Rome, and he could probably have found no one more faithfully devoted to his interests. At the beginning of the year 68 A.D. serious signs of discontent were apparent in the provinces, and plots in the western armies against the Emperor were suspected. Helius crossed over to Greece, and urged Nero to return if he would save his power. He entered Rome, borne in the chariot in which Augustus had triumphed, crowned with the Olympian wreath. He was hailed as Nero Apollo and Nero Hercules, and coins were struck, on which he was depicted as a flute-player. But although he was flattered on all sides, he soon left Rome for Campania, where he breathed more freely.
SECT. V. — THE REVOLT OF VINDEX, AND FALL OF NERO
The events which led to the fall of Nero began in Gaul, although it was not from Gaul that the final blow was to come. C. Julius Vindex, sprung of a noble Celtic family, but thoroughly Romanized and adopted into the imperial gens, was governor of Gallia Lugudunensis. At the beginning of 68 A.D., he raised the standard of revolt. It is not quite clear what his ultimate intentions were, but he seems to have conceived the idea of a kingdom of Gaul, ruled by himself, nominally perhaps dependent on the Empire, like the former kingdom of Mauretania. But it was practically an attempt to throw off the Roman yoke. Vindex may be regarded as a successor of Vercingetorix and Sacrovir. He collected from various parts of Gaul a force of about 100,000 men. The districts of the Arverni and the Sequani joined in the movement, and the town of Vienna on the Rhone was a sort of centre for the rebellion. But Lugudunum, the capital of the Three Provinces, held aloof, as did the Lingones and the Treveri on the borders of Germany. The troops which Vindex gathered were ill-disciplined and ill-armed, the enterprise was hopeless unless he could induce some of the western armies to take part in it. His attempts to win the armies of the Rhine were fruitless, but he was more successful in Hither Spain. We have already met Galba, the governor of that province. He had distinguished himself slightly both on the Rhine and in Africa. He was already in his seventy-third year, and in his childhood had seen Augustus, who had said to him, according to report, “Thou shall one day taste our empire”. It is probable that Galba had already thought of rebellion before he received the overtures from Vindex. Oracles were afloat that an Emperor was to arise from Spain. The revolt of Vindex, and the pressure of his lieutenant, T.