1. FORTUNE soon afterwards made a dupe of Nero through his own credulity and the promises of Cæsellius Bassus, a Carthaginian by birth and a man of a crazed imagination, who wrested a vision seen in the slumber of night into a confident expectation. He sailed to Rome, and having purchased admission to the emperor, he explained how he had discovered on his land a cave of immense depth, which contained a vast quantity of gold, not in the form of coin, but in the shapeless and ponderous masses of ancient days. In fact, he said, ingots of great weight lay there, with bars standing near them in another part of the cave, a treasure hidden for so many ages to increase the wealth of the present. Phœnician Dido, as he sought to show by inference, after fleeing from Tyre and founding Carthage, had concealed these riches in the fear that a new people might be demoralised by a superabundance of money, or that the Numidian kings, already for other reasons hostile, might by lust of gold be provoked to war.
1. Inlusit dehinc Neroni fortuna per vanitatem ipsius et promissa Caeselli Bassi, qui origine Poenus, mente turbida, nocturnae quietis imaginem ad spem haud dubiae rei traxit, vectusque Romam, principis aditum emercatus, expromit repertum in agro suo specum altitudine immensa, quo magna vis auri contineretur, non in formam pecuniae sed rudi et antiquo pondere. lateres quippe praegravis iacere, adstantibus parte alia columnis; quae per tantum aevi occulta augendis praesentibus bonis. ceterum, ut coniectura demonstrabat, Dido Phoenissam Tyro profugam condita Carthagine illas opes abdidisse, ne novus populus nimia pecunia lasciviret aut reges Numidarum, et alias infensi, cupidine auri ad bellum accenderentur.
2. Nero upon this, without sufficiently examining the credibility of the author of the story, or of the matter itself, or sending persons through whom he might ascertain whether the intelligence was true, himself actually encouraged the report and despatched men to bring the spoil, as if it were already acquired. They had triremes assigned them and crews specially selected to promote speed. Nothing else at the time was the subject of the credulous gossip of the people, and of the very different conversation of thinking persons. It happened, too, that the quinquennial games were being celebrated for the second time, and the orators took from this same incident their chief materials for eulogies on the emperor. "Not only," they said, "were there the usual harvests, and the gold of the mine with its alloy, but the earth now teemed with a new abundance, and wealth was thrust on them by the bounty of the gods." These and other servile flatteries they invented, with consummate eloquence and equal sycophancy, confidently counting on the facility of his belief.
2. Igitur Nero, non auctoris, non ipsius negotii fide satis spectata nec missis per quos nosceret an vera adferrentur, auget ultro rumorem mittitque qui velut paratam praedam adveherent. dantur triremes et delectum remigium iuvandae festinationi. nec aliud per illos dies populus credulitate, prudentes diversa fama tulere. ac forte quinquennale ludicrum secundo lustro celebrabatur, ab oratoribusque praecipua materia in laudem principis adsumpta est. non enim solitas tantum fruges nec confusum metallis aurum gigni, sed nova ubertate provenire terram et obvias opes deferre deos, quaeque alia summa facundia nec minore adulatione servilia fingebant, securi de facilitate credentis.
3. Extravagance meanwhile increased, on the strength of a chimerical hope, and ancient wealth was wasted, as apparently the emperor had lighted on treasures he might squander for many a year. He even gave away profusely from this source, and the expectation of riches was one of the causes of the poverty of the State. Bassus indeed dug up his land and extensive plains in the neighbourhood, while he persisted that this or that was the place of the promised cave, and was followed not only by our soldiers but by the rustic population who were engaged to execute the work, till at last he threw off his infatuation, and expressing wonder that his dreams had never before been false, and that now for the first time he had been deluded, he escaped disgrace and danger by a voluntary death. Some have said that he was imprisoned and soon released, his property having been taken from him as a substitute for the royal treasure.
