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HISTORY

THE EOMANS

UNDER THE EMPIRE.

CHARLES MERIVALE, B.D.,

LATE FELLOW OF BT. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBKIDGE.

FROM THE FOURTH LONDON EDITION.

WITH A COPIOUS ANALYTICAL INDEX.

VOL. VI.

NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

44-3 & 445 BROADWAY.
1865.

OOJ^TEI^TS

OF THE SIXTH VOLUME.

CHAPTER il

The wise and liberal policy of Claudius towards Gaul.— His measures for the suppression
of Druidism. — He gives a king to the Cheniscans and withdraws the Koman armies
from Germany.— Political state of Britain.- Invaded by Aulus Plautius (a. v. 796,
A. D. 43).— Arrival of Claudius.— Defeat of the Trinobantes.— Further successes of
Plautius and Vespasian.— Subjugation of Southern Britain.— Campaigns of Ostorius
Scapula against Caractacus and the Silurcs.— ^foundation of the Colonia Camulodu
num (a. u. 804, a. d. 51).— Final defeat and capture of Caractacus.— Magnanimity of
Claudius.— Account of the Pvoman province of Britain? and the stations of the legions.
—Suetonius Paullinus routs the Britons in Anglesey.-^surrection of the Iceni un-
der their Queen Boadicea.— Camulodimum stormed and destroyed.— Slaughter of the
Bomans and overthrow of their establishments.— Eeturn of Suetonius from Anglesey,
and defeat of the Iceni (a. u. 814, a. d. 61).— Final pacification of Southern Britain.

Page 7

CHAPTER LH.

The family of the Domitii.— Early years of Nero —His education under Seneca.— Struggle
for influence over him between the senate, his tutor, and his mother.- He makes a fa-
vourable impression at the commencement of his reign. — His intrigue with Acte and
gradual progress in vice. — Behaviour of Agrippina and Seneca. — Praise of his clem-
ency.— Disgrace of Pallas.— Murder of Britannicus.— Division between Nero and
Agrippina.— Intrigues against her.— Consecration of a temple to Claudius.— Favoura-
ble characteristics of Nero's early government.— His financial and legislative meas-
ures.- The " Quinquennium Neronis." (a. d. 54-59, a. tt. 807-812) . . 52

CHAPTER LEI.

Nero's passion for Poppfe Sabina.— Intrigues against Agrippina.- Nero's machinations
against her unsuccessful.— She is finally despatched by his orders.- Seneca and Burr,
hus implicated in the murder.— Institution of the Neronian games.— The Ludi Max-

4 CONTENTS.

imi — ^Nero's insensibility to national feeling. — ^Moderation in regard to charges of libel
and majesty. — Death of Burrhus. — Seneca seeks to withdraw from public life. — Rise
and influence of Tigellinus. — Death of Plautus and Snlla. — Nero's extravagance and
cruelty. — Kepudiation, banishment, and death of Octavia. — Prosecution of wealthy
freedmen, Doryphorus and Pallas. — Nero's progress in licentiousness. — He exhibits
himself In the circus. — His infamous debauchery. — Burning of Rome. — Persecution
of the Christians. — Restoration of the city. — Nero's " Golden House." — Further ex-
actions and confiscations. — Conspiracy of Piso. — Its detection and punishment. — Death
of Lucan and Seneca. — Protended discovery of the treasures of Dido. — Death of Pop-
paa. — Further prosecutions. — Storms and pestilence. — Reflections of Tacitus. — Death
of Annajus Mela. — Prosecution and death of Soranus and Thrasca. — (a. d. 5S-66,
A. V. 811-819) Page 95

CHAPTER LIV.

Consideration of the causes which induced the Romans to endure the tyranny of the em-
perors. — Freedom of thought and education allowed by it accepted as a compensation
for restraints on political action. — Toleration of philosophy. — Opposition of the Stoics
to the government : their character and position in the commonwealth. — State of re-
ligion at Rome: suppression of the Gaulish superstitions: encroachment of Oriental
cults. — Proscription of the Syrian and Egyptian priesthoods. — Judaism becomes fash-
ionable at Rome : introduced among the freedmen of the palace. — Turbulence and
proscription of the Jews at Rome. — First reception of Christian ideas among them. —
St Paul's Epistle to the Romans. — His arrival and preaching at Rome. — Persecution
of the Christians. — Question of the application of this name by Tacitus. — The tyranny
of the emperors supported by the corruption of the age. — Reflections on Roman vice.
— Counteracting principles of virtue. — Christianity accords with the moral tendencies
of the age. — Seneca and St. Paul. — The teaching of Seneca moral, not political. — Per-
siuB and Lucan ......... 174

CHAPTER LV.

The Emperor Nero : his figure and character. — The senate : reduced in numbers by pro-
scription ; lowered in estimation : impoverishment of the old families, but general in-
crease of wealth in the upper ranks. — The commonalty divided into two classes. — The
provincials : the proatorians : the legions. — Independence of the proconsuls. — Account
of the government of Syria. — Exploits of Corbulo. — Nero visits Greece : his personal
displays there. — Death of Corbulo. — Indignation of the Romans at Nero's self-abase-
ment. — Vindex conspires against him. — Revolt of Galba and Virginius.— Galba pro-
claimed emperor by his soldiers. — Nero's return to Rome and triumphal entry. — His
despicable puBUlanimitv.— His last hours and death. — (a. d. 66-63, a. u. 819-821.) 245

CHAPTER LYI.

The senate accepts Galba as emperor. — His vigour and severity. — State of the provinces
and the legions. — Galba adopts Piso as his colleague, and submits his choice first to
the soldiers and afterwards to the senate. — Punishment of Nero's favourites. — Otho
intrigues for the empire, and is carried by the soldiers into the preetorian camp and

CONTENTS. ■ 5

proclaimed emperor. — Galba goes forth to meet the mutineers, and is assassinated, to-
gether with Pjso. — His character as emperor. — Otho succeeds, and is threatened with
the rivalry of Vitellius. — Revolt of the legions of Gaul. — Vitellius, proclaimed em-
peror, advances towards Italy. — Uneasy position of Otho. — He puts himself at the
head of his troops, and marches to Placentia. — Campaign in the Cisalpine. — Battle of
Bedriacum. — Defeat of the Othonians. — Otho kills himself — Virginius refuses tho
empire. — The senate accepts Vitellius. — His gluttony, selfishness, and barbarity. —
Italy plundered by his soldiers. — He is with difficulty dissuaded from entering Eome
in arms as a conqueror. — (a. d. 68, 69, a. u. 821, 822) .... Page 291

CHAPTER LVII.

Origin and early history of Vespasian. — He is recommended to the Syrian legions by Mu-
cianus, and proclaimed emperor in the East. — Mucianus advances towards Italy,
while Vespasian occupies Egypt. — Disgraceful conduct of Vitellius at Eome. — He is
abandoned or feebly supported by his partisans. — His forces defeated at Bedriacum. —
Antonius Primus crosses the Apennines. — Vitellius offers to resign the empire, but is
prevented by his soldiers. — The Capitol attacked by the Vitellians and burnt. — Primus
forces his way into Eome. — Vitellius seized and slain. — Vespasian accepted as em-
peror. — Mucianus conducts the government during his absence. — State of alfairs at
Eome. — Commencement of the restoration of the Capitol. — Superstitious reverence
paid to the Flavian family. — Pretended miracles of Vespasian at Alexandria. — He
reaches Eome.— (a. d. 69, 70, a. v. 822, 823) 346

CHAPTER LVni.

Revolts in the provinces : The North-west. — Claudius Civilis, under pretence of siding
with Vespasian, intrigues for the subversion of the Eoman power on the Ehine. —
Critical state of the legions, the auxiliaries, and the province. — Disasters to the Eo-
man arms. — Civilis besieges the Eoman station of Vetera. — Mutiny among the legion-
aries. — Slaughter of their general and dissolution of their forces. — Triumphant ex-
pectations of a Gallo-German empire. — Capitulation and massacre of the garrison of
Vetera. — Movement of the Flavian chiefs for the recovery of the province. — Cam-
paign of Cerialis, and defeat of Civilis. — Gradual suppression of the revolt and sub-
mission of Civilis. — Story of Julius Sabuius, and final pacification of Gaul. — (a. d. 69,
70, A. xr. 822, 823) 3&4

CHAPTER LIX.

Maturity of the Jewish nation: its material prosperity: discontent with its position. —
Eesistance of brigands or false Christs. — Tumults in .Jerusalem controlled by the San-
hedrim. — Insurrection in Galilee quelled (a. d. 52). — Felix, governor of Judea. —
Agrippa a spy on the Jews. — Insurrection and defeat of Cestius Gallns (a. d. 66). —
Vespasian takes the command. — Jewish factions : the Moderates and the Zealots. —

* Josephus the historian commands in Galilee. — His defence of Jotapata (a. d. 67). —
He is taken, and attaches himself to the Eomans. — Eeduction of Galilee. — Second
campaign (a. d. 68).— Eeduction of Perfea. — Suspension of hostilities (a. d. 69). —
Account of the Jews by Tacitus : his illiberal disparagement of them. — Eevolution

CONTENTS.

in Jerusalem. — Overthrow of the Moderate party. — The three chiefs of the Zealots,
John, Simon, and Elcazar, and strife between them — Topography of Jerusalem. —
Titns commences the siege (a. d. 70). — The first wall stormed. — Roman circumvalla-
tion. — Famine and portents.— Escape of the Christians. — Capture of the citadel. —
Storming of the Temple. — Burning of the Holy of Holies. — Feeble defence of the
Upper City. — Destruction of Jerusalem. — Capture of the Jewish chiefs. — Final re-
duction of Judea. — Massacres and confiscations. — Titus returns to Home. — Triumph
over Judea.— The arch of Titus.— <a. d. 44-70, a. tj. 707-823) . . Page 415

HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

UNDER TEE EMPIRE.

CHAPTER LI.

THE WISE AND LIBERAL POLICY OF CLAUDIUS TOWARDS GAUL. — ^HIS MEASURES
FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF DRUIDISM. — HE GIVES A KING TO THE CHERUSCANS
AND WITHDRAWS THE ROMAN ARMIES FROM GERMANY. — POLITICAL STATE OP
BRITAIN. — INVADED BY AULUS PLAUTIUS (a. U. 796. A. D. 43.). — ^ARRIVAL OF
CLAUDIUS. — DEFEAT OF THE TRINOBANTES. — FURTHER SUCCESSES OF PLAUTIUS
AND VESPASIAN. — SUBJUGATION OP SOUTHERN BRITAIN. — CAMPAIGNS OF OS-
TORIUS SCAPULA AGAINST CARACTACUS AND THE SILURES. — FOUNDATION OF
THE COLONIA CAMULODUNUM (a. U. 804. A. D. 51.). — FINAL DEFEAT AND CAP-
TURE OF CARACTACUS. — MAGNANIMITY OF CLAUDIUS. — ACCOUNT OF THE BO-
MAN PROVINCE OP BRITAIN, AND THE STATIONS OF THE LEGIONS. — SUETONIUS
PAULLINUS ROUTS THE BRITONS IN ANGLESEY. — INSURRECTION OF THE ICENI

UNDER THEIR QUEEN BOADICEA. — CAMULODUNUM STORMED AND DESTROYED.

SLAUGHTER OP THE ROMANS AND OVERTHROW OP THEIR ESTABLISHMENTS. —
RETURN OF SUETONIUS FROM ANGLESEY, AND DEFEAT OP THE ICENI (a. U. 814.
A. D. 61.). ^FINAL PACIFICATION OF SOUTHERN BRITAIN,

BEFORE comparing with the event the presage of our
sanguine philosopher, we will briefly dwell on that
episode in the history of Claudius, which is to English
readers the most interesting in his reign, the invasion and
conquest of southern Britain, If this emperor's disposition
was cautious rather than enterprising, his military policy
was crowned everywhere with solid success : while in this
island his own exploits, no less than those of his lieutenants.

8 HISTORY OF THE ROIIANS

were bold and brilliant, and reflect lustre on his administra-
tion from the remotest corner of the Roman world.

Claudius, indeed ,whenever he directly coj^icd the example
of Augustus, approached nearest to the character of a dis-
ciaudius by crcct and able sovereign. When he placed him-
birth a Gaul. g^jf^ j^g j^ -yvere, in the capital of Gaul, and traced
from that centre the lines of his policy on the frontiers, he
best fulfilled the prescriptive functions which every Roman
attached to the idea of the Imperator. Born at Lugdunum,
on the day when the divinity of Augustus was proclaimed
ofiicially in the province, the child of the conqueror of the
Germans and the chief and patron of the Gauls, Claudius
might himself deserve the appellation of Gaul almost as much
as of Roman.' It was on this, his native soil, that he ever
felt himself strongest. Gaul was the standing-point whence
he loved to survey the empire ; whence he derived his happi-
est inspirations ; Avhonce he directed his most successful meas-
ures, pacific or military. It was from the colony of Lugdunum
that he extended his views to the incorporation of the Gaulish
with the Roman peoj)le ; from Lugdunum that he cast his
mental vision across the Rhine on the one hand and the
British Channel on the other, and resolved to secure both
these frontiers of the empire by vigorous aggressions upon
the regions beyond them. The Cock, or Gaul, says Seneca,
using a play on words which eighteen centuries have rendered
venerable, was bravest on his own dunghill." But this jest,
intended as a bitter sarcasm, expressed a sober truth. What-
ever were his personal failings, the character of Claudius as
a Roman emperor, representmg the principle of civilization
by conquest, is redeemed by the bold and intelligent spirit
of his Gaulish policy.

* Suet. Claud. 2. : " Lugduni, eo ipso die quo primum ara ibi Augusto dedi-
cata est"

" Senec. Apocol. 7. : " Galium in suo stcrquilinio plurimum posse." The
proverb seems to have been ancient even in the time of Seneca. But the sat-
irist identifies him still further with the land of his nativity : " As might be
expected of a Gaul," he says, " Claudius spoiled Rome."

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 9

We have already remarked the liberal measures which
Claudius adopted for gradually amalgamating the nations
bevond the Alps with their southern conquerors.

. ,. iriii -^^^ liberal pol-

On a people so impulsive as the Gauls, these icy towards tho
measures exercised, no doubt, a soothing influence,
while they moulded their habits in the prescribed direction.
The men who were proud to fight under one Caesar, were
assuredly not less pleased with admission to the senate by
another. It would be gratifying, indeed, could we feel war-
ranted in accepting as a sober truth the sneer of Seneca, that
Claudius really meant to extend his boon of citizenship to
other nations besides the Gauls ; that he proposed to be the
patron of the Germans, the Britons, the Iberians, and the
Africans : we should rejoice to have solid ground for as-
cribing to him a broad and general view for the reformation
of the Roman polity, the extinction of the Italian municipium
in the empire of the world, rather than a mere act of bounty
towards a single favoured people. But of this we have no
distinct evidence. All we can say wit-h certainty is that he
threw open the gates of Rome to the inhabitants of Gaul, and
applied the principles of the first Caesar with the frankness
not unworthy of that bold emancipator. If it were not the
first step taken by the emperors in that happy direction,
neither, it was evident, could it be the last.

Claudius, however, it may be affirmed with certainty, had a
special motive besides personal partiality for this favour to
the Gauls. No people within the circuit of

. -, , . Disgnst and

Roman dominion more required at this moment suspicion with

1 IT • 1 • • 1 which the Ro-

to be conciliated ; none held within its bosom mans regarded

such dangerous elements of disafiection. Under

Tiberius a serious revolt had been quelled by a statesman's

firm resolution. Under Cains the germ of a civil war had

been extinguished, as it appears, by the happy boldness of a

madman. But whenever disturbances should again arise,

whether from discontent among the natives, or from the

irregular ambition of a Roman official, there existed in the

deep-rooted influence of the Druids, and the wide ramifica-

10 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

tions of their system, still alive though proscribed and
persecuted, the seeds of a violent outbreak of Celtic nation-
ality. With the scanty knowledge we possess of the real
character and history of Druidism, we have no means of
testing the vague notions entertained by the Romans them-
selves of the extent to which its authority prevailed. If
indeed we may believe their representations, this singular
form of priestcraft was recognised at this period throughout
wider regions than perhaps any other creed of Paganism.
Its centre was in the north of Gaul, at Dreux, or Chartres, or
Autun ; but its most illustrious fanes were to be sought on the
coasts of Britanny, in the sacred islands off the mouth of the
Loire; in the temples of Stonehenge or Abury in our own coun-
try ; in the Isle of Anglesey and possibly also of Man.* From
the shores of the Gulf of Lyons to the Firth of Clyde a common
system of usage and ceremonial attested the identity of the
Druidism of the Gauls and Britons. It was among the Britons,
indeed, as we are told, that the system was taught in its greatest
purity ; and such was the facility of communication between
the two great members of the Celtic family, that the youth
of Gaul constantly crossed the Channel to seek the highest
instruction in its tenets. In Gaul the Roman ruler sought to
modify and control this dangerous antagonist by assuring
the natives that their religion was merely another form of
the Greek and Italian polytheism : ' to them Druidism was
officially declared to be a special modification of truths

' The silence of the Roman authorities on Stonehenge and the other pre-
sumed Dniidical monuments of Britain is no doubt remarkable ; yet it seems
extravagant to suppose, Avith some modern theorists, that they are posterior to
the Roman period. They are first referred to by Henry of Huntingdon, early
in the twelfth century, as then of unfathomed antiquity, and they form, un-
questionably, part of a common system of monumental structures, scattered
from Camac in IJritanny through a great part of northern and central Europe.

* Lucan, i. 450. : —

" Et vos barbaricos ritus moremque sinistrum
Sacrorum, Druida;, positis rcpetistis ab armis:
Solis nosse Dcos ct coeli numina vobis,
Aut solis nescire datum est."

UNDER THE EMPIRE. H

common to the wisest and most advanced nations of antiquity.
But the fear with which he really regarded it, as an implac-
able enemy, an inspired rival, was betrayed by the dark
colours he allowed to be thrown over it at home. The
bondage in which it kept the minds of its devotees, the
atrocity of its human sacrifices, the daring falsehood of its
promise of immortality, were exposed to the disgust and
contempt of the votaries of Olympus. Its rites were barbar-
ous ; its ceremonies were sinister and gloomy. The priests
alone, it was averred, pretended in their pride to the occult
science which apprehends, or rather misapprehends, the
Gods.^ The horrors of the sacred groves, on which no birds
alighted, in which no breezes rustled, their scarred and leafless
trunks, their bloody altar stumps, the dripping of their black
fountains, the mutterings of their riven caves, the ghastly
visages of their shapeless idols, were enhanced with all the
art of poetic colouring, and contrasted with the graceful
forms of Nymphs and Dryads in their fair retreats, with the
frank and cheerful character of the southern religions, the
faith of innocence, mirth, and trust. Amidst the importunate
doubts and fears regarding the future, or rather in the despair
of another life which Paganism now generally acknowledged,
the Roman was exasperated at the Druid's assertion of the
transmigration of souls. Tet happy ^ he exclaimed in the
bitterness of his spirit, were the Gauls and Britons in their
error, insensible as it made them to the greatest of all fears,
the fear of death : in this faith they rushed gaily andreck-

' Lucan, iii. 399. : —

" Lucus erat longo nunquam violatus ab aevo

Hunc non ruricolse Panes, nemorumque potentes
Sylvani Nymphseque tenent : sed barbara ritu
Sacra deum, stnictae sacris feralibus arae,

Omnis et humanis lustrata cruoribus arbos

Illis et Tolucres metuunt insistere ramis
Et lustris recubare ferae ; nee ventus in illas
Incubuit sylvas ..... Turn plurima nigris

Fontibus unda cadit Jam fama ferebat

Ssepe cavas motu terrcc mugire cavernas "

12 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

lessly on the sxcord ; their generous souls disdaining to spare
the life that would so soon revived

Augustus, at the same time that he offered his own di-
vinity as an object of worship to the Gauls at Lugdunum,
Proscription of had forbidden the exercise of Druidical rites in

Druidism bv r. i i /> -i ^

Augustus, ti- Rome. Henceforth the nerce and gloomy super-
ciaiidius. stition of the North was branded as impious and

immoral, hurtful to the manners of the citizens who might be
tempted to mingle in it, and even to the public safety. But
Augustus had not ventured to prohibit the natives of the
transalpine provinces from using their ancient rights on their -y iTx"^ '^
own soil. Tiberius seems to have pressed on the hostile sys-
tem with a still stronger hand : the revolt of the ^duans and
of Sacrovir, Avho, as we have seen, was probably himself a
Druid, may have exasperated his enmity." It was reserved,
however, for Claudius to decree its entire abolition, and to
enforce with severity the edict of proscription. Of the meas-
ures, indeed, which he took, and the details of his persecu-
tion, we have no information : a single anecdote preserved by
Pliny seems to show that, in Rome, at least it was searching
and sanguinary. A Gaulisli chief, he tells us, a Vocontian
of the Narbouensis, who had obtained Roman knighthood,
was delivered to the executioner because on his coming to
Rome on private business, the Druid's talisman called the
serpent's egg was discovered ujion his person.' The jealousy

' Lucan, i. 460. : —

" Felices errore suo quos ille timorum
Maximus haud urget leli metus : inde ruendi
In ferrum mens prona viris, animaeque capaces
Mortis, et ignavum rediturae parcere vitae."

" Plin. Hist. Not. xxx. 4. : " Tiberii Caesaris prineipatus sustulit Druidas,
et hoc genus vatum medicorumque." Some have supposed that PHny has
made a mistake, or that he means Tiberius Claudius : it seems more likely that
he refers to a partial proscription of Druidism by the successor of Augustus.
Strabo (iv. 4. p. 198.) had spoken under the second principate of the diUgence
of the Romans in abolishing the worst atrocities of the Celtic cults.

* PUn. Hist. Kai. xxix. 3. The serpent's egg (ovum anguinum) seems to
have been an echinite or other fossil substance, to which the Druids ascribed a

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 13

of the government and the curious interest of the people, were
most excited, perhaps, by the magical powers claimed by the
priests of Gaul, and the prophetic pretensions of its bards.

While these harsh measures for crushing the national
spirit of the Gauls, and extirpating their leaders, were in
course of execution, the Roman government was

' 111 T Claudius gives

not less anxious to advance the eagles beyond a king to the

- . „ . -, „ , . V, Cherusoans.

their frontiers, and to remove irom their borders
the dangerous spectacle of freedom. On the side of Germany,
indeed, the dominion of the conquerors had long been pre-
pared by artifice more sure than arms. After the execution
of Gaetulicus, the legions, which he had debauched, had been
exercised by his successor, Galba, in some desultory oper-
ations against the Chatti; but generally the peace of the
frontiers had been preserved, while the Germans were rapid-
ly assimilating themselves to the manners of their more
powerful and civilized neighbours. Since the death of Ar-
minius, the Cheruscans, once so formidable, had been greatly
enfeebled by internal anarchy. At length, unable to govern
themselves, they solicited a chief from the emperor. The
son of Flavins, the brother of Arminius, had been educated at
Rome, in the civilization of the South, with a view, no doubt,
to future service. The Cheruscans were willing to accept a
kinsman of their late hero : Claudius seized the opportunity
for advancing his own views ; and the youth went forth from
the school of monarchy, the first foreigner, as the emperor
reminded him, who, born at Rome, a citizen and not a cap-
tive or a hostage, had been raised by Roman hands to an
independent sovereignty. Italicus, such was the name the
German adopted, had been trained to the skilful use both of
the Roman and the German weapons ; beneath the varnish
of Italian cultivation he retained some also of the coarse
tastes of his ancient countrymen ; and he seems to have pos-
sessed popular manners, which for a time ingratiated him
with the jealous barbarians. But presently offence was

mysterious origin, and not less mysterious virtues. It was worn round the
neck as an amulet.

14 HISTORY OF THE ROMAJsS

given ; suspicions and enmities arose ; the charge of Roman
manners was promptly made against him, and connected
with the imputation of foreign inclinations, and a disposition
to sacrifice to the st ranker the weal of the fatherland. It
was in vain, urged his enemies, that he boasted himself the
nephew of Arminius the patriot : was he not the son of Fla-
vins the renegade? Italicus, on the other hand, reminded
the disaffected that he had come among them at their own
invitation, and challenged his enemies to decide by arms
whether he deserved by his prowess to claim kinship with
their bravest champion. He succeeded, after some vicissi-
tudes, in putting down the open attempts to unseat him;
but the Cheruscans continued, under his rule, to be disturbed
by dissensions, to the advantage of the Romans, who looked
on complacently, and abstained from interfering.'

Meanwhile the Chauci, who had formed a closer con-
nexion with Rome, and had profited for many years by their
state of peaceful dependence, which gave an

Campaisoi of . -^ r j o

corbuio in Ger- openmg to their commerce with Gaul and Brit-
many. , ®

am, had ventured, at the instigation of a pirati-
cal chief named Gennascus, to seek plunder by incursions
into the lower German province. Sanquinius, the com-
mander in this quarter, had recently died, and the defence
of the district was for a time neglected. This man was suc-
ceeded, however, by Domitius Corbuio, an active and enter-
prising soldier, who promptly restored discipline in the camps,
repaired the flotilla of the Rhine and ocean, and pursued the
depredators into all their harbours. He chastised the Frisii,
who had dared to withhold their stipulated tribute; and
without actually annexing their country to the Roman do-
minions, planted among them a government of the friends
and clients of the emj)ire, suppoi-ted by the presence of a
military force. At the same time he sought to subdue the
Chauci by corruj^ting some of their chiefs, and by the murder
of Gennascus, towards whom, as a mere pirate, no terms of
honour need be kept. This attempt on tlie outlaw's life was

» Tac. Arm. si. 16, 17.

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 15

indeed successful ; nevertheless, the result was not so propi-
tious as Corhulo had anticipated. The Chauci, a.d. 4T.
long wavering in their dependence, "were decided ^ ^- ®*^''-
against Rome by irritation at this treacherous dealing, and
flew to arms with frantic ardour. Possibly this was what
Corbulo desired; he had scattered with his own hand the
seed of rebellion, the crop had ripened, and he was about to
reap the harvest. But he had worse enemies at the court of
Claudius than the Chauci on the Rhine. He was there rep-
resented as seeking war for his own aggrandizement. If he
failed, the empire Avould suffer ; if he triumphed, the emperor
himself might find him dangerous. Such were the insinu-
ations, it was alleged, by which the timid prince was induced
to stop the progress of conquest in Germany, and recall his
standards behind the Rhine. But Claudius doubtless knew
that peace was now a more effective auxiliary than war ; and
he preferred holding out the hand of treacherous friendship
to engaging in superfluous hostilities. The order to retire
reached Corbulo when he was actually planting a camp in
the territory of the Chauci for the site of a fortress, or a
colony. He read in it the danger to which he was exposed
fi'om the emperor's jealousy : the contempt in which he should
be held by the arrogant barbarians, the mockery to which he
should be subjected even from his own allies. Nevertheless,
with the old Roman endurance, he stifled every sign of anger
or murmur of remonstrance ; and muttering only, how for-
tunate were once the Roman captains, gave the signal for
retreat. With the withdrawal of the legions, the Chauci
relapsed into their fatal torpor. It was necessary, however,
to furnish the soldiers with employment ; and, forbidden to
exercise them in war, Corbulo now engaged them in a great
work of engineering, which has long outlasted the conquests
of Rome beyond the Rhine. He cut a canal from the Maas,
near its mouth, to the northern branch of the Rhine parallel
to the line of coast, to effect an easy communication between
his stations, in a region where the yielding soil could scarce
bear the weight of a military causeway, to drain at the same

16 HISTORr OF THE ROMANS

time the lowlands, and oppose dykes to the encroachment of
the ocean.* Before the adoption of the modern railroad, the
canal of Corbulo was the common highway of traffic between
Rotterdam and Lcydcn ; and its plodding trekschuyt may
still faithfully represent the old lloraan tow-boat of the
Pomptine marshes."

The religion of the Germans was distinct from that of the

Gauls ; and from this reason, perhaps, as well as from the long

animosity between the two nations, the Romans

The Romans " . ,.,.,

more jealous of wcrc Icss apprelicnsivc 01 the enect which might

frepilom in tiii« r.

Britiin timn In bc produccd on the One bank by the view of sur-
viving independence on the other, liut with the
island of Britain, more distant yet not remote, the case was
different. Though the Channel Avas a broader barrier than
the Rhine, the communication of ideas, of hopes, fears and
enmities, was more close and constant between the Gauls and
Britons than between the Gauls and Germans. There was
nearer affinity in blood, language and manners ; there were
no recollections of mutual hostility ; no memorials on either
side of conquest or encroachment ; above all, Druidism was
paramount among both, and the ministers of the Gallic rites
looked to the sacred recesses of the northern island as the
real hearth and home of their OAvn religious polity. The
persecution of the Druids on the continent drove them back
to the spot where they had imbibed their own mystic lore ;
and the recital of their w^'ongs inflamed the indignation of

' Tac. Ann. xi. 18-20. "This great work still forms a principal drain of
the province of Holland between the city of Leyden and the village of Sluys
on the Maas." — Greenwood, Hist, of the Germans, i. 141.

" Conip. Horace's Journei/ io Bntndisium. A more important work of this
kind was projected about the year 812 by L. Vetus, a Roman commander m
northern Gaul. He proposed to unite the Saone and Moselle by a canal, to ex-
pedite the transmission of troops from the South ; but was dissuaded from
the enteri)rise by yKlius Gracilis, the legatus of the Belgic province, as likely
to bring him into suspicion with the emperor. Tac. Ann. xiii. 63. Steininger
( GcKch. dcr Trcvirer, p. 86.) laments, that up to this day so useful a work
Bhould have been neglected, though it presents no great difficulties.

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 17

the children of that heroic race which could boast that it had
repulsed the mighty Csesar with ignominy from its shores.'

The tribute which Julius Coesar had pretended to impose
on some chiefs of southern Britain had been rarely offered,
and never exacted. Augustus, we have seen,

^ ' , , Relation of

bad once threatened to recover it in person by Britain with

■^ the continent

force of arms : it is possible that some slight con-
cessions then made to his demands sufficed to divert him
from an enterprise he had no real desire to undertake.*
Under Tiberius, the affairs of Britain excited no political
interest at Rome. But the rapid progress of Roman civil-
ization in northern Gaul, the growth of the cities on the
banks of the teeming Rhine-stream, the spread of commer-
cial relations along the shores of Belgium, Holland, and
Friesland, had elicited a spirit of friendly intercourse from
the British side of the ocean. Londinium, a city which
escaped the notice of Caesar, had become in the time of
Claudius a great emporium of trade. Canmlodunum was the
residence of the chief potentate of southern Britain ; the fer-
tile plains of our eastern provinces were studded with numer-
ous towns and villages ; the vessels of the Thames, the Colne,
and the Wensum reciprocated traffic with those of the Rhine,
the Maas, and the Scheldt : the coinage of Cunobelinus, king
of the Trinobantes, of which specimens still exist, attests, by
its skilful workmanship and its Latin legends, an intimate

* Names, indeed, of Gaulish tribes, and those possibly of German origin,
may be noticed in the south-eastern parts of Britain, but there is no record of
a hostile invasion, no allusion to hostile reminiscences ; and the existence of
Druidical remains on the very spots where these tribes were seated speaks in
favour of their actual affinity to the original stock.

^ My attention has been directed to a fragment of Livy recently produced
by Schneidewin, from which it would appear that Augustus actually set foot in
Britain : " Csesar Augustus populo Romano nuntiat, regressus a Britannia in-
sula, totum orbem terrarum tarn bello quam amicitia Romano imperio subdi-
tum." The passage seems to be a fragment of an epitome, and is probably
not strictly faithful to the sense of the author. See The Christian Reformer
for Jan. 185Y, p. Y. Suetonius {Claud. 16.) and Eutropius (vii. 13.) say expressly
that no Roman set foot in Britain from Juhus Caesar to Claudius.

VOL. VI. — 2

18 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

and friendly connexion between Britain and Gaul, or possi-
bly Italy.' We may conjecture, that the Romans themselves,
in the interval since the invasion of Caesar, had settled as
traders on our island.

The south-eastern parts of Britain seem to have been oc-
cupied at this period by three principal nations, the Regni in
Sussex, the Trinobantes in Hertford and Essex,
S'sonu'forn the Iccui in Norfolk and Suffolk. The Triuo-
Trim)bante^ bautcs wcrc already known as the most power-
IheF/eil'''^'^ ftil of the British tribes in the time of Cresar.
Their leader, Cassivellaunus, had assumed the
direction of a league against the invader. His authority had
been still further extended by his successors. If we may be-
lieve that the great system of roads, to which we give the
name of British, was actually the work of our Celtic ances-
tors, extending as they do across the length and breadth of
the island from Richborough to the Menai Straits, from the
mouth of the Axe to the Wash and Humber, it would seem
to indicate that there was once a time when the whole of
South Britain at least was subject to some common authority.
Of such a political combination, however, there is certainly
no trace in history : possibly the union extended only to
matters of religion.' Cunobelinus indeed, the greatest of

' In the time of Caesar, according to his own account, the Britons had no
coinage, and used only rude pieces of iron by weight. Eckhel expresses some
doubt of the genuineness of the few British coins which were known in hig
day. Their number, however, has now been greatly increased, and modem
numismatists have assiduously collected and catalogued them. I am informed
that they are generally rather coarse imitations of Macedonian tjrpes, derived,
no doubt, from Gaul and Massilia.

* Caesar describes the Britons as in a state of barbarism, which completely
disappears in the accounts of Tacitus and Dion. We hear no more now of
their painted bodies, their scythed chariots, their hideous sacrifices, their re-
volting concubinage. Can we suppose that Caesar was willing to represent the
country, which he found it inconvenient to subdue, as more miserable than it
really was ? Or could the hundred years of intercourse, which had since inter-
vened, with the pacified tribes of Gaul and Germany, have effected so remark-
able a change ? The existence of a common system of roads throughout the
country, which is admitted by some of the best modern antiquarians, seems a

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 19

the descendants of Cassivellaunus, seems to have united a
large part of the island under his control or influence. From
his capital at Camulodunum, near the mouth of the Colne in
Essex, to which he had transferred the royal residence from
Verulamium, for the advantage perhaps of intercourse with
Gaul and Germany, he extended his sway over the south and
centre of Britain, and may possibly have been recognised as
paramount in arms by the pure Celtic races on the Severn
and even beyond it. The people of Kent and Sussex may
also, in some sense, have acknowledged his sovereignty.
But the Iceni were independent, jealous, and perhaps hostile
to him. To this nation also a number of petty tribes were
subservient, extending across the centre of the island from
the Wash to the Avon and Severn. Between the Romans
and these proud and self-confident islanders, causes of quar-
rel were never wanting; it only remained for the southern
conquerors hovering on their coasts, and mingling in all their
dealings, to choose theii' own moment for aggression. The
petty chiefs who chanced to be expelled from their own
country by domestic dissensions, generally sought a refuge,
which was never denied them, within the Roman dominions,
and the kings of the Trinobantes or Iceni sometimes ventured
to demand that they should be surrendered. On the other
hand, the fugitives were constantly urging the Roman gov-
ernment to restore them by arms or influence to their for-
feited rights at home, and holding out splendid promises of
tribute and submission in return. Between these two classes
of applicants the Romans would not long hesitate. When
Adminius, one of the sons of Cunobelin, solicited Caius to
to recover for him his share in the paternal inheritance, the

strong proof of a common civilization. These lines of road do not correspond
with the Roman Itineraries; and some of them, as those which lead from
Seaton to Yarmouth, and from Southampton to Richborough, do not seem to
belong to a Roman system. They point to a native traffic, carried on by land
and water, between Armorica and the Frisian or Danish coasts. But if not
Roman, there is no later period of an united Britain to which they can well be
ascribed.

20 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

emperor prepared, as we have seen, to enforce his claims
with a military demonstration. The threatened invasion
was, however, postponed, whether its ostensible object were
gained or not. Of Adminius and his pretensions we hear no
more ; but other fugitives and other claimants soon appeared
upon the scene.

The solicitations of Bericus to Claudius were the counter-
part to those of Adminius to his predecessor, though of this
Claudius pre- Suppliant we know even less than of the former.
Fnvasion of"' -^^^ ^® *^^ ^^® * chicf expatriated by domestic
Britain. enemies, he too was demanded in extradition by

his countrymen, but retained by the policy rather than the
compassion of the Romans ; he too succeeded in getting a
Roman army equipped for his restoration.' Claudius could
assert, like Augustus before him, that the tribute of Britain
had been long withheld. Like Augustus, he was determined
to chastise the defaulters, and take firmer sureties than be-
fore for future submission. Like Augustus, he proposed to
lead the eagles in person, to earn a title and a triumph, as his
ancestors had done, on the field of battle. But he could not
spare the time, he would not perhaps encounter the toil, re-
quired for the conquest of the powerful islanders. Aulus
Plautius, who held a high command m Gaul, was chosen to
conduct the invasion; and prepare the way for the emperor
A.-D.is. ^y ^ preliminary campaign in the year of the
A.u. 796. gj^.y. )jrgg_ jj. ^jjg jjQ^ about a hundred years

since the epoch of Caesar's first descent on Britain. The
futile and almost ignominious result of that attempt was still
remembered among the legions of the northern provinces.
The storms and shoals of the ocean had since then caused
more than one disaster to their arms. The inhospitable
character of the natives of either coast had more than once
been proved," and when Plautinus announced to his soldiers

' Dion, Ix. 1 9. This Bericus may probably have been the Veric of some
British coins.

' Hor. Od. iii. 3. : " Visam Britannos hospitibus feros." Yet the British
chiefs had sent back the shipwrecked sailors of Germanicus (Tac. Ann. ii. 24.).

A.U. 796.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 21

the Bervice they were destined for, they refused to follow his
standards, and broke out into murmurs and even mutiny.
Plautius reported the condition of his camp to Rome. The
emperor, bent on his purpose, determined to enforce disci-
pline. He sent Narcissus to the camp, to bring the turbulent
legionaries to obedience. They received him with cries of lo
Saturnalia I mocking the arrogant freedman as a slave who
ventured to assume the character of his master. But, satisfied
' with their jest, they seem to have returned at last of their own
accord to their duty, and submitted to their chiefs commands.
Four legions, the Second, the Ninth, the Fourteenth and
the Twentieth, all noted afterwards in British history, were
selected for this distant adventure. Plautius, we ^^^,^3 piautius
are told, arrayed his forces in three divisions, to ^"^^^^ Briuin,
which he assigned difierent places of landing, in order to
baflie the defence, and secure a footing in one quarter, if re-
pulsed in another. I shall have occasion to show how little
reliance can be placed on the details of this expedition,
meagre as they are, recorded by Dion only ; we have, how-
ever, no choice but to relate them as they have been reported,
and point out their inconsistency as we proceed. The ships
encountered adverse weather, and were more than once driven
back ^ but the appearance of a meteor which shot from East
to West, restored the courage of the soldiers, by following
the direction in which they were bound. It would seem
then that their course lay from the Belgiai;i roadsteads on
either side the Itian promontory, to the British above and
below the South Foreland ; from the ship-builders' creeks at
the efflux of the Aa and the Liane to the havens or low ac-
cessible beaches of Richborough, Dover and Lymne. What-
ever were the points at which they came to land, they seem
to have encountered no resistance. Soon afterwards we shall
find the Regni in friendly relations with the Romans, and it
is possible that the invaders had already tampered with their

These men, however, brought home a terrific account of the sea and land mon-
sters they had encountered. Moreover, the poverty of the unclad islanders
was still remembered in the traditions of the camps.

22 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS fA.D. 43.

fidelity to the common cause, and engaged their influence
over the coast of Kent and Sussex. It was reported, how-
ever, that the natives had been lulled into false security by
the rumours sedulously wafted from Gaul of the disaffection
of the legions, and neglected in consequence the measures
necessary for opposing their disembarkation.'

The sons of the great Cunobelin, Caractacus and Togo-
Succcssesof dumnus, wielded the forces of the Trinobantes
^eutenant°Ve8- ^"*^ held a primacy of rank and power among
pasianus. i]^q chiefs of South Britain. Like their ancestor

Cassivellaun, and following the usual tactics of their Ger-
man neighbours, they abstained from meeting the invader
in the field, and ensconced themselves in the forests, or
behind the rivers, where he could only attack them at a
disadvantage. Plautius, however, pushed boldly forward,
worsted both princes in succession, and received the submis-
sion of some clans of the Boduni, as they are called by Dion,
the same, it is generally supposed, as the Dobuni of Ptolemy,
the inhabitants of modem Gloucestershire.' Placing a gar-
rison in tliis district, he advanced to the banks of a broad
river, which the Britons deemed impassable ; but a squadron
of Batavian cavalry, trained to swim the Rhine and AYahal,
dashed boldly across it, and dislodged them from their posi-
tion by striking at the horses which drew their chariots. A
force under Flavins Vespasianus penetrated into the unknown
regions beyond, and obtained, not without great hazards,
some further successes. Such was the command in which
this brave and strenuous captain was first shown to the Fates,
which from henceforth destined him for empire.' His empire
and his dynasty soon passed away ; but Providence designed
him for its instrument in a work of wider and more lastinsr
interest. On the plains of Britain Vespasian learnt the art
of war, which he was to practise among the defiles of Pales-
tine, and against the despair and fury of the Jews.

' Dion, Ix. 19,

" Ptol. Geogr. ii. 3. 25. 28. Pmith's Did. of Class. Geography.

* Tac. Agric. 13.: "Monstratus fatis Vespasianus."

A. U. 796.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 23

From the mention of the Boduni or Dobuni it is natural
to suppose that the broad stream above mentioned was the
Severn near its mouth. Yet it is difficult to NotprobaWe
imagine that Plautius can have advanced so far croLiTthe"*
into the country in the few weeks since his land- Severn.
ing, and the language of Dion seems presently to contradict
it. The defeated Britons, says this writer, retired to the
Thames, and placed that river between themselves and the
Romans in the lowest portion of its course, where it swells
to a great breadth with the tidal waters of the ocean. The
invaders, he continues, attempting to follow them, fell, in
their ignorance of the ground, into great danger : but again
the Batavians swam their horses across the river, and the
barbarians were routed once more with much slaughter. In
this battle Togodumnus was slain : Caractacus had perhaps
retired to the West, where we shall meet with him again. A
few only of the Romans were lost in the pursuit among the
marshes.'

Plautius, it would seem, now for the first time firmly
planted himself on the north bank of the Thames. It is im-
possible to suppose that if he had once reached ^ . ^^

^ ^'- . He awaits the

the Severn, he would have again fallen back be- arrival of ciau-

' . ^ dius on the

hind a barrier which he must have already cross- North bank of

. the Thames.

ed or doubled. Nor, as I have said, is there time
allowed for such distant operations. For he now sent to
summon Claudius to pass over into Britain, and assist per-
sonally in the final reduction of the twice broken Trinobantes.
He awaited behind his entrenchments his chiefs arrival.
Claudius made his appearance before the end of the military
season. I can discover no river that will answer the descrip-
tion of the historian, except the Med way ; and if any reli-
ance is to be placed on the terms in which Dion expresses
himself, we must believe that instead of traversing half the
island unopposed, Plautius first met the Britons in the neigh-
bourhood of Maidstone or Rochester. The three divisions
of his army may have converged from the three most fre-

' Dion, Ix. 20.

24 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 43.

quented of the Kentish ports, at Canterbury. But it is bet-
ter to confess the impossibility of tracing his movements.
Dion is throughout very indistinct in his conception of British
history and geography, and when Tacitus himself comes to
our aid, we shall find his knowledge also slender and super-
ficial.

Plautius had been instructed to call the emperor to his

assistance, if difficulties should occur that deserved his aus^ust

interference. The legatus was perhaps courtier

Claudius enters ,. . , . .

Britain in per- enough to divmc his master s wishes, and to rep-
son and sub- [> m • •>• ■>•-,•

dues the Trino- rcscnt the State 01 aiiairs accordmg to his desire.
Claudius held himself ready for the expected sum-
mons, and there can have been no delay in his reply to it.
Perhaps he had already gone forth to meet it. Leaving the
conduct of afiairs at home to Vitellius, his colleague in the
consulship, he proceeded by the route of Ostia and Massilia,
attended by a retinue of officers and soldiers, and a train of
elephants already bespoken for the service. His resolution
was tried by adverse winds, which twice drove him back,
not without peril, from the coast of Gaul.* When at last he
landed, his course was directed partly along the military
roads, partly by the convenient channels of the navigable
rivers, till he reached the coasts of the British sea. At Ges-
soriacum he embarked for the opposite shores of Cantium,
and speedily reached the legions in their encampment be-
yond the Thames. The soldiers, long held in the leash in
expectation of his arrival, were eager to spring upon the foe.
With the emperor himself at their head, a spectacle not be-
held since the days of the valiant Julius, they traversed the
level plains of the Trinobantes, which afforded no defensible
position, till the natives were compelled to stand at bay be-
fore the stockades which encircled their capital Camulodu-
num. It is not perhaps too bold a conjecture tliat the lines
which can still be traced from the Colne to a little wooded
stream called the Roman river, drawn across the approach to
a tract of twenty or thirty square miles surrounded on every

• Suet. Claud. 17.

A.U. 796.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 25

Other side by water, indicate the ramparts of this British op-
pidura.* Within this inclosed space there was ample room
not only for the palace of the chief and the cabins of his peo-
ple, but for the grazing land of their flocks and herds in sea-
sons of foreign attack ; while, resting on the sea in its rear,
it commanded the means of reinforcement, and, if necessary,
of flight. But the fate of the capital was decided by the issue
of the encounter which took place before it. The Trinobantes
were routed. They surrendered their city, and, with it, their
national freedom and independence. The victory was com-
plete : the subjection of the enemy assured : within sixteen
days from his landing in Britain, Claudius had broken a
powerful kingdom, and accomplished a substantial conquest.
He left it to Plautius to secure by the usual methods the
fruits of this signal success, and returned himself immediately
to Rome, from which he had not been absent more than six
months altogether."

Claudius had gained a victory : some indeed were found to
assert in after times that the foe had never met him in the
field, and had yielded city and country without
a blow : but his soldiers undoubtedly had hailed triumphs at
him repeatedly, in the short space of sixteen days,
with the title of Imperator, and he was qualified by the pur-
port of his laurelled despatches to claim the crowning honour

* These lines have a fosse traceable on their western side ; they were there-
fore defences against attack from the land, not from the sea. At one or two
points they are strengthened by small rectangular castella, which may be later
Roman additions ; and it is difficult to point out any other period of our his-
tory when the defence of the little peninsula on which Colchester stands could
have given occasion to works of this nature. It is asserted, moreover, that
British coins have been found in these works.