3. Gliscebat interim luxuria spe inani consumebanturque veteres opes quasi oblatis quas multos per annos prodigeret. quin et inde iam largiebatur; et divitiarum expectatio inter causas paupertatis publicae erat. nam Bassus effosso agro suo latisque circum arvis, dum hunc vel illum locum promissi specus adseverat, sequunturque non modo milites sed populus agrestium efficiendo operi adsumptus, tandem posita vaecordia, non falsa antea somnia sua seque tunc primum elusum admirans, pudorem et metum morte voluntaria effugit. quidam vinctum ac mox dimissum tradidere ademptis bonis in locum regiae gazae.
4. Meanwhile the Senate, as they were now on the eve of the quinquennial contest, wishing to avert scandal, offered the emperor the "victory in song," and added the "crown of eloquence," that thus a veil might be thrown over a shameful exposure on the stage. Nero, however, repeatedly declared that he wanted neither favour nor the Senate's influence, as he was a match for his rivals, and was certain, in the conscientious opinion of the judges, to win the honour by merit. First, he recited a poem on the stage; then, at the importunate request of the rabble that he would make public property of all his accomplishments (these were their words), he entered the theatre, and conformed to all the laws of harp-playing, not sitting down when tired, nor wiping off the perspiration with anything but the garment he wore, or letting himself be seen to spit or clear his nostrils. Last of all, on bended knee he saluted the assembly with a motion of the hand, and awaited the verdict of the judges with pretended anxiety. And then the city-populace, who were wont to encourage every gesture even of actors, made the place ring with measured strains of elaborate applause. One would have thought they were rejoicing, and perhaps they did rejoice, in their indifference to the public disgrace.
4. Interea senatus propinquo iam lustrali certamine, ut dedecus averteret, offert imperatori victoriam cantus adicitque facundiae coronam qua ludicra deformitas velaretur. sed Nero nihil ambitu nec potestate senatus opus esse dictitans, se aequum adversum aemulos et religione iudicum meritam laudem adsecuturum, primo carmen in scaena recitat; mox flagitante vulgo ut omnia studia sua publicaret (haec enim verba dixere) ingreditur theatrum, cunctis citharae legibus obtemperans, ne fessus resideret, ne sudorem nisi ea quam indutui gerebat veste detergeret, ut nulla oris aut narium excrementa viserentur. postremo flexus genu et coetum illum manu veneratus sententias iudicum opperiebatur ficto pavore. et plebs quidem urbis, histrionum quoque gestus iuvare solita, personabat certis modis plausuque composito. crederes laetari, ac fortasse laetabantur per incuriam publici flagitii.
5. All, however, who were present from remote towns, and still retained the Italy of strict morals and primitive ways; all too who had come on embassies or on private business from distant provinces, where they had been unused to such wantonness, were unable to endure the spectacle or sustain the degrading fatigue, which wearied their unpractised hands, while they disturbed those who knew their part, and were often struck by soldiers, stationed in the seats, to see that not a moment of time passed with less vigorous applause or in the silence of indifference. It was a known fact that several knights, in struggling through the narrow approaches and the pressure of the crowd, were trampled to death, and that others while keeping their seats day and night were seized with some fatal malady. For it was a still worse danger to be absent from the show, as many openly and many more secretly made it their business to scrutinize names and faces, and to note the delight or the disgust of the company. Hence came cruel severities, immediately exercised on the humble, and resentments, concealed for the moment, but subsequently paid off, towards men of distinction. There was a story that Vespasian was insulted by Phœbus, a freedman, for closing his eyes in a doze, and that having with difficulty been screened by the intercessions of the well disposed, he escaped imminent destruction through his grander destiny.
5. Sed qui remotis e municipiis severaque adhuc et antiqui moris retinente Italia, quique per longinquas provincias lascivia inexperti officio legationum aut privata utilitate advenerant, neque aspectum illum tolerare neque labori inhonesto sufficere, cum manibus nesciis fatiscerent, turbarent gnaros ac saepe a militibus verberarentur, qui per cuneos stabant ne quod temporis momentum impari clamore aut silentio segni praeteriret. constitit plerosque equitum, dum per angustias aditus et ingruentem multitudinem enituntur, obtritos, et alios, dum diem noctemque sedilibus continuant, morbo exitiabili correptos. quippe gravior inerat metus, si spectaculo defuissent, multis palam et pluribus occultis, ut nomina ac vultus, alacritatem tristitiamque coeuntium scrutarentur. unde tenuioribus statim inrogata supplicia, adversum inlustris dissimulatum ad praesens et mox redditum odium. ferebantque Vespasianum, tamquam somno coniveret, a Phoebo liberto increpitum aegreque meliorum precibus obtectum, mox imminentem perniciem maiore fato effugisse.
6. After the conclusion of the games Poppæa died from a casual outburst of rage in her husband, who felled her with a kick when she was pregnant. That there was poison I cannot believe, though some writers so relate, from hatred rather than from belief, for the emperor was desirous of children, and wholly swayed by love of his wife. Her body was not consumed by fire according to Roman usage, but after the custom of foreign princes was filled with fragrant spices and embalmed, and then consigned to the sepulchre of the Julii. She had, however, a public funeral, and Nero himself from the rostra eulogized her beauty, her lot in hav- ing been the mother of a deified child, and fortune's other gifts, as though they were virtues.
6. Post finem ludicri Poppaea mortem obiit, fortuita mariti iracundia, a quo gravida ictu calcis adflicta est. neque enim venenum crediderim, quamvis quidam scriptores tradant, odio magis quam ex fide: quippe liberorum cupiens et amori uxoris obnoxius erat. corpus non igni abolitum, ut Romanus mos, sed regum externorum consuetudine differtum odoribus conditur tumuloque Iuliorum infertur. ductae tamen publicae exequiae laudavitque ipse apud rostra formam eius et quod divinae infantis parens fuisset aliaque fortunae munera pro virtutibus.
7. To the death of Poppæa, which, though a public grief, was a delight to those who recalling the past thought of her shamelessness and cruelty, Nero added fresh and greater odium by forbidding Caius Cassius to attend the funeral. This was the first token of mischief. Nor was it long delayed. Silanus was coupled with Cassius, no crime being alleged, but that Cassius was eminent for his ancestral wealth and dignity of character, Silanus for the nobility of his birth and the quiet demeanour of his youth. The emperor accordingly sent the Senate a speech in which he argued that both ought to be removed from the State, and made it a reproach against Cassius that among his ancestors' busts he had specially revered that of Caius Cassius, which bore the inscription "to the Party-Leader." In fact, he had thereby sought to sow the seeds of civil war and revolt from the House of the Cæsars. And that he might not merely avail himself of the memory of a hated name to stir up strife, he had associated with him Lucius Silanus, a youth of noble birth and reckless spirit, to whom he might point as an instrument of revolution.
7. Mortem Poppaeae ut palam tristem, ita recordantibus laetam ob impudicitiam eius saevitiamque, nova insuper invidia Nero complevit prohibendo C. Cassium officio exequiarum, quod primum indicium mali. neque in longum dilatum est, sed Silanus additur, nullo crimine nisi quod Cassius opibus vetustis et gravitate morum, Silanus claritudine generis et modesta iuventa praecellebant. igitur missa ad senatum oratione removendos a re publica utrosque disseruit, obiectavitque Cassio quod inter imagines maiorum etiam C. Cassi effigiem coluisset, ita inscriptam 'duci partium': quippe semina belli civilis et defectionem a domo Caesarum quaesitam; ac ⟨ne⟩ memoria tantum infensi nominis ad discordias uteretur, adsumpsisse L. Silanum, iuvenem genere nobilem, animo praeruptum, quem novis rebus ostentaret.
8. Nero next denounced Silanus himself in the same terms as he had his uncle Torquatus, implying that he was already arranging the details of imperial business, and setting freedmen to manage his accounts, papers, and correspondence, imputations utterly groundless and false. Silanus, in truth, was intensely apprehensive, and had been frightened into caution by his uncle's destruction. Nero then procured persons, under the name of informers, to invent against Lepida, the wife of Cassius and aunt of Silanus, a charge of incest with her brother's son, and of some ghastly religious ceremonial. Volcatius Tullinus, and Marcellus Cornelius, senators, and Fabatus, a Roman knight, were drawn in as accomplices. By an appeal to the emperor these men eluded an impending doom and subsequently, as being too insignificant, escaped from Nero, who was busy with crimes on a far greater scale.