^ Dion, Ix. 21. Suetonius {Claud. 17.) declares that the conquest was
bloodless : " Sine uUo praelio aut sanguine intra paucissimos dies parte insulae
in deditionem recepta sexto quam profectus erat mense Romam rediit, triumph.i-
vitque." He evidently wishes to disparage the emperor's exploit, as unworthy
of a triumph. At a later period it was not less extravagantly magnified. Oro-
sius says of Claudius : " Orcadas etiam insulas ultra Britanniam in Oceano posi-
tas Romano adjecit imperio." (vii. 5.).

26 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 43.

of a triumph as the meed of conduct and valour. "We have
seen already how the senate hastened to decree him this dis-
tinction; how he received the appellation of Britannicus;
how arches crowned with trophies were erected to him in
Rome and at Gessoriacum ; how, finally, he deprecated the
evil eye of Nemesis by an act of ungainly humiliation.
Cheap and frivolous as these honours now were, the con-
quests of Claudius were really solid and extensive, and with
due precaution on the part of his lieutenants, might have
been firmly established from that moment. They were soon
destined, indeed, to suffer a grave disaster : but this, which
broke for a moment the steady current of victory, served
only to apprise the conquerors of the real condition of their
position, and compel them to complete the unfinished work
of subjugation, and settle at once the fate of Britain for four
hundred years.*

' The high estimation in which the exploits of Claudius were held appears
from the inscription (imperfect and conjecturally supplied) upon his arch of

triumph —

TI. CLAUdlo Drnsl f. Caesari
AUGUsto Germanico Pio
PONTIFICI Max. Trib. pot. ix.
cos. V. IMperatori xvi. pat. patriae
SENATUS POPUlusque Eom. quod
BEGES BEITannia? perduelles sine
ULLA JACTUra celeriter ceperit (?)
GENTESQ. estrcmarum Orcadum (?)
PRIMUS INDICIO facto Pv. imperio adjecerit (?)

See Bunsen's Rom., iii. 3. p. 91., Orell. Inscr. 715.; and compare the lines in
Seneca's Medea, which the modems have regarded as a prophecy, but may
really have been meant to indicate a recent event in history :

Venient annis stecula seris

Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum

Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus,

Tiphysque novos detegat orbes,

Nee sit terns ultima Thule."

Compare again :

" Parcite Divi, veniam precamur

Vivat ut tutus mare qui sube^t."

See the preface of Lipsius to his edition of Seneca's worKS. These passages
would be more interesting could we feel more confidence in their presumed
authorship.

A. U. 797.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 27

It seems not impossible that the prompt submission of the
Trinobantes in the East was caused by the retreat of the
main forces of the nation westward ; for it is in _ . , .

Vespasian's ad-

the western parts of the island that we next hear vance into the
of the operations of the invaders, and the chief
who most obstinately resists them is still the Trinobantine
Caractaciis. Yespasianus, whose deserts have already been
mentioned, attracted the notice of the emperor during his
brief visit to the camp. He was now sent in command of
the second legion to reduce the Belgoe and Damnonii, who oc-
cupied the south-western regions from the Solent to the Axe,
and from the Axe to the Tamar or the Land's End. From
the Isle of Wight, the Vectis of the Romans, to the rug-
ged barrier of Dartmoor Forest, he engaged them in thirty
battles. Many a fosse and mound, many a tumulus of
heroes' bones, on the hills of Wilts and Dorset, still bears
silent testimony to these obscure and nameless combats ; and
the narrow gorge of the Teign, deeply scarred with alternately
round and square entrenchments, was the scene, perhaps, of
the last desperate struggles for the garden of Britain.*

It maybe conjectured that the conquest of this part of the
island was facilitated by the cowardice or treachery of the
people of the East. Cogidubnus, king of the „ ^.

.,„,^, Subjugation of

Resrni, acknowledged himself a vassal of the the Regni and

° ' ^ , , . . cowardly sub-

Romans, and consented to be their instrument mission of the

r> 1 • TT Iceni.

for the enslavement of his countrymen. He at-
tached himself as a client to the emperor, and assumed the

* Tac. Hist iii. 44., Agric. 13, 14. Eutropius gives the number of thirty-
two battles. Suet. {Vespas. 4:.): "Duas validissimas gentes, superque viginti
oppida, et insulam Vectem, Britanniae proximanl, in ditionem redegit." In
extending the operations westward of the Isle of Wight I indulge only in con-
jecture ; but the numerous coins of Claudius which have been foimd at Isca
Damnoniorum, or Exeter (see Shortt's Isca Antigua), indicate a very early oc-
cupation of this distant position. Isca may still have retained the importance
it evidently once possessed as the emporium of the Mediterranean tin trade.
Coins of the Greek dynasties of Syria and Egypt have been found there in
great abundance.

28 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 47.

name of Tiberius Claudius.' The Iceni, also, instead of unit-
ing with the Trinobantes in the defence of their common
freedom, appear to have yielded without a blow to the in-
fluence of the invaders. From their position on the eastern
coast, and their habits of intercourse with the Roman traders
of the Rhine and Scheldt, they may have learnt already to
tremble at the power of the conquerors, or to covet their
luxuries. As far, therefore, as their authority extended to
the wild forests of the interior, and possibly even to the coast
of the Irish Sea, they seem to have retained the native tribes
in stolid inactivity, while their neighbours were successively
robbed of independence. Their king Prasutagus, blindly re-
joicing in the downfall of the chiefs of Camulodunum, opened
his own strongholds to the visits of Roman oflicials, and al-
lowed liimself insensibly to fall under the tutelage of tribunes
and quaestors. His offer of a small tribute, in acknowledg-
ment of deference or subjection to Rome, was soon made a
pretext for vexatious impositions; and the encroachments
thus hazarded on the liberties of his people goaded them at
last to resistance and insurrection.*

Plautius was recalled to Rome, to enjoy the reward of
his services, in the year 800. His successor Ostorius Scapula
Campai^ of found himself on his arrival beset by the refrac-
o^orius scap- ^Qj.y. Britons in various quarters, and putting his

A. D. 47. forces at once in marching order, aimed a severe

A. r. feoo. blow in the direction from which the annoyance

seemed chiefly to proceed. In order to confine the still un-

' Tac. Agric. 14. : " Quaedam civitates Cogidubno Regi donata; (is ad nos*
tram usque memoriam fidissimus mansit) vetere ac jam pridem recepta populi
Romani consuetudine, ut haberet instrumenta servitutis et Rcges." The name
of Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus is preserved in the curious inscription at Chi-
chester.

' There can be no doubt that Frisians, Saxons, and Danes had settled on
the eastern coasts of Britain before the Roman invasion. It seems probable
that the Anglican character of the population of Norfolk and Suffolk dates
from the pre-Roman period. Hence we might account for the want of union
between the Iceni and the Trinobantes. The name Iceni is still evidently re-
tained in many localities of their district, as in Icknield, Ickworth, Exning, &c.,

A.U. 800.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 29

conquered tribes within the boundary of the Severn, he drew
a double line of posts along the course of that river and the
Avon, into the heart of the island.' This last measure, per-
haps, roused the jealousy of the Iceni, or inflamed their dis-
content. It seems to have trenched on some rights of sov-
ereignty exercised by them in those parts, and threatened to
overawe them, faithful as . they had proved themselves, no
less than the turbulent barbarians of the West. They flew
suddenly to arms, suffered a severe defeat, and again relapsed
into a state of sullen submission. Feace being thus restored
in his rear, Ostorius had leisure to penetrate into the country
of the Cangi, a tribe which our antiquaries have commonly
placed in the furthest corner of Carnarvonshire, the promon-
tory or peninsula of the Cangani.' There is not much, in-
deed, to support this bold conjecture : nevertheless, wherever
the true locality is to be sought, the relations of the Roman
commander now extended far over Britain ; for he was re-
called from his attack upon the Cangi by a hostile movement
of the Brigantes, a people who undoubtedly held the regions
north of the Mersey, and whose power extended from sea to
sea.* No sooner were these ill-combined efforts repressed,
and submission secured by a judicious mixture of energy and
moderation, than the attention of Ostorius was called to the
coercion of the Silures, the people of South Wales, who con-
tinued, under the guidance of Caractacus, to threaten the

and has certainly a Tuetonic sound. It has been suggested that, though writ-
ten by the Greeks 'IktjvoI, the second syllable, which disappears in all these
words, was probably short.

' The ground on which we tread here, following the general consent of our
critics from Camden downwards, is most uncertain. Neither the names nor
the construction can be made out clearly from the MSS. of Tacitus. Ritter
reads : " Cunctaque castris Avonam usque et Sabrinam fluvios cohibere parat."
Tac. Ann. xii. 31.

" Ptol. Geogr. ii. 3. Tacitus, however, declares that Ostorius nearly reached
the Irish sea: "Ductus in Cangos exercitus .... vastati agri .... jam
ventum hand procul mari quod Hibemiam insulam aspectat." Ann. xii. 32.
Ritter reads " Decantos," a name found also in Ptolemy, for " Cangos." Nei-
ther tribe is mentioned elsewhere.

^ Seneca calls them " cseruleos scuta Brigantas " {Apocol. 12).

30 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 50.

outposts of the Roman power, and obstruct their communica-
tions. From the name of their chief, who seems, as before
observed, to have been the son of Cunobelin, it would appear
that the Silures, far westward as their district lay, bore some
relation of dependence or descent to the leading nation of the
Foundation of East. This relation is again indicated by the
Cainuiodtin'iim establishment, of which we are now apj^rised, of
A D 50 ^ colony at Camulodunum, on jDurpose to check
A. r. 803. and overawe them.' Ostorius was commissioned
by the emperor to plant a military colony in Britain, to
become the stronghold of the Roman power in the island.
For this purpose the site of the Trinobantine capital, far as it
was removed from the seat of hostilities at the time, was
chosen. If far from the Severn and the mountains of Siluria,
it lay so much the nearer to Gaul, and the centre of the
Roman resources. It was the proper base of the Roman
operations for the entire subjugation of the island. If not in
the direct route from Gessoriacum and Lugdunum to Britain,
it was not far distant from it ; it lay to the north of the
broad Thames ; it ovei'shadowed the dubious territories of
the Iceni ; while the prompt submission of the Regni on the
shores of the channel, might avail to exempt them from the
burden of so unwelcome a guest in their peaceful country.
Farther, the establishment of a colony in the country of the
Trinobantes, involving as it did the confiscation of a portion
of their soil, the utter subjection of their people, the over-
throw of their civil polity, might be inflicted on them to pun-
ish the protracted resistance of their chief among the dis-
tant tribes to whom he had betaken himself On all these
accounts the foundation of the colony of Camulodunum may
not seem so irrelevant, as some have considered it, to the con-
test now pending between the Romans and the Silures."

' Such is the express declaration of Tacitus : " Id qvio promptius veniret
(i, e. the reduction of the Silures), Colonia Camulodunum .... deducitur."

' Tac. Ann. xii. 32. It is on account of this presumed incongruity that
some antiquarians have actually supposed that Camulodunum was somewhere
in Xorth Wales.

A.U. 803.] UNDER THE EifPIRE. 31

Under the republic the colony was a direct offshoot from
the parent city : a number of citizens were told off by lot to
occupy, like a swarm of bees, to which they were

^•'' -, , . . -, . Character of the

commonly compared, their appomted station : Roman colony

-1 , •, ^ , -11-1 ii Britain.

and the soil oi the conquered land was appro-
priated to them as their ager or national territory. As an
offset from a nation of soldiers the colonists were themselves
all yoldiers, and their new city, founded on the principles of
the old, was in fact a stationary camp, furnished with the
same civil and military appliances as the metropolis itself;
not only with the streets and houses, the walls and ditch, but
with the temples and tribunals, above all with the sacred
Augural, or spot on which the auspices might be duly ob-
served. But the citizen had now lost most of his military
traditions. When he migrated to a foreign settlement, it
was generally as a private trader or adventurer. The civ-
ilian could no longer be induced to relinquish his peaceful
indulgences and go forth armed and booted, in the prospect
of a slender patrimony to be cultivated with toil and defend-
ed with his blood. On the other hand the paid defenders of
the state, — the military profession, as it had now become, —
were no longer fit to return, after many years of service, to
the staid habits of the municipium from which they had been
levied : they retained no taste for the amenities of civil life,
and might even be dangerous in the crowded streets and
among the mutinous rabble of a vicious city. The colony
was now merely a convenient receptacle for the discharged
veterans of the camp. Transferred from active duty in the
field or the parade, to which they were no longer equal, they
were expected to maintain, as armed pensioners of the state,
the terror of the Roman name on the frontiers by their proud
demeanour and habits of discipline, rather than by the
strength of hands now drooping at their sides. The lands
of the Trinobantes were wrested from their ancient possess-
ors and conveyed to the new intruders : the veterans estab-
lished themselves in the dwellings of the hapless natives,
desecrated their holy places, applied to their OAvn use their

32 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 50.

goods and chattels, perhaps even their Avives and daughters ;
and if they left them any rights at all, set up tribunals of
their own to decide every matter in dispute with them. The
colonists in an assembly of their own, like the comitia of the
Roman people, chose their own officers, and governed them-
selves by their own regulations and by-laws ; holding them-
selves ever ready to fly to arms in defence of their common
usurpation. In the colony of Caraulodunum the Britons
beheld an image, rude indeed, and distorted, of the camp on
the Rhine or Danube, combined with the city on the Tiber.
They enjoyed, as far as they could learn to appreciate it, a
faint reflex of the civilization of the South, and were taught
to ascribe the fortune of their conquerors to the favour of
strange divinities, to whom altars were erected and victims
slain. But to none of these did they see such honour paid
inaufruration of ^^ ^^ Claudius himsclf, in the name of none were
ciludTulatTcL ®^ many vows conceived, as of the emperor
muiodimum. whose pcrsou they had once beheld visibly
among them ; of whom they still heard by report, as the
presiding genius of the empire, the centre of the world's
adoration. A temple of unusual size and splendour was
erected to this divinity in the colony of Camulodunum, or
the Conquering Claudian, as it was officially styled, special
estates were granted for its service, and the most distinguish-
ed among the Britons were invited to enrol themselves in the
college of the Claudian Flamens.*

In one respect, however, the new colony fell short both
of the city and the camp, on the plan of which it was de-
Security of the signed. The capital of the Trinobantes has
Eomans. already been described as a vast enclosure for

retreat from invasion, occupied by clusters of straggling huts
and cabins, with no continuous streets, still less with any
regular fortifications. Such a mode of agglomeration, com-
mon to the Britons with the Germans, and at least the

' Tac. Ann. xiv. 31.; Orell. Inscript. 208.: " Colonia Victricensis quae est
in Bntannia Camuloduni."

A. U, 803.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 33

northern Gauls, was altogether foreign to the habits of the
Romans, who dwelt always in compact masses of habita-
tions, laid out on plans comparatively regular, and defended
by works of military art. The oppidum was the British, the
urbs was the Roman city. But the veterans who now occu-
pied the stronghold of Cunobelin were too indolent, it seems,
to trace the lines of a fortress for their own protection : they
found the site of their new dwellings agreeable, the houses
even of the Britons were to the rude inmates of the tent not
inconvenient: they furnished themselves with a temple, a
senate-house, and even a theatre for the amusement of their
idleness; they erected a statue of Victory to commemorate
their triumph ; but they delayed to construct the necessary
defences, and in contemptuous disregard for the conquered
enemy, continued to enjoy their new-acquired ease with no
apprehensions for their future security.* However slight
might be the influence of this type of southern culture upon
the distant Silures, the Iceni, whose frontier bordered closely
upon it, were powerfully affected. They beheld with admi-
ration the advance of luxury and sj^lendour, and acquiesced
once more, with increasing fervour, in the terms of unequal
alliance profiered by the Romans.

Thus doubly secured by the influence of arms and arts in
his rear, Ostorius was enabled to bring the whole weight of
his forces to bear on the still unconquered Silures.
For nine years Caractacus, at the head of the in- Caractacns and
dependent Britons, had maintained the conquest
with the invaders. The genius of this patriot chief, the first
of our national heroes, may be estimated, not from victories,
of which the envious foe has left us no account, but from the
length of his gallant resistance, and the magnitude of the
operations which it was necessary to direct against him.
How often he may have burst from the mountains of
Wales, and swept with his avenging squadrons the fields of
the Roman settlers on the Severn and the Avon, — how often

* Tac. Ann. xiv. 31. : " Dum amoenitati prius quam usui consulitur."
VOL VI. — 3

34 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 50.

he may have plunged again into his fastnesses, and led the
pursuers into snares prepared for them beyond the AYye and
the Usk, — remains for ever buried in the oblivion which has
descended on the heroic deeds of the enemies of Rome.
Worn out, or starved out, or circumvented perchance by the
toils ever closing around him, he made a last effort to re-
move the seat of war from the country of the Silures to that
of the Ordovices or North Wales, the common boundary of
the two lying probably between the Wye and the Tenie.'
Ostorius having returned from his foray among the Cangi,
having chastised and pacified the Brigantes, and established
at the same time his colony at Camulodunum, collected all
his strength to crush this last effort of resistance. To attack
the Silures he would descend probably from his northern
stations along the course of the Severn ; the Britons, hover-
ing on the eastern flanks of the Welsh moiintains, would
draw him up one of their lateral valleys to the westward ;
but whether he forced his passage by the gorges of the Ver-
niew, or the upper Severn, by the Clun, the Teme, or the
Wye, seems impossible to determine. Each of these routes
has had its advocates, and to this day the surviving descend-
ants of the Britons contend with generous emulation for the
honour of the discovery. All along the frontier of the jjrin-
cipality every hill crowned with an old entrenchment, and
fronted by a stream, has been claimed as the scene of the
last struggle of British independence ; there are at least six
Richraonds in the field, and the discreet historian must de-
cide between them."

' From the distances marked in the xii. and xiii. Itinera of Antoninus it
has been supposed that Branogenium (of the Ordovices) is at Leintwardine on
the Teme, and Magna (of the Silures) at Kentchester, a Httle north of the Wye.
The boundary, therefore, would lie between these two rivers.

^ The spots which have been most confidently assigned for the last battle
of Caractacus are Coxall Knoll, on the Teme, near Leintwardine (Roy) ; Cefn
Camedd, west of the Severn, near Llanidloes (Hartshorne, Salop. Aidiq. p. 68);
Caer Caradoc, on the Clun, in Shropshire (Gough's Camden, iii. p. 3, 13); and
the Breiddhen hills, near Welshpool, on the Severn {Jrchwol. Cambr. April,
1851). A Roman camp, now called Castel Collen, may be traced as far west

A. U. 803.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 35

Caractacus took up a position of his own choosing, where
the means both of approach and of retreat were most con-
venient for himself and unfavourable to the

_ T /. T T • 1 -1 I-^st battle and

enemy. It was deiended m part by a steep and overthrow of
lofty acclivity ; in part by stones rudely thrown
together ; a stream with no frequented ford flowed before it,
and chosen bands of his best armed and bravest warriors
were stationed in front of its defences.* To the spirit and
eloquence of the chief the Britons responded with shouts of
enthusiasm, and each tribe bound itself by the oaths it held
most sacred, to stand its ground or fall, if it must fall, fight-
ing. Ostox-ius, on his part, was amazed at the ardour of men
whom he supposed to be beaten, cowed, and driven hope-
lessly to bay. He was even disconcerted at the strength of
the British position, and the swarms which defended it. It
was the eagerness of the soldiers rather than his own courage
or judgment that determined him to give the signal for at-
tack. The stream was crossed without difliculty, for every
legionary was a SAvimmer, and the Britons had no engines

as the Ython, near Rhayader, and here, too, a suitable locality might be found.
But all is misty conjecture. It would seem that Ostorius, intending to strike
at the centre of Siluria, was drawn north-westward by the movements of Ca-
ractacus into the country of the Ordovices, along one of the lateral valleys
that issue from the Welsh mountams. Tacitus says only : " Transfert bellum
in Ordovices." Ann. xii. 33.

' Tac. 1. c. "Prtefluebat amnis vado incerto." This seems to imply, not
that the stream was actually deep or rapid, but that crossing no road at the
spot, it had no accustomed ford. Even the season of the year is not men-
tioned, so that we cannot tell whether the water was above or below its ordi-
nary height. It seems, however, to have been crossed without difficulty. The
character of Coxall Knoll, which many years ago I examined with more faith
than I can now indulge in, is not inconsistent with the narrative. The river is
now a narrow and shallow stream, at least in the middle of summer, and deeply
tinged by the peat-mosses through which it ilows : " Visus adhuc amnis veteri
de clade rubere." The hill, steep in front, but easily accessible from the rear,
is crowned with considerable earthworks. On descending from the spot which
I believed to be the scene of the eclipse of British freedom, I found an Italian
organ-boy making sport at an alehouse door to a group of Welsh peasants. I
could not fail to moralize with Tacitus : " Rebus humanis inest quidam orbis."

36 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 50.

for hurling missiles from a distance, nor were they noted even
for the rude artillery of bows and slings. But they defended
their rampart obstinately with poles and javelins, and from
behind it dealt wounds and death upon the assailants till the
Romans could form the tortoise, approach to the foot of the
wall, tear down its uncemented materials, and bursting in,
challenge them to combat hand to hand. Unequal to the
shock of the Roman array, the Britons retreated up the hill ;
the Romans, both the light and the heavy-armed, pressed
gallantly upon them, and imperfectly as they were equipped,
they could withstand neither the sword and pilum of the
legionary, nor the lance and spear of the allies. The victory,
quickly decided, was brilliant and complete. The wife and
daughter of Caractacus were taken ; his brothers threw down
their arms and surrendered.'

The brave chief himself escaped from the slaughter, evad-
ed the pursuit, and found an asylum for a time in the terri-
tory of the Briojantes, leaving all the south open

Caractacus be- •' ^ a ■> ^ o i

trayed by Car- to the invadcrs. He might hope to remove the

tisinandua. Ex- ^ /^i.-ii

hibited at coutcst to the northern parts of the island, a land

Komeandpar- .,.,.. , ,

doned by Clan- 01 Streams and mountains like his own long-de-
fended Siluria : but Cartismandua, the female
chief of this nation (for though married she seems herself,
rather than her husband Yenutius, to have been actual ruler
of the Brigantes), was determined by her own fears and in-
terests to betray him to the Romans. The fame of his nine
years' struggle had penetrated beyond the British isles and
the Gaulish provinces ; and when he was led captive through

" Caractacus, Togodumnus, and Adminius have been mentioned from Dion
as the sons of Cunobelin. We have disposed of the two last ; but Tacitus
seems here to refer to other surviving brothers of the family. From this pre-
sumed discrepancy, coupled with the remoteness of the campaigns of Caracta-
cus from the country of Cunobelin, it has been imagined that Dion was in error,
aud that the British hero was a native chief of the remote Silures, and not a
Trinobantine. So also the Welsh traditions represent Caractacus as a Silurian ;
but are not these the traditions of a people hemmed in between the Severn and
the Irish Channel, who had long forgotten that they had once extended to the
German Ocean ?

A.U. 803.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 37

the streets of Rome, great was the curiosity of the citizens
to behold the hero who had rivalled the renown of Arminius
and Tacfarinas. The triumph of Claudius had been solem-
nized before ; but the emperor gratified his vanity by exhib-
iting the British prince before the imperial tribunal. A grand
military spectacle was devised, in which Claudius appeared
seated before the gates of the praetorian camp, attended by
his guards, and surrounded by the multitude of citizens.
Agrippina, clothed like himself in a military garb, took her
seat on the tribunal by his side, the ensigns of a Roman army
floating over her head. The slaves and clients of the van-
quished prince were first led before them, with the glittering
trophies of his arms and accoixtrements. Behind these
marched the brothers, the wife, and the tender daughter of
the hero, and their pusillanimous wailings moved no pity in
the spectators. But the bearing of Caractacus himself, who
closed the train of captives, was noble and worthy of his
noble cause : nor did it fail to excite the admiration it deserv-
ed. He was permitted to address the emperoi*. He remind-
ed Claudius that the obstinacy of his resistance enhanced the
glory of his defeat ; were he now ignominiously put to death,
the fate of so many worsted enemies of Rome, -his name and
exploits would be soon forgotten ; but if bid to live, they
-would be eternally remembered, as a memorial of the emjDC-
ror's clemency. The imperial historian Avas easily moved by
an appeal to his yearning for historic celebrity.' He granted
the lives of his illustrious captives, and bade them give
thanks, not to himself only but to his consort, who shared
with him the toils and distinctions of empire. It was politic
as well as merciful to spare the legitimate claimant of a Brit-
ish throne ; to keep him at Rome to be employed as occasion
might suggest : and thus Caractacus, we may believe, was
retained, together Avith his family, in honourable custody, till

' Tac. Ann. xii. 36-38. Such aa act of clemency in a Roman imperator
must not be passed by without especial notice. Claudius stands in honourable
contrast to the murderers of Pontius, of Perses, of Jugurtha, and Vercinge-
torix.

38 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 50.

he grew old in long-deferred hope of restoration. They were
enrolled perhaps among the clients of the Claudian house ;
and indulgence may he challenged for the pleasing conjec-
ture, that Claudia the foreigner, Claudia the offspring of
the 2)ainted Britons, whose charms and genius are celehrated
hy Martial, was actually the child of the hero Caractacus.*

The victory had been the most complete, and in its re-
sults the most important, that had yet occurred in Britain ;
and there was no mean servility in the senators
sistance of the extollLng the emi^eror's fame and fortune to the
skies, and comparing him to a Scipio and a Paulus,
who had exhibited a Syphax and a Perses to the applauding
citizens. To Ostorius was accorded the triumphal orna-
ments ; but he had not yet leisure to repose on his laurels,
for the Britons flew again to arms on the capture of their
champion, and maintained on the skirts of their mountain
fastnesses a warfare of forays and surprises, which still kept
the Romans on the alert. Again and again defeated, they
still found means to revenge their losses. Harassed and de-
cimated, they retaliated by bloody massacres. They were
roused to despair, however fruitless, by the ferocious threats
of the prefect, who vowed to destroy and extinguish their
very name, as that of the Sigambri, once so formidable, had
been utterly obliterated in Germany,"

On the death of Ostorius, which shortly ensued from
chagrin, it is said, as much as from fatigue, the province was
entrusted to Didius, sent in haste from Rome to take the
command. During the interval, while the legions perhaps
were careless or reluctant in their obedience to an infei:ior
officer, the Roman arms suftered an ignominious check from

* Martial, ii. 54., iv. 13. This was the faith of Fuller, Stillingflcet, and
our old occlcs^iastical hL-^toiians, who identified this princess at the same time
with Claudia, the convert of St. Paul. More favour has been recently shown
to the ingenious hypothesis of Mr. Williams, who infers, from the remarkable
inscription at Cliichestcr, that the Claudia of Martial and St. Paul was daugh-
ter of king Cogidubnus. On this subject I shall have occasion to speak again.

^ Tac. Ann. xii. 38, 39.

A.U. 803.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 39

the Silures, and the province itself seemed for a moment to
lie at their mercy. The arrival of Didius, old and inactive
as he was, served to brace again the discipline of his armies,
and they recovered their superiority. But the transient shock
their reputation had suffered broke the charm of success. Car-
tismandua, who had delivered Caractacus to the cartismandua
Romans, and in return had been upheld by their hir own sub^^
influence against the indignation of her country- J®'''^-
men, was now expelled from her realm by a popular insurrec-
tion. Relying on her foreign defenders, she had driven away
her mock-husband Venutius, slain some of his kinsmen, and
degraded herself to the embrace of a menial. The Briofan-
tes took the side of the injured husband, placed him, as a
noted warrior, at their head, attacked the queen in her strong-
hold, and had nearly succeeded in overpowering her, when
Didius interfered, and released her from her peril. But the
new prefect did not attempt to recover the footing of the
Romans in the North. He allowed Venutius to seat himself
once more on the throne of the Brigantes, and was content
with keeping watch over his power, and occasionally advanc-
ing an outj)ost beyond his borders. Such was the state of
aflairs which continued to subsist in this quarter twenty years
later.*

Thus unsettled were the limits of the Roman occupation
at the close of the reign of Claudius. The southern part of
the island from the Stour to the Exe and Severn
formed a compact and organized province, from province of
which only the realm of Cogidubnus, retaining still
the character of a dependent sovereignty, is to be subtract-
ed." Beyond the Stour, again, the territory of the Iceni con-
stituted another extraneous dependency. The government
of the province was administered from Camulodunum, as its
capital ; and the whole country was overawed by the martial

' Tac. A>m. xii. 40.; ITist. iii. 45.; Agric. 14.: "Parta a prioribus conti-
nuit paucis admodum castellis in ulteriora promotis."

° Tacitus, who entered public life thirty years later, says of him {Agric. 14.) :
" Is ad nostram usque memoriam fidissimus mansit."

40 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D, 50.

attitude of the Conquering Colony there established. Al-
ready, perhaps, Londinium, though distinguished by no such
honourable title, excelled it as a place of commercial resort.
The broad estuary of the Thames, confronting the waters of
the Scheldt and Maas, was well placed for the exchange of
British against Gaulish and German products ; and the hill
on which tlie city stood, facing the southern sun, and adapt-
ed for defence, occupies precisely the spot where first the
river can be crossed conveniently. Swept east and west by
the tidal stream, and traversed north and south by the con-
tinuous British roads, Londinium supplied the whole island
with the luxuries of another zone, just as Massilia had sup-
plied Gaul.* Hither led the ways which penetrated Britain
from the jiorts in the Channel, from Lynme, Richborough
and Dover. From hence they diverged again to Camulo-
dunum north-east, and to Verulamium north-west, where the
chief lines of communication intersected one another. While
the prefect, as governor-in-chief of the province, was occu-
pied on the frontier in military oj^erations, the finances were
administered by a procurator ; and "whatever extortions he
might countenance, so slight was the apprehension of any
formidable resistance, that not only the towns, now frequent-
ed by thousands of Roman traders, were left unfortified, but
the province itself was suffered to remain almost denuded of
soldiers. The legions now permanently quar-

Stationofthe . . . * . ^ . "^

presidiary le- tcrcd in Britain were still the four which have be-

gions.

fore been mentioned. Of these the Second, the
same which under the command of Vespasian had recently
conquered the south-west, was now perhaps stationed in the
forts on the Severn and Avon, or advanced to the encamp-
ment on the Usk, whence sprang the famous city of Caerleon,
the camp of the Legion." The Ninth was placed in guard

* Milton : " Me tenet urbs rejliia quam Thamesis alluit unda ; " not Reading
or Windsor, but London, the only city on the tidal waters of the Thames.

" The Roman towns and villas, which have been discovered in such num-
bers along the course of the Severn and Avon, grew probably out of their sys-
tem of defences against the long untamed brigandage of the western mountain-

A. U. 803.J UNDER THE EMPIRE. 41

over the Iceni, whose fidelity was not beyond suspicion. We
may conjecture that its headquarters were planted as far
north as the Wash, where it might dislocate any combina-
tions these people should attempt to form with their unsteady
neiglibours the Brigantes. The Twentieth would be required
to confront the Brigantes also on their western frontier, and
to them we may assign the position on the Deva or Dee,
from which the ancient city of Chester has derived its name,
its site, and the foundations, at least, of its venerable fortifi-
cations.* There still remained another legion, the Four-
teenth ; but neither was this held in reserve in the interior
of the province. The necessities of border warfare required
its active operations among the Welsh mountains, which it
penetrated step by step, and gradually worked its way tow-
ards the last asylum of the Druids in Mona, or

"^ . 'IT Eetreat of the

Anglesey, ihe Gaulish priesthood, proscribed Druids into An-
in their own country, would naturally fly for
refuge to Britain : proscribed in Britain, wherever the power
of Rome extended, they retreated, inch by inch, and with-
drew from the massive shrines which still attest their influ-
ence on our southern plains, to the sacred recesses of the lit-
tle island, surrounded by boiling tides, and clothed with im-
penetrable thickets. In this gloomy lair, secure apparently,
though shorn of might and dignity, they still persisted in the
practice of tlieir unholy superstition. They strove, perhaps,
like the trembling priests of Mexico, to appease the gods,
who seemed to avert their faces, with more horrid sacrifices
than ever. Here they retained their assemblies, their schools,
and their oracles ; here was the asylum of the fugitives ; here
was the sacred grove, the abode of the aAvful Deity, which

eers. The Caesars had their Welsh marches as well as the Plantagenets. Isca
Silurum must have been an important post for the protection of the Roman
ironworks in the Forest of Dean.

' The position of the headquarters of the Second legion at Isca Silurum
(Caerleon), and of the Twentieth at Deva (Chester), is established from lapi-
dary remains. These may be no doubt of a later period, but, as a general
rule, these positions, after the first consolidation of the Roman power, were
permanent.

42 HISTORY OF THE ROMAN'S [A. D. 61.

in the stillest noon of night or day the priest himself scarce
ventured to enter, lest he should rush unwitting into the
presence of its Lord.'

Didius had been satisfied with retaining the Roman ac-
quisitions, and had made no attempt to extend them ; and
his successor, Veranius, had contented himself
iinus*routs the with somc trifling incursions into the country of
giesey. " * the Silures. The death of Veranius prevented,
A. D. 61. perhaps, more important operations. But he had
^^' exercised rigorous discipline in the camj-), and

Suetonius Paullinus, who next took the command, found the
legions well equipped and well disposed, and their stations
connected by military roads across the whole breadth of the
island. The rumours of the city marked out this man as a
rival to the gallant Corbulo, and great successes were ex-
pected from the measures which he would be prompt in
adopting. Leaving the Second legion on the L^sk to keep
the Silures in check, and the Twentieth on the Dee to T>'atch
the Brigantes, he joined the quarters of the Fourteenth, now
pushed as far as Segontium on the Menai straits.' He pre-
pared a number of rafts or boats for the passage of the in-
fantry ; the stream at low water was, perhaps, nearly ford-
able for cavalry, and the trusty Batavians on his wings were
accustomed to swim by their horses' sides clinging by the
mane or bridle, across the waters, not less w^ide and rajiid, of
their native Rhine. Still the traject must have been perilous
enough, even if unopposed. But now the further bank Avas
thronged with the Britons in dense array, while between
their i-anks, the women, clad in black and with hair dis-
hevelled, rushed like furies with flaming torches, and behind
them were seen the Druids raising their hands to heaven, in-

* Lucaa iii. 423, —

" Medio cum Phoebus in axe est,
Aut ccelum nox atra tenet, pavet ipse sacerdos
Accessus, dominumque timet dcprcndere luci."

' Sejrontium is the modern Caernarvon. There is every appearance of
great changes having taken place In the line of coast in this neighbourhood.

A. U. 814.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 43

vokino; curses on tlie darinof invaders. The Romans were so
dismayed at the sight that, as they came to land, they at
first stood motionless to be struck down by every assailant.
But this panic lasted but for a moment. Recalled by the
cries of their chiefs to a sense of discipline, of duty, of danger,
they closed their ranks, advanced their standards, struck,
broke and trampled on the foe before them, and applied his
own torches to his machines and waggons. The rout was
complete ; the fugitives, flung back by the sea, had no further
l^lace of retreat. The island was seamed with Roman en-
trenchments, the groves cut down or burnt, and every trace
speedily abolished of the foul rites by which Hesus had been
propitiated, or the will of Taranus consulted.^

From this moment the Druids disappear from the page of
history ; they were exterminated, we may believe, upon their
own altars ; for Suetonius took no half measures. Discontent of
But whatever were his further designs for the ^i^eicem.
final pacification of the province, they were interrupted by
the sudden outbreak of a revolt in his rear. The Iceni, as
has been said, had submitted, after their great overthrow, to
the yoke of the invaders : their king Prasutagus had been
allowed indeed to retain his nominal sovereignty ; but he was
placed under the control of Roman ofticials ; his people were
required to contribute to the Roman treasury: their com-
munities were incited to a profuse expenditure which ex-
ceeded their resources ; while the exactions imposed on them
were so heavy that they were compelled to borrow largely,
and entangle themselves in the meshes of the Roman money-
lenders. The great capitalists of the city, wealthy courtiers,
and prosperous freedmen, advanced the sums they called for
at exorbitant interest ; from year to year they found them-
selves less able to meet their obligations, and mortgaged
property and person to their unrelenting creditors. Among
the immediate causes of the insurrection which followed, is
mentioned the sudden calling in by Seneca, the richest of

' Tac. Ann. xiv. 30.

44 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. Gl.

philosophers, of tlie large investments he had made, which
he seemed in danger of losing altogether.'

But the oppression of the Romans was not confined to
these transactions, Prasutagus, in the hope of proi^itiating
insmrection of *^® provincial govciliment to his family, had be-
the iceni. queathed his dominions to the republic. He ex-

pected perhaps that his wife and his children, who were also
females, if not allowed to exercise even a nominal sovereignty
after him, would at least be treated in consequence with the
resj^ect due to their rank, and secured in the enjoyment of
ample means and consideration. This was the fairest lot that
remained to the families of the dej^endent chieftains, and the
Romans had not often grudged it them. But an insolent
official, placed in charge of these new acquisitions after the
death of Prasutagus, forgot what was due to the birth and
even the sex of the wretched princesses. He suspected them,
perhaps, of secreting a portion of their patrimony, and did
not scruple to employ stripes to recover it from the mother,
while he surrendered her tender children to even worse indijr-
nities. Boadicea, the widowed queen of the Iceni, was a
woman of masculine spirit. Far from succumbing under the
cruelty of her tyrants and hiding the shame of her family,
she went forth into the public places, showed the scars of her
wounds, and the fainting forms of her abused daughters, and
adjured her people to a desj^erate revenge. The Iceni Avere
stung to frenzy at their sovereign's wrongs, at their oavu
humiliation. The danger, the madness, of the attempt was
considered by none for a moment. They rose as one man :
there was no poAver at hand to control them: the Roman
officials fled, or, if arrested, were slaughtered; and a vast
multitude, armed and imarmed, rolled southward to over-
whelm and extirpate the intruders. To the Colne, to the
Thames, to the sea, the country lay entirely ojjen. The
legions Avcre all removed to a distance, the towns were un-
enclosed, the Roman traders settled in them Mcrc untrained

^ Dion, Ixii. 2. Dion is ill-natured ; yet I do not think he can have invented
this story ; and Brutus had done the hke.

A. U. 814.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 45

to arms. Even the Claudian colony was undefended. The
procurator, Catus Decianus, was at the moment absent, and
being pressed for succour, coukl send no more than two
hundred soldiers for its protection. Little reliance could be
placed on the strength of a few worn-out veterans: the
natives, however specious their assurances, were not unjustly
distrusted, for tliey too, like the Iceni, had suffered insolence
and ill-treatment. The great temple of Claudius was a stand-
ing monument of their humiliation : for its foundation their
estates had been confiscated, for its support their tribute was
required, and they regarded as victims or traitors the native
chiefs who had been enrolled in its service. Whatever alarm
they might feel at the indiscriminate fury of the hordes de-
scending upon them, they smiled grimly at the panic which
more justly seized the Romans. The gviilty objects of na-
tional vengeance discovered the direst prodigies in every
event around them. The wailings of their Avomen, the
neighing of their horses, were interpreted as evil omens.
Their theatre was said to have resounded with uncouth
noises ; the buildings of the colony had been seen inversely
reflected in the waters of their estuary ; and at ebb-tide
ghastly remains of human bodies had been discovered in the
ooze.^ Above all, the statue of Victory, planted to face the
enemies of the republic, had turned its back to the advancing
barbarians and fallen prostrate before them. When the col-
onists proposed to throw uj) hasty entrenchments they were
dissuaded from the Avork, or impeded in it by the natives,
who persisted in declaring that there was no cause for fear ;
it was not till the Iceni were actually in sight,

f 1 m • -, 1 Surprise and

and the treachery 01 the Irinobantes no longer capture of Cam
doubtful, that they retreated tumultuously with-
in the precincts of the temple, and strengthened its slender
defences to support a sudden attack till succour could arrive.

^ Tac. Ann. xiv. 32. : " Visam speciem in sestuario Tamesae subversae colo
nife." The "estuary of the Thames " may comprise the whole extent of the
deep indentation of the coast between Landguard Point and the North Fore-
land.

48 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 61,

But the impetuosity of the assault overcame all resistance.
The stronghold was stormed on tlie second day, and all who
had souglit refuge in it, armed and unarmed, given np to
slaughter.'

Meanwliile the report of this fearful movement had trav-
elled far and wide through the country. It reached Petilius
Cerialis, the commander of the Ninth legion,
ens tcTretxieve which I supposc to have bccu Stationed near the
t etisascr. "w-^sh, and lic hroke up promptly from his camp
to hanoi- on the rear of the insurgents. It reached the
Twentieth legion at Deva, which awaited the orders of Sue-
tonius himself, as soon as he should learn on the banks of the
Menai the perils in which the province was involved. The
prefect Avithdrew the Fourteenth legion from the smoking
groves of Mona, and urged it with redoubled speed along
the highway of "Watling Street, picking up the best troops
from the Twentieth as he rushed by, and summoning the
SetHjnd from Isca to join him in the South. But P:enius
Postumus, who commanded this latter division, neglected to
obey his orders, and crouched in terror behind his fortifica-
tions. The Iceni turned boldly on Cerialis, who was hang-
ing close upon their heels, and routed his wearied battalions
with great slaughter. The infantry of the Ninth legion was
cut in jjieces, and the cavalry alone escaped to their entrench-
ments.' But the barbarians had not skill nor patience to con-
duct the siege of a Roman camp. They lefl the squadron of
Cerialis unmolested, nor did they attempt to force the scat-

' Tac. Ann. xiv. 31, 32.; Agric. 16.: "Nee ullum in barbaris sjevitiae ge-
nus omisit ira et victoria." The atrocities inflicted on the captives are de-
scribed in horrid detail by Dion, Ixii. l-T. ; rdf yap ywaiKag rac evyeveararag
KOI e'v^Tpe—eararac yvfivag iKptfiaaav, Koi tovq re (laarovg avTuv TrepiiTe/iov,
Kol Tolg OTd/iam ct^wv Tzpoatppan'ov, oTzug wf Koi kaOiovaai avrovg bpiJvTO' nal
/lera tovto Traaadloig b^iai 6ia ttovtoc Toii aufxaToc Kara [lijKog aviiretpav. In
the immediate neighbourhood of Colchester a skeleton is said to have been
found which, from the implements lying by it, seems to have been that of a
Roman priest, buried head downwards : /cat ravra wdvra, says Dion, v6pt^ovTec.

' The site of this battle has been assigned, with some probabihty, from the
great tumulus at that spot, to Wormingford, six miles north of Colchester.

A. U. 814.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 47

terecl posts around them. After giving Camulodunum to
the flames, they dispersed throughout the country, plunder-
ing and destroying. Suetonius, unappalled by the frightful
accounts which thronged upon him, held on his course stead-
fastly with his single legion, broke through the scattered
bands of the enemy, and reached Londinium without a
check.' This place was crowded with Roman residents,
crowded still more at this moment with fugitives from the
country towns and villas : but it was undefended by walls,
its poj)ulation of traders was of little account in military
eyes, and Suetonius sternly determined to leave it, with all
the wealth it harboured, to the barbarians, rather than sacri-
fice his soldiers in the attempt to save it.' The policy of the
Roman commander was to secure his communications with
Gaul : but he was resolved not to abandon the country, nor
surrender the detachments hemmed in at various points by
the general rising of the Britons. The precise direction of
his movements we can only conjecture. Had he retired to
the southern bank of the Thames, he would probably have
defended the passage of that river ; or had the Britons cross-
ed it unresisted, the historians would not have failed to
specify so important a success. But the situation of Camu-
lodunum, inclosed in its old British lines, and backed by the
sea, would offer him a secure retreat where he might defy
attack, and await reinforcements ; and the insurgents, after
their recent triumphs, had abandoned their first conquests to
wreak their fury on other seats of Roman civilization. While,
therefore, the Iceni sacked and burnt first Verulamium, and
next Londinium, Suetonius made, as I conceive, a flank march
towards Camulodunum, and kept ahead of their pursuit, till
he could choose his own position to await their attack. In a
valley between undulating hills, with woods in the rear, and

* Tac. Ann. xiv. 33.: "At Suetonius mira constantia medios inter hostes
Londinium perrexit."

^ " Unius oppidi damno servare universa statuit." Our early antiquarians
could trace the remains of a Roman encampment at Islington, which they sup-
posed to have been the quarters of Suetonius at this moment.

48 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 61.

the ramparts of the British oppiclum not far perhaps on his
right, he had every advantage for marshalling his slender
forces; and these were increased in nnmber more than in
strength by the fugitives capable of bearing arms, whom he
allowed to clins: to his fortnnes.* Ten thousand resolute
men drew their swords for the Roman Empire in Britain.
The natives, many times their number, spread far and wide
over the plain ; but they could assail the narroAv front of the
Romans with only few battalions at once, and the waggons,
which conveyed their accumulated booty and bore their wives
and children, thronged the rear, and cut off almost the possi-
bility of retreat.

But flushed with victory, impatient for the slaughter,
animated with desperate resolution to die or conquer, the
Defeat of the Britons cast no look or thought behind them,
iceni. Boadicea drove her car from rank to rank, from

nation to nation, with her daughters beside her, attesting the
outrage she had endured, the vengeance she had already
taken, proclaiming the gallant deeds of the queens before
her, under whom British warriors had so often triumphed,
denouncing the intolerable yoke of Roman insolence, and
declaring that whatever the men might determine, the women
Avould now be free or perish. The harangue of Suetonius, on
the other hand, was blunt and sarcastic. He told his men not
to mind the multitudes before them, nor the noise they made :
there were more women among them than men : as for their
own numbers, let them remember that in all battles a few
good swordsmen really did the work ; the half-armed and
dastard crowds Avould break and fly when they felt again the
prowess of the Roman veterans. Thus encouraged, the
legionaries could with difficulty be restrained to await the

* Tac. 1. c. : " Comitantcs in partem agminis acceperat." I am indebted to
the Rev. Mr. Jenkins, of Stanway, near Colchester, for this conjecture with re-
gard to the direction of the march, and the site of the battle. His views are
explained in a tract in the Archceoloffia, 1842 ; and I may refer the reader to
some further remarks upon them in the Quarterly Review, vol. xcvii. His
speculations, I may add, have been of the highest value to me, though I must
be content sometimes to follow them " non passibus aequis."