8. Ipsum dehinc Silanum increpuit isdem quibus patruum eius Torquatum, tamquam disponeret iam imperii curas praeficeretque rationibus et libellis et epistulis libertos, inania simul et falsa: nam Silanus intentior metu et exitio patrui ad praecavendum exterritus erat. inducti posthac vocabulo indicum qui in Lepidam, Cassii uxorem, Silani amitam, incestum cum fratris filio et diros sacrorum ritus confingerent. trahebantur ut conscii Vulcacius Tullinus ac Marcellus Cornelius senatores et Calpurnius Fabatus eques Romanus; qui appellato principe instantem damnationem frustrati, mox Neronem circa summa scelera distentum quasi minores evasere.
9. The Senate was then consulted and sentences of exile were passed on Cassius and Silanus. As to Lepida, the em- peror was to decide. Cassius was transported to the island of Sardinia, and he was quietly left to old age. Silanus was removed to Ostia, whence, it was pretended, he was to be conveyed to Naxos. He was afterwards confined in a town of Apulia named Barium. There, as he was wisely enduring a most undeserved calamity, he was suddenly seized by a centurion sent to slay him. When the man advised him to sever his veins, he replied that, though he had resolved in his heart to die, he would not let a cutthroat have the glory of the service. The centurion seeing that, unarmed as he was, he was very powerful, and more like an enraged than a frightened man, ordered his soldiers to overpower him. And Silanus failed not to resist and to strike blows, as well as he could with his bare hands, till he was cut down by the centurion, as though in battle, with wounds in his breast.
9. Tunc consulto senatus Cassio et Silano exilia decernuntur: de Lepida Caesar statueret. deportatusque in insulam Sardiniam Cassius, et senectus eius expectabatur. Silanus tamquam Naxum deveheretur Ostiam amotus, post municipio Apuliae, cui nomen Barium est, clauditur. illic indignissimum casum sapienter tolerans a centurione ad caedem misso corripitur; suadentique venas abrumpere animum quidem morti destinatum ait, sed non remittere percussori gloriam ministerii. at centurio quamvis inermem, praevalidum tamen et irae quam timori propiorem cernens premi a militibus iubet. nec omisit Silanus obniti et intendere ictus, quantum manibus nudis valebat, donec a centurione vulneribus adversis tamquam in pugna caderet.
10. With equal courage Lucius Vetus, his mother-in-law Sextia, and his daughter Pollutia submitted to death. They were hated by the emperor because they seemed a living reproach to him for the murder of Rubellius Plautus, son-in-law of Lucius Vetus. But the first opportunity of unmasking his savage wrath was furnished by Fortunatus, a freedman, who having embezzled his patron's property, deserted him to become his accuser. He had as his accomplice Claudius Demianus, whom Vetus, when proconsul of Asia, had imprisoned for his gross misdeeds, and whom Nero now released as a recompense for the accusation. When the accused knew this and saw that he and his freedman were pitted against each other on an equal footing, he retired to his estate at Formiæ. There he was put under the secret surveillance of soldiers. With him was his daughter, who, to say nothing of the now imminent peril, had all the fury of a long grief ever since she had seen the murderers of her husband Plautus. She had clasped his bleeding neck, and still kept by her the blood-stained apparel, clinging in her widowhood to perpetual sorrow, and using only such nourishment as might suffice to avert starvation. Then at her father's bidding she went to Neapolis. And as she was forbidden to approach Nero, she would haunt his doors and implore him to hear an innocent man, and not surrender to a freedman one who had once been his colleague in the con- sulship, now pleading with the cries of a woman, now again forgetting her sex and lifting up her voice in a tone of menace, till the emperor showed himself unmoved alike by entreaty and reproach.