A,U. 8U.1 UNDER THE EMPIRE. 49

onset ; and as soon as the assailants had exhausted their
missiles, bore down upon them in the wedge-shaped column,
which had so often broken Greeks, Gauls and Carthaginians.
The auxiliaries followed with no less impetuosity. The
horsemen, lance in hand, pierced the ranks which still kept
their ground. But a single charge was enough. The Britons
were in a moment shattered and routed. In another mo-
ment, the Romans had reached the wide circumvallation of
waggons, among which the fugitives were scrambling in
dismay, slew the cattle and the women without remorse, and
traced with a line of corpses and carcases the limits of the
British position. We may believe that the massacre was
enormous. The Romans declared that 80,000 of their enemies
perished, while of their own force they lost only 400 slain,
and about as many wounded. Boadicea put an end to her
life by poison : we could have wished to hear that the brave
barbarian had fallen on a Roman pike. Suetonius had won
the greatest victory of the imperial history ; to complete his
triumph, the coward, Postumus, who had shrunk from aiding
him, threw himself, in shame and mortification, on his own
sword.'

By this utter defeat the British insurrection was par-
alyzed. Throughout the remainder of the season the Romans
kept the field : they received reinforcements from

^ . Final suppres-

the German camps, and their scattered cohorts sion of tho in-

SUITGCtiOIl

were gradually brought together in a force
which overawed all resistance. The revolted districts were
chastised with fire and sword, and the systematic devasta-
tion inflicted upon them, sufiering as they already were from
the nesrlect of tillage during the brief intoxication of their
success, produced a famine which swept ofi" the seeds of
future insurrections. On both sides a fearful amount of de-

* Tac. Ann. xiv. 34-37.; Acfric. 16. Dion, Ixii. 12, From the slender
accounts we have received of this outbreak it would seem to have been confined
to the Iceni, which makes it the more probable that these people were a differ-
ent race from the Celtic Britons. Their nmnbers as indicated by Dion, and
even by Tacitus, deserve little reliance.

VOL. VI.-

50 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 61.

struction had been committed. Amidst the overthrow of
the great cities of southern Britain, not less than seventy
thousand Roman colonists had perished. The work of
twenty years was in a moment undone. Far and wide every
vestige of Roman civilization was trodden into the soil. At
this day the workmen who dig through the foundations of
the Norman and the Saxon London, strike beneath them on
the traces of a double Roman city, between which lies a mass
of charred and broken rubbish, attesting the conflagration of
the terrible Boadicea.

The temper of Suetonius, as may be supposed from what
has been already said of him, was stern and unbending, even
Succeeded by a "beyond the ordinary type of his nation. No
milder policy, oti^er ofiicer, pcrhajos, in the Roman armies could
have so turned disaster into victory, and recovered a jirov-
ince at a blow ; but it was not in his character to soothe
the conquered, to conciliate angry passions, to restore the
charm of moral superiority. Classicianus, who was his next
procurator, complained of him to the emperor, as wishing to
protract hostilities when every end might be obtained by
conciliation. A freedman of the court, named Polycletus,
was sent on the delicate mission, to judge between the civil
and the military chief, and to take the measures most fitting
for securing peace and obedience. Polycletus brought with
him a large force from Italy and Gaul, and was no less sur-
prised perhaps than the legions he commanded, to see him-
self at the head of a Roman army. Even the barbarians, we
are told, derided the victorious warriors who bowed in sub-
mission to the orders of a bondman. But Polycletus could
make himself obeyed at least, if not respected. The loss of a
few vessels on the coast furnished him with a pretext for re-
moving Suetonius from his command, and transferring it to
a consular, Petronius Turpilianus, whose temper and policy
inclined equally to peace.'

" Tacitus, as an admirer of Trajan, can never forego a gibe at captains who
preferred the conquests of peace to those of warfare. Of this Turpilianus he
says : "Is non irritate hoste, neque lacessitus, honestum pacis nomen segni otio
imposuit." — Ann. xiv. 39.

A. U. 814.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 51

From the lenity of this propraetor the happiest conse-
quences evidently ensued. The southern Britons acquiesced
iu the dominion of Rome, while the northern

' . . Happy effects

were awed into deference to her superior mflu- of this policy,

^ and rapid pro-

ence. Her manners, her arts, her commerce, gress ot■civiliza-
_ „ . . - . tion in Britain.

penetrated lar into regions yet unconquered by
the sword. Her establishments at Londinium, Yerulamium,
and Camulodunum rose again from their ashes. Never was
the peaceful enterprise of her citizens more vigorous and
elastic than at this period. The luxuries of Italy and the
provinces, rapidly increasing, required the extension to the
utmost of all her resources. Manufactures and commerce
were pushed forward with unexampled activity. The prod-
ucts of Britain, rude as they were, consisting of raw mate-
rials chiefly, were demanded with an insatiable appetite by
the cities of Gaul and Germany, and exchanged for arts and
letters, which at least decked her servitude with silken fet-
ters. The best of the Roman commanders, — and there were
some, we may believe, among them both thoughtful and
humane, — while they acknowledged they had no right to
conquer, yet believed that their conquests were a blessing.
The best of the native chiefs, — and some too of them may
have wished for the real happiness of their countrymen, —
acknowledged, perhaps, that while freedom is the noblest
instrument of virtue, it only degrades the vicious to the low-
est depths of barbarism.

62 HISTORY OF THE ROMAN'S

CHxVPTEE LII.

THE FAMILY OF THE DOillTII. EAKLT TEARS OF NERO. HIS EDUCATION CNDER

SENECA. STRUGGLE FOR INFLUENCE OVER HIM BETWEEN THE SENATE, HIS

TUTOR, AND HIS MOTHER. HE MAKES A FAVOURABLE IMPRESSION AT THE COM-
MENCEMENT OF HIS REIGN. HIS INTRIGUE WITH ACTE AND GRADUAL PROGRESS

IN VICE. BEHAVIOUR OF AGRIPPINA AND SENECA. PRAISE OF HIS CLEMENCY.

DISGRACE OF PALLAS. MURDER OF BRITANNICUS. DIVISION BETWEEN NERO

AND AGRIPPINA. INTRIGUES AGAINST HER. CONSECRATION OP A TEMPLE TO

CLAUDIUS. FAVOURABLE CHARACTERISTICS OF N'ERO's EARLY GOVERNMENT.—

HIS FINANCIAL AND LEGISLATIVE MEASURES. THE " QUINQUENNIUM NEKONIS."

— A. D, 54-59. A.u. 807-812.

A PECULIAR, interest attaches to the history of the
Romans through the greater part of its course, from
Famiiv charac- ^he precision with which Ave can trace the character
mitii*^ the a^- of families, descending often with the same un-
cestorsofNero. mistakcable lineaments from father to son, for
many generations. We mark the pride of the Claudii ; the
turbulence of the Lepidi ; the cool selfishness of the Pompeii.
There is no more striking analogy betAveen Roman and
English history than this : it is only an aristocracy that can
present us with a family history of public interest. The
great men of democratic Athens stand out alone: no one
cares to ask who were their fathers, or Avhether they left any
sons. Had they sprung every one from the earth, as they
fancifully boasted of their nation, their career and character
could not have been, to all appearance, more independent of
family antecedents. So strongly, however, were the features
of the Roman family traced by the hereditary training of its
members, that though the descent of blood was often inter-
rupted by the practice of adoption, the moi-al aspects of its

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 53

character were still broadly but clearly preserved, and it be-
comes of little importance to ascertain, in each particular
instance, whether the race was actually continued by natural
succession, or interpolated by a legal fiction. The hereditary
traditions of the Scipios were reflected faithfully in the legal
representatives of their house, though some of the greatest
of the name were not really connected by ties of afiinity with
one another. It was enough that the sentiment of connexion
was preserved by the link of the domestic cult, and the com-
mon inheritance of the family honours. It had been re-
marked, however, of the patrician Claudii that numerous as
their branches were, none of them down to the time of
Tiberius Claudius the emperor, had ever been reduced to the
necessity of perpetuating itself by adoption; and many
others, no doubt, of the chief Roman houses had preserved
their blood-descent equally unbroken.* Such unquestionably
had been for many generations the boast of some, at least,
of the Domitii. The stock from which the emperor Nero
sprang may be traced back from son to father for about two
hundred years. The Domitian gens was widely spread and
illustrious in every branch. An Afer, a Marsus, a Celer, a
Calvinus, had all obtained distinction in one or other of the
various careers which courted the buoyant energy of the
Roman aristocracy. But of these houses none was so full of
honours as that of the Ahenobarbi, the progenitors of the
emperor Nero. It was illustrious for the high public part it
played through several generations ; illustrious for its wealth
and consideration, for its native vigour and ability, but
execrable at the same time above every other for the com-
bination of ferocity and faithlessness by which its representa-
tives were successively distinguished. The founder of the
race, according to Suetonius, was a Lucius Domitius, to
whom the Dioscuri announced the victory of Regillus, chang-
ing his beard from black to red in token of the divine

* Tac. Ann. xii. 25. " Adnotabant periti nullam antehac adoptionem inter
patricios Claudios reperiri, eosque ab Atto Clauso continuos duravisse." Comp.
Suet. Claud. 39.

54 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

manifestation. Thenceforth the name of Ahenobarbi, the
Red or Brazen beards, was common to the family, and they
inherited, it was piously believed, the complexion as regu-
larly as the name. Time went on, and the Red-beards en-
joyed seven consulships : one of them tilled the office of cen-
sor : the house was raised from the Plebs to the Patriciate.
From Cnoeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, consul in 632, the con-
queror of the Allobroges, we have the descent complete.
The son of this victorious imperator was chief pontiff and
censor in 662 ; his temper was violent and his public conduct
austere. N'o wonder, said of him the refined and graceful
Crassus, that his beard is of brass, for his mouth is of iron
and his heart of lead. The grandson was consul in 667, and
being joined in marriage to a daughter of Cinna, took the
side of the Marians in the first civil wars. The srreat srrand-
son, Lucius, has been signalized in these pages as an up-
holder of the Optimates against Coesar, the son-in-law and
representative of Cinni, and therefore against his OAvn father's
friends. He perished after a career of fiirious partizanship,
disgraced with cruelty and treachery, on the field of Phar-
salia. The fifth in descent, a Cnoeus, for the praenomen gen-
erally alternated, was the follower of Brutus and Cassius,
sided afterwards with their foe Antonius, and finally desert-
ed his falling fortunes for the luckier star of Octavius.^ The
sixth was Lucius Domitius, who crossed the Elbe with a
Roman army, a man to be noted in the military annals of his
country, but whose temper was as savage as his grand-
father's, and his . tastes so sanguinary that Augustus was
compelled to cheek the bloodshed of his gladiatorial shows.
The son of Lucius, the seventh in direct succession, was in-
famous for crimes of every kind ; for murder and treason, for
adultery and incest. He was mean as well as cruel, and
even stooped to enrich himself by petty pilfering. Towards
the end of Tiberius's reign he was subjected to a charge of
Majesty, and would have perished, but for the opportune

' Yet this Domitius, according to Suetonius, was " by far the best " of his
race. Suet. Ner. 2.

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 55

demise of the emperor. Married to Agrippina, the sister of
Caius Caligula, he became the father of Lucius Domitius,
afterwards Nero. He made a jest of his own enormities ;
and it was reported at least, that on the child's birth he re-
plied to the felicitations of his friends by grimly remarking,
that nothing could spring from such a father and such a
mother but what should be abominable and fatal to the
state.*

The commencement of the future emperor's career was
clouded with perils and disasters. At the age of three years
he lost his father's protection, and Caius, to

, , „ . 1 . n /. -I • Misfortunes of

whom, by way 01 precaution, two thirds of his Nero's early
patrimony had been bequeathed, shamelessly ^^^^'
grasped the remainder also. The child thus despoiled, and
rendered doubly an orphan by the exile of his mother, was
left to the care of his father's sister, Domitia Lepida. By
this selfish intriguer, the mother of Messalina, he seems to
have been little cared for ; his first tutors were a dancer and
a barber ; nevertheless his aunt appears to have considered,
at least at a later period, that she had something of a
mother's claims upon him. Claudius, however, kindly re-
stored him his inheritance, together with the fortune of
Crispus Passienus, who had been Agrippina's first husband,
and was afterwards apparently united to another of his
aunts, named also Domitia.'' The favour of this emperor,

' Suet. JVer. 5, 6. ; Dion, Ixi. 2. This writer's history, in the shape in
which we possess it, from book Iv. to Ix. is probably only an abridgment, the
author of which is imknown. From book Ixi. we have only the epitome of
Xiphilinus, which is still more meagre than the preceding, nor does it seem to
be always faithful. It is often quoted under the name of the abbreviator. I
have thought it, however, more convenient to preserve that of the original
author.

"^ Care must be taken not to confound the two aunts of Nero, Domitia Le-
pida, usually known by her second name only, and Domitia. The first was wife
to Valerius Messala, mother of Messalina, a rival of Agrippina, who got her
put to death by Claudius : Tac. Atin. xii. 65. The other was second mfe to
Passienus, and though also an object of jealousy to Agrippina, survived her,
and was supposed to have been eventually poisoned by Nero. Suet. JVer. 34. ;
Dion, Ixi. IT.

56 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

if we may believe the rumours of the day, gained the child
at an early period the jealousy of Messalina ; and he nar-
rowly escaped being smothered by her emissaries in the se-
curity of his midday slumber.

From this epoch his fortunes have already been traced to

the moment of his accession. The position of the young

Domitius, as the son of a noble of the highest

His education. , , , iti-ii .. .

class, closely alhed with the reignmg family, yet
not directly in the line of succession, was peculiarly favour-
able to his education. The loss of his fierce and brutal
father, when he was but three years old, was certainly no
matter of regret. The superintendence of his early training
would thus fall exclusively to his mother, interrupted only
by the two years of her exile ; and Agrippina seems, with all
her faults, to have had at least a princely sense of the duty
which thus devolved upon her. The child was docile and
affectionate, apt to learn and eager for praise. His mother
sousjht to imbue his mind with the best learninjj of the times,
and at the same time to impart brilliancy and fascination to
his manners. It was the fashion to complain of the decline
of education at this period in the Roman world. Surrounded
by vice and grossness of all kinds, and conscious of their de-
generacy in virtue as well as their neglect of decorum, it was
in the corrupt training of childhood that moralists seemed to
discover the germ of the evils they deplored. But, as usual
with reactionists in social life, who from imperfect exi^erience
and sympathies see the defects only of the present, and the
good only of the past, they mistook the cause of the disease,
and wasted their energies in declamations against an imag-
Compiaints of inary evil. It was the complaint of the day, that
trician educa-'' children wcrc no longer educated by their own
^°^ mothers, but consigned in their tenderest years

to the mercenary supervision, first of handmaids, and soon
afterwards of pedagogues. Such, it was said, had not been
the practice of Aurelia, the mother of Julius Casar; of Atia,
the parent of Octavius ; of Cornelia, from whom her sons, the
Gracchi, distinguished for their eloquence, had imbibed the

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 57

rudiments of the Roman tongue.* Yet, according to the
ancient usage, the child had always been removed from the
women's chamber at seven years ; and it cannot be pretended
that the training of the first seven years of life ccnild have
laid deep the foundations either of the moral or the intellec-
tual character. Indeed even the women, thus specially men-
tioned, were exceptions to the mass of the untutored matrons
of Rome. Many mothers never taught their children any-
thing up to the age of seven, and it was not unusual, nor un-
defended by some on princij^le, to leave them to learn even
the rudiments of reading from the pedagogue after that epoch
was passed." This complaint, then, which is particularly
advanced in the juvenile work of Tacitus (for as his, I think,
the Treatise on Orators should be recognised) , was, in fact,
unfounded. The real quarrel, however, of the conservatives
to whom he belonged, was with the practice, introduced in
the last age of the republic, of sending children to public
schools, instead of keeping them under tutors at home.
Domestic tuition, the necessity of an early stage of society,
seemed more dignified and aristocratic ; it savoured of the
idea that letters were a craft and mystery ; that the learning
of the noble was a privilege, not to be freely communicated
to all classes ; and on this account, unconsciously perhaps, it
found patrons among the patriots of the imperial era, the up-
holders of every republican prejudice. It was easy then, as
now, to point out the superficial evils of public education,
the conceit and ostentation it may foster ; but the patrician
clung with peculiar tenacity to his cherished isolation and
reserve, the qualities which, in his view, most proudly dis-
tinguished the high-born Roman from the Greeks, the Orien-
tals, and the vulgar all over the world. Whatever tended
to place the young noble on an equality with other men, to
imbue him with liberal feelings, to break down the pride of
caste and the traditions of antique usage, among which he
had been born, was regarded by the purists of the empire

• Tac. de Orator. 28, 29.

" See Quintilian, Inst. Orcd. i. 1., who, however, objects to the practice.

58 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

with suspicion and dislike. A society 'svhich had no other
safeguard but blind habit, might naturally be alarmed at
anything which tended to innovation ; but a few only of the
most thoughtful of the nation perceived the downward pro-
gress of society around them ; and even they too often mis-
took or misrepresented its causes.

Augustus, it is curious to remark, discovered means, in
his usual sj^irit of compromise, of reconciling both the con-
flicting systems of education which he found in

Anfrustus com- . ^ ^ ^ . ^ . ^^ . ^_

promises be- actiou. In his day, a certam Verrms I'laccus

tween public "^ i i i

and private was a uotcd preceptor, and kept a school much

education.

resorted to by the young nobility. Ihe em-
peror invited this teacher to undertake the education of his
grandsons ; but for this purpose he required him to remove
his benches into the palace itself, and limit the number of his
pupils.' This, indeed, was probably a solitary attempt to give
to the children of the ruling family the stimulus of competition
in a class. For them, with this exception, the old haughty
fashion of solitary teaching was, as far as we can learn, still
maintained. The children of Drusus and Germanicus seem
to have been instructed in the pomji of antique exclusiveness,
under the eye of pedagogues at home ; and such was appar-
ently the case with the young Domitius also.

Tiberius had betrayed a base jealousy of his grandchild
Caius ; but Claudius, still following the example of his illus-
trious ancestor, had shown no disposition to re-

Principles of .,_. „, r- t • • -r

education Strict the education of the son of Agrippma. It

adopted by , i-fiTi t

Seneca for his was the coiiiplaint 01 the day, that at a more ad-

pupil !Nero. ., , . • n i ^

vanced stage, everything was sacnnced to the
study of rhetoric ; and that the science of moral philosophy,
which, in better times, had been conjoined with more practi-
cal training, was now entirely abandoned, as producing no
immediate and tangible results. The most eloquent teachers
deserted the less fashionable branch of instruction, and the
care of morals fell into the hand of a lower class of teachers.*

' Suet. De Illustr. Gramm. 17.

"^ See Quintil. L c. : " Nam ut lingua primum coepit esse in qusestu, institu-

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 59

Yet it may be doubted whether this complaint was generally-
well founded ; it is allowed, at least, that a reaction speedily-
followed, and professors of philosojDhy were soon found to
teach the old course of ethical speculation, who rejected as
frivolous the charms of oratory formerly used to embellish
it.^ But neither the one fault nor the other could be imputed
to the master who was chosen, as we have seen, to form the
mind and unfold the abilities of the young Domitius. L.
Annfeus Seneca, the son of the rhetorician Marcus, presents
us with our comj^letest specimen of the professed philosopher
of antiquity. He was neither a statesman who indulged in
moral speculation, like Cicero, nor a private citizen who de-
tached himself, like Epicurus or Zero, from the ordinary
duties of life, to devote himself to the pursuit of abstract
truth. To teach and preach philosophy in writing, in talking,
in his daily life and conversation, was, indeed, the main ob-
ject he professed ; but he regarded all public careers as prac-
tical developments of moral science, and plumed himself on
showing that thought may, in every case, be combined with
action. His father, Marcus, in the course of a long life of
successful teaching, may possibly have amassed a fortune;
and his brother was adopted by a brilliant, and perhaps a
wealthy declaimer. It is not unlikely, therefore, that Seneca
inherited a good patrimony : nevertheless he must have found
means of improving it very early, if the story be true, that
the emperor Caius had marked him for death on account of
his possessions. He continued, no doubt, to make the most
of the favour of the great and powerful. If, in his precepts,
he inculcates, with the Stoics, indifference to worldly advan-
tages, the spirit he illustrated in his life was that of an
earnest man of business. If he shrank from the profession
of arms, and if even his eloquence was confined to speculative
discussions, he played the true Roman in the art of making

tumque eloquentiae donis male uti, curam morum qui diserti habebantur reli-
querant. Ea vero destituta infirmioribus ingeniis velut praedse fuit."

' Ibid. : " Contempto dicendi labore, partem tamen potiorem, si dividi pos-
set, retinuervint."

60 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

money beget money. At a time when the philosophers fell
too generally into the error of dissuading men from the toils
and perils of a public career, it was well that Seneca's pre-
cepts were not too strictly enforced by his own practice.
His instructions were, on the whole, the best perhaps that
could at that time have been imparted to a royal pupil.
Both in sentiment and action, Seneca, with all his faults, rose
no doubt far above the ordinary pedagogues of the day, the
cringing slave, or the flattering freedman, to whom the voung
patricians were, for the most part, consigned. Doubtless, it
was Seneca's principle of education to allure, possibly to
coax, rather than drive, his pupil into virtue. He yielded on
many points in order to borrow influence on others. He
deigned to purchase the youth's attention to severer studies,
by indulging his inclination to some less worthy amusements.
To teach Nero eloquence and philosophy, it might be neces-
sary to connive at his relaxations in singing, piping, and
dancing. These were the recreations to which he most ear-
nestly devoted himself, in which he believed himself to excel,
and in which he acquired a tolerable proficiency : to make
sonorous verses was not beyond his ability; but when he
harangued, his tutor, we have seen, was obliged to compose
his orations for him. Yet we might possibly find, were the
truth known, that his abler predecessors had not trusted, in
their first juvenile efforts, entirely to their own abilities.
The attainments just mentioned would, no doubt, be frivol-
ous in any man in princely station ; and, it must be added,
that in a Roman noble they were worse than frivolous,
branded as they were by public opinion, the opinion at least
of the best men, as culpable. Xevcrthelcss, it was something
to occujiy the mind of a ruler of millions with any taste that
was harmless and bloodless. Even the morose old Romans
did not deny that music and singing were humanizing arts ;
they rather protested against humanity being made an object
of instruction at all to the lords and conquerors of man-
kind.

In the midst however of creatures and sycophants, and

A.U, 80r.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 61

the vilest instruments of his elders' pleasures, the young
noble could not foil to be aflected by the most

Vicious moral

fatal mfluences. From childhood he was steep- training of the
ed in enervating indulgences: the softness with
which he was habitually treated, the delicacies with which
he was pampei-ed, relaxed the nerves both of his mind and
body.' Clothed in purple and the gaudiest ti*appings, he was
imbued with the vice of personal ostentation, and led step by
step to the most inordinate desires." The gi'owing youth re-
clined indolently on beds of down.'' His palate, in the phrase
of Quintilian, was educated before his lips and tongue : ' the
sensual tastes were cultivated before the moral. ^ The kitchen
was more frequented than the lecture room." Impertinence
and immodesty were encouraged, the one by applause, the
other by exam^^le.'' The child soon followed his father to the
theatres and the circus, the schools of all that was exciting to
the worst passions ; and, under the stimulus thus prematurely
given, learnt to be a man before he had experienced the pre-
paratory training of boyhood.*

The feelings with which the youthful heir to the purple
may generally be supposed to have entered on his succession,
are jDicturesquely described by the poet Statins, perils wWch
The child of the Persian Achcemenes balances^ in
joy and fear, the pleasures and the risks of sov- ^ ^ ^
ereignty : 'Will his nobles continue faithful ? ^- ^- ^^'^•

' Quintil. i. 2. : " Nostros amicos, nostros concubinos vident ; omne convi-
vium obscoenis cantilenis strepit ; pudenda, dictu spectantur. Fit ex his consue-
tudo, deinde natura."

" Ibid. : " Infantiam statim deliciis solvimus. Mollis ilia educatio, quam
iadulgentiam vocamus, nervos omnes et mentis et corporis frangit."

^ Ibid. : " Quid non adultus concupiscet qui in purpuris repit ? "

* Ibid. : " In leeticis erescunt."

^ Ibid. : " Ante palatum eorum quam os instituimus."

^ Senee. JSp. 95. : "In rhetonun et philosophorum scholis solitudo est; ct
quam celebres culinaj sunt ; quanta circa nepotum focos juventus strepit ! "

' Senec. Const. Sap. 41, 12.: Tac. dc Oral. 29.: "Per qua; paulatim im-
pudentia irrepsit et sui alienique contemptus."

* Tac. 1. c. : " Histrionalis furor et gladiatorum equorumque studia, quibus
occupatus et obsessus animus quantulum loci bonis artibus relinquit ? "

surrounded the
young emperor.

62 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [^.D. 54.

will his people obey the rein ? to whom shall he entrust the
marches of the Eup)hrates ? who shall keep for him the Cas-
pian gates ? He shrinks from the mighty how of his father,
and scarce dares to p>ress his charger: the sceptre seems too
heavy for his grasp ; his brows have not yet grown to the
compass of the tiara.^ Such was the constant condition of
Oriental sovereignty ; nor need the description be materially
modified to suit the inheritance of the Csesars. While con-
spiracies were rife against the reigning emperor, the pre-
sumptive heir was generally regarded with hope and affec-
tion. But his accession might at once direct every evil
passion against himself; the senators might forget their
oaths, the commons murmur at authority; and the chiefs
of the legions on every frontier might corrupt the temper of
the soldiers. If the genius of Xero's next predecessor was
not fitted to dismay him by the grandeur of its proportions,
he would still remember that he was the heir of Augustus
and Julius, that he had succeeded to all their power, with
none of their experience, and but little of their abilities.
But it was within the palace, and amongst the members of
his own family, that his perils chiefly lay. Those who were
nearest to him might be the nearest objects of his distrust
and apprehension. Agrippina and Britannicus were more
formidable to him than Suetonius or Corbulo. His best coun-
sellors early warned him against the dangerous encroach-
ments of the first ; of the second he learned to be jealous at
least from the day of his accession. When Nero walked
across the court of the palace leaning on the arm of Burrhus,
to show himself to the praetorians, and solicit their support,

* Stat. Tlich. viii. 286. :

" Sicut Achaemenius solium gentesque paternas
Excepit si forte puer, cui vivere patrem
Tutius, incerta formidine gaudia librat,
An fidi proceres, ne pugnet vulgiis habenis ;
Cui latus Euphratis, cui Caspia limina mandet :
Sumere tunc arcus ipsumque onerare vcretur
Patris equum ; visusque sibi nee sceptra capaci
Sustentare manu, nee adhuc implere tiaram."

A. U. 807.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 63

his chief anxiety was to anticipate the claims of his half-
brother. Though admitted himself by adoption into the ^
reigning family, the sacred stock of the Claudii and the
Julii, and thus become in a legal sense the eldest scion and
legitimate heir of the Cesarean house, he felt that a legal
fiction could not extinguish the natural sense of right, and
that still to the mass of the citizens Britannicus must appear
the true representative of the father from whose loins he
sprang. The stern self-repression of the Roman character,
which had schooled itself to accept mere legal adoption as
equivalent to blood-descent, had at length given way. Na-
ture had reasserted her sway, and resented in thousands of
bosoms the recognition of the child of Domitius as the eldest
born of Claudius.'

Now however, more than ever, would the ribald stories
against the wretched Messalina come into play. This was
the moment when the sneers, retailed by a later

"^ , struggle for in-

seneration, against the noble, the highborn Brit- fluence over

. ' o ' t/^ ^ Nero: the sen-

annicus, would have their deepest significance.'* ate, the tutor,
These were the insinuations which now supjDort-
ed the tottering principle of the law, and seemed to justify
the resolve of the soldiers. "When the praetorians, prepared
perhaps by Burrhus, had taken the part of the pretender,
every popular scruple was speedily repressed. Law and the '
sword had both declared on his side ; natural affection or re-
spect, alone arrayed against them, shrank from the unequal
contest, or yielded to the representations speciously palmed
upon it. It was not worth while to contend for the heritage
of a youth whose real parentage was obscured by such sus-
picions. To the ruling class, at all events, the dogmas of the
law presented a sufficient plea for acquiescence : the nobles

^ In the time of Dion the superiority of natural over legal descent seem ?
to have been generally acknowledged. That writer begins his account of Ne-
ro's reign by declaring that Britannicus, as the legitimate, ought to have suc-
ceeded in place of Nero, the adopted son (Ixi. 1.) : ck 6e St) tov vb/nov, he adds,
Kol T(J 'Nepuvi Sia ttjv Tzoirjaiv eTridaXXev.

" Juvenal, vi. 124.: "Ostenditque tuum, generose Britannice, ventrem."

64 HISTORr OF THE ROMA^"S [A.D. 54.

of Rome were little disposed to risk their heads for a senti-
ment of justice or compassion. As long as he governed with
decent respect to the pretensions of his nobility, Xero might
regard liimself as secure against the open rivalry of Britan-
nicus : should he ever raise the alarm of the senate, then in-
deed the scion of the genuine Claudian stock might furnish
a name to inscribe on the banner of a new revolution. The
senate, with the instinct of selfish cowardice, fancied itself
strong in the weakness of its ruler's title. The prince's ad-
visers anxious for their charge, anxious for themselves, anx-
ious also, we may believe, for the good of the commonwealth,
took advantage of this state of affairs to promote good gov-
ei-ument, to make it the interest of all classes to maintain
him. But it was easier to conciliate the senate and the peo-
ple than to secure the confidence of the prince himself; to
maintain their ascendancy over him against every rival ; to
guide his ardent and susceptible feelings into safe channels ;
above all, to supplant the influence of his mother, and pre-
vent her from extending to his maturer years the authority
she had exerted over his infancy. The woman who had sub-
verted Messalina, who had murdered Claudius, who had re-
moved from her path every rival Avithout compunction, was
resolved no doubt to hold fast the power to which she had
waded through so much blood. It was not for Nero that she
had plunged into this sea of crimes ; however she might dis-
guise it* to her own conscience, her ambition was for herself
more than for her son. She had already played the Impei'ator
before the legions in the camp: she would not now resign the
part to the stripling who occixpied the palace. "With this
view Agrippina now leagued herself with the freedmen of the
court, especially with Pallas, whose immense wealth, whose
craft and long acquaintance with the springs of government,
seemed to make him a more useful ally than the pedantic
philosopher, or the rude captain. Tliough all-powerful Avith
Claudius, Pallas seems froni an early period to have become
distasteful to Xero, who had at least the merit of rising above
the flatteries of slaves and freedmen. Docile as he was to

A. U. 807.] UNDER THE E5IPIRE. 65

Burrhus and Seneca, and easily cowed "by the arrogance of
his mother, against Pallas alone he evinced spirit and inde-
pendence. To Agrippina, indeed, he was still fondly devoted.
The first act of his reign was to demand fresh honours and
compliments for her, and his first watchword, The best of
mothers, was inspired probably by genuine afiection.' From
the camp the praetorians bore him into the senate-house, de-
manding by signs if not by words that he should be accepted
as chief of the state ; and before evening all the honours of
empire were heaped upon him, of which he declined alone
the title of Father of his Country. Of the testament of
Claudius no notice was taken ; nor are we informed Avhat its
provisions really were. Had it declared Nero the heir, it
would of course have been duly recited. The ^ero pro-
funeral oration of the deceased was spoken, as neraToratlon'"'
might be expected, by his successor in person ; °^^'' Claudius.
an oration which Seneca was believed to have composed for
him, and which displayed more graces of style than could be
anticipated from the stripling himself The mention it made
of the late emperor's birth, and the triumphs of his ancestors,
was received with marked attention ; for in these family rec-
ords the Romans took a national pride. They listened with
respect to the boast of his learning, and to the assertion, true
and honourable as it was, that his reign had been sullied by
no external calamity. But when the speaker passed, by a
natural transition, to the praise of his wisdom and discretion,
the multitude burst into laughter. They had been wont, in
the exuberant licence of the forum, to make Claudius their
butt, and this scornful humour they had so long been permit-
ted to indulge, that they could not now lay it aside when a
last act of tardy justice was demanded of them. At the same
time more thoughtful men remarked that Nero Avas the first
of their princes who had needed help in making a speech.
It was a painful token of the degradation into which they
had fallen. If Nero was but seventeen years of age, Ca3sar
declaimed in the forum at twelve, Augustus at nineteen.

' Tac. Ann. xiii. 2. ; Suet. Ner. 9.
VOL TI. — 5

G6 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 54.

Tiberius was a practised orator. Caius, the madman, could
harangue the senate with grace and vigour ; even Claudius
could speak -with elegance after due preparation. But Xero,
they remarked with a sigh or a sneer, had been directed to
other studies. SculjDture and painting, singing and driving,
such were the arts on which his sensibility had been occu-
pied ; yet in the occasional composition of verses it was al-
lowed that he had shown himself not deficient in the ele-
ments of polite learning.*

From the Campus the orator returned to the Senate-house,

and expounded to his nobles the principles of government he

had been taught to prescribe to himself. They

Favourable im- tv -i i ^ t • ^ •

pression made were Hot oiiended by his placing the authority

by his first „ ^ , *' \. . . , ,

speech to the of the Senate ou the same looting with the corv-
sent of the soldiers ; and he made a favourable
impression by reminding them that his youth had been im2:)li-
cated in no civil or domestic discords; he had no injuries to
avenge, no enmities to prosecute. He promised to reject the
most odious instruments of preceding administrations ; he
would not affect, like Claudius, to be the judge of all afiairs
in person, a pretence which could only result in throwing
power into the hands of irresponsible assessors. In his house-
hold no office should be put up to sale ; between his family
and his people he Avould always scrupulously distinguish.
The senate should retain all its prescriptive functions. Italy
and the domains of the Roman people should look to the tri-
bunals for justice. For himself he would confine his care to
the provinces over which he was set to wield the sword of
military command. This speech filled the senators with
hopes of a mild administration ; they decreed, in their joy,
that the harangue should be engraved on silver, and recited
annually on the accession of the consuls." At the same time
their new ruler allowed them to act with some show of inde-

' Tac. Ann. xiii. 3. : " Caslare, pingerc, cantus aut regimen eqiiorum exer-
cere ; et aliquando, carminibus pangendis, inesse sibi elementa doctrinae osten-
dcbat."

' Tac. Ann. xiii. 4. ; Suet. Ner. 10. ; Dion, Ixi. 3.

A.U. 807.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 67

pendence. They hastened to profit by this brief respite to
flout the system of delation from which they had so much
suffered. "With this view, apparently, they repealed the per-
mission Claudius had given to accept fees and rewards for
pleading causes.* And further, they relieved the qujestors
designate from the burden of exhibiting gladiatorial shows,
which the late emperor, in his zeal for the diversions of the
populace, had laid upon them. But Agrippina pretended to
complain, as though it were meant to abolish the acts of her
husband ; and she had influence enough with her son to make
him convene the senators within the walls of the palace,
where, though unable to control their proceedings, she could
at least hear their deliberations from behind a curtain. Nor
did she deign always to practise even this slight reserve.
On one occasion, when an embassy from Armenia was await-
ing audience, she prepared to seat herself beside the emperor ;
nor, dismayed though they were at this unprecedented arro-
gance, did the courtiers venture to interfere, till Seneca whis-
pered to the prince to descend himself and, under pretence
of filial duty, meet her at the foot of the throne.

Not the demeanour only, but the acts of Agrippina, might
now justly cause alarm. From the day of her son's eleva-
tion she seemed resolved to play the empress.
She was borne in the same litter with him, or he havioiir of
walked by her side while she proudly rode aloft.' ^t^pp^''*-
To mark the unity of place and purpose between herself and
him, she caused coins to be stamped, on which the heads of
both were conjoined.' She gave answers to ambassadors,
and sent despatches to foreign courts.* She directed, with-
out the emperor's privity, the murder of M. Silanus, pro-
consul of Asia. This man was accounted stupid and harm-

* Tac. Ann. xiii. 5. : " Ne quis ad causam orandam mercede aut donis eme-
retur." At a later period Xero seems to have restored the wiser provisions of
Claudius. See Suet. Ker. 17. : " Ut litigatores pro patrociniis certam justam-
que mercedem darent."

' Dion, Ixi. 3. ; Suet. Net: 9.

' See Eckhel, Doctr. Numm. vi. 257. * Dion, 1. c

68 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D, 54.

less ; he had caused no apprehension to the most jealous
rulers, and Caius Caligula had been used to call him in con-
tempt the golden sheep. But Agrippina feared that even his
sluggish temper might be roused to avenge the murder of his
brotlier Liicius, whom she had put out of the way before, as
a possible rival to her son. Marcus Silanus was now removed
by poison, administered by her agents, with hardly an at-
tempt at disguise.* But the news of this crime could not
reacli Rome for some months, and the destruction of Narcis-
sus, whom meanwhile she drove to death by cruel treatment
in prison, was not regarded generally with disfavour. The
senate and people were not yet alarmed. Burrhiis alone and
Seneca Avere startled at this virtual assumption of the power
of life and death, conceded only to the emperors as a state
necessity, and now, it was hoped, for ever abandoned even
by them. They opposed themselves to her plans of personal
Close alliance Cruelty and vengeance, and exerted themselves
Burrhur """^ ^^ strict alUancc, to undermine the influence she
against her. gj-^jj posscsscd ovcr her SOU. There was little in-
deed in common in the character of the two associates.
Burrhus Avas noted for his military bluntness, his sense of
discipline and decorum, while Seneca was a courtier in man-
ners, and affected to combine the man of the world with the
philosopher. But the necessities of their position bound them
closely together, and Ave may allow that both were equally
disposed to form their pupil's mind, as flxr as possible, to A^ir-
tue. They agreed, hoAVCA'er, that a youth of his temper and
in his position could be but imperfectly trained ; and they
agreed in the slippery policy of winking at some forms of

' Tac. Ann. xiii. 1. The mother of the two Silani was a daughter of Julia
and Lucius Paulus (Suet. Oct. 64.), possibly ^Emilia Lepida by name (Suet.
Claud. 26.) ; their father was App. Junius Silanus, killed by Claudius (Suet.
Claud. 29.) ; and L. Silanus, one of the brothers, had been betrothed to Octa-
via, the sister of Britannicus. This near connexion with the imperial family,
and the popular mutterings that he would make a better successor to Claudius
than the stripling Nero, moved the jealousy of Agrippina against hun. See
Tac. 1. c. and Ritter's note.

A.U. 807.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 09

vice, or even enticing him to them, in order to divert him
from more pernicious foibles, or crimes of deeper dye.'

The readiest means of -weaning the young man from his
childish dependence on his mother was to occupy him with
an amorous intrigue. Nero was already betroth-

. .^ . , , . . . « Nero's intrigue

ed to his half-sister Octavia ; but this victim of with tiie iveed-

„ ., ,. 11 1 • HP • woman, Acte.

family policy was unable to attract his anections,
which were still free for another engagement. The care of
his tutors was directed only to guard him from the fascinations
of noble matrons, and avert the scandal of illegitimate con-
nexions ; and apparently without attempting to recall him to
a sense of duty to his spouse, they were well pleased to see
him devote himself, with the ardour of a first illusion, to the
charms of a Greek freedwoman named Acte. The confidants
of this amour were two companions a little above his own
age, Salvius Otho, and Claudius Senecio, of whom the first
was of distinguished family, the second the son of a freed-
man of the court ; but both were notorious profligates, whose
influence with him his mother had already noticed, and tried
in vain to avert. Their power seemed confirmed by their
participation in this secret (for the bashful youth still hoped
it was a secret), and Agrippina was alarmed and Behaviour of
incensed. Instead of biding the effects of pos- Agrippina.
session on a first childish passion, she proclaimed to all around
her indignation and fear, execrating in the coai'sest terms the
freedxDoman who dared to be her rival, the handmaid who
aspired to he her daughter-in-law. This violence overshot its
mark, and threw the frightened and irritated youth into the
arms of Seneca, who contrived to cast a veil over the intrigue,
by finding a pretended lover for the object of his devotion.
The mother now saw her mistake. Changing her tactics,
she began to bid against the tutor by still greater indul-
gences, offering her own bosom for the secret confidences of
his passion, her own apartment for the gratification of his im-
patient, but still timid, desires. She deigned to apologize

' Tac. Ann. xiii. 2. : " Juvantes invicem, quo facilius lubricam principis
setatem, si virtutem aspemaretur, voluptatibus concessis retinerent."

70 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 54.

for her undue severity, and opened freely to his generous
profusion the stores of her private coffers, whicli were hard-
ly inferior to his own. But Xero was not so deceived ; his
advisers would not sufter him to be deceived. Indeed, such
was the temper of Agrippina, that she could not long persist
in the i^retence of submission and indulgence, and Nero was
mortified at her openly spurning the presents he made her,
saying that he had nothing to give which she had not herself
given to him.'

Accordingly the influence of Seneca and Burrhus con-
tinued to rise. The confederates were far more wary in their
„ . ^ , proceedings. Their plan, as has been said, was

Nero's gradual i o r 3 5

progress in to govcru ISTcro bv yielding to him, and they ius-

vice— disffuised .^ , , . , ',. ^ .,.

by his minis- tifaed to thcmselvcs their tolerance of his failings

tors.

by the assurance that they should thus save him
from vices more odious and more fatal. The errors of Xero
assumed gradually a deeper dye ; his passions blossomed in
vice, and bore fruit in crime ; yet the downward progress
was not precipitate ; it was susceptible of palliation and dis-
guise ; it lurked long among the secrets of the palace, or was
whispered only within the precincts of the court. High as
the great Stoic 2:)hilosopher strained the principles of virtue
in his sublimest exhortations, he often acknowledged, in de-
scending to a lower level, that for his own part he aspired
only to be not the worst among bad men. To the student,
he says, who professes his wish and hope to rise to a loftier
grade of virtue, I would answer that this is my wish also, but
T dare not ho-pe it. J ainpre-occupied with vices. All J re-
quire of myself is, not to he equal to the best, hut only to he
better than the bad.^ lie preached, he owns, more rigidly
than he practised. But such confessions must not be regard-
ed as the simple outpouring of conscious infirmity. We can-
not doubt, from the general context of the speaker's decla-
mations, that they are meant to disguise a considerable amount
of self-satisfaction ; tliat Seneca, like many preachers of vir-

' Tac. Ann. xiii. 13. : " Dividere filium quae cuncta ex ipsa haberet."
" Senec. Episl. 75., de V'U. Beat 17.

A. U. 80r.] UNDER THE EMPIRE, 71

tue and holiness, while he professed to sigh over his own
weakness on some points, was convinced that in repudiating
vices which were in truth less congenial to him, he was soar-
ing far above the level of ordinary humanity. The morality
he impressed upon Nero was such as this : £e courteous and
moderate ; shun cruelty and mpine ; abstain from blood: —
there was no difficulty in this to a young and j)opular prince,
flattered on all sides, and abounding in every means of enjoy-
ment : — Compensate yourself with the pleasures of youth
without compunction ^ amuse yourself but hurt no man. It
required no philosopher to give these lessons ; and it may be
questioned whether the comparative innocence of the young
man's early indulgences would have been exchanged for
grosser enormities under more vulgar tuition.

So, too, the praise of clemency Avith Seneca resounds in
Nero's ears in the first year of his power, might be received
with little emotion by one who had not yet felt

. Seneca's praise

the tyrant s mducements to cruelty. He regard- of Nero's ciem-
ed himself with complacency in the glass which,
as Seneca expresses it, was there set up to reflect him. Let
him turn his eyes, says the philosopher, on the great mass of
mankind, wicked, turbulent, ready at any moment to reduce
the world to anarchy, could it only succeed in breaking the
imperial yoke imjjosed on its evil passions. Let him reflect
that he has been chosen from the whole race of man to enact
the part of God upon earth ; he is the arbiter of life and
death, of every fortune and position. These thousands of
swords, let him say, which my Peace retains in their scab-
bards, are ready to leap forth at my nod: what nations shall
be destroyed, or what removed ; loho shall be freed and who
enslaved ; what kings shall be e^ithroned or dethroned ; what
cities built or razed ; all belongs to my absolute decision.
Possessed of all this power, no anger has im^pelled m,e to the
inflictio7i of imjust punishments ; no youthfid heat of mine,
no rashness or contumacy of my people, no, nor yet the too
common pride of proving the extent of my poxcer, has tempted
me to wanton violence. This day, if the gods require it, I

72 HISTORY OF THE ROiUNS [A. D. 55.

am prepared to read before them the roll of all the subjects
they have given me charge of. . . . This, O Ccesar, he
continues, you mag boldly affirm, that nojie of the things
which have fallen into your hands, have you by force or by
fraud usurjjed. Innocence, the rarest merit of princes, inno-
cence is yours. You have your reward. JVb m,an was ever
so dear to his friend, as you are to the Roman people.
Henceforth none will quote the conduct of the divine Augus-
tus, or the first years of Tiberius : none will loolc beyond
yourself for an example of virtue: we shall gauge the re-
niainder of your principate by the flavour of your first ticelve-
month.^ From this last expression it appears that the tract
was composed towards the end of Xero's first year of govern-
ment, and up to that period at least, according to the writer's
testimony, his administration had been unsullied by cruelty
or any glaring crime. Yet the evidence of history cannot be
set aside which declares that it had already been disgraced
by a deed of the most heinous dye ; and, whatever might be
its general colour thus far, this deed alone was enough to
suffuse it with an indelible stain.

It would seem that Agrippina's intrigues to recover her

influence in the palace had met with little success. While

still sparino- his mother from the feelinjjs of fear

las: alarm and Or respcct Avliich had not vct lost all their force,

menaces of ,.. -,..,, .„*. , . ,

ARTippinx he intimated his dissatisfaction by removing the
A. D. 55. favourites on whose counsels she leaned, or by
whose hands she acted. He disgraced Pallas,
who had acted as the chief minister of Claudius, and now de-
manded of the new emperor a pledge that no inquiry should
be made into his transactions in that capacity ; that all ac-
counts, as he phrased it, between himself and the state should
be considered as settled. Deprived of his offices, and dis-
missed from court, he was exposed shortly afterwards to a

' Senec. De Clemetitia, i. 1.: "Principatus tuus ad anni gitslum exigitur."
Such is the admirable reading elicited by Lipsius from the MS. ad auffiistum,
which, though conjectural, seems sufficiently certain.