10. Haud minus prompte L. Vetus socrusque eius Sextia et Pollitta filia necem subiere, invisi principi tamquam vivendo exprobrarent interfectum esse Rubellium Plautum, generum Luci Veteris. sed initium detegendae saevitiae praebuit interversis patroni rebus ad accusandum transgrediens Fortunatus libertus, adscito Claudio Demiano, quem ob flagitia vinctum a Vetere Asiae pro consule exolvit Nero in praemium accusationis. quod ubi cognitum reo seque et libertum pari sorte componi, Formianos in agros digreditur: illic eum milites occulta custodia circumdant. aderat filia, super ingruens periculum longo dolore atrox, ex quo percussores Plauti mariti sui viderat; cruentamque cervicem eius amplexa servabat sanguinem et vestis respersas, vidua inpexa luctu continuo nec ullis alimentis nisi quae mortem arcerent. tum hortante patre Neapolim pergit; et quia aditu Neronis prohibebatur, egressus obsidens, audiret insontem neve consulatus sui quondam collegam dederet liberto, modo muliebri eiulatu, aliquando sexum egressa voce infensa clamitabat, donec princeps immobilem se precibus et invidiae iuxta ostendit.
11. She therefore told her father by message that she cast hope aside and yielded to necessity. He was at the same time informed that judicial proceedings in the Senate and a dreadful sentence were hanging over him. Some there were who advised him to name the emperor as his chief heir, and so secure the remainder for his grandchildren. But he spurned the notion, and unwilling to disgrace a life which had clung to freedom by a final act of servility, he bestowed on his slaves all his ready money, and ordered each to convey away for himself whatever he could carry, leaving only three couches for the last scene. Then in the same chamber, with the same weapon, they sundered their veins, and speedily hurried into a bath, covered each, as delicacy required, with a single garment, the father gazing intently on his daughter, the grandmother on her grandchild, she again on both, while with rival earnestness they prayed that the ebbing life might have a quick departure, each wishing to leave a relative still surviving, but just on the verge of death. Fortune preserved the due order; the oldest died first, then the others according to priority of age. They were prosecuted after their burial, and the sentence was that "they should be punished in ancient fashion." Nero interposed his veto, allowing them to die without his interference. Such were the mockeries added to murders already perpetrated.
11. Ergo nuntiat patri abicere spem et uti necessitate: simul adfertur parari cognitionem senatus et trucem sententiam. nec defuere qui monerent magna ex parte heredem Caesarem nuncupare atque ita nepotibus de reliquo consu- lere. quod aspernatus, ne vitam proxime libertatem actam novissimo servitio foedaret, largitur in servos quantum aderat pecuniae; et si qua asportari possent, sibi quemque deducere, tres modo lectulos ad suprema retineri iubet. tunc eodem in cubiculo, eodem ferro abscindunt venas, properique et singulis vestibus ad verecundiam velati balineis inferuntur, pater filiam, avia neptem, illa utrosque intuens, et certatim precantes labenti animae celerem exitum, ut relinquerent suos superstites et morituros. servavitque ordinem fortuna, ac seniores prius, tum cui prima aetas extinguuntur. accusati post sepulturam decretumque ut more maiorum punirentur, et Nero intercessit, mortem sine arbitro permittens: ea caedibus peractis ludibria adiciebantur.
12. Publius Gallus, a Roman knight, was outlawed for having been intimate with Fænius Rufus and somewhat acquainted with Vetus. To the freedman who was the accuser, was given, as a reward for his service, a seat in the theatre among the tribune's officers. The month too following April, or Neroneus, was changed from Maius into the name of Claudius, and Junius into that of Germanicus, Cornelius Orfitus, the proposer of the motion, publicly declaring that the month Junius had been passed over because the execution of the two Torquati for their crimes had now rendered its name inauspicious.
12. Publius Gallus eques Romanus, quod Faenio Rufo intimus et Veteri non alienus fuerat, aqua atque igni prohibitus est. liberto et accusatori praemium operae locus in theatro inter viatores tribunicios datur. et menses, qui Aprilem eundemque Neroneum sequebantur, Maius Claudii, Iunius Germanici vocabulis mutantur, testificante Cornelio Orfito, qui id censuerat, ideo Iunium mensem transmissum, quia duo iam Torquati ob scelera interfecti infaustum nomen Iunium fecissent.
13. A year of shame and of so many evil deeds heaven also marked by storms and pestilence. Campania was devastated by a hurricane, which destroyed everywhere country-houses, plantations and crops, and carried its fury to the neighbourhood of Rome, where a terrible plague was sweeping away all classes of human beings without any such derangement of the atmosphere as to be visibly apparent. Yet the houses were filled with lifeless forms and the streets with funerals. Neither age nor sex was exempt from peril. Slaves and the free-born populace alike were suddenly cut off, amid the wailings of wives and children, who were often consumed on the very funeral pile of their friends by whom they had been sitting and shedding tears. Knights and senators perished indiscriminately, and yet their deaths were less deplored because they seemed to forestal the emperor's cruelty by an ordinary death. That same year levies of troops were held in Narbon Gaul, Africa and Asia, to fill up the legions of Illyricum, all soldiers in which, worn out by age or ill-health, were receiving their discharge. Lugdunum was consoled by the prince for a ruinous disaster by a gift of four million sesterces, so that what was lost to the city might be replaced. Its people had previously offered this same amount for the distresses of Rome.
13. Tot facinoribus foedum annum etiam dii tempestatibus et morbis insignivere. vastata Campania turbine ventorum, qui villas arbusta fruges passim disiecit pertulitque violentiam ad vicina urbi; in qua omne mortalium genus vis pestilentiae depopulabatur, nulla caeli intemperie quae occurreret oculis. sed domus corporibus exanimis, itinera funeribus complebantur; non sexus, non aetas periculo vacua; servitia perinde et ingenua plebes raptim extingui, inter coniugum et liberorum lamenta, qui dum adsident, dum deflent, saepe eodem rogo cremabantur. equitum senatorumque interitus quamvis promisci minus flebiles erant, tamquam communi mortalitate saevitiam principis praevenirent. Eodem anno dilectus per Galliam Narbonensem Africamque et Asiam habiti sunt supplendis Illyrici legionibus, ex quibus aetate aut valetudine fessi sacramento solvebantur. cladem Lugdunensem quadragies sestertio solatus est princeps, ut amissa urbi reponerent; quam pecuniam Lugdunenses ante obtulerant urbis casibus.
14. In the consulship of Caius Suetonius and Lucius Telesinus, Antistius Sosianus, who, as I have stated, had been punished with exile for repeated satires on Nero, having heard that there was such honour for informers and that the emperor was so partial to bloodshed, being himself too of a restless temper and quick to seize opportunities, made a friend of a man in like condition with himself, one Pammenes, an exile in the same place, noted for his skill as an astrologer, and consequently bound to many in close intimacy. He thought there must be a meaning in the frequent messages and the consultations, and he learnt at the same time that an annual payment was furnished him by Publius Anteius. He knew too that Anteius was hated by Nero for his love of Agrippina, and that his wealth was sufficiently conspicuous to provoke cupidity, and that this was the cause of the destruction of many. Accordingly he intercepted a letter from Anteius, and having also stolen some notes about the day of his nativity and his future career, which were hidden away among Pammenes' secret papers, and having further discovered some remarks on the birth and life of Ostorius Scapula, he wrote to the emperor that he would communicate important news which would contribute to his safety, if he could but obtain a brief reprieve of his exile. Anteius and Ostorius were, he hinted, grasping at empire and prying into the destinies of themselves and of the prince. Some swift galleys were then despatched and Sosianus speedily arrived. On the disclosure of his information, Anteius and Ostorius were classed with condemned criminals rather than with men on their trial, so completely, indeed, that no one would attest the will of Anteius, till Tigellinus interposed to sanction it. Anteius had been previously advised by him not to delay this final document. Then he drank poison, but disgusted at its slowness, he hastened death by severing his veins.