A.U. 808.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. ^ 73

charge of conspiring against the emj^eror, from which Seneca
himself defended him. But meanwhile his disgrace alone
sufficed to arouse the terrors of Agrippina. Forgetting her
recent dissimulation, she gave vent to furious menaces and
reproaches. Mortified at the growing influence of her son's
tutors, she had intimated to him that it was to her he owed
the empire : she now went further, and let him understand
not less plainly that she had the means of withdrawing it
again. ^ The patroness of Pallas declared aloud that Britan-
nicus, now approaching his fourteenth birthday, was arrived
at manhood:* she proclaimed him the genuine ofispring and
natural heir of Claudius, and threatened to divulge openly
the secret horrors of the palace, to avow the iniquity of her
marriage, and even confess the murder of her husband. But
whatever, she said, were her crimes, one thing more she had
done : she had preserved the life of her stepson. Now she
would rush with him to the camp. The soldiers should de-
cide between the daughter of Germanicus and the wretched
Burrhus and Seneca, who presumed, forsooth, to sway the
empire of tlie world, the one with his maimed hand, the
other with his glib professor's tongue. Thus saying, she
clenched her hand in an attitude of menace, and stormed
with bitter curses, adjuring the spirit of the deified Claudius,
and the shades of the murdered Silani, and the victims of all
the crimes she had herself, now it seemed in vain, com-
mitted.'

That Nero should be alarmed at this defiance was only
natural: we cannot doubt that it now first impressed him

^ Dion, Ixi. Y.

^ I suppose him to have been born in the first year of Claudius, the twen-
tieth day of his reign, i. e. February 12. 704. Suet. Claud. 2Y. But this
writer is wrong in placing this date in the second consulship of Claudius. Tac-
itus, again, is in error in saying that Nero was only two years his senior. He
must have been the elder by more than three years. See Ann. xii. 25.

° Tac. Ann. xiii. 14. : " Audiretur hinc Germanici filia, inde vilis rursus
Burrhus et exul Seneca trunca scilicet manu et professoria lingua generis
humani regimen expostulantes." We do not know whether the "trunca
manus" refers to an actual mutilation, or is merely figurative.

74 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 55.

with a sense of the dancrer to be apprehended from

Nero's plea for " -, , . „ ■,

the murder of his mothers temper, and made him feel that
while Britannieus lived his own life and throne
were in her power.' He had assumed the purple, as we have
seen, in October. Already, before the end of the year, in the
third month of his reign, whether from rising jealousy
towards him, or from mere capricious ill-humour, he had in-
sulted the poor child in the presence of his boon companions.
At a supper he gave during the Satumalian festival in De-
cember, he had taken occasion, as king of the feast, to mor-
tify liis bashful timidity by requiring him to stand uj) and
sing before the company. Even the half-tipsy revellers had
been shocked at this indignity, for as such it was regarded,
and expressed still more pointedly their compassion when
Britannieus chanted a Ivric stave on the sorrows of the dis-
crowned and disinherited." The emjaeror was disconcerted ;
he began to brood from this time over the specious claims of
the pretender, and Agrippina's threats satisfied him that they
were really fonnidable. Yet he could make as yet no public
charge against him, and he did not venture to command his
execution, unarraigned and unconvicted. He resolved, we
are assured, to take him off privily; and engaged a tribune
of the guards, named Pollio, to devise safe and secret means.
The infamous Locusta, who was at the moment in custody
on a charge of poisoning, was taken into counsel. All the
attendants who loved the poor youth had long since been
removed from about him. There was no hand to intercept
tlie noxious potions which were administered to him by
his own tutors. But the poison seemed to fail of its effect,
and Nero grew impatient.' He stormed at the tribune, he

" Tac. Ann. xiii. 18.

' Tac. Ann. xiii. 15.: "Exorsus est carmen, quo evolutum cum scde patria
rebusquc summis significabatur." Suetonius repeats what may be called an
idle insinuation, that Nero put Britannieus to death from jealousy of his skill in
singinjr. Ncr. 33.

' Sir G. Cornewall Lewis remarks on the failure of the first attempt to
poison Claudius, as a proof that the art was not so well understood at this time
at Rome as in certain periods of modem history. Early Bonian History, ii.

A. U. 808.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 75

menaced the poisoner, as traitors to his cause, and interested
only in averting suspicion from tliemselves. They promised
to serve him faithfully the next time ; the poison was now
prepared in the palace itself under the emperor's own eyes,
and he was assured that it would cause death as swiftly as
steel itself/ Confident of the residt, he contrived his crime
with an audacity perhaps unparalleled. Britan- B,ritannicu8 is
nicus was seated, as still a minor, at the table poisoned.
where the younger scions of the imperial family partook of
their simpler meal together, while their elders banqueted in
full state beside them. There the warm Avine-cup was tasted
in due course, and presented to him. He found it too hot,
and in the drop of cold water which was infused into it so
deadly a poison was conveyed, tliat the child, on swallowing
it, fell back lifeless without a word or a groan. All the
guests beheld it. Some rushed in terror fi-om the apartment ;
others, warier, and more collected, still kept their seats, and
bent their eyes on Nero. He, without rising from his couch,
assured them placidly that such were the fits to which his
brother was subject, and that his senses would soon return.
The body was removed : the guests addressed themselves, as
they were bidden, again to the banquet ; but the alarm and
horror of Agrippina, remembering perhaps the scene which
had occurred four months earlier in that festive hall, were
so marked, that it was clear to all that she at least was guilt-
less of this crime; while the wretched Octavia, with the self
control which long necessity had taught her, suppressed all
signs of emotion, and betrayed neither grief nor affection nor

485. note. Here is a second instance of inexperience. We must be the more
cautious, therefore, how we trust to the many rumours of poisoning accredited
by the Roman writers.

* Suetonius adds various particulars to the account of Tacitus. Nero, he
says, called Locusta to him, abused and struck her, declaring that she had given
an antidote instead of poison. When she excused herself, affirming that she
had made the dose weak the better to disguise the crime : As if, he exclauned,
I feared the Julian law (agamst murderers and poisoners) ! He then caused her
to prepare the potion in his own apartments, and tried it on various animals, till
he found it strong enough to kill a young pig instantaneously.

76 HISTORY OF THE ROMAJfS [A.D. 55.

fear. That same night the corpse of Britannicus was con-
sumed ; his simple pyre had been prepared, it seems, before-
hand. The obsequies took place in the Campus Martius, in
the midst of a sudden tempest, betokening to the citizens the
divine indignation at a deed of blood which men had gener-
ally agreed to excuse as a state necessity.* The accounts
which Dion followed added a further horror to the scene, de-
claring that the rain washed off the paint Avith which the
body had been coloured, and disclosed the livid stains of
poison. In a winter's night, amidst the smoke of half-extin-
guished torches, such an incident could hardly have been
observable."

From first to last every circumstance connected with this
hideous fratricide was carried out with the same coolness and
calculating prevision. No long-experienced adept in crimes
of state could have acted with more consitmmate art than the
timid stripling before us, who blushed at being discovered in
the embrace of a freedwoman. No sooner Avere the hasty
obsequies completed, than an edict folloAved in which their
haste was excused and defended by argument and example.
Nero adroitly seized this occasion to recommend himself to
the citizens whose sensibility he had outraged. Having lost,
he said, the support of a dear brother, he must now look for
aid and sympathy to the republic itself He claimed a deep-
er interest in the affections of his people since he had be-
come the last of the imperial stock, tlie sole remaining hope
of a nation to whom the blood of Caesar was dear. The
emperor completed his crime by showering presents, houses,
and estates on the favourites of the palace : among them
were some, at least, Avhose professions of superior gravity
made their participation in these spoils, for as such they were
regarded, peculiarly invidious.' The hand of a master of

' Tac. Ann. xiii. 18. ; Suet. I^er. 33. Suetonius, however, says that the
funeral followed the next day.

^ Dion, Ixi. 7. This assassination probably took place immediately after
the birthday of Britannicus, the 12th, as before obser\'ed, of February.

' Tac. Ann. xiv. 18. In this remark the interpreters have generally sup-

A.U. 808.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 77

State-craft can hardly be mistaken throughout oroumUfor
these proceedings ; and there is one only, as far as crime^^the'ad-
Ave can judge, to whom it can be reasonably as- ^''•='' °^ ^®'"^*^^-
cribed. Posterity, while it shrinks from condemning, must not
venture to acquit him/ At all events, we have seen that, much
later than this, the clemency of Nero's first year was cele-
brated by Seneca as the special glory of his own instructions.
It is clear that, at least, after the deed was done he consent-
ed to absolve the perpetrator, and to persuade the world, as
far as his silence could avail to persuade it, either that no
murder had been committed, or that no defence was required
for it.

The temptations under which the philosopher lay to this
duplicity are sufficiently obvious. His influence could only
be maintained by parrying the counter projects of ^^^^^^^^^ ^^
Ao-rippina ; and his influence once lost, there could making Nero's

» J^i ' . f. power secure.

be no more hope for Nero or for Rome, for himself seneca aims at

. . .„ 1-1 making him

no retreat but in absolute msigmficance, could popular with
even that avail to save him. Undoubtedly his
position was a trying one. He believed that his power at
court enabled him to direct the empire for the general wel-
fare. The common Aveal was, after all, the grand object of
the heroes of Roman story. Few of the renowned of old
had attained their eminence as public benefactors, without
steeling their hearts against the purest instincts of nature.
The deeds of a Brutus or a Manlius, of a Sulla or a Caesar,
would have been branded as crimes in private citizens ; it
was the public character of the actors that stamped them
with immortal glory in the eyes of their countrymen. Even
Seneca, sage as he was, was not superior to the sophistry

posed that he pointa at Seneca. Suetonius (I. c.) says that Locusta was re-
warded with large estates, and provided with pupils to be instructed in the
state mystery of poisoning.

^ We need pay no attention, I think, to the charges of Dion against Seneca
(Ixi. 10.), which seem animated with more than his usual malignity against men
of reputation for virtue, and miss, besides, the peculiar weaknesses which are
justly imputable to the philosopher.

78 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 55.

whicli might have justified the murder of Britannicus by the
precedent of Romulus and Remus. MeanAvhile he "was stu-
dious in directing the j^ublic administration of his pupil to
the general advantage of the empire, to the credit and ad-
vantage more particularly of the senatoi'ial order, "svhich was
perhaps the best direction the government could at that mo-
ment take.' "While it was the best for the people, it was, at
the same time, the most prudent for the prince. A contented
senate made a secure emperor. Claudius well understood
this, and the favour he showed to this proud and privileged
body was the secret of his immunity from senatorial conspir-
acies, and enabled him to quit the city for the provinces
without apprehension, which Tiberius had never ventured to
do. This policy was the most conducive also to the prince's
reputation. The fame of Nero's five years rests mainly on
the favour it obtained from a courted and therefore an indul-
gent senate. The fathers balanced against the crime of fra-
tricide the fact that their chief had rejected statues of gold
and silver ; that he had refused to allow the vear to com-
mence with his own natal month of December, and retained
the ancient solemnity of the Kalends of January ; that he
had chetked with a gentle remonstrance the imj^etuous zeal
which offered to swear to all his acts beforehand ; that he
had dismissed with contempt the charges of a delator against
a knight and a senator."

The schism between the mother and the son seemed now
complete. Agrippina embraced the wretched orphan Octa-

* We may ascribe, perhaps, to the liberal views of the minister the geo-
graphical inquiries instituted by Nero in the direction of the Caspian Sea and
the country of the Ethiopians (Plin. II. N. vi. 15. 35.), which were ^-ulgarly
supposed to be preparatory to some military enterprises. Comp. Senec. Nat.
Quccsl. vi. 8. The long digression of Lucan {Phars. x.) on the subject of the
river Nile seems to indicate the interest of the best-informed men of the empire,
and particularly, perhaps, of his uncle Seneca, in these expeditions of discovery.
The yearning for extended physical knowledge is one of the most curious
features of Lucan's poem.

' Tac. Ann, xiiL 10. Comp. Suet. Ner. 10. "Agenti Senatui gratias re-
spondit : quum meruero."

A.U. 808.J UNDER THE EMPIRE. 79

via, and declared herself the protectress of her ^. . . ^

' _ , -, . Division be-

iniured innocence. She called her friends into tween Nero and

... , M -I Agrippina.

consultation m private : she collected money
from all quarters with an avidity which indicated some polit-
ical project. She cultivated the regard of military officers,
and caressed the remnant of the ancient nobility, as if seek-
ing to make a party and secure a chief for it. All this was
disclosed to Nero, who retaliated first by with- „ . .

' _ •' Her enemies in-

drawing the guard by which the empress was at- trigue against

tended, and then removing her from her apart-
ments in the palace to the mansion formerly inhabited by
Antonia, that the attendants at his own receptions might
have no pretext for presenting themselves to her likewise.
When he paid her a formal visit here, he was always escort-
ed by a military guard, and restricted the interview to a brief
salutation. This marked disfavour had a strong effect on the
courtiers. The door of Agrippina became rapidly deserted.
Of her ancient friends none but a few women continued to
visit her. Among these was Junia Silana, the spouse of C.
Silius, whom Messalina had required him to divorce, and who
now, in constant hatred of the dead empress, still clung to
the side of her rival and successor. Yet she had a feud with
Agrippina also ; for when she had proposed to solace herself
with another marriage, it was Agrippina who had set the
object of her choice against her; and her present attachment
was only simulated with a view to vengeance. As soon as
she was assured that the mother had lost all influence with her
son, she seized the moment to strike. She suborned two con-
federates to denounce Agrippina as conspiring against the
throne, and averred that it was her scheme to raise Rubellius
Plautus, the son of Blandus, who stood in the same relation-
ship to Augustus as Nero himself, first to empire and then to
her own bed.' There was another woman in the plot. The

'■ Tac. Ann. xiii. 19. Rubellius Plautus was son of Rubellius Blandus (al-
ready mentioned in chap, xlvi.) and of Julia, daughter of Drusus, granddaughter
of Tiberius. He was, therefore, through his grandmother, great-great-grandson
of Augustus. Nero was great-great-grandson of Augustus through his grand-
father Germanicus.

80 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 55.

pretended conspiracy was divulged to a freedman of Domita,
whose hostility to Agrippina was well known : Domitia
passed on the witnesses to Paris, a favourite of Nero ; and
late one night, in the sacred privacy of his carousal, the em-
peror was startled by the appearance of this confidential
servant, with an assumed look of deep anxiety, and received
intimation of the unnatural crime which was said to be med-
itated against him. The weak-spirited youth, whose nerves
were already shaken with premature dissipation, believed
without further inquiry, and would have yielded at once to
the suggestions of his sudden alarm. lie would have com-
manded not only the immediate execution of Plautus, but
the removal of Burrhus from his military post, on the mere
suspicion that, having been originally raised by Agrippina,
he would be disposed now to support her. But these in-
trigues of the palace were, it is confessed, obscure even to
the citizens at the time. Some writers affirmed that Burrhus
was only kept in his place by the interposition of Seneca ;
while others, less notorious for their partiality to that states-
man, made no mention of any doubt on Nero's part of the
fidelity of Burrhus.' Yet all combined, without hesitation,
in asserting that Nero was already willing and even anxious
to rid himself of his mother, and was only deterred from at
once commanding her death by the assurance of Burrhus
that she should be sentenced judicially if the crime Avere
proved against her. Every culprit, it was honestly insisted,
might claim a hearing, and above all a parent. As yet there
were no accusers, but merely a single informer against her ;
and he the emissary of a hostile house. Nero acquiesced,
heavy perhaps with wine, and unaccustomed to argument.

' Tac. Ann. xiii. 20. : " Fabius Rusticus auctor est ... . spe Scnecaj
dignationem Burrho retentam. Plinius et Cluvius, nihil dubitatum de fide prsB-
fecti refenmt. Sane Fabius incUnat ad laudcs Sencco'." The student of Tac-
itus will remark the numerous instances in which the author intimates his dis-
like to Seneca. He could not forgive him for his connection with the monster
Nero, who lived to be detested more than all their tyrants by the senate and
aristocracy.

A.U. 808.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 81

This rapid consultation took place that night : the next
morning Agrippina was required to hear the charge against
her and refute it. Burrhus conducted the ex-

1 o T 1 -r-» 1 Agrippina de-

amination, and beneca attended. J3urrhus, anx- fends herself

1 J- 1 • ir. • 1 i T with spirit

ions perhaps tor himseli, was violent and over-
bearing. All the spirit of the virago flashed out at once.
She, too, spared neither sai'casm nor menaces. It was well,
she said, for Silana, the childless, to suggest that she, a moth-
er, had designs against the life of a son ; as if mothers could
put away their children as easily as strumpets their gallants.
It was well for Domitia to vaunt her interest in Nero : she
who was adorning her fishponds at Baiae, while Agrippina
was raising him to the family of the Coesars, to the procon-
sular Potestas, to the hope and promise of the Consulship.
And then she demanded an interview with the emperor in
person, relying on the power of a mother's indignation or
despair ; and without deigning to assert her innocence, as if
distrusting, nor to urge her claims, as if reproaching him, she
bluntly required the punishment of her accusers, and the
reward of her faithful adherents.

The hardihood of Agrippina was crowned with more suc-
cess than it merited. The charges against her were declared
to be unfounded, and of those whom she de- rj^^ g^jarces
nounced as the inventors of the calumny, Calvi- dfciaredun-^*
sius and Iturius were placed in distant confine- founded.
ment, the freedman Atimetus was put to death, while Silana
herself was banished. Paris alone escaped free, by the
special grace of the emperor, w^ho admired his talents as an
actor, and had received him into private intimacy. Rubel-
lius himself, it seems, was not noticed at all. The favour
which Burrhus, the blunt uncourtly soldier, still retained, is
even more remarkable. Not only were the insinuations lev-
elled on this occasion asrainst him disregarded, but when
soon afterwards he was accused, together with Pallas, of in-
triguing for a Cornelius Sulla, he was allowed to take his
place among the judges, and turn the charge against himself
into a process against his accuser. Burrhus again, and Pallas

VOL. VI. — 6

82 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 55.

under Lis wing, were triumphantly acquitted, while their as-
sailant Psetus was himself condemned to banishment.*

Such were the firmness and moderation of Nero's admin-
istration throughout the first model year of his principate ;
and for some years afterwards it continued to be conducted,
Nero's dissolute ^'^^' t^^G most part, ou similar principles. It was
amusements. undoubtedly the administration, not of the young
prince himself, but of the shrewd and thoughtful men to
whom he had given his confidence ; and Seneca deserves the
praise of abstinence from bloodshed and violence, and a laud-
able care to retain his patron in the ])aihs of ancient usage.
The license he meanwhile extended to his private amusements
may readily be pardoned. If it was impossible to engage
the light-minded youth in the details of business, there may
have been no better course than to absorb him in frivolous
pleasures, which should leave him neither leisure nor inclina-
tion to interfere with the government at all. Such seems to
have been the view Seneca took of the alternative before him.
But in after years the frivolity of Nero, and the vile charac-
ter of his pastimes, seem to have incensed the Romans against
him no less than the tyranny which accompanied them : the
dislike with which Seneca is regarded by Tacitus was caused
perhaps mainly by the belief that it was he who corrupted
the principles of his tender charge, and undermined in him
the stern simplicity of the Roman character. The careless-
ness with which Nero began soon to exhibit himself in the
circus and the theatre will appear hereafter; but already in
the second year of his reign he condescended to roam the
streets disguised as a slave, accompanied by his boon com-
panions, snatching the wares exposed for sale, cuffing the
angry owners, and sometimes receiving blows in return.*

* Tac. Ann. xiii. 23. Faustus Cornelius Sulla was husband of Antonia, and
son in law of Claudius, cons. a. v. 805, a. d. 52. Ann. sii. 52.

^ Tac. Ann. xiii. 25. We know not what exaggeration there may be in
these stories. When after an evening's debauch Nero appeared next morning
without any marks of injury on his visage, it was whispered that he had applied
a lotion of sovereign efficacy to his skin, the ingredients of which were indicated
with precision. Plin. H. N". xiii. 43.

A. U. 809.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 83

These freaks soon became notorious, and many dissolute
youths were encouraged by the example to perpetrate like
excesses. But when Montanus, a senator, struck ^ ^ gg
the emperor unawares in one of these nocturnal ^ ^- ^^^•
encounters, and, on discovering him, too openly begged his
pardon, he received an order to kill himself. Thenceforth
Nero took care to have soldiers always at hand to protect
him. This taste for vulgar brawls induced him to foster the
passions of the stage, until the licentiousness of the specta-
tors became intolerable ; and it was found necessary to expel
the histrions, or pantomimic dancers, and to restore the
guard, which, from the time of Augustus till recently, had
kept the police of the theatres.'

"While such, however, were the early indications of a cor-
rupt and feeble character which the young prince exhibited,
to the sorrow of decent citizens and alarm of the

. . Consecration of

wiser and more thouofhtful, various incidents m a temple to

,.-,.. . ',. - Claudius.

his administration recommended it strongly to
different classes of his people. The populace, ever favourably
impressed by marks of family affection, were pleased at the
respect he had seemed to show to the memory of his prede-
cessor. Though they despised Claudius when alive, they
acquiesced in the ascription of divine honours to him after
death, and thought it highly becoming in his successor to
build him a temple after the manner of his ancestors, and ap-
point a college of Claudian Flamens from among the highest
families of the city." Nor did Nero disdain to recognise the
claims of his natural father, while paying these honours to

* Tacitus says: "Non aliud remedium repertum est quam ut histriones
Italia; pellerentur, milesque tlieatro rursum insideret." The soldiers had been
just before withdrawn. The histrions or mimes are to be distinguished from
other performers. It was only the former that were expelled ; the latter were
retained, under the superintendence of a military guard, which Augustus had
ori^nally assigned for that purpose.

^ Tac. Ann. xii. ult. The temple of Claudius on the Ca3lian hiU is supposed
to have stood on the oblong platform, scarped on three sides, now occupied by
the garden of the Passionists, and marked from a distance by a few slender
cypresses. Ampere, Hist. Rom. d Rome, § 3.

84 HISTORY OF THE R05IANS [A.D. 56.

the adoptive. He obtained a statue for Domitius from the
senate. For Asconius Labeo, who had been his guardian
after his father's death and still survived, he demanded the
consular ornaments. This attention to the claims of others
was accomj^anied by modesty in regard to himself His lib-
erality was eminently conspicuous. To preserve their rank
to some impoverished senators, he endowed them with the
census which the law required. At the same time he follow-
ed the example of Augustus and Claudius in respecting the
prescriptions of the state religion. "When the temples of
Jupiter and Minerva, — two of the cells perhaps of the triple
temple in the Capitol, — were struck with lightning, he caused
the city to be illustrated, by the advice of the Haruspices.
Of this solemn ceremonial the most picturesque feature was
a procession of the priests of the various services ; the Salii
bearing the golden shields on their heads ; the Vestals guard-
ins the sacred Palladium ; the Galli who lave in Almo the
Mother of the Gods ; Avith the noble Augurs and thrice-noble
riamens, the Septemvirs and Epulones, and every lesser
priesthood girt with the simple cincture of the rustic Gabii.'
We do not hear, indeed, that Nero took any personal
part in the government ; and whatever merit there was in
Favourable ^^^ administration must in fairness be ascribed
of'^Nero'sl'aHy ^^ ^^^ ministers rather than to their master. Nor
government. q^^ ^g givc him the Icsscr praisc of deliberately
choosing his instruments well, and submitting his own inex-
perience to their riper judgment. Seneca and Burrhus had
been given him by Agrippina. The rare occasions on which
the prince appears on the public scene during this period
were prepared for him by these advisers, and the kindly acts
or sayings imputed to him were doubtless suggested by them.

* Lucan gives a spirited description of the procession, which no doubt he
witnessed himself (P/tars. i. 592.):

" Turn jubct ct totam pavidis a civibus urbem
Anibiri, et festo purgantes moenia lustro
Longa per extrcmos i)omoDria cingere fines
Pontiticcs, sacri quibus est pennissa potestas," &c.

A. U. 809.] UNDER THE EJLPIRE. 85

Thus much it seems just to detract from the fome of Xero's
Quinquennium : nevertheless, setting aside all question of
the real authorship of the acts belonging to it, the general
course of government deserves apparently the praise it has
received. The kindness of Icings upon their coronation day
has passed into a proverb. Little stress need be laid on the
gracious promises of Nero at his accession, when words could
cost him nothing, and might gain him much. His declara-
tions in favour of justice and generosity were carried out
consistently as long as there was no temptation to tyranny.
The senate and magistrates were suffered to exercise their
functions without control. If he ever interfered within their
jurisdiction, it was in the direction of mercy, to overrule
harsh sentences, or to mitigate them.' Never, however, was
there a period more noted for the punishment of great crim-
inals, especially of officers convicted of extortion in the prov-
inces.' But all these cases were prosecuted in due course of
law ; no irregular procedure was allowed even to further the
ends of justice ; and, above all, the practice of delation was
rigidly repressed. This, no doubt, was the circumstance
which invested the early years of Nero with their brightest
colours. There were no trials on charges of Majestas ; and
Nero showed himself, even to a late period, superior to petty
mortifications from raillery and libel.^ The emj)ire had grown
consciously stronger since the time of Tiberius, and could
afford to disregard ridicule. Stories were current of the un-
wonted humanity evinced by this lord of the world, such as
was seldom shown by the master of a score of bondmen.
When required to set his name to a sentence of death, Winild
to God, he exclaimed, that I had never learned to write!*

' See the cases mentioned by Tacitus, Ann. xiii. 43. 52. ; and again xiii. 27.,
xiv. 18. 22. 45.

* Tac. Ann. xiii. 30. 33. 42., xiv. 18. 26. 46.

^ Suet. Ner. 39. : " Mirum .... nihil eum patientius quam maledicta
et convicia hominum tulisse."

* Suet. Ner. 10. : " Quam vellem nescire literas." The story is from Seneca,
who takes occasion to remind his blushing pupil of it (i>e Clem. ii. 1.) : " Ut de

86 HISTORY OF THE ROJIANS [A.D. 56.

The financial measures of this epoch display, as far as we
can trace them, not only a liberality M'hich might be con-
founded with mere thoughtless profusion, but

Liberality of . ,. . „ . , . \,. \.

Nero's financial somc mdications oi a wisc and intelhgent policy.
Nero inherited from Claudius the best of all lega-
cies to a despot, a full treasury and a flourishing revenue.
He could give without borrowing ; he couid endow without
extorting, A donative to the soldiers, the necessary condi-
tion of their support, was followed by a largess to the peoj^le,
prudent, no doubt, but not equally indisjiensable. Fresh
drafts of veterans were established, with the surrender of
public domains, in the colonies of Capua and Xuceria, An-
other measure, of which we should much wish to know the
particulars, was the advance, apparently, of certain sums to
the treasury, to maintain, as the historian oracularly phrases
it, the solvency of the Roman people. We may conjecture
that this liberality was meant to relieve the farmers of the
tolls and tributes, or other responsible agents of finance. It
amounted, we are told, only to forty millions of sesterces ;
and it is hard to conceive any great public relief being efiect-
ed by a loan or even a gift of 320,000 pounds sterling.* In
their excessive jealousy of taxation the citizens had com-
plained that a rate of one twenty-fifth or four per cent, was
exacted by the state on the purchase-money of slaves. The
buyer of these articles of luxury was in most cases the Roman,
the vendor was the subject or foreigner; and when the im-
perial government transferred the tax from the buyer to the
vendor, the multitude were led to suppose that they had
actually escaped it, not perceiving that the amount of the
rate was still as before levied upon them in the advanced
price of the commodity." Nor was it the ruling caste only

dementia seriberem, Nero Coesar, una me vox tua maxime compulit : quam ego
non sine admiratione et cum diceretur audissc memini, et dcinde aliis narrasse,"
&c.

^ Tac. Ann. xiii. 31.: "Sestertium quadringenties aerario illatum est ad
retinendam populi fidem."

^ Tacitus (1. c.) remarks this consequence : " Specie magis quam vi, quia
cum venditor penderc juberetur, in partem pretii emptoribus accrescebat."

A, U. 811.] UNDER THE EMPIRE, 87

towards which this consideration was extended. When the
proconsuls and other magistrates abroad were forbidden to
exhibit gladiators and wild beasts in their provinces, the re-
striction must have been meant to relieve the subjects of the
state from the burden of providing them,'

This gleam of consideration for the interests of a class to
whom it was so rarely extended by the Roman statesmen,
seems to indicate a change of feeling in the con- jjis proposal to
querors towards the conquered^ which we are t^aUa? *'**' ^^'^'
prompt to remai'k, expecting important conse- a.d 58
quences to follow. But we are still doomed to ^- ^- ®^^-
be disappointed. Meagre and inconclusive are the notices
we find regarding the views of the imperial administration.
It is impossible to construct from them anything which may
be called a policy. We note the glimmer of a great social
principle beneath the folds of political history ; but in a mo-
ment the field of vision is overclouded, and we dare not in-
dulge the speculations which have risen in our minds, lest it
should appear that they are founded on a misapprehension
of our own, or on a misstatement of our informant. After
the financial measures just mentioned, Tacitus proceeds to
speak of another, apparently of much greater importance.
The circumstance refers to the fourth year of Nero's reign,
and is thus stated by the historian, the obscurity or confusion
of whose account it may be well to exhibit, to show by a
single instance how little precision is to be looked for in the
prince of pictorial narrators. So numerous, he says, were the
complaints of the people against the extortions of the publi-
cans, that ISTero actually meditated surrendering all duties,
and conferring the noblest of all presents on the human race.
But the senators, with much praise of his liberality, restrain-
ed his ardour, by proving that the empire would be dissolved
if the imposts by which it was supported should be diminish-
ed : for it was clear that if the duties were abolished, a remis-
sion of taxes would be speedily demanded. They showed

' Tac. 1 c. : " Ne quis magistratus aut procurator qui provinciam obtineret,
spectaculum gladiatorum aut ferarum, aut quod aliud ludicrum ederet."

88 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 5a.

that many associations for farming the revenues had been
established by cotisuls and tribunes of the plehs at a period
when the Ro->nan x>eople were most jealous of their liberties:
. . . . they allowed, however, that it was expedient to
put some restrictions on the cupidity of the publicans.* The
question here arises whether the duties, of which Nero would
have made a present to the human race^ were those which
prevailed generally throughout the empire, or whether they
refer only to such as were peculiar to the ruling caste of citi-
zens. Undoubtedly the oiFer, at first sight, seems to be uni-
versal ; and so it has been generally regarded by the critics,
historians, and writers on Roman finance. Yet there are
words in the passage which seem to me very clearly to limit
its application to the Roman citizens only, the class for whom,
according to ideas which had not yet lost their force, the
subject races of the empire toiled, unpitied and unregarded.

The question must be discussed at greater length. The

abolition of the whole system of indirect taxation throughout

the empire would indeed have been the concep-

Examination of . ^ i t i , ■,

whatitrtaiiy tiou 01 a madman. It could only have been

imports. /r> n • • i •

enected in company with an immense increase
of direct payments, such as the land-tax, poll-tax, and prop-
erty-tax, at a time when the state has relinquished all claim
to the absolute use and possession of its conquered territories.
But no such increase, it would seem, was contemplated.
Xor, again, is the establishment of such a system of free-trade,
by the removal of all imposts on commercial transactions be-
tween land and land, consistent with the spirit of the time,
and the cherished ideas of antiquity, which were far as yet
from realizing an equality of rights among mankind. Doubt-
less Seneca was in advance of his age ; doubtless he would
speak even more freely as a philosopher than he would act as

* Tac. Ann. xiiL 50. : " Crebria pojruli flagitationibus immodestium publi-
canorum arpuentis, dubitavit Nero an cuncta vectigalia omitti jubcrct, idquc pul-
chorrimum donum generi mortalhim daret .... Plerasque vectigalium socic-
tates a Consulibus et Tribiinis plebis constitutas, acri etiam popidi Jiomaui
turn libertate."

A.U. 811,] UNDER THE EMPIRE. gg

a statesman; yet the rare expressions of political liberality
which liave been gleaned from his writings avouIcI be a very
insufficient ground for ascribing to him any profound views
on this subject. Virtue, he says in one place, embraces all
men together, freedtnen, slaves and kings. . . . TFe are
horn to a common inheritance. . . . Wisdom, hivites the
human race to live together in amity. ^ Such common places
as these constitute at best but a slender claim to the praise
of practical liberalism. It seems therefore impossible to sup-
pose that Nero really meant to remit the whole custom
duties of the empire. I would limit the extent of his scheme
to a surrender of duties payable on commodities and transac-
tions in Italy, and the colonies of Roman citizens. Such a
remission would have had a clear analogy to defend it.
From the time of the conquest of Macedonia the land-tax had
been remitted to the citizens, though the census or property-
tax on moveables, which also bore the invidious name of
tribute, continued to press upon them. But the popular tri-
bune Metellus Nepos had abolished the indirect taxation of
tolls and dues in Italy, and it was with great soreness that
the citizen had seen this burden reimposed by Julius Caesar,
and maintained, as a state necessity, by the triumvirs and
the emperors. We may easily believe that the young im-
pulsive Nero conceived it worthy of the successor of the tri-
bunes, to abolish once more this detested impost upon the
favoured caste ; and this was probably as far as his liberality
extended. The flourish about a boon to the human race was
an indiscreet bravado either of the ignorant prince, or of the

^ Senec. De Benef. iii.-18. : "Virtus omnes admittit, libertinos, servos,
reges." Epist. 95. : " Membra sumus magni corporis .... natura nos
cognatos edidit." Epist, 90.: "Sapientia genus humanum ad coneordiam
vocat." These and a few more passages, in which God is called our common
paroit, slaves and freemen are said to be naturally equal, &c., constitute, I
think, the writer's whole claim to the character of a cosmopolite. They are
once only faintly echoed by Lucan, Phars. i. 60. :

" Turn genus humanum positis sibi consulat armis,
Inque vicem gens omnis amet."

90 ' HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

unreflecting historian. Nero's advisers, indeed, naturally
pointed out that the burdens of which the citizens complained
had been originally imposed, not by triumvirs and emperors,
but by the consuls and tribunes of the free state. Rome in
the height of her pride and indej^endence had felt no humil-
iation in submitting to them. But were her claim to ex-
emption from these dues conceded, she would have a pretence
for demanding abolition of the tribute or census also, and for
obtaining that complete immunity which was the dearest
wish of her indolent selfishness.* Nero, whose generosity
was a mere impulse, founded on no princij^le of policy or
humanity, was no doubt easily persuaded to desist from his
scheme ; and perhaps we may trace in the genuine liberality
of his advisers, who discouraged such an indulgence to a
special class, the wider and wiser views of the sage who pre-
sided over them. The project resulted in a few sensible reg-
ulations of detail ; for making the revenue laws better known
that they might be better obeyed ; for limiting the claims for
arrears ; for putting the publicani under stricter supervision ;
for abolishing a few trivial but vexatious imposts ; for reliev-
ing the irapoiter of grain from the pressure of certain bur-
dens ; and with this view exempting the ships of the corn
merchants from the common tax on property."

The salutary regulations here recorded belong to the first
three or four years of this principate ; but the general im-
The policy of provcmcut of the administration depended on
Susfa^tionto Principles which continued to operate through
the Senate. ^|^g gj.g^ i^^^f^ ^^ Icast, and in many cases to the

end of a reign of more than thirteen years. So long did

' It will be seen that I regard the phrase of Tacitus, "donum generi
liumano," as an incorrect expression. We are not yet in a position to consider
vrhethcr the times in which the historian himself wrote offered any excuse for
this mistake. At a later period the exemption of Italy from the land-tax was
annulled, and the whole empire placed on an equal footmg in respect of fiscal
burdens. Savigny thinks that this took place in the time of Diocletian (see
VermiscJde Schrift. i. 43.), from an obscure passage in Aurelius Victor {Ccesar
30.), on the occasion of the permanent estabUshment of an imperial court and
army in Italy. ^ Tac. Ann. xiii. 51.

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 91

Nero persist, under the guidance of trusty counsellors, in
maintaining the dignity of the senatorial order, as the highest
judicial and legislative tribunal. The position of Seneca and
Burrhus in antagonism to Agrippina could only be main-
tained by upholding the authority of the senate ; the activity
of which is attested by the number of laws and decrees which
at this period emanated from it. The youth and inexpe-
rience of Nero, overwhelmed as he was by the weight of
affairs which the recent example of his laborious predecessor
forbade him to reject, compelled him to rely on these prac-
tised advisers ; and the more so as the odium which attached
to the whole class of the imj)erial freedmen required him to
waive their succour. The dispersion of the secret conclave
gave immediate relief to the senate, which breathed more
fi-eely, and acted more boldly, when it felt that no private
influence stood between it and the throne. It expressed the
sense of its recovered liberty, partly by the loudest eulogies
of the new reign, partly by renewed activity within the
now extended sphere of its operations.* On the occasion of
a military success in Armenia, it not only saluted Nero as
Imperator, and decreed the customary supplications, arches,
and statues ; but established an annual commemoration of the
days on which the victory was gained, the news brought
home, and the decree made concerning it. Were we to thank
the Gods, said C. Cassius, according to their kindness, the
whole year would not suffice us. Let it he at once divided
into two portions, one for public affairs, the other for giving
thanks for Nero. Even the irony of a senator who bore the

^ Hoeck has collected from the Digest the names of certain Senatusconsulta ;
viz. Silanianum, Calvisianum, Memmianum, Trebellianum, and Neronianum,
which may be referred to this period. They apply to the treatment of slaves
to adoption, to testamentary ti-usts, &c. See Rce.m. Gcsch. i. 3. p. 356. fol.
Nero transferred to the senate a share of the appeals in civil cases, which recent
princes (and perhaps Claudius more particularly, in his insatiable appetite for
business) had grasped for themselves. At a later period he relinquished the
labour and responsibility altogether. Such, at least, seems the best way of
reconciling the discrepancy between Tac. Ann. xiv. 28. and Suet. Ner. \1. See
note of Baumgarten Crusius in loc. Suet.

92 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

name of a tyrannicide, if irony it were, proved the freedom
of speech now permitted to his order.'

The ancient usage of the republic still required the prince
to take his seat on the tribunal ; and there, assisted by his
No inquiry council, Ncro, like Claudius before him, listened
il?re%i^itie*l^of ^^ appcals from the ordinary courts of justice,
his private liiv. ^^^^ gave final Sentence from his own breast.
Warned, however, by his predecessor's example, he limited
the addresses of the rival pleaders, and checked vague decla-
mation by requiring each jDoint to be separately discussed be-
fore opening on another." His judgments were issued al-
ways in writing, and after mature deliberation ; and in the
interval he expected his assessors to give him their opinions
separately, from which he made up his own in private, and
delivered it as the common decision of the cabinet. It would
seem, from this account of his public conduct, that he was
strongly impressed with the conviction that he held power
on sufferance only ; and was not blinded by adulation to the
precariousness of his position as the first citizen of an aristo-
cratic republic. But as long as he executed his delegated
functions for the common weal of liis order, they, on their
part, made no inquisition into the privacy of his domestic
life. The curtains which the Roman drew across the vesti-
bule of his mansion were a sacred screen, behind which none
could enter unbidden. "NVithin that veil the courteous states-
man or the bland philosopher might play the tryant to his
slaves, to his children, and to his women. There self-indul-
gence and debauchery in their grossest shapes sheltered
themselves alike from the decrees of the censors, and the
murmui-s of public opinion. It was not till a later period,

' Tac. Ann. xiii. 41.

' Suet Xcr. 15. Baumgartcn Cnisius explains bimthus: "Er liess die
Sache Punkt fur Punkt untersuchcn :" "propuctis testibus, literis, aliisque
judicii instrumcntis, idque per vices, utraque parte alternatim audita. Hie
igitur transitus fuit ad nostrorum judicionim (the German) morem ab antiquo
qui observatur in Britannia adhuc terrisijije Gallia; subjectis." This, no doubt,
is the improvement to which Seneca points in his sneer at the impatience of
Claudius : " Una tantum parte audita, sa?pe et neutra."

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 93

when the fall of Nero dissipated all lingering resei-ve, that
the inner life of the palace Avas disclosed to the eyes of the
citizens, and the process laid hare, step hy step, by which he
was corrupted into a monster of depravity. Already, beneath
the show of care for the interests of the state, he Avas learn-
ing to regard his own safety, his own convenience, as para-
mount to every obligation, and trying what amount of hor-
rors the world would bear for the sake of his gracious admin-
istration.

But Rome was tranquil ; the citizens were content ; the
senate, affecting to speak the voice of the nation, pronounced
Nero the best of its princes since Aucjustus.

*«.•.■! 11 The " Quin-

Affairs might seem to run more smoothly even quennium Ne-

r> 11 f • • 1 • T ronis."

irora the absence 01 great principles to guide
them. Nero differed from all his predecessors in the extent
to which he suffered affairs to take their natural course.
Julius Csesar had deliberately overthrown old forms and jjre-
scriptions which he felt to be obsolete, confident of the crea-
tive force of his own master-genius. Auo-ustus strove to re-
vive the past. Tiberius was content with shaping the pres-
ent. Caius, awakened in his youthful inexperience to the
real character of the station which his predecessors had dis-
guised from themselves and the world, chose rashly to claim
for it all the prerogatives which logically belonged to it.
Claudius affected, in the narrow sjiirit of a pedant on the
throne, to govern mankind by personal vigilance, as a master
governs his household. Nero, at last, or his advisers for him,
seems to have renounced all general views, to have abstained
from interfering with the machinery of empire, and contented
himself with protecting it from disturbance. The tradition
of the felicity of these five auspicious years, to which the
best of this prince's successors gave long afterwards the palm
of virtuous administration, attests the consciousness of the
Romans that they were ruled with a masterly inactivity.'

' It was the well-known saying of the Emperor Trajan, fifty years later :
" Procul differre cunctos principes Neronis quinquennio." Aurel. Victor, Ccesar,
5., BpU. 5.

94 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

Great honour is undoubtedly due to the men who actually
governed for N"ero, that they did so little to abuse their tem-
porary ascendancy. There seems, however, less reason to
extend our admiration to Xero himself, or to regard this
happy result as the triumph of philosophy over youthful pas-
sions, and the fatal sense of irresponsibility. We must rather
admit that his reserve was caused by incapacity or indiffer-
ence, by an engrossing taste for frivolities which belonged to
his tender years, or by the dissipation to which his position
too naturally enticed him.

A. U. 811.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 95

CHAPTER LIII.

NERO'S PASSION FOR POPP^A SABINA. INTRIGUES AGAINST AGRIPPINA. NERO'S

MACHINATIONS AGAINST HER UNSUCCESSFUL. SHE IS FINALLY DESPATCHED BY

HIS ORDERS. SENT;CA AND BURRHUS IMPLICATED IN THE MURDER. INSTITUTION

OF THE NT:R0NIAN GAMES. THE LUDI MASIMI. NERO'S INSENSIBILITY TO NA-
TIONAL FEELING. MODERATION IN REGARD TO CHARGES OF LIBEL AND MAJESTY.

DEATH OF BURRHUS. SENECA SEEKS TO WITHDRAW FROM PUBLIC LIFE. RISE

AND INFLUENCE OF TIGELLINUS. DEATH OF PLAUTUS AND SULLA. NERO'S EX-
TRAVAGANCE AND CRUELTY. REPUDIATION, BANISHMENT, AND DEATH OF OCTATIA.

PROSECUTION OF WEALTHY FREEDMEN, DORYPHORUS AND PALLAS. NERO'S

PROGRESS IN LICENTIOUSNESS. HE EXHIBITS HIMSELF IN THE CIRCUS. HIS IN-
FAMOUS DEBAUCHERY. BURNING OF ROME. PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS.

RESTORATION OF THE CITY. NERO'S GOLDEN HOUSE. FURTHER EXACTIONS AND

CONFISCATIONS. CONSPIRACY OF PISO. ITS DETECTION AND PUNISHMENT.

DEATH OF LUCAN AND SENECA. PRETENDED DISCOVERY OF THE TREASURES OF

DIDO. DEATH OF POPP^A. FURTHER PROSCRIPTIONS. STORMS AND PESTILENCE.

REFLECTIONS OF TACITUS. DEATH OF ANN^US MELA. PROSECUTION AND

DEATH OF SORANUS AND THRASEA. A.D. 58-66. A.U. 811-819.

THE legislation of N"ero's principate has been examined,
and the character of his civil administration dejiicted,
from, the notices of historians and iurists. The

". . Uncertaintv of

materials are slender, and the delineation is neces- the history of

., , , f. • 1 o 1 • 1 1 this period.

sarily unsteady and superncial. feuch is the pub-
lic history of the times. But we now turn to an intrigue of
the palace, a story of domestic hate and private crime, and
"sve find its whole course, and every detail, described to us
with the clearest and strongest lines; while to the careful
inquirer more darkness really hovers over this picture than
the other. A thoughtful reader can hardly peruse a sentence
of the Annals of Tacitus, his chief guide at this period, with-
out feeling that he is in unsafe hands. The matters of which

96 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 58.

his author now treats had for the most part no public hear-
ing ; transacted in secret, they coukl only have been revealed
hy treacherous, or at least by interested narrators ; and it is
with vexation, not unmixed with wonder, that we remark the
complacency with which he recounts events of which he could
have had no certain knowledge, of which false and coloured
statements must necessarily have been rife, and can hardly
have failed to imbue the representations of the writers from
whom he almost indiscriminately drew. Manypersons, says
the Jewish historian Josephus, have undertaken to write the
history of N^ero / of whom some have disregarded the truth
on account of favours received from him, others from per-
sonal hostility have indulged in abominable falsehoods. As
a foreigner, Josephus was exempt from many of the preju-
dices of the Romans ; he regarded these matters from a more
distant and a clearer point of view. Undoubtedly, the par-
ticular details of intrigue and crime, on which we are about
to enter, must be received with caution and distrust ; never-
theless, Josephus himself believes in the poisoning of Britan-
nicus, and the murders, now to be related, of Agri2:)pina and
Octavia ; the name of Nero is branded with atrocities which
can neither be denied nor extenuated.' The story must be
told as it is delivered to us, and no man will care to mar its
horrible interest by scrutinizing step by step the ground on
which he is treading.

Since her defeat by Seneca and Burrhus, at the outset of
the new reign, the emj^ress-mother seems to have refrained
pvisc of Poppaja ^^'^m provoking a further trial of strength ; and,
Sabina. possibly, she regained by this jjrudent reserve a

portion of the influence she had forfeited. When, after an
interval of almost five years, the curtain again draws up on a
scene of the interior of the palace, we find Xero still married
but not united, to Octavia, Agrippina Avatching their con-
nexion with a jealousy which frustrates every attemjjt to
draw him into another marriage, while Acte still retains her

' Joseph. Aniiq. Jud. xx. 7 3.