14. C. Suetonio Luccio Telesino consulibus Antistius Sosianus, factitatis in Neronem carminibus probrosis exilio, ut dixi, multatus, postquam id honoris indicibus tamque promptum ad caedes principem accepit, inquies animo et occasionum haud segnis Pammenem, eiusdem loci exulem et Chaldaeorum arte famosum eoque multorum amicitiis innexum, similitudine fortunae sibi conciliat, ventitare ad eum nuntios et consultationes non frustra ratus; simul annuam pecuniam a P. Anteio ministrari cognoscit. neque nescium habebat Anteium caritate Agrippinae invisum Neroni opesque eius praecipuas ad eliciendam cupidinem eamque causam multis exitio esse. igitur interceptis Antei litteris, furatus etiam libellos, quibus dies genitalis eius et eventura secretis Pammenis occultabantur, simul repertis quae de ortu vitaque Ostorii Scapulae composita erant, scribit ad principem magna se et quae incolumitati eius conducerent adlaturum, si brevem exilii veniam impetravisset: quippe Anteium et Ostorium imminere rebus et sua Caesarisque fata scrutari. exim missae liburnicae advehiturque propere Sosianus. ac vulgato eius indicio inter damnatos magis quam inter reos Anteius Ostoriusque habebantur, adeo ut testamentum Antei nemo obsignaret, nisi Tigellinus auctor extitisset monito prius Anteio ne supremas tabulas moraretur. atque ille hausto veneno, tarditatem eius perosus intercisis venis mortem adproperavit.
15. Ostorius was living at the time on a remote estate on the Ligurian frontier. Thither a centurion was despatched to hurry on his destruction. There was a motive for promptitude arising out of the fact that Ostorius, with his great military fame and the civic crown he had won in Britain, possessed, too, as he was of huge bodily strength and skill in arms, had made Nero, who was always timid and now more frightened than ever by the lately discovered conspiracy, fearful of a sudden attack. So the centurion, having barred every exit from the house, disclosed the emperor's orders to Ostorius. That fortitude which he had often shown in fighting the enemy Ostorius now turned against himself. And as his veins, though severed, allowed but a scanty flow of blood, he used the help of a slave, simply to hold up a dagger firmly, and then pressing the man's hand towards him, he met the point with his throat.
15. Ostorius longinquis in agris apud finem Ligurum id temporis erat: eo missus centurio qui caedem eius maturaret. causa festinandi ex eo oriebatur quod Ostorius multa militari fama et civicam coronam apud Britanniam meritus, ingenti corpore armorumque scientia metum Neroni fecerat ne invaderet pavidum semper et reperta nuper coniuratione magis exterritum. igitur centurio, ubi effugia villae clausit, iussa imperatoris Ostorio aperit. is fortitudinem saepe adversum hostis spectatam in se vertit; et quia venae quamquam interruptae parum sanguinis effundebant, hactenus manu servi usus ut immotum pugionem extolleret, adpressit dextram eius iuguloque occurrit.
16. Even if I had to relate foreign wars and deaths encountered in the service of the State with such a monotony of disaster, I should myself have been overcome by disgust, while I should look for weariness in my readers, sickened as they would be by the melancholy and continuous destruction of our citizens, however glorious to themselves. But now a servile submissiveness and so much wanton bloodshed at home fatigue the mind and paralyze it with grief. The only indulgence I would ask from those who will acquaint themselves with these horrors is that I be not thought to hate men who perished so tamely. Such was the wrath of heaven against the Roman State that one may not pass over it with a single mention, as one might the defeat of armies and the capture of cities. Let us grant this privilege to the posterity of illustrious men, that just as in their funeral obsequies such men are not confounded in a common burial, so in the record of their end they may receive and retain a special memorial.