A.U. 811.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 97

place as the reigning favourite. We find the young and
gallant Otho still first of the prince's friends and associates,
fascinating his master by his graces, and rising in public
honours. Nero is now two and twenty instead of seventeen :
in other respects we note little change in the personages or
situations of the drama. But a new character now steps
upon the stage, destined to work out a startling catastrophe.
Poppfea Sabina, the wife of Otho, was the fairest woman of
her time, and with the charms of beauty she combined the
address of an accomplished intriguer.* Among the dissolute
women of imperial Rome, she stands preeminent. Originally
united to Rufius Crispinus, she had allowed herself to be se-
duced by Otho, and obtained a divorce in order to marry
him. Introduced by this new connexion to the intimacy of
Nero, she soon aimed at a higher elevation. But her husband
was jealous and vigilant, and she herself knew how to allure
the young emperor by alternate advances and retreats, till,
in the violence of his passion, he j^ut his friend out of the
way, by dismissing him to the government of Lusitania."
Poppaea suffered Otho to depart without a sigh. She profit-
ed by his absence to make herself more than ever indis-
jjensable to her paramour, and aimed, with little disguise, at
releasing herself from her union and supplanting Octavia, by
divorce or even by death, ^

It seems, however, that this bold design could only be

* Tac. Ann. xiii. 45. (under the year 811): " Huic mulieri cuncta alia fuere
prseter honestum animum." There are several busts in existence supposed to
represent Poppaea ; but their authenticity is very questionable. The features
are of infantine grace and delicacy, not unsuited to the soft voluptuousness of
the habits imputed to her. See Ampfere, Hist, de Rome d Rome, § 3. But her
images, we are told, were generally destroyed at the death of Nero.

^ The story is somewhat differently told by our authorities, and even by
Tacitus himself in his Histories and his Annals. In the latter work he speaks,
no doubt, from his latest and best information, which agrees with the distich
in Suetonius ( Otho, 3.) :

" Cur Otho mentito sit, quseritis, exul honore '?
Uxoris moechus coeperat esse suae."
^ Tac. Ann. xiii. 46., a. d. 58, a. u. 811.

VOL. VI. — 7

98 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 59.

effected hj the overthrow of Agrippina. If this Avoman had
Detestation in recovered a portion of her power over her son,
ninal;i^/i,opu- ^'^^ ^* ^^^^^ retained little of his affections. To
lariy hiid. control him by fear was no longer possible ; an

influence once broken could never be restored on the footing
of ancient habit. There was hardly a crime of -which she
was not reputed guilty ; there was no excess of which Rome
believed her incapable. Murder and adultery were the com-
mon instruments of her ambition : in marrying Claudius she
had engaged in an act which popular feeling regarded as in-
cest. Indignant and disgusted at her crimes, her debauch-
eries, and the crimes and debaucheries of her favourites and
creatures, hating her as the sister of Caius, hating her as the
wife of Claudius, loathing her as the harlot of Narcissus and
Pallas, execrating her at last, in the bitterness of their disap-
pointment, as the vile daughter of their noble Germanicus,
her countrymen were prepared to believe the rumour that
she had tried, as a last device, to entangle her own son in a
criminal intrigue with herself Some, indeed, whispered that
Nero had been the first to solicit his mother ; but the other
story gained more general credence ; no one asked whether
a woman of fifty could dream of such a conquest over the
fairest charmers of the court, or betray her odious secret to
those Avho watched around her. But so nearly Avas she suc-
cessful, they went on to aver, that it was with difficulty her
arts were frustrated by Seneca ; who deterred Nero from the
crime, by representing, from the lips of Acte, the shock it
would cause to public feeling, and the dangers which might
ensue."

' Ta.c. Ann. xiv. 2. (a. u. 812): "Tradit Cluvius Agrippinani," &c. On
the other hand : " Fabius Rusticus non Agrippinae sed Xeroni cupitum id me-
morat. . . . Sed quae Cluvius eadem caetcri quoque auctores prodidcre, et
fama hue inclinat."

* The strange story told by Dion (Ixi. 11.) seems equivalent to a confession
that this scandal was not generally reputed worthy of Ijelicf : d/l/.' eKElvo /ifv,
elr' aArjOig tyhero, el-e npog tov Tp67rnv avruv i~}.aadr]^ ovk oi6a- a 6e 6j)
np6g ir&vTuv ujioMyi^Tai ^yu, on haipav riva tt} ' Aypimriv)) dfioiav 6 "Nipuv
fC aiTo TovTo iq ra /x6?.i(rra ijyaixijae, koX av~y re kKcivT) irpoanai^uv, xal toI{

A. U. 812.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 99

However this may be, and whether or not Agrippina, the
writer of a scandalous chronicle herself, has suffered from the
lyino- tono;ucs of enemies of her own, Popptea was
now engaged with her in open striie, and one or tngues against

her

the other must perish in the contest. Poppaea
had so far succeeded as to get her lover to contemplate mar-
riage with her, while he still shrank from the preliminary
steps. Of Octavia, indeed, neither one nor the other took
account. It was Agrippina's anger, Agrippina's power, that
Poppaea sought to overcome. She treated Nero as a child
controlled by an unreasonable parent; she excited him to
rebel against undue authority; made him ashamed of his
subservience, and alarmed at the state of dependence in
which she represented him as lying. He was no emperor,,
she said ; he was not even a free man. Finally, she per-
suaded him that his mother was conspiring against him : the
charges triumphantly rebutted four years before, were re-
peated with more success: for Nero began now to feel an
interest in believing them, and he had learnt, in the exercise
of his power, that it was possible to condemn the susjoected
Avithout bringing them face to face with their accusers.^

No intrigue of the palace could be supposed complete at
this period, unless Seneca was its instigator or accomplice ;
and accordingly the sage is himself accused of Nerocontem-
counselling the dreadful crime which has now to gg'^.'^^ 'jj]® ™'^'
be related. The first attempt on Agrippina's life, mother.

aXXoic hSecKvvfievog, eleye on Kot ry fir/rpl ofiiloir]. Lucan, towards the end
of his poem, speaks with true Roman indignation of the incest permitted to
the Parthians, in which he may possibly have had regard to stories nearer
home (viii. 406.) :

" Damnat apud gentes sceleris non sponte peracti
CEdipodionias infelix fabula Thebas :
Parthorum dominus quoties sic sanguine mixto
Nascitur Arsacides ! cui fas implere parentem
Quid rear esse nefas ! "
^ Tac. Ann. xiv. 1. Such was the dread in which Nero at this time held
his mother, that he entertained thoughts (so at least we are assured) of quit-
ting Rome, divesting himself of power, and returning to a private station at
Rhodes. Suet. Ner. 34.

100 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 59.

as recounted by Tacitus, is one of the darkest scenes of his
long tragedy. That it is ti'ue in the main, we have at least
no reason to question ; but Suetonius and Dion have each
added details, not wholly consistent with one another, which
may serve to remind us that the particulars of such deeds
could seldom be accurately known, and how much scope
there was for invention and embellishment in the obscurity
of contemporary history. Nero, it seems, full of fear or dis-
gust, long avoided all private intercourse with his mother, and
recommended her to withdraw to a suburban residence. But
this was not enough to reassure him. There Avas no inten-
tion of bringing her to trial : open violence against her could
not be ventured : against poison she was guarded by her own
.caution, and the fidelity of her attendants: the statement
that she had fortified herself by antidotes, is one of the vul-
gar fictions of antiquity, which modern science scarce deigns
to refute, yet it ife not impossible that she allowed such a
rumour to be spread as a measure of precaution. Again,
after the mysterious death of Britannicus, a second catastro-
phe of the kind in the imperial family would have excited
terrible suspicions. Among the prince's intimates was one
Anicetus, a freedman of the court, but advanced to the com-
mand of the fleet at Misenum, who had formerly been his
preceptor, and had personal grounds of hostility to Agrip-
pina. This man explained to his eager patron the mechanism
by which a vessel might be constructed, to fall in pieces at a
given signal in the water. In this Agrippina should be in-
vited to embark ; the disruption of the treacherous planks
might be imputed to the winds and waves, and then her pious
son might erect a temple to his victim, and satisfy the un-
conscious world of his dutiful afiection.*

' Tac. Ann. xiv. 3. Suetonius says that the first design was to crush
Agrippina under the falling roof of a chamber prepared on shore for the pur-
pose ; but that of this Agrippina was forewarned. ^Vcr. 34. Dion assures us
tliat Poppaca and Seneca, not Nero, first took the idea of the treacherous ship
from some machinery of the kind in the theatre, and applied it to the pro-
jected destruction of Agrippina. But this strange mechanism occurs again in

A.U. 812.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 101

Such a vessel was accordingly prepared, fitted up sump-
tuously, and assigned for the conveyance of Agrippina from
Bauli, Avhere she would land from Antium, to

. .. Failure of an

Baia2, whither she was mvited by Nero, at the attempt to dc-
celebration of the five days' festival of Minerva
in the month of March. At this period, the beginning of
spring, the fashionable season of the baths began ; and Nero
pretended to open it with an act of reconciliation with the
parent from whom he had been too long estranged. The
empress left her own vessel at Bauli, as anticipated, and was
received on the beach by Nero; but apprised, as was be-
lieved, of some intended treachery, she declined to mount
the fatal bark, and insisted on completing the transit to Baise
in a litter. But there every apprehension was removed by
the caresses lavished upon her. The banquet was protracted
to a late hour, and when at last Nero took leave of her with
the blandest demonstrations of afiection, she no longer hesi-
tated to enter the vessel which had been sent to Baioe to re-
ceive her. The weather was fair, the sky brilliant with stars,
the gay company of the baths, turning night into day, linger-
ed on the beach as she embarked. There was nothing strange
or unusual in such a nocturnal excursion. But no sooner had
the rowers put ofi" from shore than the canopy beneath which
Agrippina reclined with her ladies gave Avay under the weight
of lead with which it had been loaded, and crushed one of
her attendants. At the same instant the bolts were suddenly
withdrawn. In the confusion, however, the mechanism fail-
ed to act ; the sailors tried, by rushing to one side of the
vessel, to overturn or sink it, having means at hand to make
their own escape. This too was unsuccessful, but Agrippina
and her companions were immersed in the Avater, and one of
the women, named Acerronia, hoping to save herself by ex-
claiming that she was the empress, was beaten with oars and
drowned. Agrippina, with more presence of mind, kept
silence, and swam, or floated on fragments of the wreck, till

Dion's history (Ixxvi. 1.), under the reign of Severus. Reimer refers to a coin
of that emperor on which it is represented. See Vaillant, Num. Imp. ii. 230.

102 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 59.

picked up by boats from the shore ; but she too was struck
once on the shoulder. Carried to a villa of her own on the
banks of the Lucrine lake, and now fully conscious of the
treacheiy from which she had so narrowly escaped, she felt
in her retreat that the only chance of safety was to pretend
entire iji^norance of it. "Without delay she despatched her
freednian Afjerinus to Xero, to announce her happy escape
from a lamentable accident, to entreat him to calm his own
impatience, and defer visiting her till she had tended her
wounds, and rested from her fatigues.

Of the failure Nero was already made aware. He had

watched the vessel quit the shore of Baite : perhaps in the

moonlight he had witnessed the catastrophe : at

Further machi- ^ .ir.*-

cations asainst all eA'Cuts, long bcforc the arrival of Agennus,
he was apj^rised that Agrippina had escaped,
wounded, but with life ; and he knew too well that she was
no longer deceived by his caresses. He believed, in his ter-
ror, that she was prepared to arm her slaves, to call upon the
soldiers, to appeal to the senate and people against hun.
Burrhus and Seneca were at hand. Tacitus leaves it uncer-
tain whether, as some believed, they were actually concerned
in the plot. His silence may be taken, perhaps, as so far
favorable to them. When, however, they came

Complicity of , . ' -, , • n

Seneca and mto the prmcc s prescuce, and heard his conies-

Burrhns. . ^ ., , , -, /» i • i

sion of guilt and earnest demand for advice, there
was first a long silence ; they may have despaired of dissuad-
ing ; possibly they thought that there now was no alterna-
tive : either the son or the mother must perish. At last
Seneca turned to Burrhus and asked whether the soldiers
should be directed to kill her. Burrhus replied that the sol-
diers could not be trusted against a daughter of Germanicus :
Let the admiral, he said, he required to fulfil Ins promise.
. . . . J?e mine the deed, replied Anicctus ; whereupon
Nero exclaimed Avith transport that this was the first day of
his Imperium ; that he owed the boon to a freedman. When
Agennus presently appeared, Anicetus let a dagger be drop-
ped at his feet, then seized him as an assassin, and loaded

A.U. 812.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 103

him with chains ; intending, after the murder of Agrippina,
to declai-e that she had attempted to assassinate the emperor,
and, failing in her design, had put an end to her own existence
The Baian j^alace and the Lucrine villa lay perhaps not
many furlongs apart, and these incidents, crowded within a
narrow space, had all occurred in the course of a , ^

'- ' ... Murder of

few hours. As soon as Ag-rippina's disaster was Agrippina ef-

, -, fected.

known to the residents of the coast, they rushed
to the beach, thronged the moles and terraces and leapt into
the boats beneath them, to ascertain what had befallen her.
The shore gleamed with innumerable torches, and resounded
with cries, and vows, and agitated murmurs. When it was
known that she had escaped, the multitude hurried to her
place of refuge in a tumult of joy. Arrived at the doors, they
found them beset by the armed band of Anicetus. Placing
a guard at every entrance, the freedman had made his way
into the villa, and required the slaves to lead him into their
mistress's presence. There lay the matron on a couch, with
a single attendant, by the light of a single lamp, waiting
anxiously for her messenger's return. Reassured for a mo-
ment by the enthusiasm of the populace, she sickened over
the long delay ; and when the cries of the multitude sank
into silence, too surely presaged the end which was to follow.
The slave herself slipped at last out of the room, and as she
exclaimed. Do you too desert me ? she beheld Anicetus and
his soldiers enter. She had scarce time to bid them return
with a favourable account of her health to their master, when
one of them struck her on the head with a stick, and the rest
rushed upon her, and despatched her with many wounds, she
exclaiming only, as she lay prostrate before them, Strike the
worah which bore a monster!^

In this account, says Tacitus, all writers in the main
agree. As to what is reported to have followed there Avas
no such fireneral agreement : we may believe it if „ ^ , ^

o a ^ J ^ Brutal be-

we will. Perhaps he would wish us to believe, haviourof

'■ Nero.

what he dares not himself assert, that Nero came

' Tac. Aym. xiv. 3-8.

104 HISTORY OF THE ROMAN'S [A.D. 59.

in person to examine the corpse of the mangled old woman,
and coolly praised its beauty to his attendants.' The remains
"vrere burnt the same night without ceremony ; nor were they
even entombed till some of Agrippina's domestics placed the
ashes in a decent sepulchre beside the road to Misenura. One
of her freedmen, Mnester, slew himself upon it ; a token of
fidelity which deserves at least to be recorded to her credit.
Througli a long career of ambition and wickedness she had
never blinded herself to the fate which too surely awaited
such a position and such schemes as hers. When she con-
sulted the Chaldeans about her son's fortunes, they had
warned her that he was destined to reign himself, and then
to slay her. Let him kill me, she had answered, let him but
reign.^

Then began, if we may believe some writers, the torments
of mind which from thenceforth never ceased to gnaw the
Nero attempts heart-strings of the matricide : the Furies shook
seirto'the^sen- their torclies in his tlice ; Agrippina's spectre flit-
''**• ted before him ; the trumpet, heard at her mid-

night obseqxiies, still blared with ghostly music from the hill
of Misenum.* However they might falter in their hopes or
fears about the future, the ancient moralists clung fondly to
the conviction that successful crime meets a sure punishment
in this world.* TVe shall read how, many years later, Nero
shunned the sight of Athens, as the city of the vengeful
Eumenides, and shrank, in conscious guilt, from initiation in
the Mysteries; yet, I fear, too much reliance must not be
placed on these popular imaginations, for we are informed

' So also Dion, Ixi. 14. : ovk ij&tiv bri ovtu ko?.^ firjrtpa el^ov.
' Tac. Ann. xiv. 9.: "Occidat dum impcrct."

' Suet. Kcr. 34. : "Sa?pe confessus exapitari se matema specie, vcrbcribus-
que Furianim ac taedis ardentibus." Tac. Aim. xiv. 10. ; Dion, 1. c. ; Stat.
Sylv. ii. 7. 118.:

" Pallidumquc visa
Matris lampade respicis Neronem."

* Juvenal, xiii. 2.:

' ' Prima est haec ultio, quod se
Judice, nemo nocens absolvitur."

A.U. 812.J UNDER THE EMPIRE. 105

that he ventured himself to enact the part of Orestes ; nor
would Lucan have alluded to the fate of Clytaemnestra, had
the murder of Agrij^pina been known to have left a sthig in
his patron's breast.' We are assured, however, and so far no
doubt truly, that the first impulse of the self-accuser, was to
fly from the scenes which could not change their faces like
the courtiers to flatter him, and retire to Naples, from whence
he despatched a letter to the senate, composed, as usual, by
Seneca, explaining the deed he had perpetrated. This mis-
sive asserted that his mother had conspired against his life ;
that her creature had been found with a weapon in the audi-
ence chamber ; that, in confusion at the discovery, she had
perished by her own hand. I am scarcely yet assured of my
safety, exclaimed the monster: It is no satisfaction to me,
he added, to have escapecV The disaster in the bay he rep-
resented as an accidental shipwreck. He declared, however,
that the death of this imperious woman might be accepted,
at all events, as a public benefit ; and he enumerated her acts
of arrogance and ambition, ascribing to her fatal influence
many of the worst excesses of Claudius. The explanation
bordered too closely on a justification: it was taken as a
murderer's confession of guilt, veiled by the ingenuity of a
hired advocate. But to put the best face on their master's
enormities was recognised as the duty both of the minister
and the courtiers. While the senators heaped flatteries and
felicitations upon him, they contrived to sell their sufi"rages
for some acts of favour. Some exiles were recalled, particu-
larly noble women^ who were said to have sufi*ered through
the influence of Agrippina ; the ashes of Lollia Paulina were

' Lucan, vii. 777. :

" Haud alias, nondum Scythica purgatus in ara,
Eumenidum vidit vultus Pelopeus Orestes."
Comp. Suet. Ner. 21. ; Dion, Ixiii. 22. According to Feuerbach {der Vatican.
Apollo), the Apollo Belvedere, which may have stood in Xero's villa at An-
tium, is not the Dragon-slayer, but the Averter of the Furies. Undoubtedly
the posture is not that of an archer.

" Tac. Ann. xiv. 11. Quintilian quotes from the letter these words: "Sal-
vum nee esse adhuc nee credo nee gaudeo." Inst Oral. viii. 5. 18.

106 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 59.

restored to her native country, and a tomb permitted to be
raised over them.

Nevertheless, the crime of which the wretched youth was
conscious, seemed so far to transcend the worst deeds of the
Roman princes, that Nero still apprehended, Avhen reflection
returned, a burst of indignation and even violence. The de-
meanour of his facile nobles reassured him beyond all expec-
tation. Still he hesitated to show himself His

His triumphal . t i . i • i • rr-

cntrj' into adviscrs Urged him, as his best security, to affect

the confidence of innocence. Still trembling, still
blushing, he entered Rome in the face of day. Seneca, Burr-
hus, even the hardy Anicetus, might be amazed at his glow-
ing reception. The senators came forth in their festal robes
to meet him: their wives and children were arranfred in lone;
rows on either side of the way ; the streets were thronged
with seats raised against the houses, to accommodate the
multitude of spectators as at a triumphal procession. And a
triumph indeed it was : Xero had conquered Rome, and now
led its people at his chariot-wheels to the Capitol. There he
offered thanksgivings to the Gods, and descended again only
to fling himself, in insolent security, into every form of mon-
strous dissipation, from which the last remains of reverence
for a mother had hitherto served to withhold him.^

So secure, indeed, was the monster of his subjects' serAdle
devotion, that he could now venture to despise the grim
raillery with which the populace assailed him ; for it was
more in jest than indignation that they hung the sack, the
instrument of death for parricide, about his statues, placard-
ed the Avails with the triad of matricides, A^ero, Orestes,
Alcmceoii, the three men that slew their mothers, and teased
him by pretending to denounce the perpetrators of these
offensive ribaldries." A discreet neglect soon caused this

' Tac. Ann. xiv. 13.
' Dion, Ixi. 16. :

"N^puv 'OptaTTj^, 'A?Mfia!<Jv, /iTjrpoKTSvoi.
Comp. Suet. I^er. 3. :

" Quis negat yEncrc magna de stiqie Neronem ?
Sustulit hie matrein, sustulit ille patrem."

A.U. 812.] UNDER THE EMPIRE, 107

petty annoyance to cease. The current of men's

'1 1 • • ^' Ti T J. T r. Nero gratifies

excited imacjmations "was speedily diverted by the populace

• - - P - .n -, 1 with Shows.

the celebration oi magnmcent games, and the re-
flections of the jeering populace were turned from their ruler's
cruelty to the indecency with which he descended himself
upon the stage, and contended in feats of skill with the
singers and musicians. Already at an earlier period, in his
passion for charioteering, he had erected a circus in his own
gardens on the Vatican, and there he had held the whip and
reins in the presence of applauding spectators admitted by invi-
tation to his private entertainments. His tutors, it was said,
had conceded him this indulgence to keep him from the more
heinous impropriety of singing and playing ; for he threatened
to come forth like Apollo, a Roman, as he remarked, no less
than a Grecian divinity, and claim as an honour for himself
the admiration which was allowed to be honourable to the
Deity. But he would be now no longer thus restricted. He
resolved to exhibit himself as an actor ; and still shrinking
from the reputed enormity, of appearing before promiscuous
multitudes on the public stage, he devised a new festival,
which he called the Juvenalia, to be held within institution of
the precincts of the palace. The prince himself *^^ Jivenaiia.
was the hero of this solemnity. Arrived at the age of man-
hood, his beard was clipped, and the first tender doAvn of his
cheek and chin enclosed in a golden casket, and dedicated to
Jupiter in the Capitol.' This ceremony was followed by
music and acting ; men of all ranks and in great numbers

' Dion, Ixi. 19. There maybe some question about the exact period of the
institution of the Juvenalia. Tacitus mentions it under the year 812, but he
does not expressly state that it was tlien instituted, for which, however, we
have Dion's authority. The ceremony of first cropping the beard was more
properly perfonned in the twentieth year (Suet. Calif/. 10.) ; and if Nero was
born, as I suppose, in October, 790, this would bring the date to 810 or 811.
Suetonius and Dion tell a story, which I reject without hesitation as worthless,
that Nero caused his aunt Domitia to be poisoned with a pretended medicine,
from mere caprice, because, being sick, she liad said she could now die without
regret, having lived to see her darling's beard clipped. Hitherto at least Nero's
enormities were not without a motive.

108 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 59.

were admitted as spectators ; illustrious Romans were bribed
to exhibit themselves as dancers and singers ; grave senators
and stately matrons capered in the wanton measures of mer-
cenary buffoons and posture-makers. The degradation to
which Xero thus constrained his noblest subjects seems, in
the view of the j^hilosophic Tacitus, to deepen the shades
which hung over the fame of the matricide. The historian
proceeds to describe, as an enhancement of his excesses, the
establishment of what we should call a public garden round
the basin of Augustus beyond the Tiber, where drinks and
viands were distributed to the populace, and all comers, gen-
tle and simple, received a ticket for refreshments^yAxxoh good
men exchanged for these vile commodities because they were
compelled, the profligate from depraved inclination. Hence-
forth vice, he says, walked abroad more heinous and more
shameless than ever. These promiscuous assemblages of men
and women of all ranks together, corrupted the manners of
the age more than any cause that could be named.*

Last of all, to crown the universal degeneracy, when his
people had been sufticiently corrupted, Xero descended him-
Nero descends ^^^^ upon the Stage, with the lyre in his hand,
upon the stage, -^^i^igj^ jjg -yy^s seen to tune with nervous solici-
tude before commencing his performance. His voice was
husky, his breath was short, and all the appliances of his art
were unavailing to correct their defects." But of this he was
much too vain to be conscious. Xevertheless, to silence en-
vious detractors, a troop of soldiers was kept always in at-
tendance, and at their head stood Burrhus himself, disguising
the sob of shame with ejaculations of applause. A band of
young nobles, entitled Augustani, was enrolled to applaud
the performance, to praise the divine beauty of the prince,
and the divine excellence of his sinccins.' Doubtless the

* Tac. Ann. xiv. 15. : " Nee uUa moribus corruptis olim plus libidinum cir-
cumdcrlit quam ilia colluvies."

^ Dion, Ixi. 20. : ^uvqfia ppaxv Kul /ii?MV. Lucian, Kcroji. 7. : To Se Tfvev-
fia b?Ayov koI ovk anoxpuv nov dij.

* Nero, it seems, had been charmed at Naples by the performance of pro-

A.U. 813.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 109

verses already quoted from Seneca were frequently in their
mouths, Nero himself was a verse maker also. His claims
to poetical merit Avere, as might he expected, meagre, and he
so far distrusted himself in this art that he entertained many
rhymers about him, whose business it was to catch each
pretty turn of phrase or thought that fell from him, and
weave it into verse as best they miglit. You may trace,
says Tacitus gravely, in the poems of Nero the manner of
their origin : for they flow not, as it were, with a current and
inspiration of their own: they have no unity of style or
meaning.^ In private, Nero, as a philosopher's pupil, affected
some interest in philosophical discussions, the common pas-
time of educated men in his time ; and he suffered himself to
be attended, after the fashion of the day, by the professed
sages of Greece and Rome. It is said however that he had
no real sympathy with their pursuits ; he enjoyed a boyish
gratification in setting them to wrangle together. Agrip-
pina, indeed, is accused of having dissuaded him from the
study, as unfit for a king of men.' For painting and sculp-
ture, as Grecian arts, he may have acquired the taste of a
virtuoso, and the charms of Grecian architecture incited him
to magnificence in building.' But his true delight was in the
shows of the theatre and the circus. In 813 he institution of
institued games called after himself Neronia, to ^^^ Neronia.
be conducted in the Greek fashion, and to recur periodically
like the Olympian." They embraced musical and gymnas-

fessional claqueurs from Alexandria, and made them his model. Suet.
Ner. 20.

' Tac. Ann. xiv. 16. : " Non impetu et instinctu, nee uno ore fluens." Sue-
tonius {Ner. 52.) holds that he did compose his Verses himself, and appeals to
the manuscripts he had seen of them.

^ Suet. Ner. 52.

' The statues of the Apollo Belvedere, whether it be an original work of
Grecian art, or a Roman copy (it seems not yet to be decided whether the ma-
terial be the marble of Paros or of Carrara), and the Fighting Gladiator, wore
found in the ruins of Nero's palace at Antium. Of Nero's taste for building I
shall speak hereafter. On the subject of the former work, see above, p. 125, n.

* Dion, Ixi. 21. : Suet. Ner. : " Instituit quiuquennale certamen primus om-

110 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. CO.

tic contests, as well as chariot-racing. For games of
athletic skill he erected a gymnasium, this designation, as
well as the contests themselves, being altogether new to the
Romans. It is curious to read in Tacitus how the old-fash-
ioned citizens, still a numerous and respectable body, mur-
mured at the introduction of these foreign customs, which
they connected with the reputed profligacy of Grecian morals,
and how the rising generation defended them.* No page of
our author reads more like a declamation of our own day.
Nero caused himself to be inscribed on the list of Citharoedi,
and obtained the prize as the best of lyrists without an an-
tagonist ; for all the rest were declared by the judges un-
worthy even to compete with him. No rcAvard was given
for eloquence; but Nero again was pronounced to be the
conqueror. The first public display of Lucan's poetical ge-
nius was made on this occasion ; when he came forwai-d to
sing the praises of the prince who had made him his compan-
ion and assistant.* On the whole the first celebration of the
Neronia was dignified and imi^osing ; for the low bufibonery
of the histrions, the favourites of the baser sort, was excluded
from this Hellenic festival. It was remarked that from this
time the Greek fashions, long denizened in Naples and the
cities of Campania, obtained more and more favour with the
Roman voluptuaries ; the loose Greek robes in which the
spectators were enjoined to array themselves, to favour the
illusion of the spectacle, were retained in common use, and
displaced, in spite of the sneer of Augustus, the toga of the
world's masters.* ^

nium Romre." According to Eckhel {Dodr. Kvmm. vi. 264.) these games con-
tinued to be repeated as late as the time of Constantine.

■ Tac. Ann. xiv. 21, 22. The contempt of the Romans for the gymnic en-
tertainments of Greece is marked by Lucan, vii. 270. :

" Graiis delecta juventus
Gymnasiis aderit, studioque ignava palaestrae."

" Suetonius, vit. Lucan.

^ Tac. 1. c. The chlaniys, a loose and short cloak, and crepis, a kind of
sandal, were distinctive articles of Grecian costume, already much in use
among the Roman sojourners at the Greek cities of Italy. See note of Lipsius
on Tac. Atuu xiv. 21.

A.U. 813.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. HI

Our authorities, especially Suetonius and Dion, abound
in details of the grandeur and extravagance of the shows
with Avhicli Nero astonished his people, more

'■ , Increasing ex-

particularlv on the occasion of celebrating the travaganceof

IT J '-^ _ the shows.

Ludi Maximi, as he styled them, for the eternity The mdi Max-
of the Roman Empire. The most remarkable of
these exhibitions was perhaps that of an elephant which de-
scended from the cornice of the amphitheatre to the arena
upon the tight rope, — it does not appear how it first reached
that elevation, — with a Roman knight on his back. The dis-
tribution of precious objects, — gokl, jewels, tissues, pictures,
animals, and finally ships, houses, and estates, — exceeded the
wanton liberality of Caius. Nero followed the Roman tradi-
tion in constructing an amphitheatre for the display of his
own elegant spectacles ; ' but he amazed and mortified them
by excluding, in the spirit of Greek humanity, the combats
of gladiators, and by refusing to sacrifice the life even of con-
demned criminals. Yet his scruples were those of the man
of art, rather than the man of feeling. His Roman entertain-
ments were served after the bloodier fashion of his own coun-
trymen. In the course of his reign he is said to have pro-
duced not less than five hundred senators and six hundred
knights arrayed for combat, though evidently their contests
were not meant to be mortal. While the populace exulted
in the descent of their magnates into the arena, Nero himself
was better pleased when he prevailed on them to compete on
the stage in music, and reduced what at other times had been
an occasioned sally of vanity to a regular practice. Foreign
spectatoi'S were more afiected than either the prince or his
people, at beholding beneath their feet a Paulus, a Mummius,
a Scipio, and a Marcellus, whose fathers' trophies were still
conspicuous in the streets, whose fathers' halls and temples

' The theatres adapted to scenic representations, in which the Greeks were
content to exhibit such spectacles, wore incapable, of course, of receiving the
crowds of the great metropolis ; but Nero, like many great builders before
him, was content with a temporary edifice of wood.

112 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 6a

were the proudest monuments of the city.' Nero was the
first of the emperors who seems, with some emotions of sensi-
bility, to have been wholly devoid of national prejudices.
Coarse and unamiable as the national feeling of the Romans
was, the world had no better security against wanton and
unmitigated tyranny.

We have now reached a period when the chief of the
Roman state, the representative of its most illustrious fami-
lies, is found altogether insensible to the princi-

Nero's insensi- ii.iit.ii • .

biiity to na- ples wliich had camcd her in triumjjli through
every combination of foreign and domestic i^eril.
The announcement of such a fact may induce us to pause in
our narrative, and estimate, as we best^ Diay, the circum-
stances of the times which made such a phenomenon possible.
Was the gay and thoughtless, but instructed and accom-
plished, prince before us the impersonation of the general feel-
ing, or an exception to it ? He was partly both. His want
of sympathy with antiquity is to be ascribed partly to his
education, which was exceptional, partly also to his position,
in which he represented the lowest class of citizens, and re-
The result of Accted their temper and instincts. The teaching J

hi'the pHncT of Scucca, which drew all its interest from the 1

itoic^phiioso- Greek philosophy, was alien from the old Roman
f^y- sentiments. His doctrines were essentially cos-

mopolite. He sought to refer questions of honour and justice
to general and eternal principles, rather than solve them by
the test of precedents and political traditions. The educated
men of the later Republic, as well as of the early Empire,
had opened their arms wide to embrace these foreign specu-
lations ; and whether they had resigned themselves to Epicur-
ism, as was the fashion under Julius and Augustus, or had
cultivated Stoicism, which was now more generally in vogue,

' Suet. Ner. 12. ; Dion, Ixi. 17. : Kat e6aKTv?io6eiKTow ye avroix aXXt/?j)ic,
Kol eTriXeyov, MaKsddvec fiev, ovt6c iariv 6 tov TVavTxtv iKyowoc ' 'EA/l^Tvef d^,
ovTog Toil Mofifiiov "ZikOuutoi^ Idcrt tov K^mvScov' ''S.neipuTai^ 16et£ Tbv
'Arnrtov. 'Amavol, tov Aovkiov 'IiSripec, tov Hoifn^ov Kapx^lSdvcoi,
A<l>piKav6v • 'Pufiatoi 6s kovtoc.

A.U. 813.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 113

they equally abandoned the ground of their unpolished
fathers, which asserted the pre-eminence of patriotism above
all the virtues, the subordination of every claim of right and
duty to national interest and honour. But men cannot rule
the Avorld in the same spirit in which they conquer it.
Humanity in its widest sense, as sympathy with man, follows,
by the condition of our nature, on the sense of ease and
security. We shall presently see, indeed, the Roman Stoics
suddenly awaking from this dream of philanthropy, and fling-
ing themselves again, Avith passionate disappointment, upon
the narrower interests which constituted the strength of their
fathers ; trying indeed, but feebly and with no consistency,
to connect the duties of the Roman with the universal spirit
of rectitude and holiness. But as yet, Stoicism, in the ranks
of Roman society, was merely a speculative creed ; and the
habit now prevalent there, of speculating on the unity of
mankind, the equality of races, the universality of justice, the
subjection of prince and people, of masters and slaves, of con-
queror and conquered, to one rule of Right, tended undoubted-
ly to sap the exclusive and selfish spirit of Roman antiquity.
It was by his position, however, at the head of the dis-
solute democracy of Rome, that Nero was taught more es-
pecially to divest himself of the ideas and motives „^ ^^^.

J- •' . 2d. Of his po-

which seemed to become the offspnng of the sitionatthe

. . T T head of the Ko-

Domitii and the JuJu. The emmence, mdeed, to man democ-

racv.

which he was born might itself preclude him
from ever imbibing them. The men by whom his infancy
had been surrounded were slaves and freedmen, chiefly of
Greek extraction, men whose lessons of life and manners
were pointed doubtless with many a gibe at the decrepitude
of Latium and Sabellia, with proud laudation of the genius
of Hellenic culture, which had survived so many conquests
and captivities, and laid its invisible yoke on the necks of
the world's masters. The society of the palace displayed, in
striking colours, the intellectual superiority of the Greeks ;
and Nero was led, by all his early tuition, to regard intel-
lectual polish as the true end of civilization. But the em-

TOL TI. 8

114 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 60.

peror, moreover, was the representative of the Roman popu-
lace ; of that hybrid multitude of the circus and the baths,
which owed no fealty to the traditions of the forum and the
camp. These were the natural supporters of his tribunitian
power, while the nobles, the true blood of Home, might be
regarded as his hereditary enemies. Even the names of his
predecessors, Tiberius and Caius, might remind him of the
tribunes of two centuries before, the champions of the plebs
against the optimates. We may almost imagine, that in this
prevalence of personal over family appellations, there lingered
yet a reminiscence of the popularity of the Gracchi.'

It would appear, indeed, that Avhile the nobles had no
cause of quarrel against their prince, but for the offence he
Nero's temper- may have given to antique prejudices, they al-
fn^cases of'M'a^- lowcd themselves to reflect on his character and
esty and ubeL administration in terms that could not fail to
make a breach between them. Scandalous as the vices and
the amusements of Xero had now become, monstrous as were
the crimes he had perpetrated within the sphere of his own
family, his government was still conducted on wholesome
principles, the co-ordinate powers of the state flourished under
his tolerant protection, the magistrates were held in honour,
the senate bore something more than the mere semblance of
authority. The state Avas prosperous, the laws were respect-
ed, public criminals were punished, virtue and moderation
were recognised as claims to reward. Under such circum-
stances, the canker of internal corruption, the absence of high
principles, might be concealed from the eyes of ordinary
observers ; and it may be doubted whether all the philosophy
of Rome could furnish one man wise enough to look beneath
the surface, and detect the symptoms of national decay which
really lurked there. The instincts of Christianity alone could

' The indij^ant allusion of Lucan to the Drusi and Gracchi, and to the
supposed exultation of their shades at the success of the Cacsaroan usurpation,
is not uninstructive (F/iars. vi. in fin.) :

" Vidi ego laetantes, popularia nomina, Drusos ;
Legibus immodicos, ausosque ing3ntia Graccho3."

A.U. 815.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 115

indicate the disease, at the same time that they aflforded the
remedy. We must allow, then, that justice as well as pru-
dence should have rejiressed the selfish jealousy of the nobles;
and taught them at least to tolerate the ruler who deserved
well of the republic. But it would seem that they had no
such self-control. In the year 815, the turning point, as it is
commonly regarded, of Nero's public administration, a praetor
named Antistius, who already, as tribune of the plebs, had
shoAvn little disposition to confine himself within the limits
of his functions, thought fit to compose verses against the
emperor, and to recite them in a company of knights and
senators. The law of Majesty, under which such indecent
raillery would have met with speedy punishment, had been
set aside : Nero piqued himself on his generous discourage-
ment of the informers. But the flatterers of power were
ever prompt to seize an opportunity for courting it. It was
easy to represent that the safety of the prince required pro-
tection to his dignity. A few years only of exemption from
the shame and peril of delation had sufliced to blunt the sense
of its enormities, and the demand now made by the courtly
Capito for reviving of charges of Majesty, seems to have been
hailed by all with blind precipitation. The senate assented
without serious opposition from any of its members. But
Capito required, further, that the action of the law should be
retrospective. The ribaldry of Antistius, he protested, was
not only shocking, but dangerous. The safety of the state,
not of the emperor only, required an example to be made.
The stretch of legal principle for his punishment was well de-
served ; and it was for once only. Many acquiesced in these
violent proceedings, so at least they pretended, to give the
prince an opportunity of gracefully absolving his maligner
by the exercise of the tribunitian veto. A consul designate,
inspired by this refined notion of flattery, proposed that the
culprit should be stripped of his praetorship and scourged to
death, after the ancient manner. The senators ratified the
outrageous sentence with headlong ardour; but Foetus
Thrasea alone, one of the few honest men among them, re-

116 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. G2.

fused to concur in it, and while he tempered his vote with
much praise of the emperor, and invectives against his de-
famer, invoked the milder punishment of exile with confisca-
tion. This temperate counsel had a great effect on the impul-
sive assembly, ever prone, as we have seen, to the most sud-
den conversions, and devoid, it would seem, of those convic-
tions and principles, the possession of which is among the
most essential qualities of a deliberative body. It was de-
termined to proceed no further Avithout first ascertaining the
emperor's real wishes ; and this precipitate flattery ended in
placing him in the disagreeable position of deciding as a judge
on a question of his own personal dignity. Nero hastened
to refer the afiair again to the senate, not omitting, however,
to claim some credit for allowing it to absolve the criminal.
After some further discussion, Thrasea's firmness prevailed;
and the senators generally acquiesced in his vote for the
minor punishment,* Patient as the emperor had shown him-
self in the case of a libel against his own person, he bore, as
might be expected, with equal composure, the publication of
scandalous writings against the senate. When a certain
Fabricus Veiento was accused of putting forth ofiensive libels
against the fathers and the pontiffs, Nero, to whom the cog-
nisance of the charge was referred by appeal, again declined
to interfere. It was not till a fresh indictment was presented
against the culprit, and he was declared to have trenched on
the imperial prerogatives, and even to have sold magistracies
and other appointments, that the chief of the state could be
induced to summon him before his tribunal. Veiento was
banished from Italy ; his books, the original subject of com-
plaint, were ordered to be burnt, and it was declared crim-
inal to read or possess them. As long as this interdict lay
upon them they Avere sought for Avith ardour; but Avhen it
was shortly afterwards removed, they soon ceased to attract
curiosity.'

* Tac. Ann. xiv. 48. For the turbulent character of this man, called else-
where {Ann. xiii. 63. ; xvi. 10.) L. Vetus, see xiii. 28.

" Tac. Ann. xiv. 50. : " Conquisitos Icctitatosque, donee cum periculo para-
bantur, mox licentia habcndi oblivionem attulit."

A.U. 815.] UNDER THE EMPIRE, 117

To those wlio, with the bitter experience of past years,
foresaw that the first step, however hesitating, in the direc-
tion of tyranny, must rapidly lead to a revival of

./ "^ .,. . „. Death of Burr-

its pristine terrors, even these indications of iin- hus ascribed to

T , , , . , • T1 poison.

penal jealousy might serve as a warning. l>ut
the young Caesar's progress in dissipation and expense gave
nearer cause for apprehension. The wasteful extravagance
of his first eight years could not have been maintained with
pure hands, had he not found in the coffers of his predecessor
the accumulated treasures of a reign of carefulness and mod-
eration. Though no friendly voice has deigned to signalize
the economy of Claudius, this fact seems alone sufiicient to
establish it, and to add another to the various circumstances
which impugn the common notion of his imbecility, and the
unchecked rapacity of his ministers. But the descent from
dissipation to extravagance, from extravagance to want, from
want to violence and tyranny, was inevitable. It could only
be a question of time. The profusion of the prince would
surely grow with indulgence ; his treasury must stand always
empty, and unlimited power would not long be baulked of
the means of replenishing it. Such was the gloomy prospect
before the nobles, when, the first to apprehend as the first to
feel the tyranny of their autocrat, they saw with dismay the
death of Burrhus and the removal therewith of the strono^est
bulwark against the encroachments of unthrifty despotism.
Rumours of poison were whispered among them, and symp-
toms were reported which gave colour to the suspicion.
Nero, it was related, had repeatedly come to the sick man's
bedside, to inquire after his health ; but he could extort from
him no thanks for this solicitude, no frank avowal of his suf-
ferings, but only the dry answer, J am doing welV But,
however this may be, neither symptoms nor rumours had so
much effect on the general belief as the apprehensions excited
by the character of the personages between whom Nero di-
vided the military command which had reposed in the hands

' Tac. Ann. xiv, 51.

118 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 62.

of Burrhus. Fenius Rufus was timid and indolent, ready to
please either prince or people by any base acquiescence : but
Elevation of Ti- t^^ wickcdness of Tigellinus was more active ; al-
geUinus. ready infamous as the partner of his master's de-

baucheries, he became the worst adviser of his tyranny, and
the willing instrument of his cruelties.' Such were the min-
isters to whom Nero instinctively resorted, a bad man and a
weak man ; the one to contrive crimes, the other to sanction
them. And at this moment he might have a special motive
for ridding himself of a brave and honest adviser ; for he was
meditating a divorce from Octavia, which Burrhus sturdily
opposed as unjust and impolitic. When urged by the em-
peror to accede to it, he had bluntly replied (such at least
was the reply the Romans delighted to ascribe to him) : If
you dismiss the daughter of Claudius, restore at least the etiir
pire which was her dowry. ^

The death of Burrhus helped to break down the influence
of Seneca also. This result, however, flowed in a great meas-
Seneca at- ^^^ from the blind jealousy of the nobles them-

dTw from'^ub- selves. It was natural that they should regard
lie life. ^g ^jj upstart the provincial, the sophist, the son

of the grammarian : they might cavil at the liberality of liis
views, and impugn his influence as pernicious. From them,
probably, came the accusations which were now heaped on
the suiwiving guardian of Xero's innocence, and which Nero
showed himself little anxious to baflie. The riches Seneca
had acquired were imputed to him as a crime ; it was insinu-
ated that the friigal sage had amassed them to hatch treason
and corrupt the populace. It was pretended moreover that
he vaunted himself the prince's master in eloquence and

* Tac. 1. c. Dion, Ixii. 13. This seems to have been the first occasion of
dividing the prefecture between two, the plan recommended by Maecenas ac>-
cording to Dion (lii. 24.): twv 61 6^ iTnriuv 6vo tovq apiarov^ r^g Trepi ae
<j>povpdc apxEiv.

^ Both Dion and Suetonius ascribe the death of Burrhus more confidently
to poison. The former writer remarks the rude freedom of speech in which
the prefect indulged (Ixii. 13.).

A.U. 815.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 119

poetry, disparaging at the same time the excellence he could
not hope to rival in music and charioteering. Nero's petty
and vindictive spirit was an instrument easily played upon.
Seneca was not blind to the shy consciousness which shunned
his presence. Fear and habit alone continued to preserve his
life. NoAV was the time to take the course which he had long
meditated, as the means of escaping from danger. He plead-
ed age and ill health, and demanded leave to withdraw from
court ; at the same time he offered to relinquish the wealth
which rendered him, as he knew, most obnoxious. Such
tokens of distrust alarmed Nero. He set himself to caress
and cajole; his blandishments were fascinating, but his en-
treaties were in fact commands ; and Seneca found his escape
cut off, without beinsf for a moment deceived as to the im-
minence of his peril. Muttering to himself or his friends the
wisest maxims of his school, he renounced all outward show,
either of wealth or influence, and pretended to devote him-
self more earnestly than ever to philosophic abstraction.^

Although the ostensible authority over the praetorians
might be divided between Rufus and Tigellinus, it was not
long before the entire confidence of the emperor pj^t^, influence
was given to a single favourite, Rufus, indeed, "^ Tigeiimus.
owed his elevation primarily to the good- will of the populace,
to whom he was endeared by the liberality in dispensing their
dole of grain without making a profit himself; he had also
been admitted to the friendship of Agrippina ; and on both
these accounts became an object of suspicion to Nero. But
his colleague, a man of obscure birth and of no pretensions to
distinction or popularity, was better fitted to obtain a tyrant's
confidence. This confidence once acquired he sought suc-
cessfully to keep by humouring the prince's passions, and
plunging him into crimes on the plea of safety and necessity.

The first victims to this man's intrigues were Plautus and

' Tac. Ann. xiv. 53-56. The fears of Seneca and the artifices of Nero are
set forth in a dialogue between them. Our dramatic fabulist never wears the
historian's veil more loosely than in this scene, which assuredly was never
acted, and still less could have been reported.

120 HISTORY OF THE ROMA^'S fA.D. 62.

Sulla, personages of liigli rank and consideration, of whom
Execution of Ncro, as the favourite knew, was painfully jealous,
tM^and o.r-''" Rubellius Plautus, whose relation to the imperial
nciius Sulla. family has been before noticed, was generally re-
spected for his character; his name was connected accord-
ingly with the plot which Silana had ventured to impute to
Agrippina ; and recently on the appearance of a comet which
was supposed to portend the fall of the reigning prince, it
was to him that they had turned their eyes as the fittest and
most natural successor.' Nero had recommended his kins-
man to remove from Rome to his estates in Asia ; and here
Plautus had resided since 813 with his wife and a modest
retinue of slaves, abstaining from all pailicipation in affairs.
Still Nero watched him with anxiety, while Tigellinus con-
tinued to insist upon the birth, the wealth, and the reputation
of the exile, and the proximity of his retreat to the armies of
Syria. It was determined in secret conclave that his life
should be taken, and for this purpose a centurion Avith sixty
soldiers, under the orders of an eunuch of the palace, was de-
spatched from Rome. Sulla, meanwhile, had been removed
to Massilia: he was poor while Plautus was rich; he was
despiable in character, while Plautus was highly esteemed ;
but me nobility of his descent and the name of the great dic-
tator could be objected against him, and the Germanic legions,
it was thought, might possibly attach themselves to him.
Such were the alarms of the unwarlike stripling, who kept
a handful of guards in his service only by largesses and
caresses." Sulla's fate was soon decided. It required but

' Tac. Ann. xiii. 19. liv. 22. : " Quasi jam depulso Xerone, quisnam delige-
retur anquirebant ; et omnium ore Rubellius Plautus celcbrabatur."

' Tac. Arm. xiv. 57.: "Propinquos huic Orientis, illi Germaniae exer-
citus .... erectas Gallias ad nomen dictatorium." The Xarbonensis, as
has been remapked more than once in the course of this history, was closely
connected with the old senatorial party under Pompeius, Domitius, and Fon-
teius. It is curious to find this connexion again referred to, after all the pains
the Cffisars had taken to undo it. It is not impossible that the democratic em-
peror may have been reminded of it by the recent attempt of Gaetulicus to as-
sert his independence in that quarter.

A.U. 815.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 121

six days for Nero's myrmidons to reach the coast of Gaul,
and the exile was already slain and his head brought to the
emperor, while the murderers of Plautus were still on their
journey. As soon as it was known in the city that this pre-
cious life was also in danger, some of his kinsmen hastened
to advertise him, and their warnings, with exhortations to
resist and dare the worst, reached him before the messengers
of death ai'rived. It seems strange, indeed, that the victim
should have made no effort to escape or to i-esist.* All Asia lay
before him for flight : the legions of the East Avere command-
ed by Corbulo, whose fame made him odious to the emperor.
But Plautus was unmoved : whether he despaired of escaping
or defending himself, or was actually weary of the suspense
of his position, or whether he hoped by submission to avert
the confiscation of his patrimony, he calmly pursued his ex-
ercises and studies, and was found at last by his assassins
unrobed for the games of the palaestra. The eunuch looked
on while the centurion struck the victim's head off. When
the trophy was brought to Rome, Nero is said to have ex-
claimed, that he was now free to effect his marriage with
Poppsea, without fear of a rival to profit by the public com-
miseration for Octavia. But he pretended to be delivered
from two dangerous adversaries, and required the senate to
congratulate him, and decree a thanksgiving for the state
preserved and a revolution averted.*

Thus at the close of the eighth year of his principate did
Nei'o exhibit himself, almost without disguise, as a vulgar
tyrant, timid and sanguinary, cutting off one by one the most

' Many of my readers will remember Gibbon's remark, and the striking
note appended to it : " To resist was fatal ; and it was impossible to fly. . . .
Under Tiberius a Roman knight attempted to fly to the Parthians. He was
stopped in the straits of Sicily ; but so little danger did there appear in the
example that the most jealous of tyrants disdained to punish it." See Tac.
Ann. vi. 14. Nevertheless the explanation must be felt to be unsatisfactory.
I can only refer, in addition, 1. to the gross apathy with regard to death in
which the Romans were now generally sunk ; and 2. to their singular abhor-
rence of exile among strangers.

' Tac. Ann. xiv. 57-59.

122 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 62.

eminent around him in station or virtue. From

Further devel- , . . i i /> m i i .

opmentofNe- this time iio senator could tail to see that Ins
own life hung only on the caprice of a master,
and of the creatures who surrounded him. It was impossible
for him to impose on himself, any more than on the prince,
by the abject servility of his adulation. Yet having once
devoted himself to soothing the monster by caresses, all his
moral courage deserted him; condemned by his own con-
science, he had no prop to lean on ; there seemed no other
course for him but to repeat and daily increase the dose of
flattery, to crouch more obsequiously under every act of
cruelty and oppression ; only to hope that his own turn of
suiFering might come the last. Seneca's influence was gone.
It is some satisfaction to believe that the crimes which fol-
lowed were neither suggested nor excused by this preacher
of expediency ; and we may hope that, at last, when his doc-
trines were reproved by the result, he learnt to detest the
subterfuges under which he had sheltered his own dereliction
from honesty and virtue. The tyrant's passions now ranged
unrestrained. The crime he had long prepared was about to
be consummated. To the child-wife to whom he was united,
he never felt nor jiretended attachment. Their cohabitation

had been brief and barren. Octavia was too art-
Fail of Octavia. , . , , , . , . .

less to raise any obstacle to his licentious amours.
Yet, as the daughter of Messalina, even her existence would
remind him of the crimes which had raised him to power ; as
the child of Claudius, the people, with their usual caprice,
might lavish upon her the favour they had withheld from her
father. To these obvious motives for jealousy was added the
fierce ambition of Popprea, Avho demanded of her lover the
last proof of his devotion. Still some pretext was necessary,
and the barrenness of the deserted wufe was alleged as a rea-
son for repudiating her. She was required to remove from
the palace ; but at the same time the house of Burrhus and
the estates of Plautus were, with a show of liberality, assign-
ed to her. The marriage with Poppa^a followed only twelve
days later. The intruder was now in a position to destroy

A.U. 815.J UNDER THE EMPIRE. 123

the victim she had injured. She contrived an accusation
against her of adultery with a slave ; her maids were tortured
to extort evidence of her guilt ; and Tigellinus paid court to
the reigning favourite by presiding at the foul examination.
Well did he earn the scathing sarcasm which clings like the
shirt of Nessus to his name.* Yet the pretended revelations
thus odiously obtained hai-dly gave a colour to the harsh
measure of sending her to a place of custody in Campania ;
and when the populace, excited by such great and unmerited
misfortunes, murmured against the decree, Nero found it ne-
cessary to recall her. Thereupon the citizens rushed tumultu-
ously to the Capitol, to sacrifice to the national divinities ;
they overthrew all the statues of Popptea within their reach,
while they crowned Octavia's with flowers. They crowded
about the palace, and filled its courts : the emperor dispersed
them with a military force, and replaced the images of his
paramour. Yet he dared not persist in this defiance: trem-
bling and irresolute, he neither dared to retain Poppsea in the
palace, nor could he determine to restore Octavia to her place
and rights. If, while still absent in Campania, her name
alone sufficed to raise a tumult, what, he asked, might be the
effect of her actual return to the city? But the charges
hitherto made against her had failed of reasonable proof:
even if proved, an intrigue with a slave deserved, in Roman
eyes, neither the name nor punishment of treason. Another
charge must be invented, another connexion, more capable
of such an imputation, must be fabricated. Nero had long
loathed the sight of Anicetus, the contriver of his mother's
murder. Strange to relate, he induced him, by extraordinary
promises, to avow an amour with the wretched princess. For
the present he must be banished, for appearance' sake, to an
island; but he should reap ample rewards at a later period.
This confession was enough. A charge not of adultery, but
of Majesty, was founded upon it; for the captain of the fleet
was capable of guilty aspirations ; and, with additional in-

' Tac. Ann. xiv. 60. Dion, lii. 13.

124 HISTORF OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 62.

Her banish- ^"^^s to her Outraged innocence, Octavia "svas im-
™''°*- prisoned in Pandateria. Familiar as the Romans

had now become Avith the Tjanishment of grave and noble
matrons, they were not insensible to the cruel aggravations
of her lot. The Caesarean princesses who had thus suffered
before her, the Julias and Agrippinas, had at least attained
the strength and fortitude of mature years ; they had seen
some happy days / they had the consolation, for such it was
regarded in the creed of Paganism, of reflecting in their sor-
row that they had had a portion, at least, of the common en-
joyments of life. But to Octavia her marriage had been no
other than a funeral : led as she was to a house where every-
thing Avas funereal and fatal ; where her father, and soon after-
wards her brother, had been poisoned; where a maid had
become more poAverful than her mistress ; where a paramour
had supplanted the laAvful spouse ; lastly, where she had been
branded Avith a crime more hateful to her than the worst of
deaths.^

The poor child had not yet attained her twentieth birth-
day, when, encompassed by soldiers and centurions, she au-
gured too surely that the days of her existence

Her death. ° , -, r. -n i- • • i

Avere numbered, htill cungmg with agony to
life, she proclaimed in Aain that she was now no more than
Caesar's widow, no more than his sister, and invoked the
names of their common kindred, the offsjjring of Germanicus,
the name of Agrippina herself, during whose power her union,
if unhappy, had at least been protected. After a fcAV days
she Avas seized and bound, and her veins opened Avith the
knife ; she fainted, and the blood refused to floAV ; she was
finally stifled by the fumes of a warm bath. Iler head Avas
seA'cred from her body, and carried to the cruel Poppaea.
Vows and sacrifices were offered to the gods by a decree of
the senate; and so, says the historian, we are henceforth

* ISiC. Ann. xiv. 63.: "Xuptiarum dies loco funeris fuit, deductae in do-
mum in qua nihil nisi luctuosum haberet, erepto per venenum patre et statim
fratre : tum ancilla domina validior ; et Poppaea non nisi in pemiciem uxoris
nupta : postremo crimen omni exitio gravius."

A.U. 815.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 125

to understand, without special mention, that whenever any-
atrocious barbarity was perpetrated by the emperor, the tri-
umph of his personal selfishness was celebrated with the same
ceremonies as had once signalized the victories of the Roman
people.

Nero had now cleared away all partners or rivals of his
power in his own family. He remained alone, the last of a
race which he was not destined to perpetuate. Nevertheless,
his causes of apprehension were not removed by these hide-
ous massacres. He had exchanged the jealousy of a kinsman
for the enmity of the whole world. He turned from nobler
victims to the vain and wealthy freedmen of his own house-
hold. Doryphorus, the secretary of the palace, prosecution of
was put to death for the opposition he had pre- ^en^'Dor'''''ho-
sumed to oiFer to the nuptials of Poppjea ; unless, ''"^ ^^^ p^"''^-
indeed, the riches he had amassed in the imperial service
were the real cause of his destruction, as of that of Pallas, for
whose natural death, aged as he now was, the prince was
tired of waiting.* The wealth of Seneca, also, for he still had
the reputation of wealth, tempted Nero's cupidity; and he
listened eagerly to accusations of conspiracy which the flat-
terers of power contrived to forge against the fallen minister.
But the charge against him in connexion with the

•n i • -r->> 1 • Charge against

illustrious Jriso was at least premature : it was Seneca rebut-

ted,

triumphantly rebutted, and the prince acquiesced
reluctantly in his escape for a season. The man of peace was
provoked at last to self-defence. Piso, awakened to his dan-
ger, embarked soon afterwards in a real conspiracy, and we
shall have reason to suspect that Seneca himself was not un-
connected with that formidable enterprise.'*

The prodigality of the emperor's pastimes was thus driv-
ing him to the sanguinary measures by which tyrants fill
their coffers ; and the discovery how easy was the process,
how submissive were the victims, prompted him to indulge
his passions without restraint. His licentiousness became

' Tac. An7i. xiv. 65. = Ibid.

126 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 63.

now as reckless as his cruelty. He had sunk already to the
degradation of singing and playing in public ; but there was
still a lower depth which his abandoned tastes and thirst for
vulgar admiration tempted him to fathom. As a child his
talk had been of the Greens and Blues ; his counters had been
cars of ivory. The passion, checked by his preceptors, had
been cherished up to manhood, and since he had become his
own master he had thrown off gradually all restraint in in-
Nero drives his dulging it. From his private circus in the gar-
circMMax^^ dcus of the Vatican, from the arena of Grecian
^^^- colonies in Campania, he descended at last to the

Circus Maximus at Rome, and, placing a freedman in the im-
perial tribune to fling the kerchief for a signal, drove his
chariot victoriously round the goal, before the eyes of 200,000
citizens. The rabble greeted him with delight ; so soon had
they forgotten their sympathy with Octavia; so heedless
were they of the shame of their country. The senators
clapped their hands reluctantly, shuddering the while at the
doAvnfall of ancient principles, and trembling at every shout
for their OAvn lives and fortimes.'

Nero had proposed at this period to visit Greece and Egypt,
but, when he renounced this intention, he assigned as a rea-
Nero's presence SOU liis people's wish to retain him among them
siredboth by ^^ *^^*^ leader of all their amusements. Possibly
and the'senate they apprehended, — so completely did they now
A D 68 regard the emperor's presence as the pledge of
A. u. 816. their subsistence, — that in his absence the regu-
lar supplies of the city would be impeded or witliheld." It
was this general conviction of the necessity of the Prince to
the Subject, that assured him of their protection, and made
him so formidable to the helpless senate. To attempt the
life of Cffisar, tyrant and monster though he might be, was

' Suet. Ncr. 22. The date of this odious exhibition cannot be fixed pre-
cisely. It must have been later than the institution of the Neronia in 813, and
before 817, from an anecdote in Tacitus. {Ann. xv. 44.)

' Tac. Ann. xv. 36. : " Talia plebi volentia fuere, voluptatum, cupidine, et
quae praecipua cura est, rci frumentariae auguslias, si abesset, metuentL"

A. U. 816.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 127

an outrage on the lives and fortunes of the people whose ex-
istence was bound up with his. Distracted by apprehensions
on either side, the senators knew not whether to wish for
their master's absence or his presence among them ; but in
Rome he was at least the guardian of public tranquillity, and
this tranquillity, by his name, his guards, or his largesses, he
contrived successfully to maintain.

Never, on the other hand, were the citizens so good-
humoured, as when they saw their prince enjoying himself
among them. The pi-ince too, on his part, wish- infamous de-
ed it to appear that he was never so happy as jlci'y m7ou"-^"
when exhibiting his private pleasures to the eyes ^^'^^ ^^ ^^'^°-
of his people. The banquets he gave were no longer to be
hidden in the recesses of the palace. In the Campus Martins,
in the Circus Maximus, in the theatres and other open places,
a series of entertainments rajjidly followed: and not here
only, but in every public spot in the city, the emperor's table
was spread from day to day, and all the world was welcome
to see him dine, if not to partake of his dinner. Nor were
gluttony and drinking the only intemperance he thus shame-
lessly practised and more shamelessly displayed. To such
degradation had ho reduced the citizens, that they were
not offended by the most naked exhibitions of wantonness.
Whatever allowance we may make for the indignant exag-
gerations of later moralists, or for the prurient imaginations
of the narrators, it seems impossible to question the fact of
the prostitution he encouraged, ordered, and even compelled.
To Tigellinus was ascribed the most monstrous of all his in-
ventions. On one occasion, a table was spread for the eni-
peror and his guests on a raft in the Basin of Agrippa, and
numerous vessels, decked with gold, silver, and ivory, attend-
ed with the materials and ministers of the repast. The colon-
nades which encircled the water were filled partly with in-
vited spectators ; but certain places were reserved for women
of all ranks, even for matrons and virgins, who were sur-
rendered to them without reserve. Finally, one day Nero,
who had already thrown off all restraints of decency and

128 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 64.

self-respect in liis own person, went through the marriage
ceremony, arrayed in veil, necklace, and girdle, before the
priests and soothsayers, with the vilest of his male associates.'

Let this suffice : — such things have occurred, perhaps, in
other times and other places ; perhaps they have been re-
corded by historians as well as satirists : but the foul annals
of the period before us have attained an unfortunate distinc-
tion from the genius which has been engaged in illustrating
them. While the world endures, the iniquities of Nero will
retain their pre-eminence in infamy, and it will be equally im-
possible to recount them at length, or to pass them over in
silence.

But in the midst of these horrors, which steeped in the
same fearful guilt the people and the prince together. Prov-
idence was preparing an awful chastisement ; and
CTat'ion in was about to ovcrAvhclm Rome, like the Cities of

the Plain, in a sheet of retributive fire. Crowd-
ed, as the mass of the citizens were, in their close wooden
dAvelling-chambers, accidents were constantly occurring which
involved whole streets and quarters of the city in wide-
spreading conflagrations, and the efibrts of the night-watch to
stem these outbursts of fire, with fcAV of the appliances, and
little perhaps even of the discipline, of our modern police,
were but imperfectly effectual. But the greatest of all the
fires which desolated Rome was that which broke out on the
19th of July, in the year 817, the tenth of Kero, which began
at the eastern end of the Circus, abutting on the valley be-
tween the Palatine and the Cajlian hills.' Against the outer

' The reader may compare for himself Tac. Ann. xv. 37. ; Suet. iW. 27-
29. ; Dion, Ixii. 15. It is not worth while to point out some apparent discrep-
ancies, or sufrgest possible exaggerations, especially in Dion's account : Kal rp
e^ovaia TravTi rc.7 [iov?iOfiiv(f) axe'iv f/V tjde?.ev • ov yap e^f;v avTolc oyfT eva drrapv-
ijcaaOai : which is followed by a trait of nature which redeems it from utter
incredibility : udicfioi te koi TrA^yat Kal '&6pv6oi .... Kal avdrec re Ik
TovTuv avxvol i(p6dpTiffav. Modern writers, as usual, have taken the most un-
favourable view, and have supposed the entertainment in Agrippa's Basin to
have been open to all the world.

' Tac. Ann. xv. 38. : " Initium in ea parte Circi ortum quae Palatino Caslio.

A.U. 8ir.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 129

walls of this edifice leaned a mass of wooden booths and
stores filled chiefly with combustible articles. The wind from
the east drove the flames towards the corner of the Palatine,
whence they forked in two directions, following the draught
of the valleys. At neither point were they encountered by
the massive masonry of halls or temples, till they had gained
such head, that the mere intensity of the heat crumbled brick
and stone like paper. The Circus itself was filled from end
to end with Avooden galleries, along which the fire coursed
with a speed which defied all check and pursuit. The flames
shot up to the heights adjacent, and swept the basements of
many noble structures on the Palatine and Aventine. Again
they plunged into the lowest levels of the city, the dense
habitations and narrow winding streets of the Velabrum and
Forum Boarium, till stopped by the river and the walls. At
the same time another torrent rushed towards the Velia and
the Esquiline, and sucked up all the dwellings within its
reach, till it was finally arrested by the clifis beneath the
gardens of Msecenas. Amidst the horror and confusion of
the scene, the smoke, the blaze, the din, and the scorching
heat, with half the population, bond and free, cast loose and
houseless into the streets, rufiians were seen to thrust blazinsr
brands into the buildings, who afiirmed, when seized by the
indignant sufierers, that they were acting with orders ; and
the crime, which was probably the desperate resource of
slaves and robbers, was imputed by fierce suspicions to the
government itself

que montibus contigua est . . . . simul coeptus ignis .... longitudi-
nem Circi corripuit." In the second clause the word Circus evidently means
the edifice so called, and, accordingly, I give the same interpretation to it in the
first. But no part of the Circus can properly be said to adjoin the Palatine
and the Caslian ; and I think it possible that in the first passage Tacitus means,
not the building, but the quarter of the city which went by the name of Circus
Maximus. Dion Hal. (iii. 68.) describes the Circus and its exterior galleries :
i^udev Ttepi tov iTTTrddpofiov erepa arSa fiovdarcyoc ipyaaTTjpia exovaa ev avry
Kal o'lK'^ffetc vnip avra.

^ Tac. 1. c. : " Nee quisquam defendere audebat, crebris multorum minis
restmguere prohibentium, et quia ahi palam faces jaciebant atque sibi auctorem
VOL. TI. — 9

130 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 04,

At such a moment of sorrow and consternation, every

trifle is seized to confirm the suspicion of foul play. The

flames, it seems, had subsided after rasrins; for six

The Are bursts -, , , -, , . .

out a second days, and the wretched outcasts were begmmng
• to take breath and visit the ruins of their habita-
tions, when a second conflagration burst out in a difierent
quarter. This fire commenced at the point where the jEmil-
ian gardens of Tigellinus abutted on the outskirts of the
city beneath the Pincian hill ; and it was on Tigellinus him-
self, the object already of popular scorn if not of anger, that
the suspicion now fell. The wind, it seems, had now chang-
ed, for the fire spread from the north-west towards the Qui-
rinal and the Viminal, destroying the buildings, more sparsely
planted, of the quarter denominated the Via Lata. Three
days exhausted the fury of this second visitation, in which
the loss of life and property was less, but the edifices it over-
threw were generally of greater interest, shrines and temples
of the gods, and halls and porticos devoted to the amuse-
ment or convenience of the people. Altogether the disaster,
whether it sprang from accident or design, involved nearly
the whole of Rome. Of the fourteen regions of the city,
three, we are assured, were entirely destroyed ; while seven
others were injured more or less severely : four only of the
whole number escaped unhurt.' The fire made a complete

esse vociferabantur, sive ut raptas licentius exercerent seu jussu. Pliny {Hist.
Nat. xvii. 1.), Dion (Ixii. lY, 18.), and Suetonius {Ner. 38.) attribute the fire to
Nero's orders without hesitation, a view which generally recommended itself
to the ancients.

' The three quarters which are said to have been destroyed must have been
the Circus Max. (xi.), the Palatium (x.), and Isis and Serapis (m.). I must
question, however, the entire destruction of the great edifices on the Palatine :
the temple of Apollo is mentioned only two years later by Suetonius {Ner. 25.),
and the Sibylline oracles kept in it (comp. Amm. Marccll. xxiii. 3.) were con-
sulted immediately afterwards. The destruction of the Palatine library in the
fire of Commodus, a hundred and fifty years later, is mentioned by Galenua
{De Compos. Medicam. i. 1.). Pliny speaks, however, of the temple of the Pa-
latium, dedicated to Augustus by Livia, as consumed, H. X. xii. 42. Tlie seven
quarters partially injured appear to have been, first the Aventinus (xni.), Pis-
cina Publica (xii.). Via Sacra (iv.), Caelimontana (ii.), and Forum Romanum

A.U. 817.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 13X

clearance of the central quarters, leaving, perhaps, hut few
puhlic huildings erect even on the Palatine and Aventine ;
but it was, for the most part, hemmed in by the crests of the
surrounding eminences, and confined to the seething crater
which had been the cradle of the Roman people. The day
of its outburst, it was remarked, was that of the first burning
of Rome by the Gauls, and some curious calculators comput-
ed that the addition of an equal number of years, months,
and days together, would give the complete period which
had elapsed in the long interval of her greatness.* Of the
number of houses and insulse destroyed, Tacitus does not
venture to hazard a statement ; he only tantalizes us by his
slendor notice of the famous fanes and monuments which
sank in the common ruin. Among them were the temple of
Diana, which Servius Tullius had ex-ected; the shrine and
altar of Hercules, consecrated by Evander, as afiirmed in the

(viii.) ; yet the Capitoline was certainly untouched, and there is no reason to
believe that the temples and basilicas which encompassed the forum suffered.
In the second fire the Via Lata (vii.) and a great part of the Circus Flaminius
(ix.) were devastated. The four which wholly escaped were the Transtiberina
(xiT.), the Esquilina (v.), the Alta Semita (vi.), and the Porta Capena (i.). See
Bunsen's Rom. i. 191. The nine days' duration is proved, not from the his-
torians (Tacitus notes only the six days of the first fire), but by an inscription,
Gruter, 61. 3. (Hoeck. p. 374. note). The great fire of London lasted only four
days, and swept an area of 436 acres ; while the space through which this
conflagration raged, though with less complete destruction, must have com-
prised at least one third of Rome, or not less than three times that extent.
Comp. Lambert's Hist, of London, ii. 91.

* Tac. Ann. xv. 41. : " Fuere qui adnotarent xiT. Kal. Sext. principium in-
cendii hujus ortum quo et Senones captam Urbem inflammaverant : ahi eo
usque curse progress! sunt ut totideni annas mensesque et dies inter utraque in-
cendia numerent." The interpreters have given up generally the attempt to
explain this obscure passage ; but the principle of Grotefend's suggestion, which
I take from Ritter's note, seems peculiarly happy. Between 19 July, 364, the
received date of the' Gaulish fire, and 19 July, 817, are exactly 453 years; and
the addition of 417 years, 417 months, and 417 days, completes this period
wanting about 40 days. If, on the other hand, we suppose these calculators
to have taken 363 for the date of the Gaulish fire, the interval will be 454
years, and 418 years + 418 months + 418 days = 454 years — 8 days
only.

]32 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 64.

tradition impressed upon us by Virgil ; ' the Romulean tem-
ple of Jupiter Stator, the remembrance of which thrilled the
soul of the banished Ovid ; ' the little Regia of Numa, which
armed so many a sarcasm against the pride of consuls and
imperators ; the sanctuary of Vesta herself, with the Palla-
dium, the Penates, and the ever-glowing hearth of the Roman
people. But the loss of these decayed, though venerable,
objects was not the worst disaster. Many an unblemished
masterpiece of the Grecian pencil, or chisel, or graver, — the
prize of victory, — was devoured by the flames ; and amidst
all the splendour with which Rome rose afterwards from her
ashes, old men could lament to the historian the irreparable
sacrifice of these ancient fjlories.' "Writinsrs and documents
of no common interest may have perished at the same time
irrecoverably ; and with them trophies, images, and family
devices. At a moment when the heads of patrician houses
were falling rapidly by the sword, the loss of such memorials
was the more deplorable ; and from this epoch we may date
the decay, which we shall soon discover, in the domestic tra-
ditions of the nobles.

Nero was at Antium, nor did he quit that favourite resi-
dence till apprised that the flames had reached the long col-
The fire im- onuadcs with which he had connected the man-

Knlaceto'' ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ Palatine with the villa of Macenas.
Nero himself, j^ -yyould sccm that with due energy the progress
of the fire along these galleries might have been cut off; but

* Virg. JSn. viii. 270. :

" Hanc aram luco statuit, quae maxima semper
Dicetur nobis, et erit quae maxima semper."
^ Ovid. Trist. iii. 1-49. :

" Adjice servatis unum, pater optime, civem ....
Me miserum ! vereorque locum, venerorque potentem."
' Suet. Ner. 38. : " Domus priscorum ducum hostilibus adhuc spoliis ador-
natae, Deorumque aedes, . . . . et quicquid visendum et memorabile ex
antiquitate duraverat." Tac. 1. c. : " Monumenta ingcniorum antiqua et incor-
rupta : " which Lipsius characteristically interprets of the autograph writings
of the ancients, so vainly regretted by reviving letters.

A.TJ. 81Y.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. I33

the attempt was either not made, or made too late, and the
flames, it is said, extended to the palace, and involved it, or
at least some portion of it, in the general ruin.' The injury
indeed to Nero's own dwelling was greatly exaggerated, pos-
sibly to make him appear to have suffered equally with his
people. Altogether, however, the disaster was the greatest
that had befallen the city, since the era of the Gaulish inva-
sion. The mansions of the nobles were scathed, but the cab-
ins of the populace were annihilated. The prince was pop-
ularly held responsible for every public calamity ; and when
the rumour, not improbable in itself, was circulated, that
Nero had watched the conflagration from the towers of his
villa, and chaunted the Sach of Troy to his own lyre, the
sufferers were prone to believe that he had commanded the
city to be fired, and forbidden the flames to be extinguished.*
Once, it was said, Avhen the line before quoted by Tiberius,
After my death perish the world in fire, was recited to him;
N^ay, in my lifetime, had been his fiendish reply. Another
suspicion, hardly less horrible, prevailed, that he had caused
the destruction of the ancient city, not out of pure wanton-
ness, but in order to rebuild it more magnificently, and dig-
nify the new Rome with his own name.' Accordingly, what-
ever favour the populace had hitherto entertained towards

* The words of Tacitus are these (c. 39.): "Eo in tempore Nero, Antii
agens, non ante in urbem regressus est quam domui ejus, qua palatium et Mse-
cenatis hortos coniinuaverai, ignis propinquaret. Neque tamen sisti potuit quin
et palatium et domus et cuneta circum haurirentur." I have expressed in the
text the qualification I must put on these words. There must have been a
colonnade or gallery across the Velia to connect the buildings on the Palatine
and the Esquiline, probably a viaduct, like the bridge of Caius across the Vela-
brum, with carriage-way underneath. This construction was possibly of wood.
The palace on the Palatine may have been injured, but it could not have been
destroyed without the destruction of every other edifice on that hill. That the
other portion of the palace, the villa of Maecenas on the Esquiline, wholly es-
caped seems certain from the anecdote which follows.

^ Suet. JVer. 38. : " Hoc incendium ex turre Mascenatiana prospectans, lae-
tusque flammse ut aiebat pulchritudine, d?M(nv Ilii in illo suo scenico habitu
decantavit." Comp. Dion, Isii. 29. ; Juvenal, viii. 219.

' Suetonius, a faithful expounder of popular traditions, more than insinuates

134 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 64.

the chief who flattered and amused them, they were now
fiercely exasperated. It was to little purpose that he provid-
ed accommodation for the shelter of the houseless multitudes
and supplied with anxious care their most pressing necessi-
ties,' It was in vain that the gods were soothed with holo-
causts, and the Sibyls' books consulted for expiations ; that
vows were oiFered to Vulcan, Ceres, and Proserpine, and
Juno propitiated by processions of Roman matrons. The
people continued to mutter their dissatisfaction with increas-
ing significance ; it was necessary to divert their suspicions
by offering them another victim ; and Nero seems to have
saved himself at last, by sacrificing the little band of alien
sectaries, already the objects of their hatred and reviling, to
whom the vulgar gave the name of Christians."^

This name, says Tacitus in a famous passage in his An-
nals, was derived from one Christus, who was executed in the
reign of Tiberius by the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate.
This accursed superstition, for a moment repressed, spread
again, not over Judea only, the source of this evil, but the
City also, ichither all things vile andshamefid find room and
reception. Accordingly, he adds, those only wene first arrest-
ed who avowed themselves of that sect, afterwards a vast
number discovered by them, who were convicted, not so much
on the charge of burning, as for their general hatred to man-
hind. Their execution was accompanied xcith mockery.

this charge: "Quasi offensus deformitate veteruin aedificiorum, et angustiia
flexurisque vicorum, incendit urbem." Ner. 38.

^ Tac. 1. c. : " Solatium populo exturbato et profugo campum Martis et
monumenta Agrippse ; hortos quin etiam suos patefecit ; et subitaria scdificia
exstruxit qua; multitudinem inopem acciperent : subvectaque utensilia ab Ostia
et propinquis municipiis ; pretiumque frumcnti minutum usque ad temos num-
mos. Qua, quanquam popularia, in irritum cadebant, quia pervaserat rumor,
ipso tempore flagrantis urbis inisse eum domesticam scenam, et cecinisse Tro-
janum excidium, pncsentia mala vetustis cladibus assimulantem."

^ Tac. Ann. xv. 44. : " Ergo abolendo rumori Nero subdidit reos . • . .
quos per flagitia invisos vulgus Christianos appellabat. Auctor nominis ejus
Christus," &c. I shall enter in another place into the question, who were the
persons to whom the vulgar applied this name ? In the text I confine myself
as closely as possible to the words of Tacitus.

A.U. 817.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. I35

They were wrapped in shins to be torn in pieces by dogs, or
crucified, and thus set on fire to serve as torches by night.
JVero lent his own gardens for the spectacle, and gave a
chariot race on the occasion, at which he mingled freely with
the multitude in the garb of a driver, or actually holding the
reins. The populace, however, turned with their usual levity
to compassion for the sufferers, justly odious though they
were held to be; for they felt that it was not for their actual
guilt nor the common xceal that they xcere punished, but to
glut the ferocity of a single tyrant.^

This horrid sacrifice, so deeply impressive to the minds
of sixty generations of Christians, ruffled then for a moment
the feelings of Roman society, and excited per- The rebuilding
haps in the heart of the historian, impassive as he *'^ ^°™^-
constrains himself to appear, more pity, more wonder, more
reflection at least, than he has deigned to intimate. But a
few days passed, and when the people looked again around
them, they beheld the reconstruction of their smoking city
commencing with extraordinary vigour. The decision with
which the plans of the government were taken, must appear
to us perfectly amazing. The rebuilding of so large a portion
of the largest of ancient cities on a general design, including
the construction of a palace, to cover, or at least embi'ace
with all its adjuncts, some hundreds of acres, was carried into
execution without a moment's delay, and seems to have been

' This remarkable and often cited passage has several difficulties. I under-
stand the " odium generis humani " to mean, not the hati^ed in which these
sectaries were held, but rather their reputed enmity towards all others. It is
a question whether the confession mentioned was of the burning or only of the
Christian belief: I suppose the latter: " aut flammandi" is obscure in con-
struction, but the sense cannot be doubtful : " sontes " may apply to the spe-
cific charge, meaning that the people really believed them guilty of it, or it may
relate to the crime of their creed generally. The gardens referred to were on
the slope of the Vatican, and embraced, it is supposed, the site of the Place
and possibly of the Church of St. Peter's. The obelisk which now fronts that
church stood on the spina of Nero's Circus, certainly not flir from its present
position. Mosheim (De Reb. Chr. ante Constant. sa;c. 1. § 34.) fixes the be-
ginning of this persecution to the middle of the November of this year.

136 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 64.

effected in the course of the four years which intervened to
the death of Nero.' The city of the plebs, a collection of nar-
row winding lanes Avhich crept along the hollows at the foot
of the seven hills, thronged with high unsightly masses of
brick or wood-work, among which its shifting crowds could
with difficulty Avind their way, had long been an eyesore to
the denizens of the patrician mansions above, constructed in
the gx'aceful style of Greece, their level lines of marble ma-
sonry flanked with airy colonnades, and interspersed with
broad courts and gardens. This combination, indeed, or
contrast of the ancient and the modern, the grotesque and the
elegant, this upper growth of aristocratic luxury culminating
above the smoky hives of vulgar industry, must have given
a character to the whole eminently striking and jjicturesque.
Rome was indeed a double city, half Greek and half Italian.
The elements of change long operating in its manners were
equally active in its external development. Grecian forms
were steadily encroaching on the indigenous features of its
architecture. To reform, to improve, had been in fact to
copy foreign, and to displace native, models. The marble
•Rome of Augustus, restorer as he pi-ofessed himself, was a
Grecian mask applied to a Roman countenance. Every new
temple or theatre, bath or fountain, added another Hellenic
object to the scene, and aided in this gradual disintegration.
Nero in all his tastes was Grecian or Oriental ; yet Avhen this
grand opportunity offered for recasting the lower city on the
model he admired, the promptness with which he seized it
Bhows that he followed an instinct of the times, and not a
mere cajirice of his own. The architects were ready at once
with their plans for a total reconstruction after the fashion
of Athens or Antioch, a style more familiar to their schools

" The conflagration took place in July, 817. Nero's death followed in June,
821 ; but it would appear that the rebuilding had been completed before that
time ; certainly the palace had been completed much earlier. It is impossible
not to suspect, from this and other circumstances, that the destruction was less
extensive than has been represented. The temple of Apollo — apparently that
on the Palatine — is mentioned in the year 822 (Tac. Hist. iii. G5.).

A.U. 817.] UNDER THE EMPIRE, I37

than tlie obsolete Italian. After the fire of the Gauls Rome
had been rebuilt by the citizens themselves, each man for
himself from his own notions and resources ; the whole re-
sulting in manifold combinations of a few simple elements,
the wooden shed, the broad brick wall, the narrow windows,
the projecting eaves, the pointed gable. ^ But after Nero's
fire restoration was the work of the government : the citizens,
the mass at least of the lower classes who still dwelt in the
valleys, were not rich enough to build for themselves, even
had they been sufiered to do so : the treasury supplied them
with money, but at the same time provided them with de-
signs : the time had come when the rulers of the state must
execute all great public works for the people, and employ the
services of a profession to which architecture of a foreign
type was alone familiar. The character indeed of the site,
and the necessity of lodging vast numbers upon small areas,
must have tended to modify the more lax and spacious feat-
ures of Hellenic architecture : the crowded dAvellings of the
Suburra and Yelabrum could not have been less than fifty,
sixty, or even seventy feet in height : but the substitution, to
a great extent, of stone for brick or wood in the basement at
least of these edifices, the straightening and widening of the
streets, and the ei'ection of open colonnades round every
block of houses, was the application of a foreign style, which
completely changed the external appearance of Rome. On
the whole the system of Nero and his architects was both
salubrious and convenient, though many citizens, admirers
of all things old, continued to lament the disappearance of
their dark and tortuous alleys, and to allege, with some justice
perhaps, that the narrowness of the avenues and the height of

' The fastigiata and pectinata tecta seem to imply something more than
the Greek pediment, and to have ' been in common use for dwelling-houses, not
only for public buildings. There is perhaps no distinct notice of gable ends to
the ordinary Roman roofs ; but the fact that the earliest temples at Rome were
thatched, and therefore of course dwellings also, shows that the roofs must
have been high-pitched.

138 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 64,

the overhanging edifices had afibrded a grateful shade in sum-
mer, and protection from the winds in winter.*

But Nero, we are told, took advantage of the void which

had been created for another and more selfish purpose. He

determined to extend in various directions the

Extension of . .

Nero's piiiace or limits of liis owu residence, and to cover a large

Golden House. . . -iii-it f

portion 01 the area oi Kome with the buildings oi
the Imperial palace. On this point, however, I am constrain-
ed to be sceptical. "We have already seen that he had before
connected the older residence of the Caesars, enlarged as it
had been by successive occupants, on the Palatine, with the
villa of Maecenas on the Esquiline, by a series of galleries
which spanned, perhaps, the hollow between those hills on
arches, so as to allow of the circulation of the populace in the
most crowded parts of the city below it. Such seems to have
been the character of the Domus Transitoria or House of
Passage, which fell, as we have seen, a prey to the flames. I
much question, however, whether either of the edifices which
it connected had suffered very severely, and the Golden
House, as the restored palace was denominated, was still the
old mansion of Augustus and the villa of Maecenas connected
a second time by a long series of columns and arches. It is
probable,, indeed, that the House of Passage was now con-
siderably enlarged, and made to embrace a vast extent of
gardens, with their baths, their fishponds, and their storied
terraces." Nevertheless, the public must always have had

' Tac. Ann. xv. 43. : " Erant tamen qui crederent vctcrcm illam formam
salubritati magis conduxisse." Whatever we may think of the justice of thia
complaint, it may be worth remarking, as a sign of the difference in our own
ideas and the Roman, that there is no expression of regret for the picturesque
features of the ancient city so ruthlessly sacrificed to the taste or judgment of
the day.

' This house, says Tacitus, was not so remarkable for its gold and precious
stones, as for the gardens it embraced : " arva et stagna, et in modum solitudi-
num hinc sylva;, inde aperta spatia et prospectus," c. 42. The taste of the
Romans in gardening required geometrical lines of gravel, pavement, box bor-
ders, and shrubberies. See the younger Pliny's description of his Tuscan
villa {Ep. V. 6.), and some of the frescoes still visible on the walls of houses in

A.U. 817.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 139

means of communication beneath these galleries, or through
them, from the forum to the Cselian hill, and to the Esquiline
or Capene gates. We cannot suppose that the emperor's
stone walls intercepted the Sacred and the Appian Ways.
These colonnades, such as I have imagined them, were three
in number ; each of them, it is said, a mile in length. They
reached, it may be presumed, from the bridge of Caius over
the Velabrum, which was perhaps destroyed by the fire, and
never, as far as we know, rebuilt, almost to the site of S.
Maria Maggiore on the Esquiline, and of S. Gregorio on the
Caelian, and these were again connected perhaps by a third.'
The area now filled with the Colosseum was embraced within
their ample circuit, and this spot was occupied by a basin of
water.* It is a pardonable extravagance in Pliny to declare
that the city was encompassed by the palace of Nero ; but
this expression, which he has applied also to the far less ex-
tensive encroachments of Caius, seems to show that even
within the circuit of its ample arcades many houses, streets,

Pompeii. Matius, the friend of Csesar, invented the art of cutting yews, box,
and Cyprus into figures of men and animals (Plin. H. N. xii. 6.), and this gro-
tesque practice survived to the time of Pliny and Martial (Mart. iii. 58., xii. 50.).
Nero, I presume, ventured to discard this formality, and his attempt to restore
some natural features to a garden landscape offended the admirers of antiquity.
This was the " rure vero barbaroque laetari " of Martial. I refer to Prof. Dau-
beny's Lectures on Roman Hmbandry, vii., for these and further details of the
subject of Roman gardening.

' Martial {de Sped. 2.) defines the limits of this palace in two directions by
the baths of Titus on the EsquUine, and the portico of Claudius, connected, it
may be presumed, with his xmfinished temple on the Cfehan :
" Claudia diffusas ubi porticus explicat umbras,
Ultima pars aulee deficientis erat."
It has been mentioned that Nero is said to have destroyed the works of the
Claudian temple : this, if not a misrepresentation, was probably to make room
for his own constructions.

* Martial, 1. c. :

" Hie ubi conspicui venerabilis amphitheatri
Erigitur species, stagna Neronis erant."
Comp. Suet. Ner. 31. : " Stagnum maris instar, circumseptum aedificiis ad ur-
bium speciem : rura insuper, arvis atque vinetis. et pascuis silvisque varia."

140 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 64,

and places were surrendered to the occupation of the citizens.
We should still less expect strict accuracy in the statements
of a pasquinade, Avhich has been preserved to us by Suetonius.
Insinuating a direct compai-ison between the conflagration of
the Gauls and of Nero, Home^ it said, will he reduced to a
single Jwuse : migrate, O Romans, to Veii, like your ancestors
before you ; if Veii indeed itself he not embraced also by that
single hou-se.^ But the epithet of Golden, which this palace
obtained, was derived from the splendour of its decorations.
Externally it was adorned v.'iih. all the luxury of art and
taste at their highest eminence, with gilded roofs and sculp-
tured friezes, and panels of many-coloured marble. Within,
it was a rich museum of painting, precious stones, and stat-
uary : amidst the rubbish of its long-ruined chambers some of
the choicest works of ancient art have been discovered, and
the modern frescoes which we most admire seem to have been
copied by stolen glimpses from walls unveiled for a moment
and again shrouded in darkness.^ The grand entrance from
the forum and the Sacred Way was adorned with a marble
statue of the emperor 120 feet in height, the colossus which
afterwards gave its name to the amphitheatre of Vespasian.
When Nero at last took possession of this gorgeous habita-
tion, he remarked complacently that now he was lodged as a
man should he.''

' Suet Ner. 39, :

" Roma doraus fiet : Veios migrate Quirites ;
Si non et Veios occupet \ma domus."

^ Suet. Ner. 31. : "In cseteris partibus cuncta auro lita, distincta gemmia
unionumque conehis erant. Ccenationes laqueata; tabuHs ebumeis versatili-
bus," &c. The baths of Titus were afterwards erected on a part of this palace
on the Esquiline, and stand on its lower chambers, within which the great vase
of the Vatican and other monuments of art have been discovered. The Lao-
coon was found sim larly imbedded at no great distance. How such works
came to be there left amidst the rubbish seems inexplicable. It is believed
that Raphael took the designs of some of his arabesques from paintings re-
vealed in these chambers, which he purposely caused to be filled up again,
to conceal the plagiarism.

' Martial, i. 2. Suet. 1. c. : " Se quasi hominem jam habitare ccepisse."

A.U. 8ir.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 141

These vast constructions were planned and executed hj
the architects Severus and Celer, both of them, it may be re-
marked, not of Greek but of Roman origin. Exactions and
These men seem to have been bold designers as requirTd'tT de-
well as able builders ; their profession combined p'^Jsrof^tlose
engineering with architecture. They had great constructions.
influence with their master, and seem to have inspired him
with many grand conceptions, the exact purport of which
may have been inadequately represented to us. The naviga-
ble canal which they projected, from the lake of Avemus and
the Julian haven to Rome, was evidently not a mere freak
of power, but a work of utility for the transport of grain to
the city.* The attempt, made in earnest, was probably aban-
doned from caprice. The rebuilding of Rome in the course
of four years tasked all the energies of the artisans of Italy.
But the expense of these extraordinary efforts caused on the
whole more dangerous discontent than the worst caprices of
tyranny ; and unless we suppose Nero devoid of the most
ordinary foresight, we must allow that he would hardly have
caused a conflagration, which could not fail to entangle him
in fatal embarrassments. He was compelled to strain the
patience of his subjects by increased exactions. An organiz-
ed system of plunder was now extended throughout the em-
pire, which ruined the citizens, the allies, and the free com-
munities. Nero began by requiring contributions, under the
name of free gifts ; and neglect in responding to this invita-
tion was visited by heavier imposts. Treasures, human and
divine, were swept into the gulf. The temples of Rome it-
self were denuded of the offerings of ages, the spoil of con-

' Nero is said also to have designed extending Rome to Ostia. Suetonius
says of his buildings, " Non in aha re damnosior quam in sedificando." The
magnificence of his baths continued to be celebrated long after him. Martial
says of them, " Quid Nerone pejus ? Quid thermis melius Neronianis ? " The
Church of S. Louis, on the Pincian, is supposed to stand upon them. Ampere,
Jlist. Romaine d Rome, § 3. In the year 817 Nero erected himself also a tri-
umphal arch on the Capitoline, to celebrate his pretended successes against the
Parthians. To occupy that sacred site with a monument of personal yanity
was an act of unprecedented ostentation. Tac. Ann. xv. 18.