16. Etiam si bella externa et obitas pro re publica mortis tanta casuum similitudine memorarem, meque ipsum satias cepisset aliorumque taedium expectarem, quamvis honestos civium exitus, tristis tamen et continuos aspernantium: at nunc patientia servilis tantumque sanguinis domi perditum fatigant animum et maestitia restringunt. neque aliam defensionem ab iis quibus ista noscentur exegerim, quam ne oderim tam segniter pereuntis. ira illa numinum in res Romanas fuit, quam non, ut in cladibus exercituum aut captivitate urbium, semel edito transire licet. detur hoc inlustrium virorum posteritati, ut quo modo exequiis a promisca sepultura separantur, ita in traditione supremorum accipiant habeantque propriam memoriam.
17. Within a few days, in quick succession, Annæus Mela, Cerialis Anicius, Rufius Crispinus, and Petronius fell, Mela and Crispinus being Roman knights with senatorian rank. The latter had once commanded the prætorians and had been rewarded with the decorations of the consulate. He had lately been banished to Sardinia on a charge of conspiracy, and on receiving a message that he was doomed to die had destroyed himself. Mela, son of the same parents as Gallio and Seneca, had refrained from seeking promotion out of a perverse vanity which wished to raise a Roman knight to an equality with ex-consuls. He also thought that there was a shorter road to the acquisition of wealth through offices connected with the administration of the emperor's private business. He had too in his son Annæus Lucanus a powerful aid in rising to distinction. After the death of Lucanus, he rigorously called in the debts due to his estate, and thereby provoked an accuser in the person of Fabius Romanus, one of the intimate friends of Lucanus. A story was invented that the father and son shared between them a knowledge of the conspiracy, and a letter was forged in Lucanus's name. This Nero examined, and ordered it to be conveyed to Mela, whose wealth he ravenously desired. Mela meanwhile, adopting the easiest mode of death then in fashion, opened his veins, after adding a codicil to his will bequeathing an immense amount to Tigellinus and his son-in-law, Cossutianus Capito, in order to save the remainder. In this codicil he is also said to have written, by way of remonstrance against the injustice of his death, that he died without any cause for punishment, while Rufius Crispinus and Anicius Cerialis still enjoyed life, though bitter foes to the prince. It was thought that he had invented this about Crispinus, because the man had been already murdered; about Cerialis, with the object of procuring his murder. Soon afterwards Cerialis laid violent hands on himself, and received less pity than the others, because men remembered that he had betrayed a conspiracy to Caius Cæsar.
17. Paucos quippe intra dies eodem agmine Annaeus Mela, Cerialis Anicius, Rufrius Crispinus, C. Petronius cecidere, Mela et Crispinus equites Romani dignitate senatoria. nam hic quondam praefectus praetorii et consularibus insignibus donatus ac nuper crimine coniurationis in Sardiniam exactus accepto iussae mortis nuntio semet interfecit. Mela, quibus Gallio et Seneca parentibus natus, petitione honorum abstinuerat per ambitionem praeposteram ut eques Romanus consularibus potentia aequaretur; simul adquirendae pecuniae brevius iter credebat per procurationes administrandis principis negotiis. idem Annaeum Lucanum genuerat, grande adiumentum claritudinis. quo interfecto dum rem familiarem eius acriter requirit, accusatorem concivit Fabium Romanum, ex intimis Lucani amicis. mixta inter patrem filiumque coniurationis scientia fingitur, adsimilatis Lucani litteris: quas inspectas Nero ferri ad eum iussit, opibus eius inhians. at Mela, quae tum promptissima mortis via, exolvit venas, scriptis codicillis quibus grandem pecuniam in Tigellinum generumque eius Cossutianum Capitonem erogabat quo cetera manerent. additur codicillis, tamquam de iniquitate exitii querens ita scripsisset, se quidem mori nullis supplicii causis, Rufrium autem Crispinum et Anicium Cerialem vita frui infensos principi. quae composita credebantur de Crispino, quia interfectus erat, de Ceriale, ut interficeretur. neque enim multo post vim sibi attulit, minore quam ceteri miseratione, quia proditam G. Caesari coniurationem ab eo meminerant.