142 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 64.

quered enemies long hoarded in the shrines of the gods, the
trophies of victories and triumphs held sacred through all
emergencies, which even Ctesar, who sacked the treasury, had
reluctantly respected.^ From Greece and Asia not the offer-
ings only, but the images of the gods themselves, were car-
ried off by authorized commissioners.' Of these Acratus was
a freedman of the palace, who retained as a courtier the spirit
of a slave ; * Carrinas Secundus, a freebom Roman, once a
teacher of rhetoric, who had starved at Athens in the prac-
tice of his profession, acquired notoriety at Rome, and suffer-
ed banishment as a declaimer on tyrannicide, now finished
his career as an unscrupulous agent of tyranny.* Seneca, as
a man of sense and honour, was shocked at these outrages on
the national feeling of the Gi*eeks, and distressed lest they
should be ascribed to his counsels. Once more he begged
leave to retire into privacy. Again disappointed, he affected
sickness, and confined himself strictly to his chamber. Some
averred that his life was now attempted by poison at Nero's
instigation ; that he escaped either by the confession of the
person employed, or by his own care in abstaining from all
suspicious viands, and tasting nothing but plain fruits and
vegetables, bread and water. Insults such as these to the
faith and feelings of the people Avere accompanied, no doubt,
by cruel extortions and the confiscation of private possessions;
and Nero, emboldened by the incredible submission of the
world to his feeble sceptre, treated gods and men alike as
mere slaves of his will, ordained equally, Avhether in earth or
heaven, for his personal service and gratification. Neverthe-

' Tacitus, XV. 45.

^ Pausanias refers to the spoliation of the Grecian temples by Nero : v. 25,
26., ii. 27., X. 7. From Delphi he carried off no less than five hundred brazen
statues. Caius had robbed the Thespians of a Cupid by Praxiteles, which
Claudius restored them. Nero seized it a second time. Comp. Dion Chrys.
Or. Rhod. p. 355. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxiv. 19.

' Tac. 1. c. ; Dion Chrys. 1. c. : lent yap 'AKparoc eKelvoQ T7p> oinovfitvTjv
ax^iov a-naaav nepicWuv tovtov jdptv.

* For Carrinas see Dion, lix. 20., and compare Juvenal, vii. 204., alluding,
as is generally supposed, to the same person.

A.U. 817.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. I43

less the calamities with which this year closed must have
struck him with alarm in the midst of his frantic ^ „

Foil owed 07

caprices. An outbreak of gladiators at Prseneste portents and
was speedily suppressed ; but it reminded men
of the attempt of Spartacus, and the ancient troubles of the
republic, and betrayed the fact that the prospect of revolu-
tion was contemplated with hope no less than with appre-
hension. The loss of some galleys on the Campanian coast,
through a thoughtless command of the emperor's which their
captains dared not disobey, might impress the singer of the
Sack of Ilium with Minerva's vengeance on an older sacri-
lege ; ' while the occurrence of fearful prodigies, of monstrous
births, of storms and meteors, above all, the blazing of a
comet, extorted from the soothsayers the prophecy of a new
rebellion, though they ventured to promise that it should be
instantly quelled.*

This apprehension of impending change was, indeed, no
groundless presentiment. Nero's crimes and follies had been

* Virg. ^n. xi. 260. :

" Scit triste MinervaB
Sidus, et Euboicae cautes, ultorque Caphareus."
Tac. Ann. xv. 46. : " Clades rei navalis, non bello, quippe baud alias tam im-
mota pax." Comp. the fragment of Turaus, Wernsdorf, Poet. Lot. Min. iii. :
" Et molle imperii senium sub nomine pacis,"

* Tac. Ann. xv. 47. : " Sidus cometes, semper illustri sanguine Neroni ex-
piatum." Seneca's allusion to this comet is curious, if he was conscious of
the conspiracy at that moment in agitation. Nat. Quasi, vii. 17.: "Qui sub
Nerone apparuit et cometis detraxit infamiam." Virgil speaks generally of the
evil influence of comets : " Cometae Sanguinei lugubre rubent." ^n. x. 272.
The instinct of a later generation made them always presage evil to tyrants.
Lucan, i. 528. : " Terris mutantem regna cometen." Stat. Theb. i. fin. : " Mu-
tent qua2 sceptra cometae." Sil. i. 460. : " Terret fera regna cometes." And
so our republican Milton : " Which with fear of change Perplexes monarchs."
To the portent of the comet, Tacitus adds : " Bicipites hominum partus ....
natus vitulus cui caput in crure esset." The double head presaged unnatural
rivalry. Comp. Lucan, i. 620 :

" Quodque, nefas, nullis impune apparuit extis,
Ecce ! videt capiti fibrarum increscere molem
Alterius capitis."

144 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 64.

long threatened with retribution ; and the murmurs of the
injured liad deepened into a fixed discontent, which official
seers might represent as a token of an occult conspiracy.

Among the nobles there were many who corn-
content of the plained of personal insults, many whose ambition,

whether criminal or honest, had met with unex-
pected rebuflfs, many, no doubt, Avho had suffered wanton
oppression ; others who resented the degradation of the re-
public ; lastly, tnere were some who watched their discon-
tent from a distance, awaiting the moment when they might
turn it to their own aggrandisement. It was necessary to
fix on some personage around whom the discontented could
rally, and whom they could agree to substitute for Nero.
There was no idea, in any quarter, of returning to the an-
cient free state. The pride of independence and mutual equal-
ity, once so strong in the Roman aristocracy, had collapsed
for ever ; to the mass of the people it had never been known.
The necessity of monarchy was indeed enforced by practical
considerations. No conspiracy could hope for success with-
out the support of the soldiers ; the soldiers would not draw
their swords for a political abstraction ; and any leader to
whom they gave their allegiance, must have Rome and the
empire at his feet. If, however, they could not escape from
subjection to a single ruler, the nobles were anxious to have
an easy and quiet man, who would interfere little with them,
and even pretend to put himself under their protection.
Among the great families already scathed by prosciiptions,
there was at this time but one peculiarly eminent which Avas
not connected with the hated house of the Claudii and the
Julii. The Pisos had long borne themselves as rivals of the
emperors : a Cnceus Piso, as Ave haA'C seen, had fancied him-
self the equal of Tiberius ; and the pride Avitli which an-
other had threatened to withdraw from public life, showed
that he could not brook to act as a subordinate. Even after
the death of Cnoeus, and the disgrace of his house, his sons
and grandsons had continued to hold their rank among the
Roman nobility. One of the first caprices of Caligula was his

A.U. 817.] UNDER THE E]^IPIRE. I45

attempt to degrade the head of the Calpumii, by taking from
him his wife, and afterwards by banishing him/ But this
man, C. Calpurnius Piso, was restored to favour r^^^^ ^^^^ ^
by Claudius, in compliment to the senate ; he was piatfj'pfs^auts
moreover elevated to the consulshij). The elo- ^''^'^•
quence of the sj^eech with which he repaid this indulgence
has been especially commemorated in the verses of a client
or parasite.^ His abilities, his riches, his liberality are all
equally extolled by the same panegyrist ; but they are suffi-
ciently confirmed by the sincerer testimony of an historian
and a satirist/ Piso, however, was not a man of action, and
in the absence of higher aims in life he became celebrated for
his skill in the mock campaigns of chess or draughts. His
mild temper was not agitated, perhaps, by the illusions of
political ambition ; but he disdained to yield precedence to
any other, and held aloof, as far as possible, from public life
till tempted in an unwary moment with the offer of pre-emi-
nence.

Around this central figure, itself of no great mark or
hopefulness, were soon groiiped a number of lesser men,
senators, knisjhts, and military officers, intent

' . ' . , . „ The conspira-

upon transferrmg the empire to him from the tors, and their

1 -I -, ^ 1 T T • TTT 1 P'"'^^ ^'^^ ^"^"^

last descendant 01 the Julii. Women were also assassination

, . . of the emperor.

admitted to the consi^iracy. i^ emus Kuius, the
colleague of Tigellinus in command of the praetorians, was im-
pelled to join it by hatred towards the rival who had eclipsed
him in his chief's regards. His position, if not his personal
qualities, gave him the foremost place in the whole band.
Another of the conspirators, a man of more vehemence than

^ C. Calpurnius Piso was banished for taking back his wife, after the em-
peror had dismissed her. Caligula had probably a political motive in this out-
rageous tyranny. He wanted to bring the rival family to an end.

^ See the Carmen ad Pison. 68. This poem is ascribed by Wemsdorf to
Saleius Bassus, the " tenuis Saleius " of Juvenal : it is certainly not Lucan's.

' Tac. Ann. xv. 48. Juveual, v. 108. : " Qure Piso bonus, quae Cotta sole-
bat Largiri." The scholiast on this passage confirms, with some additions, the
account of Suetonius, Calig. 25. He mentions also Piso's fame, " in ludo la-
trunculorum," by which he is identified with the subject of the panegyric.
VOL. VI. — 10

146 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. R5.

vigour, was the youthful poet M. Annaeus Lucanus, who, in
the better years of Nero's career, had been his associate and
a rival in versification, and is supposed to have suffered
slights from the imperial jealousy.^ Dion has specified
Seneca, Lucan's uncle, as also an accomplice.' The tribune
of a praetorian cohort, named Subrius Flavus, claimed the
honour of assassinating the emperor with his own hand. He
proposed to attack him openly while singing on the stage,
and again, in the confusion of the conflagration of Rome, to
waylay him among the passages of his burning palace.^ He
seems, however, to have been a man of no real determination,
and to have shrunk in either case from the personal hazard.
It was next proposed to strike the blow when the emperor
was at a private villa of Piso's : again Piso refused to violate
the laws of hospitality, a piece of sentiment which in such a
matter can hardly command our respect. Some indeed sur-
mised that in fact he feared to leave the capital open to a
possible rival, or even to the senate and the partisans, if such
there were, of a republic* But indecision reigned on all sides
among the conspii'ators. Their behaviour was as frivolous as

' The statement in the anonymous life of Lucan (ex comment, antiquissimo),
that he gained the prize from the emperor at the Quinquennia, is contrary to
the text of the genuine biography of Nero. See Suet. Ner. 12, 21. The short
fragment upon Lucan ascribed to Suetonius affirms, with more probability, that
he provoked his patron by some indiscretions, and, having lost his favour, pro-
ceeded first to libel and afterwards to conspire against him. But that Xero
was jealous of his talent and forbade him to exhibit in pubhc, is distinctly as-
serted by Tacitus, Ann. xv. 49. : " Lucanum propriae causae ascendebant quod
famam carminum ejus premebat Nero, prohibueratque ostentare vanus assimi-
latione."

' Dion, Ixii. 24. If not actually engaged in the plot we may infer, I think,
from Tacitus that he was aware of it. The sentiment ascribed to him by Dion,
that the assassination was necessary to free Rome from Nero and to free Nero
from himself, savours of Seneca's rhetoric.

' Tac. Arm. xv. 50. This statement, dropped negligently by the historian,
shows, if true, that the conspiracy had been long in agitation.

* The apprehended rival was L. Junius Torquatus Silanus, the son of M.
Silanus (pecus aurea) cons. a. d. 46, poisoned by Agrippina. See above, c. liL
Lucius was atnepos, or great-great-great-grandson, of Augustus.

A.U. 818.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 147

the motives generally attributed to them were personal and
selfish. One indeed among them a freedwoman named Epi-
charis (but why a woman among them at all ? why a Grecian
freedwoman ?) seems to have acted with more sense and spirit
than any of the men. Not only did she embrace their plans
with ardour, and nerve their courage to the utmost, but
while they were concerting imprudent schemes, and again
lightly relinquishing them, she alone undertook to gain the
fleet at Misenum, which protected the corn fleets of Alexan-
dria, and held the existence of Rome in its hands. Possibly
she, too, was more energetic than discreet. Her secret was
betrayed by an ofticer named Volusius, whom she had en-
gaged in the scheme ; but she alone was arrested. The
names of her confederates she had concealed from her be-
trayer, and while she was still retained in custody, and fruit-
lessly interrogated, the conspirators, trusting to her forti-
tude and fidelity, continued to meet and deliberate. At last
they fixed the nineteenth of April, the day of the Circensian
games, for executing their enterprise. A senator named
Scaevinus demanded the honour of striking the blow, and for
this purpose abstracted a votive dagger from a temple of
Salus or of Fortune.' It was arranged that he should make
the attack with the support of a chosen party in the senate,
while Plautius Lateranus was prostrating himself before the

' I would willingly conjecture that there was some connexion between this
Scasvinus and the Scasva whom Lucan so delights to honour : Comp. PJmrs,
vi, 256. :

" Exomantque Deos ac nudum pectore Martem
Armis Scseva tuis : feUx hoc nomine famae," &c.
The last lines the poet penned contain a thrilling reminiscence of this true Ro-
man hero, Caesarean though he was :

" Scaevam perpetuae meritum jam nomina famae
Ad campos, Epidamne, tuos, ubi solus apertis
Obsedit muris calcantem moenia Magnum." x. extr.
We might imagine him only holding his hand, till Scaevinus should strike down
the last of the Julii, to complete the passage with a sentiment like that of the
verse I have before quoted :

" Vivat, et ut Bruti procumbat victima, regnet."

148 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. 65.

emperor, and clinging to his limbs or throwing him down.
Piso himself was to await the result in the adjacent temple
of Ceres, whence Fenius was to fetch him to the camp, and
present him, together with Antonia, the daughter of Claudius,
to the soldiers. It was still deemed exj^edient to conciliate
the soldiery by the presence of a representative of German-
icus. Such, at least, was the account given by Pliny, though
Tacitus hesitates to believe it, from the known attachment
of Piso to his wife, and the improbability of Antonia embrac-
ing a scheme from which, except by marriage with Piso, she
could reap no personal advantage.* There seems, however,
little force in the objection, Avhile in the abiding sense it im-
plies of military devotion there is something T^oth natural and
touching.

And here the historian remarks on the fidelity with which
the secret was kept among confederates of different rank, age,
Conviction and ^^^ ^^^- ^hc plot sccms to havc bccu in agita-
the conspira- ^^^^ ^"^^ nearly a year, and even the indiscretion
^*'"- of Epicharis, if we may believe our accounts,

seems not to have materially endangered it. But the bold
and eager ScjEvinus at last unwittingly betrayed it. The
day before the attempt was to be made, after holding a long
conversation with one of the party, he was observed to seal
his will, then taking his dagger from its sheath, and trying its
edge, he gave it to a freedman, named Milichus, to sharpen. He
then lay down to a supper of more than usual profusion, and
gave freedom to the most esteemed of his slaves. At the same
time his manner was that of a roan labouring imder anxiety,
which he tried in vain to disguise by the assumption of ex-
cessive hilarity. Finally he charged Milichus to prepare
bandages and fomentations for the cure of M'ounds. These
circumstances awakened suspicion, if indeed jNlilichus was not
actually admitted to the secret. At all events the wretch,
whose servile nature had not been eradicated by freedom^ was
tempted to reveal his suspicions by hopes of a splendid re-

» Tac. Ann. xv. 53. .

A.U. 818.] UNDER THE EJIPIRE. I49

ward.' The first of the conspirators who were arrested at
his indication, and threatened with the question, made ample
disclosures. Hopes of pardon induced them to denounce one
another, together with some jjerhaps who were innocent ; and
Lucan, in particular, is charged with thus revealing the name
of his own mother. Such charges, it must be remembered,
are commonly made by unscrupulous governments to dis-
grace a commiserated victim. But the sufferings of a freed-
woman would excite little sympathy, and Epi- constancy of
charis alone, it was admitted, from the weakness Epieharis.
of whose sex greater infirmity might be expected, refused to
betray the men who had trusted her. When, after being
lacerated on the rack, she was brought a second time before
her judges, bound to the chair, in which she could not sit un-
supported, she contrived to strangle herself with the thongs,
and died without a confession. Of all the con- Treacherv of
spirators, Fenius Rufus was the one whose fate ^^^^^^ ^^"^"3.
deserved the least pity. As prefect of the guards, he con-
trived adroitly to place himself on the tribunal by the side
of Tigellinus, and sought to screen himself from inquiry by
the violence with which he judged his own associates. De-
nounced at last by one of the victims, he turned pale, stam-
mered, and was unable to defend himself.' The accused were
speedily convicted. Doomed without mercy by this domes-
tic inquisition, they were allowed only to choose their mode
of death, an indulgence which spared the government the
odium of a public sentence. When escape was impossible,
the culprits suffered with the callous fortitude which had be-
come habitual with their class under the terrors of the im-
perial tyranny. If they deigned to flatter the

• ji , • 1 1 ,. n 1 1 Death of Lncan.

prmce with their last breath, it was for the sake
of their children. Lucan died with a firmness which, while
he still hoped for pardon, is said to have failed him ; and,
when his veins were opened in the bath, found consolation in
reciting some of his own verses, descriptive of a monstrous

' Tac. Ann. xvL 56, 57. " Tac. Ann. xvi. 66.

150 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. P. 65.

death by bleeding at every pore.* Perhaps his conscience
would not suffer him to utter at such a moment those denun-
ciations of a tyranny he had so often flattered, or that praise
of "constancy he had failed to exhibit, with which so much of
his poetry glows. Swords, he had once exclaimed, were given
nien that they might never he slaves. Again, he is happiest
who is content to die, next hap>piest he who is compelled.^
Among the first on whom sentence was pronounced was the
unfortunate Seneca, who had in vain withdrawn himself from
public affairs, in vain relinquished to the emperor the riches
he supposed him to covet. He had long lived in expectation
of this catastrophe, and Kero had striven to reassure him by
a show of confidence and resrard. Nero misfht indeed be in-
different to his ancient friend ; but he had no reason to bear
liim malice. It was to Poppsea more probably that he owed
his doom, for she was not likely to forgive the zeal with
which he had dissuaded her lover from repudiating Octavia,
and she felt her own influence to depend on removing from
Death of Sen- Nero's sight cvcn the shadow of honour and vir-
***■ tue. It is some consolation to be assured that

his end was composed and dignified.' He caused his veins to
be opened in the presence of his friends and kindred, and con-
tinued calmly to converse with them through the protracted
agony of a death, which his age and the sluggishness of his
blood rendered peculiarly painful.*

* Tac. Ann. xvi. 70. The lines were probably those oi Pilars, ix. 811. foil.:

" Sanguis erant lachrymae ; qujpcunque foramina novit
Humor, ab his largus manat cruor ; ora redundant,
Et patulae nares ; sudor rubet ; omnia plenis
Membra fluunt venis : totum est pro vulnere corpus."

^ Comp. iv. 575.: "Ignoratque datos ne quisquam serviat enses." x. 211.:
" Scire mori sors prima viris, sed proxima cogi."

' We may hope that there is no truth in the story introduced by Dion, that
Seneca urged his wife Paulina to die with him, to show how successful his les-
sons had been in teaching her to de.'^pisc death. She let him open her veins,
we are told, but on his dying first, caused them to be bound up again. Dion,
Ixii. 25. : Comp. Tac. Ann. xv. 64.

* This mode of bleeding to death seems to have been so conmionly adopted

A.U. 818.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 151

The threats of some, and even the calmness of his other
victims, redoubled Xero's alarm. They seemed equally to
rely on speedy vengeance, to point to unseen avengers.
Roused to Avild fury by the necessities of self-defence, he ex-
tended his blows from the actual conspirators to Further prose-
many more whom he feared and suspected, and tase'aduiTtion
his thirst for their blood was stimulated by the of the senate.
glittering prospect of rich estates. The property of men who
had been suffered to die by their own hand could not legally
be confiscated, and to seize it, sentence of banishment must
issue against their heirs, or they must be removed by assassi-
nation. Nero invoked the skill of the poisoners. The cour-
age of the miserable nobles quailed completely before the ar-
row which flies in darkness. For every execution, for every
murder, vows and sacrifices were ofiered in the Capitol.
Parents thanked the gods for the loss of their children, sons
for the loss of their fathers : the palace doors were hung with
garlands by the relations of those over whom the prince was
declared to have justly triumphed. Nero himself was not
unmindful of the informers whose treachery had saved him.
Milichus, besides rewards in money, received the title of
Preserver. The soldiers were enriched with a donative ; the
populace were gratified with two thousand sesterces each, and
an ample largess of corn. Tigellinus and Nerva, who had
conducted the inquiry, were honoured with triumphal stat-
ues.' Nevertheless Nero seems to have faintly excused his
severity, and declared in an harangue to the senate, that he
was urged by no private feelings, but only by the necessity
of his position and the demands of the public safety. This
sufficed to open the flood-gates of patrician flattery. The

from an idea that it was comparatively painless. I have heard that a high
medical authority has pronounced it to be much the reverse, at least when the
circulation is languid. In such cases the Romans were wont to accelerate the
flow of blood with the warm bath : Seneca, in his impatience, allowed himself
to be stifled with the steam.

' This Nerva is supposed to have been son to the jurist who has been men-
tioned as intimate with Tiberius. He is not to be confounded with the future
emperor of the same name, of whom he may have been the father.

152 HISTORY OF THE RO>IANS [A. D. 65.

most shameless decrees followed in his honour : thanks and
offerings to the gods were, as usual, precipitately voted, and
the day of his escaj^e was recommended to perpetual com-
memoration. The proposal of Anicius Cerialis to erect him
a temple forthwith, was only put timidly aside on the pre-
tence that it might seem to anticipate his death ; for it was
only after death, according to established usage, that the
emperor could be pronounced immortal.'

But already, not long before the era at which we are now

arrived, the living Nero had enjoyed a poetical apotheosis.

Lucan had expressed, in the fervour of his youth-

Lucan's early „ , . . • ^ \ • i r^

compliments ful lutimacy With the most accomplished of

to Nero. . , "^ . ^ ,

prmces, the sentiment common to many dream-
ers of the day, that the age of conflicts and disasters through
which the state had passed was requited by the advent of a
Nero to i^ower. This was a compensation for Pharsalia and
Munda, for Perusia and Philippi. The ruin of cities, the des-
olation of fields, the destruction of teeming populations, all
were repaid by the prosperity which this child of fortune
was to inaugurate. Even the gods of Olympus, it was de-
clared, could not enjoy their ever-blessed sovereignty till they
had conquered peace by the overthrow of the giants." There

' Tac. Ann. xv. T4. Modern historians have followed one another in as-
serting that divine honours were paid by Rome to the living Nero. This pas -
sage, to which they alone blindly refer, proves precisely the reverse. " Reperio
in commentariis senatus Cerialem Anicium, consulem designatum, pro senten-
tia dixisse, ut templum D. Neroni quam niaturrime publica pecunia poneretur.
Quod quidem ille decemcbai (proposed), tanquam mortale fastigium egresso ....''
The remainder of the sentence is corrupt, but the context implies that the
proposal was rejected. Setting aside the momentary freaks of Caligula, no Ro-
man emperor, at least for the first two centuries, allowed himself to be wor-
shipped by the citizens ; " Jurabit Roma per umbras" was the worst in this
respect that republican indignation could say of them.

' Lucan, Phars. i. 37. :

" Jam nihil, superi, querimur ; scelera ipsa nefasque
Hac mercede placent," &c.

It was not till a later period that Xcro affected to close the temple of Janus,
" tanquam nuUo residue bello ; " the true reading apparently of Suet. I\er. 1 3. :

A U. 818.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 153

is more, I believe, in this encomium than merely extravagant
flattery. Setting aside the vaunted merits of the popular antid-
prince himself, in which none but juvenile triflers Pfextaorm-''^''
should have seen much to admire, the age seems ^'"'^ ^oii^ity.
to have been impressed with signs which to more thought-
ful men betokened extraordinary felicity. A blaze of luxury
dazzled all eyes. The profusion of the higher classes was
taken for a proof of their Avealth ; but wealthy they undoubt-
edly were beyond all former experience. The rapidity with
which fortunes were made, as it were underground, by the
ministers of the imperial government, even by freedmen and
slaves, urged men to projects and speculations, to secret in-
vestments, and distant enterprises. It would appear that the
great and ancient families, which had escaped the proscrip-
tions of recent tyrants, had removed the sources of their
abundance from the observation of the central government ;
and the riches they displayed in the capital might seem to
have dropped from the clouds, or sprung from the bosom of
the soil. Presently the public was amazed to learn that one
half of the province of Africa was held in fee by six noble
families of Rome. Such is the statement of a contemporary,
and no doubt that statement was believed.^ The existence
of these vast appropriations, indeed, was only made known
by their confiscation. But when the emperor's eyes Avere
once directed to that land of fabled riches, the seat of the
famous garden of the Hesperides, it was easy to palm fictions
upon him, which should exceed the glowing real- pretended dis-
ities of the fortune he enjoyed. A strange story treasures o*f^^
is told of a brainless projector, a man of Punic ^'^°-

but anticipations of a golden age of peace to follow when he should be trans-
lated to divine power in the skies were already popular :

" Turn genus humanum positis sibi consulat armis,
Inque vicem gens omnis amet : pax missa per orbem
Ferrea belligeri compescat limina Jani."
* Plin. ITist. Nat. xviii. Y. 3. Speaking of the pernicious extent of private
domains in Italy and the provinces : " Sex domini semissem Africse possidebant,
quum interfecit eos Nero princeps."

154 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 65.

origin, named Cescllius Bassus, who was persuaded, appar-
ently by a dream, that a hoard of gold, in bars and ingots,
was to be found in a cave on his own land, which he presum-
ed to be the deposit of Dido, queen of Carthage.' He cross-
ed the sea, and hastened to acquaint the prince of the treas-
ure-trove, which by law accrued to the fiscus. Access to
Nero, even on such an errand, could only be obtained by
money, and Bassus purchased at a handsome price admittance
for his glittering tale. For its truth indeed he had no evi-
dence to offer, nor, it seems, was any demanded. The spend-
thrift's hopes were unclouded by misgivings. He allowed the
story to be circulated through Rome, and regaled his ears,
while his preparations were in progress, with the flattery of
his courtiers, who continued to inflame his expectations. At
the same moment the Quinquennial games were in course of
celebration, and the circumstance was seized by the poets and
declaimers to dilate on the prince's fortune, for whom the soil
bore not her accustomed fruits only, nor her jDrecious metals
alloyed Avith dross and earth, but the pure ore itself, already
refined for use. Fired with these glowing benedictions, he
plunged into deeper prodigality than ever. He became reck-
less in the profusion of treasures which he believed to be un-
limited ; the treasury was speedily exhausted in the anticipa-
tion of unbounded replenishment. But the ofticers sent un-
der the guidance of Bassus to recover the hoards he had in-
dicated, spent their time in exploring and digging to no pur-
pose. The people and the soldiers of the province turned out
in crowds to witness the search and to protect it. After ex-
amining, spade in hand, every corner of the wretched man's
estate, with more patience than his crazy tale deserved, they
were obliged at last to report the total disappointment of
their hopes ; and he either put himself to death in despair,
or, according to another account, was sent in chains to
Rome to answer for his folly or his crime.'

* Tac. Ann. xvi. 1.: "Lateres (ingots) praegraves jacere, adstantibus parte
alia columnis " (bars.)

■■' Tac. Ann. xvi. 1-3. A. u. 818, a. D. 65. It was even affirmed by some
that the culprit was contemptuously released.

A.U. 818.] UNDER THE EJIPIRE. 155

What remains of the year 818, the most fertile perhaps
in all our annals in marked contrasts of the horrid and lu-
dicrous, of public and private suiferings, of bar- ^^^^,^
barous cruelty and frantic resistance, shall be formance in

. • 1^ rrrr the theatre.

told nearly in the words of Tacitus himself The
senate^ the historian says, on the return of the Neronian
[Quinqueiinial) games, anxious to avert a public scandal,
offered the emperor the prize for song and croicn of eloquence,
without the show of a contest. But Nero, protesting that he
required no favour, insisted o?i being pitted against his rivals,
and earning his honours by the sicorn award of the judges.
First, he simply recites a poem on the stage ; then, implored
by the popidace to exhibit all his accomplishments, he plays
and dances before them, observin,g in every particidar the
rules prescribed to the performers, who must not sit down to
rest themselves, nor wipe their brows with a handkerchief
Finally, bowing the knee, and making a p>rofessional salute,
he aicaited the judges'' decision with a show of bashful ap-
prehension.^ And the populace too, wont to follow every
movement of the actor with voice and gesture, cheered through-
out in concert. They seemed to be really delighted; and so
perhaps they were, so reckless were they of the national dis-
honour. But the spectators from remoter burgs of Italy,
still retaining some antique notions, those too from the prov-

' Nero's vocal and musical powers are thus described in the dialogue which
bears his name included in the works of Lucian. " His voice is unnaturally
deep and hollow (comp. Lucan's jest, ' Sub terris tonuisse putes '), and seems
to buzz in his throat with a disagreeable sound, which, however, he mitigates
by modulating it carefully to music. His skill as a smger is not contemptible,
except inasmuch as it is contemptible in an emperor to attend to such things
at all. But when he enacts the part of the Gods, how ludicrous he is ! yawn
the hearers must, in spite of a thousand perils. For he nods, drawing a long
breath, squares his toes, raises himself to the utmost, and bends back like a
man bound to the wheel. Naturally of a sanguine complexion, his visage now
glows with a deeper red." Then follows the story of a tragedian, who per-
sisted in contending for the prize against him, with great applause from the
audience, but much to Nero's mortification, who set on some of the players to
attack him and beat him to death.

156 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 65.

inces who were strangers to the abandoned habits of the city,
were ashamed and affronted ; and these, when they refused to
da}) their hands, and even hindered the hired applaxi^ders, xcere
beaten by the soldiers posted among the seats. Many knights
were trodden down in trying to make their way out : others
were seriously injured by keeping their places a day and a
night xcithout intermission, fearing to be denounced if they
absented themselves for a m,oment, by sjnes set to watch every
movement even of their countenances. Of the poorer sort,
indeed, many were p>unished on this account on the spot :
against the nobler the ill-will of the emperor was treasured
for future manifestation.^

After the conclusion of the games died Poppoea, from the
chance violence of her husband, who kicked her when in a
Death of Pop- State of pregnancy '. for I cannot believe in the
Eonourepaidto ^^^''^ of poison, though asserted by some writers,
^^^- from mere hatred, as J believe, to N'ero ; for he

was anxious for children, and greatly enamoured of his xcife.
Her body was not consumed by fire, as is the Roman custom /
but embalmed after the manner of foreign kings, and thus in-
troduced into the sejndchre of the Julii. The obsequies, how-
ever, were publicly solemnized, and Nero himself pronounced
her eulogy from the rostrum, praising her beauty, declaring
that she was the mother of a divine infant (a daughter she
had lately borne him, already dead), and representing her other
gifts of fortune in the light of personal merits.^

' Tac. Ann. xvi. 4, 5.

" Tac. Ann. xvi. 6.: Suet. Ker. 35.: Dion, Ixii. 27. Our author does not
mention, though he afterwards alludes to the fact as if mentioned, that the
senate decreed divine honours to Poppa^a. Embalming, after the fashion of
the Egyptians and the Greek sovereigns in the East, from a symbol of immor-
tality easily slid into a symbol of divinitj'. Pliny has a remarkable statement
that the amount of spices consimied at Poppsea's funeral exceeded a whole
year's produce of Arabia (xii. 41.). This would naturally be understood to
refer to the burning of her body, and the critics are perplexed at the apparent
discrepancy between the two authors, nor do I think they are successful in
reconciling them. I fear it must be considered one of the blunders which
Pliny, in his haste and indiscriminate appetite for miscellaneous information,

A.U. 818.J UNDER THE EMPIRE. 157

The death of Poppoea^ much mourned in public^ not less
blest in secret from the sense of her shatnelessjiess and cruelty^
teas ' the more bitterly considered from Merd^s

"^ "^ Proscnption of

forbidding C. Cassius to appear at her funeral, c. Cassiusand
This was the first sign of the coming evil, which
teas not long delayed. Silanus was included in the same
proscription / with no charge against either, except that
Cassius was eminent for ancestral icealth and high co7isider-
ation, Silanus for illustrious birth and youthful modesty.
Such were the crimes for which Nero sent a tnessage to the
senate, in which he hisisted that they should both be removed
from the commonwealth, objecting to Cassius that among the
images of his ancestors he venerated the bust of the tyranni-
cide inscribed the Party-Leader. This, he said, teas to sow
the seeds of a civil war, to urge a revolt against the family
of the Ccesars. Moreover he had attached to himself Silanus,
a restless and turbulent stripling, to lure the disaffected to re-
bellion. Silanus, he declared, had presumed already to prom-
ise posts and j^laces : a charge as frivolous as false / for
Silanus, thoroughly cowed by the death of his uncle Torquatus,
was only anxious to secure his own safety. But further,
the prince suborned delators to accuse Lepida, the wife of
Cassius and a,unt to Silanus, of incestuous intercourse with
her nepheio, and the practice of tnagical rites. Certain sen-
ators, Vulcatius and Marcellus, and a knight, Calpurnius
Fabatus, were arrested as his accomplices / these men, hoio-
ever, got a resjnte by appealing to the prince, and eventually
escaped, from their insignificance, among the greater crimi-

has too often committed. With this memento before us we may allow some
distrust of another statement also, that Poppsea was always followed by a troop
of five hundred she-asses to provide her a bath of milk, as a cosmetic, daily.
That her mules were shod with gold we may, if we please, admit. It should
be observed that Dion's repetition of these stories is no confirmation of them.
It is remarkable that Josephus {Andq. Jud. xx. Y. 11.) calls this wretched
creature " a devout woman," deooelSr/c yap 7]v. Perhaps she patronized the
Jewish freedmen connected with the palace ; possibly she discountenanced the
Christian converts. Josephus was, however, under some personal obligations
to ber. See Joseph. Vit. 3. On this point more will be said in another place.

168 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 65.

nals hy ichom N^ero's attention was engaged. On Cassius
and Silanus exile was pronounced hy decree of the senate.
Lepida icas left to the emperor''s judgment. Cassius. was
transptorted to Sardinia to die there of old age : Silanus was
removed to Ostia to be sent to JVaxtis / but he was j^resently
confined in JBarium, a town of Apidia. While enduring
there his undeserved misfortune with the fortitude of a phi-
losopher., he was laid hands on by a centurion under orders
to kill him. He declared himself well prepared to die., but he
would not suffer a cut-throat to claim the honour of slaying
him. Such, though unarmed, were his vigour and resolution
that the centurion was obliged to call his men to hold him •
yet he struggled against him with his bare hands till despatch-
ed at last with cut and thrust, as if in regular combat.^

N^or less sudden was the destruction of Lucius Vetus, his
mother-in-law Sextia, and his daughter JPollutia, objects of
Death of Lucius ^citrcd to the prinQC because their mere existence
mothe'And Seemed to reproach him xcith the slaughter ofJRur
daughter. bclUus Plautus, the son-in-laio of Vetus.^ Nero

first discovered his feelings on hearing the delation of For-
tunatus, a freedinan of Vetus, and of Claudius Demianus,
a man whom Vetus, when proconsul of Asia, had cast into
prison for his crimes. When the accused was informed of
the kind of tcitnesses who icere pitted against him, he quits
Home for his Formian villa. Soldiers are sent to surround
and icatch him at a distance. His daughter was with him^
still brooding over the recollection of her husband's death, of
the murder she had herself witnessed, of the severed head she
had embraced. She preserved his blood-stained garments as
a widoio and a mourner, taking only meat and drink suffi-
cient to sustaiji her alive. At her father''s desire she now re-

' Tac. Ann, xvi. 7-9. This was the L. Junius Torquatus Silanus referred
to in a preccdiug note.

" This L. Vetus is mentioned in Ann. xiv. 58. by the name of L. Antistius.
He was consul with Nero in the first year of his reign, a. d. 55. He command-
ed afterwards in the Upper Germany, and proposed to connect the Rhine and
Saone with a canal. Ann. xiiL 53. See above, oh. IL

A.U. 818.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. I59

pairs to the emperor at Naples^ and access being denied her,
haunts his door to extort an audience, calling on him to hear
the innocent, not to surrender to a freedman his oxen colleague
in the consulship, sometimes with womanish lamentations, and
again, casting off her sex, with threats and frantic violence,
till the prince's obduracy moved the disgust of all beholder's.
Then at last she bids her father abandon hope, and bear tohat
is beyond help. The trial, he hears, is impending, and a
severe sentence prepared. Friends advised him to make
Gcesar heir to the bulk of his property, and secure, perchance,
the remainder for his grandchildren. But this counsel he
rejected, and least by a last act of base submission, he should
disgrace a life ichich had bordered on independence, first di-
vided his money and furniture among his slaves — all but
three couches retained for a triple bier j — then himself, his
daughter, and his mother, together in one chamber, xoith the
same steel sever one another'' s veins j — wrapped each, for
decency, in a single blanket, they are laid hastily in the
•vapour-bath, each gazing on the others and praying to be the
first to die, and leave the others dying yet still alive. And
fortune maintained the proper order: the elders died first
and last the latest born. They were tried after their burial:
it was decreed that they should suffer after the manner of the
ancients. Nero p>retended to forbid this severity, alloioing
them forsooth to die in private: such was the mockery super-
added after they were dead and gone.

Puhlius Gallus, a Moman knight, was interdicted fire and
water, because he had been intimate xoith Fenius Rufus,
and on no distant terms with Vetus. The freed- Name of the
mail and accuser tcere rewarded for their 2)ains SianL'edto"*
xcith seats in the theatre among the tribune''s jin"us"toGer-
attendants. And the month ichich followed ™a°'°"s-
April {called now Keronian) was changed from JIaius to
Claudius, while June assumed the name of Germanicus,
because, as Cornelius Orfitus in proposing the change declared,
the name of Juyiius had been rendered ominous by the deaths
of two guilty Torquati.

160 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D. G6.

T/iis year^ disgraced by so many deeds of horror, wa3
further distinguished by the Gods xoith storms and sicknesses.
Campania and Campania tcas devastated by a hurricane which
hoodof"'it°me Overthrew buildings, trees, and the fruits of the
Btorms'linH pes- ^<^*"^ ^'^ cvery direction, even to the gates of the
tiitnce. city, tcithin tchich a jyestilence thinned all ranks

of the 2^02ndation, %oith no atmospheric disturbance that the
eye coidd trace. The houses tcere choked with dead, the roads
with funerals : neither sex nor age escajjed. Slaves and free
nzen perished equally amidst the tcaili?igs of their icives and
children, wfio icere often hurried to the pjyre by ichich they
had sate in tears, and consumed together tcith them. The
deaths of knights and senators, jj>ro?niscifous as they were,
deserved the less to be lamented, inasmuch as fallifig by the
common lot of moi'tality they seemed to antici2)ate theprinci^s
cruelty.^

We have seen in these extracts a graphic representation
of the mingled fai'ce and tragedy which one man's wanton-
ness, and the supineness of the million, allowed

Melancholy re- ^ ^ ^

flections of to DC inflicted on the great Koman people; and

Tacitus on his ,.,. ,, ,

task as an his- the disastcr With wlucli it concludes, the Visita-
tion of a suj)erior Providence, though in the
actual amount of suiFering far more terrible, is felt as a relief
because at least it brought with it no stigma ujion humanity.
The thirty thousand victims who were registered in this sin-
gle autumn in the temple of Libitina, may be compared with
twice that number entered in the bills of mortality in the
course of eighteen months in the great plague of London.*

' Tac. Ann. xvi. 10-13. The account of this year concludes with a notice
of the prince's liberaUty to the city of Lugdunum, to which he repaid a large
sum it had formerly presented to Rome, on the occasion perhaps of the fire.
Read with Ritter %irhh for <Mr6/(//« (casibus), and comp. xv. 45. "confercndis
pccuniis pcrvastata Italia, proviuciaj eversa^" &c.

^ Comp, Suet, Ner. 39, : " Pestilentia vmius auctumni quo triginta millia ad
rationem Libitinaj vcnerunt." It is needless to say that this statement affords
no adequate ground for calculating, with Brotier and others, the population of
Rome ; but it is important as showing the care and method with which the
register of deaths was kept.

A.U. 819.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. Igj

But Nero, who it seems had fled from the contacfion to his
Campanian watering-places, still continued to exercise the
same cruelty as before, and the year 819 commenced with
another iniquitous process, Avhich destroyed two nobles, one
of them a son of Ostorius Scapula, himself a soldier of repu-
tation,* He was already afraid of his own ofiicers, of the
men of action, not of words, the men who swayed the affec-
tion of the legions to which his own person was unknown.
Here Tacitus pauses for a moment, as if overcome by the hor-
ror of his subject, and embodies in despairing language his
distress at the prostration of his countrymen's energies, while
he justifies the sad interest with which he still lingers over it.
Even, he says, were I relating foreign tears, and deaths en-
dured for the republic, I shoxdd both fatigue myself and ex-
pect to fatigue my readers with the same unvaried tale of
sad though not dishonourable ends. But now the sennle 2^ci-
tience of the sufferers, and the loss of so much blood at home,
optjj^'ess the sold and overiohelm it loith melancholy. Nor
tcoidd I asJc of those to whom these horrors shall become
known any other indulgence for the wretches who perished so
jmsillanimously, but to refrain from detesting them. It was
the xorath of the Gods against the Roman state ; not such as,
171 the case of armies tcorsted or cities tahen, may once be
noted, and then passed over in sileyice. We oice it to the
posterity of illustrious nobles to recount all their deaths
separately, just as the obsequies of each are distinguished
from the common herd of funerals!' And so, with these
bitter words, he returns again to his task, and proceeds with
dogged endurance to record the names and fortunes of the
suflerers of the years which followed. A chance which he
did not anticipate, but which he would hardly have regretted,
has abridged the story of these gloomy times, and confined
the remaining pages of our author's annals to little more than

' Tac. Ann. xvi. 14, 15.

^ Tac. Ann. xvi. 16.: " Detur hoc illustrium virorum posteritati, ut quo
modo exsequiis a promiscua sepultura separantur, ita in tradititione supremorum
accipiant habeantque propriam memoriam."
VOL VI. — 11

162 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 66.

a single subject, to which we, too, must follow him with re-
spect and sympathy.

Before, however, we proceed to the crowning enormity

of the death of Thrasea, another proscription must be noticed,

partly as involving one name at least of histoiical

Death of An- . ^ ^ •^^ • i i i

nteus Mela, fa- notoriety, partly as lUustratmg the horrors under
which the Roman nobles at this time lived and per-
ished. Annoeus Mela, Kufius Crispinus, Anicius Cerialis, and
C. Petronius were involved in the same fate almost at the same
moment. Crispinus, it seems, was a public character; he had
been prefect of the prietorians and worn the consular orna-
ments ; such being the case he became an object of jealousy
to aspiring courtiers, and liable to false accusation. Charged
accordingly with participation in some recent conspiracy,
probably that of Piso, he had been banished to Sardinia,
where he soon put an end to his own life. But Mela had
preferred a private station to the perils of a more conspicu-
ous career.' This man was the brother of Gallio and Seneca,
and seems to have partaken of the Epicurean indifterence of
the one, together with the love of money which casts a stigma
on the other. Not seekinsj to rise above the rank of knis^ht-
hood, he had amassed wealth for himself Avhile replenishing
the imperial fiscus in the provinces. He was father, how-

* I have mentioned the three sons of M. Annasus Seneca the rhetorcian in
chapter xli. : " docti Senecas ter numeranda domus." — Mart. iv. 40. Of these
Novatus took the name of Gallio after adoption by M. Junius Gallio. He is
generally supposed to be the Gallio mentioned in Acts xviii. 12. as proconsul
of Achaia under Claudius. His mildness of character (" caring for none of these
things") is referred to by Statius [Si/lv. ii. 7. 32.): "dulcem generasse Gailio-
nem;" and by Seneca {Kat. Qu. praef. iv.): "quem nemo non parum amat,
etiam qui amare plus non potest ;" the false brilliancy of his style by Tacitus
{de Oral. 26.): "tinnitus Gallionis." The brothers seem to have been all ad-
dicted to letters. I know not why M. Nisard, in his Ehtdes sur les Poetcs latins
(i. 89.), in advancing his theory that the Tragedies which go under the name of
Seneca were written by different members of the family (Senecanum opus, he
calls them), excludes Gallio from the partnership. M. Nisard cannot inform us
how the authorship of the several plays is to be distributed, except that he
gives the Octavia, as the worst, decidedly to Lucan. I think myself that there
IS strong evidence of L. Seneca being author of some at least of them.

A.U. 819.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 163

ever, to Lucan, a relation which, however honourable, ex-
posed him to danger and led ultimately to his ruin. After
his son's death, he had shown, it is said, peculiar keenness in
collecting the debts due to him, and in so doing had offended
a certain Fabius Rusticus, who charged him in revenge Avith
complicity in the crime. His Avealth insured his condemna-
tion. Forged letters were produced, a case of Majestas was
vamped up, and Mela, after bequeathing a large part of his
estates to Tigellinus, in hope of preserving the remnant for
his heirs, shrank from the anxiety of a trial by opening his
own veins. But to his last will he had appended a word of
complaint at being thus compelled to die in his innocence,
while Crispinus and Cerialis, the prince's real enemies, were
allowed to survive him. The first indeed, as we have seen,
had already destroyed himself: the other, on finding his own
life menaced, speedily took the same course. Petronius, Avho
was sacrificed to the jealousy of Tigellinus, seems to have been
a man of more remarkable character than any of

,, __. . TIT. If. Character and

these. His sentiments and habits were those of death of Pe-
a Maecenas, transferred to a corrupter age, and
confined to a lower sphere. He had governed Bithynia, and
become subsequently consul ; and in these high ofiices he had
shown, like his trusty prototype, activity and vigilance. But
when released from public trammels, choice and policy com-
bined to dispose him to the enjoyment of ease and luxury in
a private station : his days were passed in slumber, his nights
devoted to genial dissipation. If he still occupied a large
space in the eyes of the citizens, it Avas owing to his refined
taste, to the exquisiteness of his luxury, and the elegance of
his debauches ; and all he said and did was repeated with
admiration of his studied ease, or, to borrow a phrase of
his oAvn, its curious felicity. Petronius was admitted,
with the choicest profligates of the day, to the prince's
intimacy, and stood so high in liis confidence as to be en-
titled the Arbiter of the Imperial Pleasures. Nothing was
graceful, nothing was admired in luxury, but what had
the stamp of his approbation. But here he invaded the

164 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS fA. D. 66.

province coveted by Tigellinus. Two favourites could not
sit so near the throne together. Tigellinus proved the
craftier : he accused his rival of a guilty intimacy with the
traitor Scajvinus, and having suborned a slave to depose
against him, deprived him by an adroit manceuvre of the
means of defence. Nero was at the time in Campania, and
Petronius was seized on his way to visit him, and detained
far from all assistance at Cumoe. We hoar no more in this
age of the judicial contests of the delators under Tiberius.
Accusers had not now the opportunity of making themselves
famous for their oratory. Their hateful trade was no longer
gilded even by the false glory of eloquence. Petronius, like
so many others, resolved at once to anticipate trial and sen-
tence by suicide. The manner indeed in which he proceeded
to yield his life was singular. Summoning his friends to his
presence, he opened his veins in the course of their conversa-
tion, bound them, and opened them again, as its interest
warmed or languished. But their talk was not of matters
of philosophy or the question of the soul's immortality : they
only recited trifling compositions, and improvised verses. To
some of his slaves he made presents, others he caused to be
punished. He lay down to supper, composed himself to sleep,
and sought to give his death the appearance, and if possible
the sensations, of a natural end. In his will he refused to
follow the mode of flattering the emperor or his creatures,
and filled a codicil with the indignant recital of their enormi-
ties. He signed and sealed, and transmitted this document
to the tyrant. Finally, he broke his signet, that it might
never again be used to bring the guiltless into peril ; and
dashed in pieces a costly murrhine vase, to deprive Nero of
the relic which he knew him most ardently to covet.'

' Plin. Hisi. Xat. xxxvii. T. As regards the authorship of the Satiricon,
■which goes under the name of Petronius Arbiter, the reader may refer to the
elaborate arguments of Studer in the Jiheinischcs Museum, 1843. This writer
maintains the old view. He collects allusions to the age of Nero and the early
emperors: as 1. in the reflections on the decline of eloquence, c. 1. (comp. the
Dial, de Oral. c. 35.) ; 2. on the wealth and manners of freedmen (comp. Plin.

A. U. 819.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 165

Our sole relief in tracing the bloody records of the Nero-
nian tyranny is the reflection that its victims, ill-used as they
were, were seldom worthy of a happier fate : in most at least
of the cases we have noticed, they were among the basest,
the most abandoned, and, when occasion offered, the most
barbarous of their countrymen. We may presume that the
indifference with Avhich citizens, provincials, and slaves wit-
nessed the massacre of their chiefs, their patrons, their masters,
was derived from a strong sense of the iniquity of their
career, their crimes and vices. We pay the tribute of a sigh
to the fate of Britannicus and Octavia, innocent as they yet
were in the first bloom of youth ; but we confess that they
too, had they been suffered to live a few years longer, would
probably have lived to deserve all their sorrows. But the
crowning crime of IsTero was of a different stamp ; for its vic-
tims were men of acknowledged honour and probity. Nero
at last, says Tacitus, yearned to destroy Virtue itself, in the
persons of Pcetus Thrasea and Barea Soranus.

These two illustrious names have been thus joined to-
gether by Tacitus, and the connexion shall not be severed,
though it does not appear that there was any al- ^^^^^ Thrasea

liance in blood or friendship between them, nor and Barea So-
ranus.
were they in fact involved in a common proscrip-
tion. They were united in the protest of their noble lives
against the iniquity of the times. Soranus had been pro-

Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 11., Senec. Epist. 27.); 3. on Orbitas (comp, Senca ad Marc.
19. and alib., Tae. Ann. xiii. 52.); 4. in the names Maecenatianus, Apelles,
Menecrates (comp. Suet. Calig. 32, Net: 30.) ; 5. in the estimate of Lucan as a
poet ; 6. in the verses on the civil wars ; 7. in the reference to an invention for
working glass with the hammer (comp. Plin. xxxvi. 26., Dion, Ivii. 21.); 8. in
the mention of the Vinum Opimianum and the Horti Pompeiani ; 9. in the
reference to the substitution of mosaic work for painting,, c. 83. (comp. Plin,
xxxi. 1.) ; 10. to the new fashion of anointing the feet, c. 70. introduced, ac-
cording to Phny, xiii. 3., under Nero. He further shows that the arguments
of Niebuhr and others for placing the work later, L e. in the time of the Anto-
nines, the Severi, or even Constantine, are of no value, and, on the whole, leaves
me tolerably confident that it belongs to the age of Nero, and was composed
by Petronius, the " Arbiter elegantiarum" of that emperor.

IQQ HISTORT OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 66.

consul in Asia, and had shown unusual consideration for the
claims of the subject provincials. But besides being rebuked
by his superior goodness, Nero had special grounds of morti-
fication against him. He had refused to punish a city which
had defended the statues of its gods against the commissioner
sent by Nero to plunder it. He was marked for accusation
by a needy delator. He was charged with intimacy with the
culprit Rubellius Plautus, and with treasonable intrigues in
his province. Against Thrasea the charges were still more
vague than these. This man was eminent among the Stoics,
the sect then most in vogue among the Roman nobility ; and
even the stern thoughtful air and sober garb which became
his profession, were 'felt as a reproach to the frivolous dissi-
pation of the prince and his flatterers.* His household was
regulated with antique simplicity : his wife, the child of the
heroic Arria, Avas wise and patient ; his son-in-law, Helvidius
Priscus, was brave and generous; he was admired by the
gentle Persius, a philosopher without conceit, and a satirist
without gall.' All his public acts, for he was a senator and
had held high oflice, were remarked by the bad Avith mortifi-
cation, by the good with undisguised triumph. When the
cruel motion was made in the senate against the memory of
Agrippina, Thrasea had retired without giving his vote : in
the Neronian games, when so many nobles had disgraced
themselves by unworthy compliances, Thrasea had stiffly de-
clined ; an offence the more pointed because in the Antenorian
games at his own city Patavium, he had relaxed, as a Greek
among Greeks, and taken part in the acting and singing.*
He had interfered to moderate the fierce flattery of the senate,
when it Avould have put Antistius to death for raillery against

' Suet. Ner. 37. : " Thrasese objectum est tristior et psedagogi wdtus."

" The scholiast on Persius informs us that the poet was kinsman to Arria.

Rupert, in Tac. Ann. xvi. 34, It is conjectured that Thrasea belonged to the

Gens Fannia.

' Tac. A7in. xvi. 21.: "Parum expectabilem operam praebuerat:" "he had

not done, what was required of him." It has been explained elsewhere how the

proud Roman of the city deigned to make himself a mere Greek in the holidays

in the countrj*.

A.U. 819.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 167

the emperor. Again, when divine honours were decreed to
Popjjwa, he had abstained from attending her obsequies.*
Capito Cossutianus, the son-in-laAV of Tigellinus, kept a note
of all these delinquences, partly from his own vicious hatred
of virtue, but still more, perhaps, for the effectual aid Thrasea
had lent to certain envoys from Cilicia, who had been sent to
Rome to charge him with oppression in their province.

Nor was this all : the conduct of the stern republican had
been marked by still increasing symptoms of political disgust,
which could not fail to be noticed. His admirers

Frivolous

in the next generation related with a glow of charges against

Thrasea

satisfaction how Thrasea and Helvidius were
wont to pledge each other, crowned with festal chaplets, on
the bii'thdays of Brutus and Cassius f but whether this were
so or not, the detractors of his own day remarked, with a
shrug, that he had shunned making oath to the emperor at
the commencement of the year ; that though a quindecemvir,
he had failed to offer vows for his safety ; that he had never
sacrificed for his health, or for the preservation of his heaven-
ly voice : once a constant attendant in the senate-house, he
had for three years refrained from entering it : lately when
the fathers had rushed to condemn Vetus and Silanus, he had
pleaded clients' business to keep away. This, it was said,
was secession from public life ; this was faction : if many
chose to do the same, it would be dissension, it would be
civil war. In their proneness to party contentions, people,
it was muttered, were beginning to talk forsooth of Nero and
Thrasea, as formerly of Caesar and Cato. Followers he has,

' That divine honours were decreed to Poppsea, though not before stated by
Tacitus, appears also from Dion, Ixiii. 26. Her temple was dedicated by Nero,
inscribed with the epigraph, " Sabinae Deae Veneri matronaj fecerunt." Eckhel,
Doctr. Numm. vi. 287., gives two coins inscribed on one side to " Diva Claudia,''
the infant daughter, on the other to "Diva Poppaea Augusta."

^ Juvenal, v. 36. : —

" Quale coronati Thrasea Helvidiusque bibebant
Brutoram et Cassi natalibus."
The respect in which Thrasea was held by later generations is strongly marked
in the epistles of the younger Pliny. See vii. 19., viii. 22.

1G8 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 66.

it was added, tcho affect his dress and manjiers, if not yet the
2)erverseness of his ojyinions • and reflect on the genial laxity
of theprbvce by their sour7iess a?id solemnity. Hy him alone
the life of Civsar, his acco))2plishine?it., his genius, are held in
no honour. To believe Poppaea no goddess, evinced the same
evil spirit as to withhold approval from the acts of the divine
Julius and the divine Augustus. The journals of the Senate
were read in the provi7ices and the camps, oiily to discover
tJie motions xohich Thrasea refused to soMction. The sect to
which he belonged had been ever the patron of a faction y it
had numbered a Tubero and a Favonius, names distasteful
even to the republic. Such are the men tcho noxo set up
the name of Liberty as a plea for overthrowing the empire :
should they succeed in overthrowing it, they xcill soon attack
liberty itself These insinuations easily in-
flamed the fury of Nero, and he encouraged Capito to pro-
ceed Avith his impeachment with the aid of another vehement
delator, Eprius Marccllus.*

The reader will have remarked that hitherto the victims
of Nero had almost all perished in private. Either he had
made use of secret assassination, or threats alone had sufficed
to drive his enemies to suicide in the recesses of their own
houses. Slowly, and from confused and doubtful Avhisper-
ings, had the people learnt for the most part the fate of
Agrippina and Britannicus, of Oetavia, Cassius, and Silanus.
Such deeds were not exhibited in public, such records were
not written in contemporary history. The sensibility of that-
excitable populace was little affected by mutterings of hor-
rors removed actually from their sight, or softened to their
imaginations by the lapse of time. This was no doubt the
secret of Nero's policy, which enabled him to break all his
pledges to justice and humanity, and gave impunity to crimes
which posterity has so deservedly execrated. But in the
cases now before us, the threats of the accusers seemed to be
of no avail, and the emperor was prevailed on to consent, not

• Tac. Amu xvi. 22,

A.U. 819.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 169

without apprehension, to the course of a public prosecution.
A moment was adroitly seized to carry through the process
when attention was absorbed in a matter of casual interest.
Tiridates, a claimant to the throne of Armenia, came to Rome
to receive the diadem from the hand of the emperor. To
dispose of foreign crowns was the pride of the senate and its
chiefs, and here a rival potentate was stooping to receive the
gift. Nero, with no conquests of his own to boast of, was
eager to make a grand display of his dignity and power.*
The citizens, with their increasing frivolity and love for
shows and ceremonies, were gloating over the meeting of the
prince and the king, when Thrasea and Soranus were both
suddenly denounced. Thrasea desired an interview with the
emperor : this being refused, he addressed him by letter, pledg-
ing himself to refute every accusation, and requiring only
to be confronted with his accuser. Nero had eagerly seized
the paper in which he hoped to read an avowal of guilt, ac-
companied with an abject submission. Disappointed in this
anticipation, he resolved with mortified vanity to let the im-
peachment proceed, and summoned the senate to hear and
pronounce upon it.

On the circumstances of this illustrious sacrifice Tacitus
dwells with peculiar solemnity. He sets before us, as in a
discussion of the friends of Thrasea, the argu-

' ° Thrasea dis-

ments which were doubtless often in the mouths cusses with his

rY, n ^ t i • • friends the

of the sunterers of those days and their anxious course he

n in- 111 •! Ill should adopt.

associates, lor deiymg the delator with a bold

though hopeless defence, or for submitting in silence to the

inevitable sentence. On the one hand, those who urged the

^ Suetonius, I^er. 13., describes the ceremony. Nero wore triumphal robes,
surrounded by troops, and the whole solemnity bore a military character. At
the close the soldiers saluted him with the title of Imperator, and his laurels
were offered to Jupiter in the Capitol. This presumed victory was followed by
the closing of the temple of Janus. Comp. the medals on which the closing of
Janus is recorded, as given by Eckhel, vi. 2*73., which must overrule the conflict-
ing statement of Orosius, though professing to be taken from Tacitus, that
Janus was never closed between Augustus and Vespasian. — Oros. vii. 3.

1 70 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A. D, 66.

accused to present himself in the senate-house declared, their
conviction that his constancy would not fail him ; he would

say nothing but what would enhance his reputation

Let the citizens behold Mm confronting the terrors of death :
let the fathers hear his icords, the words of a god rather than
of a man : possibly even JSTero himself might be moved by the
eloquence of inspiration : at least, shoxdd he persist in his
cruelty, posterity woidd distinguish this example of a worthy
death from the cowardice of those who let themselves perish

in silence On the other hand, some advised him

to await the event in his own chamber. To his virtue and
constancy they paid the same tribute as the first speakers ;
but they warned him of the insults he might have to undergo ;
the railing of his accusers might be followed by the revilings,

and even the blows, of the servile crowd around them

Let him relieve the senate from the infamy of such a crime ;
let him leave it undetermined tchat the fathers would venture
to decree against Thrasea at their bar. That JVero woidd
be made to blush there was no hope tchatever / but defiance
might goad him to further cruelties against his victini's chil-
dren. But the counsels of the anxious band were not solely
confined to considerations of dignity or expediency. One at
least among them, the young Arulenus Rusticus, off'ered at
all risks to intercede, as tribune of the people, and exercise
the ancient right of his office to quash the decree of the
senate. He was only restrained by the mild pnidence of
Thrasea himself, who pronounced that now, on the threshold
of a public career, it was his duty not to throw away his life
to no purpose, but reserve it for the chance of future useful-
ness.'

Every suggestion invited and affiibly considered, the sage
withdrew to make his final determination in private. Mean-
while, the proceedings of his enemies were car-
ncainst him in ricd ou impctuously. Thc ncxt morning two prjB-
torian cohorts occupied the temple of Venus
Genitrie, whither the senate was summoned. The ap-

' Tac. Ann. xvi. 25, 26.

A.U. 819.] UNDER THE EMPIRE. 171

preaches were thronged by bands of gowned citizens, sword
in hand, while soldiers were posted in the forums and halls
around ; it was amidst the scowls and threats of these terri-
ble bystanders that the fathers entered the Curia. A mes-
sage from the emperor was delivered. It contained a gen-
eral complaint against the senators for deserting their posts,
and preferring the ease of their subui-ban pleasances to the
fatigues of public duty. This Avas the theme on which the
accusers spoke. Thrasea and Helvidius in the first instance,
next to them Paconius Agrippinus and Curtius Montanus, as
known objects of the prince's jealousy, were charged with
this dereliction of their senatorial duties, ascribed to a con-
tumacious and treasonable disgust towards the government.
To Thrasea, it was asserted, the peace of the world, and the
victories of the empire, were equally distasteful. The forums,
the temples, the theatres, wherever, in short, the Roman peo-
ple congregated most for duties or amusements, he shunned
alike, as though they were solitudes uninhabitable to man.
He had snapped the social bonds of rank and profession ; he
had abandoned the Roman commonwealth ; let him die the
death, and make the unholy divorce final and complete.

The declamation of Marcellus was loud and passionate ;
and the senate, terrified beyond its wont by the threatening
sights around it, succumbed impotently to its charges against
fury. Nevertheless, so deep was the compassion ^"''*"'^*-
for the blameless virtue of Thrasea, the gallant bravery of
Helvidius, the guileless innocence of Agrippinus and Mon-
tanus, that when the harangue of the accuser ended, it still
sate motionless and silent. Then uprose Sabinus to advance
his charges against Soranus, and Avith the treasons he imput-
ed to the father he combined a charge of unholy divination
against his young and widowed daughter. Servilia, such was
the matron's name, admitted that she had consulted the sor-
cerers as to the fate impending on her sire ; but she had con-
ceived no imprecations on the prince ; for his safety she had
always prayed ; in the ardour of her feminine devotion she
had ever mentioned his name among the gods whom she in-

172 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS [A.D. 66.

voked. Soranus avouched her innocence with passionate ex-
clamations : with his acts, whatever their colour might be,
he showed that she was in no way connected. But the
charges against both were pressed with redoubled vehemence.
Among the most conspicuous of the witnesses against Sora-
nus Avas Egnatius, his client and the professed imitator of his
conduct and opinions. The senate was moved with more
than common disgust at the sight of a man who professed
himself among the straitest of the Stoics, denouncing the
noblest model of his own sect.'

The accusers, however, were completely successful. After
a short pause, which gave room for one example of generous
Death of Thra- devotion in the person of Cassius Asclepiodotus,
^®'*- a foi-eigner, once the client and now the defender

of Soranus, the senate decreed death, allowing only the
choice of death to themselves, against Thrasea, Soranus, and
Servilia. Ilelvidius and Paconius were to be banished from
Italy. Montanus was only declared incapable of all public
functions as a citizen. Marcellus and Cossutianus, on the
other hand, were rewarded with largesses and honours. The
whole day had been consumed in this double process. It was
already evening Avhen the quaestor of the consul arrived with
the fatal intelligence before the door of Thrasea, Avho, it
seems, had remained quietly at home, and w\as entertaining
a number of distinguished friends, both male and female. He
was engaged more particularly in a discourse Avith the Cynic
Demetrius, and from the solemnity of his gestures as well as
from words which were overheard from him, it was supposed
that the topic of their discussion was the nature of the soul,
and the independence of mind and body. Amidst the tears
and groans of the company, to whom the message was quick-
ly communicated, Thrasea contented himself with urging
them not to incur danger on his behalf, and forbade his wife to
follow the example of the elder Arria, bidding her live for the

' The crime of Egnatius furnished a standing example of unnatural perfidy
to the satirists. "Stoieus occidit Baream, delator amicum." Juv. Sat. iiL
116.

A.U. 819.] UNDER THE EMPIRE, 173

last solace and protection of their only daughter. Then go-
ing forth, he met the messenger of death, and received from
his hands the decree of the senate. He rejoiced to find that
Helvidius was spared. Taking the young man, together
with Demetrius, into his chamber, he held out his arms to the
operator, and dashing on the ground the first blood that start-
ed, A libation, he exclaimed, to Jove the Deliver! Look,
young man, he added, and heaven avert the omen ! hut in
the age to xohich you are horn, it behoves men to confirm their
own courage by beholdirig fortitude in others.^ And here, —
with only the addition that his pains were long, and that he
turned towards Demetrius, — the last sentence of the histo-
rian is suddenly interrupted : our manuscripts of this part of
Tacitus have come to us from a single copy, and the chance
which has torn ofi" some few leaves, perhaps, from the end of
a volume, has broken the thread of a narrative, so painfully
interesting, so solemnly instructive. The interest is common
to all mankind who can sympathize in the sorrows and vir-
tues of the noblest of their species : the instruction is for
those who can gather from these agonizing details the warn-
ings or consolations they are fitted to impart. In the follow-
ing chapter we shall enter upon an examination of the state
of thought and sentiment at Rome at this period, which may
help us, perhaps, to unriddle some of the perplexing ques-
tions which have been opened but not solved for us in the
narrative of the historians,

^ Tac. Ann. xvi, ult.

174 HISTORY OF THE ROJLLN'S

CHAPTER LIY.

CONSIDERATION OF THE CAUSES WHICH INDUCED THE ROMANS TO ENDURE THE

TYRANNY OF THE EMPERORS. FREEDOM OF THOUGHT AND EDUCATION ALLOWED

BY IT ACCEPTED AS A COMPENSATION FOR RESTRAINTS ON POLITICAL ACTION.

TOLERATION OF PHILOSOPHY.^-OPPOSITION OF THE STOICS TO THE GOVERNMENT :

THEIR CHARACTER AND POSITION IN THE COMMONWEALTH. STATE OF RELIGION

AT ROME: SUPPRESSION OF THE GAULISH SUPERSTITIONS: ENCROACHMENT OP

ORIENTAL CULTS. PROSCRIPTION OF THE SYRIAN AND EGYPTIAN PRIESTHOODS.

JUDAISM BECOMES FASHIONABLE AT ROME : INTRODUCED AMONG THE FREEDMEN

OF THE PALACE. TURBULENCE AND PROSCRIPTION OF THE JEWS AT ROME.

FIRST RECEPTION OF CHRISTIAN IDEAS AMONG THEM. ST. PAUL's EPISTLE TO THE

ROMANS. HIS ARRIVAL AND PREACHING AT ROME. PERSECUTION OF THE

" CHRISTIANS." QUESTION OF THE APPLICATION OF THIS NAME BY TACITUS.

THE TYRANNY OF THE EMPERORS SUPPORTED BY THE CORRUPTION OF THE AGE.

REFLECTIONS ON ROMAN VICE. COUNTER^ICTING PRINCIPLES OF VIRTUE. CHRIS-
TIANITY ACCORDS WITH THE MORAL TENDENCIES OF THE AGE. SENECA AND SAINT

PAUL. — THE TEACHING OF SENECA MORAL, NOT POLITICAL. — PERSIUS AND LUCAN.

THE tyranny of Kero, and with it the tyranny of the
Roman emperors, — that tyranny which has been hekl
up as a -warning beacon to freemen for so many
of t^*^i!^periai hundred years, — has now reached its climax : with
tyranny. Thrasca not a virtuous man, but Virtue itself, in

the affected phrase of Tacitus, may seem to have been pro-
scribed. Surveyed from a great distance in time and place,
and from our point of view, unfamiliar as we happily are
with the circumstances attending them, such atrocities as
those recorded in our latter chapters seem to border on the
incredible. It is not so much the barbarity of the despot, —
released from all fear of God and overwhelmed at the same
time with the fear of man, — as the patience of the subjects,
that moves our wonder, and appears at first sight among the

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 175

most inscrutable problems of history. Every Roman was
armed, and the military force at the prince's hand was of the
most trifling description ; every Roman vaunted himself of
the same ruling race as the prince ; his equal in intelligence,
in theory at least his equal before the law. The emperor of
the Romans stood absolutely alone at the head of his people.
He had no society of tyrants of his own class, like the slave-
owner, to support him : he had no foreign allies, like an auto-
crat in modern Europe, to maintain his authority as a bul-
wark to their own. Yet the attempts against the life or
power of the Caesars have been, as far as we have seen, com-
paratively few. They have generally been the work of pri-
vate enemies or domestic traitors : those Avhich have been
contrived by public men, and for public ends, whether suc-
cessful or not, have conciliated no sympathy from the multi-
tude. To throw any light on this phenomenon, for such it
may deserve to be called, we must look moi-e deeply into the
circumstances of the times, and the moral condition of the
Roman world.

Of the enormities of Nero more particularly it has been
already observed, but it may be well to repeat and enforce
the observation, that they were comparatively unknown to
the mass of the citizens. Some years of sincere benevolence
and virtue, some more of discreet and thoughtful ^

' ^ ^ Its acts were

vigilance, had disposed the subjects t)f Nero to generally

^ ' , '■ , , shrouded in

cherish a kindly feeling towards their ruler, and comparative
to reject as querulous declamation the vague and
unproved charges of tyranny which they might sometimes
hear made against him. To some crimes, real and manifest,
they suffered themselves to be blinded. The Quinquennium
of Nero could not be effaced at once from their memories.
The remembrance of it has been among the most lasting mon-
uments of the proneness of the Romans, — shall we not say
of mankind in general ? — to canonize the virtues of the great
rather than to execrate their vices. We have seen, moreover,
that the victims of Nero, unlike those of Caius or Tiberius,
perished generally with closed doors. Though their crimes,

176 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

their sentences, and the manner of their deaths were discuss-
ed in the senate and recorded in the public archives, they
were withdrawn at least from the public eye, and the story
of their sufferings, when it reached at last the ears of the
citizens, Avas less moving than if they had been witnessed in
the open day. We must not judge too harshly of the shrink-
ing from public exposure, or the hope of securing indulgence
for a surviving family, which induced so many of the accused
to anticipate the centurion's sword by suicide : yet the prac-
tice was not less really a crime against society ; it riveted
more strongly the tyranny of the despot, who might smile at
being thus relieved from a portion of the odium due to him.
Both Thrasea and Cato fell short of the dignity of suftering,
the last and noblest lesson it was given them to teach. We
must not wonder that the people showed little sympathy
with the men who waived a dying appeal to their feelings, to
their self-respect, to their love. They chose to die the death
of slaves, when they might have approved themselves as
martyrs, and it was as slaves rather than martyrs that they
came to be regarded.*

But the Romans, it may be added, had they been more
conscious of the cruelties thus perpetrated in the midst of
The Idea of them, — had they felt more keenly the pain and
laTtoThe^Ko- shamc of the victims of the tyranny which over-
™'*°s- shadoAved them, — would still have borne it Avith

an apathy Avhich it requires some effort to understand. For
they Avcre hardened against the sense of wrong and suffering
by the A'iciousness of their own institutions, by their OAvn per-
sonal habits and usages, by the daily practice of every house-

' Several passages of contemporary writers express some bitterness at the
desperation with which the best men threw away their lives. Thus Tacitus
praises Aj^ricola {Agric. c. 42.) : " Quia non contumacia neque inani jactatione
libertatis famam fatumque provocabat .... sciant obsequium ac modestiam,
si industria ac vigor adsint, eo laudis excedere quod plerique per abnipta, sed
in nullum rcipublicae usum, ambitiosa morte inclaruerunt." Comp. Ann. iv.
20. ; and Martial, i. 9. :

" Nolo virum facili redimit qui sanguine famam ;
Uunc volo laudari qui sine morte potest."

UNDER THE EMPIRE. I77

hold among them. Whenever the Roman entered his own
dwelling, the slave chained in the doorway, the thongs hang-
ing from the stairs, the marks of the iron and the cord on
the faces of his domestics, all impressed him with the feeling
that he was a despot himself; for despot and master were
only other words for the same fearful thing, the irresponsible
owner of a horde of human chattels.' When he seated him-
self in the circus, and beheld the combats of men with
beasts, or of men with their fellow-men, — when he smelt the
reeking fumes of blood which saffron odours could not allay,
heard the groans of the wounded, and, appealed to with the
last look of despair, gave ruthlessly the sign for slaughter, —
he could not but be conscious of the same glow of pleasur-
able excitement at the sight of death and torture which is
ascribed to the most ferocious of tyrants. Again, when he
invaded a province as qusestor or proconsul, and set himself
to amass a fortune without regard to duty or humanity, he
felt, not without pride, that if among citizens he was a citi-
zen, he was himself a king or an emperor among the subjects
of the state. His own conscience would not suffer him to be
indignant at any tyranny he witnessed. He had done as much
or more himself Tyranny was his own birthright : how
could he resent its exercise in another ? unless it immediately
touched himself, what interest had he in resenting it ? And
for all the iniquities he himself practised, he had no doubt a
salvo in his own breast. Slavery he firmly believed to be an
eternal law of Nature. The free races were, he was assured,
as gods to the servile races. He confessed the moi-e readily,
perhaps, that Csesar was in some sense divine, inasmuch as
he claimed to be himself of superior nature to the prostrate
herds at his feet. But if Cffisar was divine, must he not ac-
quiesce in Caesar's sovereign authority ? ^ An old state tra-

' The frightful stories of Vedius Pollio (Dion, liv. 23.), and Pedanius (Tac.
Ann. xiv. 42.), — with which compare that of Largius Macedo (Plin. I^pisi. iii.
14.), — may suffice to show that the Roman masters were supported by the law
in greater cruelties than any the Emperors practiced in defiance of it.

" If some were still inconsistent enough to complain of the loss of liberty,
VOL. TI. — 12

178 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

dition pronounced that the massacres of the circus were po-
litically expedient. That men should be hardened against
fear by the frequent spectacle of death was a fixed principle
in tlic moral creed of the Roman. Lastly, that Rome should
rule the Avorld seemed to him the final cause of creation.* He
was not generally troubled by any slur thus cast upon Prov-
idence, as harsh and partial. He never thought of the moral
government of the world as a system of mysterious wisdom
and mercy, and it Avas no part of his philosophy to reconcile
the jarring facts around him with the disjiosition of the Al-
mighty Power to whom he gave the name of Best as well as
of Greatest.

The ordinary notion of absolute government, derived

from the form it assumes in Europe at the present day, is

that of a strict svstem of prevention, Avhich, bv

The Roman po- -^ '■ , . .' I.

lice repressive, mcans ot a poweriul army, an ubiquitous police,

not preventive. i • r- t • •

and a censorship oi letters, anticipates every
manifestation of freedom in thought or action, from whence
inconvenience may arise to it. But this was not the system
of the Ctesarean Empire. Faithful to the traditions of the
Free State, Augustus had quartere'd all his armies on the
frontiers, and his successors were content with concentrating,
cohort by cohort, a small though trusty force for their own
protection in the capital. The legions were useful to the
emperor, not as instruments for the repression of discontent
at home, but as faithful auxiliaries among whom the most
dangerous of his nobles might be relegated, in posts Avhich

Seneca could thus justly rebuke them : " Respondisse tibi servum indignasis,
libertumque et uxorem et clientcm ; deinde de republica libertatem sublatam
quereris, quam domi sustulisti." — .Scnec. De Ira, ili. 35.

* In such a case the evidence of a popular poet is worth more than that of
a philosopher. Statius expounds the universal law of tyranny boldly and
plainly, Si/lv. iii. 3. 49. :

" Vice cuncta reguntur

Alternisque regunt : propriis sub regibus omnis

Terra ; premit feli x rcgum diademata Roma.

Ilanc ducibus frajnare datum ; mox crescit in illos

Imperium Superis ; sed. habent et Numina legem."

UNDER THE EMPIRE. I79

were really no more than honourable exiles. Nor was the
regular police of the city an engine of tyranny. Volunteers
might be found in every rank to perform the duty of spies ;
but it was apparently no part of the functions of the guar-
dians of the streets to watch the countenances of the citi-
zens, or beset their privacy. We hear of no intrusion into
private assemblies, no dispersion of crowds in the streets. It
was generally deemed sufficient to divert the interest of the
people from public affairs by supplying them with a constant
variety of employment or dissipation, to amuse them, in their
casual bursts of anger, by the sacrifice of some object of their
aversion, to soothe their discontent by redoubled largesses, to
allay their alarms of plague or famine by more extravagant
shows and massacres in the circus. Or if at any time their
murmurs took shape in action, or secret conspiracies against
the government were detected, the arm of the emperor de-
scended upon them swiftly and ruthlessly, and the severity of
the punishment stunned and laid them in the dust.

Conscious of their power to repress disaffection, it was
not therefore the policy of the emperors ostentatiously to
prevent it. For this reason we find that they

•^ . . *^ Freedom of

made no efiort to impose restraints upon thought, thought among

_,-, „, , iiiT- the Komans.

1 reedom 01 thought may be checked m two ways,
and modern despotism resorts in its restless jealousy to both.
The one is, to guide ideas by seizing on the channels of edu-
cation ; the other, to subject their utterance to the control of
a censorship. In neither one way nor the other did Augustus
or Nero interfere at all. From the days of the republic the
system of education had been perfectly untrammeled. It
was simply a matter of arrangement between the parties di-
rectly interested, the teacher and the learner. Neither state
nor church pretended to take anv concern in it :

. . . , . . System of edu-

neither priest nor magistrate regarded it with the cation inde-
slightest jealousy. Public opinion ranged, under priests or mag-
ordinary circumstances, in perfect freedom, and
under its unchecked influence both the aims and methods of
education continued long to be admirably adapted to make

180 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

intelligent men and useful citizens. The end of the highest
education among the Komans was to fit a man for the dis-
charge of his public duties. But, in theory at least, they
took a very liberal vicAV of public duty, and conceived that
every thing which refined and enlarged his intellectual pow-
ers made him a wiser legislator and an abler magistrate. At
the age of seven, or sometimes a few years later, the child
began his course of public instruction on the benches of the
Grammarian. From him he learned to read and speak his
own language step by step with the Greek, and imbued his
memory with the thoughts and language of the classics of
either tongue, from Homer to Ennius or Virgil. At fourteen,
or as soon as the powers of thought began to unfold them-
selves, he Avas transferred to the school of the Rhetorician,
where he first began to concentrate his studies upon the fu-
ture business of his life. He was to be made a public man,
and therefore above all things a public speaker. He was to
be trained for a perfect orator, by declamation, by writing, by
careful study of the best models, by constant exercise in ri-
valry with his schoolfellows. But it Avas not the mere trick
of action, or knack of speaking, that he Avas to acquire : he
was to be thoroughly informed with the matter requisite for
his calling. Every branch of knowledge might sometimes have
its application : every art and science might serve on occasion
to illustrate the topics presented to him for discussion : and, if
any were too remote from the sphere of forensic eloquence,
they would serve at least to expand the mind of the pupil.
Its extent and *^ S^^^ breadth and depth and heiglit to his un-
liberaiity. dcrstanding. Among these sciences, however,

there was one which held the highest place, one which for its
pre-eminence among them deserved to be removed from the
circle of the rhetorician's instructions, and entrusted to the
care of a special teacher. At seventeen, or Avhen the fated
struggle begins between the moral principles and the instincts
of appetite, — at the commencement, such as morality and re-
ligion have represented it, of the great battle of life between
vice and virtue, — the youth was transferred to the academy

UNDER THE EMPIRE. Igj

of the Philosopher or Sophist, to learn the mysteries of the
Good, the Fair, and the Honourable.' While he still contin-
ued to exercise himself daily in rhetorical studies and prac-
tice, he explored the dark by-ways of morals and metaphysics
under accomplished teachers, and traversed perhaps the whole
circuit of Grecian speculation before he determined in which
sect definitively to enrol himself.

Such a course of education, it must be allowed, was nobly
conceived ; and at the hands of the Romans it received fair
play ; for it Avas warped by no sectarian prejudices, nor con-
fined by narrow notions of state policy. At first, indeed, the
government looked with distrust on the new science of the
rhetoricians, and the strange doctrines of the sophists from
beyond the sea: the stern republic of Cato suspected the
tendencies of a learning imported by the effeminate parasites
of conquered Greece. But even these camp-prej- gj^jj training
udices were transient, and in the later times of atEom!fu™der
the Free State the intellect of the Roman youth *^*^ ^^"^ s*'*'«-
was allowed to be developed without restraint, and undoubt-
edly with no common success. The Roman men of affairs
were generally men of well-trained understandings. Their
soldiers could speak and write as well as command. Their
knowledge of ideas and letters was wide in its rano-e, thousfh
perhaps their views had little depth, and still less originality.
But there is something very remarkable in the ease with
which they could turn from the active to the literary life,
from study to composition, from speaking to speculation.
With the fall of freedom the sphere of eloquence became lam-
entably restricted, and oratory degenerated into mere dec-
lamation: the subjects to which the learner was directed
were frivolous, and the nature of his preparation in art was
no doubt less discursive and complete.* Never-

,11 - - . , -1 . rt ^ot materially

tneiess, even under the empire, the education of lowered under
youth bore honourable fruit. It created men of ^ '^'^p''"^-

Thus Persius, at twelve years, entered the school of the grammarian Pa^
laemon ; thence he went to the rhetor Virginias ; and finally, at sixteen, to the
philosopher Comutus. — Suet. vii. Fers.

For the subjects of declamation compare what has been said in chap. xli. ;

182 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

letters if not practical statesmen ; it sharpened the intellect,
formed habits of industry, enlivened thought, and fostered a
variety of interests, and an aptitude for manifold pursuits.
It continued as before to be exercised with perfect freedom.
The most jealous of the C£esars made no attempt to control
it, to dictate its subjects and prescribe-its methods. Its text-
books were still, as ever, the most famous compositions of re-
Deeiamation in publican Grcecc ; the favourite topics of its dec-
erty*and tyran- l^^^ations wcre the glorics and virtues of the
nicide. freemen of antiquity, and the praise of tyranni-

cide resounded from all its benches.* Even the milder method
of guiding education, by enlisting salaried professors in the
interest of the government, was not discovered till a later
period ; even then we shall find reason to question whether
it was adopted as a precaution of state policy, or rather as a
cheap subordination of flattery.

The same indulgence which was extended to education

smiled upon the literature which flowed so copiously from it.

There was no restriction on writing or publica-

No restrictions • -r-. i i • t

on freedom of tiou at Romc aualogous to our censorships and

licensing acts. The fact that books were copied

by the hand, and not printed for general circulation, seems to

and see Tacitus, Dial, de Orat. 35. ; " Sequitur ut materia; abhorrenti a veri-
tate declamatio quoque adhibeatur. Sic fit ut tyrannicidarum prcemia, aut vi-
tiatarum electiones, aut pestilentiae remidia, aut incesta matrum, aut quicquid
in schola quotidie agitur, in foro vel raro vel nunquam, ingcntibus verbis perse-
quuntur;" and Petron. Satt/r. 1.: "Et ideo adulesccntulos existimo in scholis
stultissimos fieri, quia nihil ex iis qua3 in usu habemus aut audiunt aut \-ident,
Bed piratas cum catenis in litore stantes, sed tyratinos cdicta scribentes," &c
* Tlie well-known line of Juvenal,

" Cum perimit sacvos classis numerosa tyrannos,"

is confirmed by Tacitus above cited, and by the subjects of some of the decla-
mations ascribed to Quintilian, which have come down to us. The only excep-
tions to this licence of teaching mentioned in history, are the ease of Carrinas
Secundus, banished by Caius for declaiming in favour of tyrannicide (Dion, lix.
20.), and of the rhetor Yirginius and the philosopher Musonius Rufus, pro-
scribed by Nero, as Tacitus says, on account of their influence over youth, but
ostensibly implicated in Hie conspiracy of Piso. — Ann. xv. 71.

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 183

present no real difficulty to the enforcement of such restric-
tions, had it been the wish of the government to enforce
them. Tlie noble Roman, indeed, surrounded by freedmen
and clients of various ability, by rhetoricians and sophists,
poets and declaimei'S, had within his own doors private aid
for executing his literaiy projects ; and when his work was
compiled, he had in the slaves of his household the hands for
multiplying copies, for dressing and binding them, and send-
ing forth an edition, as we should say, of his work to the select
public of his own class or society.' The circulation of com-
positions thus manipulated might be to some extent surrepti-
tious and secret. But such a mode of proceeding was neces-
sarily confined to few. The ordinary writer must have had
recourse to a professional publisher, who undertook, as a
tradesman, to present his work for profit to the world. Upon
these agents the government might have had all the hold it re-
quired : yet it never demanded the sight beforehand of any
speech, essay, or satire which was advertised as about to ap-
pear. It was still content to punish after publication what it
deemed to be censurable excesses. Severe and arbitrary as
some of its proceedings were in this respect, of which in-
stances have been already recorded, it must be allowed that
these prosecutions of Avritten works were rare and exception-
al, and that the traces we discover of the freedom of letters,
even under the worst emperors, leave on the whole a strong
impression of the general leniency of their policy in this par-
ticular."

The fear, indeed, of such retrospective censorship had
damped the ardour of men of letters through the dark days
of Tiberius, and no man coveted eminence as a ^1,53 induis-
writer under the tyranny of his successor, who fn compensa^
proscribed Homer and Virgil, and scowled with ^|°° upon^^puj,":'
envious moroseness upon every kind of excel- lie action.
lence. But Claudius was a patron of letters, perhaps not

* See Com. Nep. in Ait. 13. ; Cic. ad Ait. iv. 4. 5. 8., xiii. 12. 44.
" The patience of Nero under the bitterest pasquinades is remarked but not
explained by Suetonius, Ner. 39. : " Mirum et vcl praecipue notabile inter haeo

184 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

an unenlightened patriot. Historical composition flourished
again under the auspices of the imperial historian. The ac-
cession of Nero, youthful and benign to every talent, was the
signal for renewed activity in all departments of literature,
particularly in the lighter, such as might expect special coun-
tenance from the favourite of Apollo. Undoubtedly the
licence which was extended to writings at this period was
accepted by the mass of the rising generation of educated
men, as compensation for the restraints imposed on them in
active life. While the interchange of thought was free, or
appeared so, they might fondly persuade themselves that
they were freemen themselves. Here, at least, the traditions
of the republic were unbroken.

Xor are w^e to suj^pose that the circle of readers was so
small that the government could safely despise the influence
Consideration ^^ ^" Unpalatable comj^ositiou. Whatever was
of the da^Tof ^^^ cxtcut it was Coincident, at least, M'ith the
readers. class of whicli the government was naturally

most jealous. The publications of Rome were perused no
doubt by the senators, the knights, and the freedmen of the
city: there is evidence to show that in many cases they
l)enetrated far into the provinces, and for some kinds of
writings, at least, there was a regular sale at Lugdunum, or
any other provincial capital.* Some curious calculations
have been made, to show that the rapidity with which copies
could be multii^lied by hand from dictation was little less
than that of printing. It is not impossible that a limited
number of copies, a hundred for instance, could be written

fuit, nihil cum paticntius quam maledicta et convicia hominum tulisse, neque in
uUos leniorcm, quam qui se dictis aut carminibus lacessisscnt, cxstitisse." He
proceeds to cite examples, some of which have been quoted in the preceding
chapter.

' The authorities on this subject are collected, but with little critical dis-
crimination, by Adolf Schmidt. Denk und Glaubens/reiheit, pp. 116. 125.
The younger Pliny, as a metropolitin man of letters, imagined there could be
no such thing as a bookseller at Lugdunum ; he was the more pleased to Icam
that his own compositions were on pale there, among the latest publications of
the traf-e at Rome. See £pi«t. ix. 11.

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 185

off quicker in this way in the librarian's workshop, than a
single one could be set up in type by the printer. This, of
course, supposes the employment of a multitude of scribes ;
but these were slaves cheaply purchased and maintained at
little cost.' The exceedingly low price of books at Rome,
if we may take the poems of a popular author as an example,
show that the labour must have been much less or much
cheaper than we usually imagine.* The world of Roman
society, the circles of rank and fashion, in the city and its
neiglibourhood, were permeated by the published thoughts
of their favourite writers with electric speed and electric dif-
fusiveness.* It would be too much to dignify with the name
of devotion to literature the aptitude of the educated Roman
for the use of his style and tablets. No doubt the vice of the
system of instruction imparted to him was its tendency to
degenerate into the conning of facts, maxims, and the com-
monplaces of the schools, rather than the cultivation of
thought. Trained from childhood to observe and imitate, he
was versed in all the forms of literature, while he lacked per-
haps the ideas to fill them. Hence the facility with which
mere children, as in the cases more than once referred to,
produced set orations on hackneyed subjects. With their

^ Schmidt's remarks on this subject are well worth considering. He says
boldly, " was in der Gegenwart fiir die Literatur die Presse ist, das war im Al-
terthum die Sklaverei," p. 119. Certainly the means possessed by the ancients
for multiplying copies were far beyond those of the middle ages.

* For the exceeding cheapness of the most popular books see Martial, i
118.: "Denariis tibi quinque Martialem." It would seem ihat a copy of one
book at least of Martial (about 700 lines), smoothed with pumice, and elegantly
bound, was sold for 3s. 4fZ. ; a plainer copy (comp. i. 67.) for about Is. 6d., or
(xiiL 3.) even for 4c?., and still leave a profit to the bookseller :
" Omnis in hoc gracili Xeniorum turba libello
Constabit nummis quatuor empta tibi.
Quatuor est nimium : poterit constare duobus ;
Et faciet lucrum bibliopola Tryphon."
' One book of Martial (540 verses) could be transcribed in an hour (ii. 1.
5.) : " htec una peragit hbrarius hora." On the rapidity of writing Schmidt
quotes Galen, Be Cogn. Morb. c. 9., which shows that shorthand was in com-
mon use for published books. Schmidt, pp. 132. 136.

186 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

notebooks crammed with the accumulated jottings from a
long course of dictations, they were prepared to produce, at
short notice, passable exercitations on any ordinary topic.
Ovid, speaking of the precocity of his poetical talent, tells
us that in childhood his thoughts ran spontaneously in verse ;
and the phrases with Avhich the tablets or the memory of tlie
Romans Avere stored might seem of their own accord to take
the form of continuous composition. Almost every distin-
guished man amons; them seems to have kept his

Facilities at- . ^ ^

tending the joumal or Ephcmcrides : to have made collec-

composition . „ . - .

and muitipiica- tious of wisc and Avittv saymofs : to have turned

tion of books. /.,. , • •'='

some 01 his observations on men and things into
verse : to have struno- together a volume of miscellaneous
extracts from his reading; and the transcription of a few
copies of these stray leaves constituted the publication of
Characteristics ^ book. With the character of the common liter-
Hteraturc^o"' the ^ture of the day the Caesarean government had
"™®- every selfish reason to be satisfied. It was en-

grossing ; it occupied many restless minds to the exclusion
of all dangerous subjects, either of action or reflection. It
seems to have been lively ; it was, at least, fascinating. It
was generally voluptuous, to eneiwate the strong and dar-
ing ; it was satisfied with a low range of topics, leaving
loftier themes to reserved and solitary genius. Such was
the kind of literature in which Nero himself was ambi-
tious of shining ; such Avere the writings he could best ap-
preciate. The few remaining verses which are ascribed to
him, or supposed to be parodies ujion him, seem to show that
he was a proficient in the lilting metre and empty prettiness
of expression which marked the poetical style of his tutor.*
He is said, indeed, to have aspired to the flime of an historian,
and to have taken for his subject the Affairs of Rome. His
performance, however, never went beyond a consideration of
the number of books to which the work should extend. The

* Seneca (jVo/. Qii. i. 5.) quotes a verse of Nero's : —

" Colla Cytheriacre splendent agitata columbac."
The well-known line in Persius, Sat. i., are not improbably parodies.

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 187

emperor, urged a flatterer, should not deign to compose less
than four hundred volumes on the imperial theme. The Stoic
Cornutus bluntly suggested that the public would not read a
work so prolix. Yet, replied Nero, your master Chrysijypus
wrote as many books. . . . Hut they at least, returned the
sage, loere of some use to m^ankind.^

But whatever the truth of this story may be, the Romans
of this age were not solely triflers in the drama, in epigram
and fusritive poetry : men were found not only to

? , ., . o , . Fashion of his-

wnte but to read vast compilations of history, toricai compo-
now known to us only by the number of volumes
they are said to have filled. The works of the emperor
Claudius, of Servilius Nonianus, and Aufidius Bassus, attest
the patient labour of these men of letters ; men who must
have looked for reputation rather from the recitation of their
compositions, book by book, to select audiences, than to their
wide dissemination by the labour of copyists. An accou.nt
of the life and studies of the elder Pliny, the type of Roman
industry at the same time both in affairs and let- Extraordinary
ters, will find its j)roper place at a later period ; of't'h^Mer^''^
but we may here remark that during the reign ^'"^^•
of Nero this distinguished man, after holding for many years
a military command in Germany, was devoting himself to
study in retirement, meditating a history of the German wars
which he deemed it inexpedient to put on paper in times of
tyranny, composing a work on grammar and a treatise on the
literary life, accumulating extracts from his reading or notes
of his thoughts and conversation which extended at his death
to a hundred and sixty volumes, and preparing slowly and
methodically, from the perusal of many hundreds of works,
the wonderful encyclopcedia of Roman arts and learning
which he published eventually under the name of the Natu-
ral History.

The noble Roman chafed indeed at the restraints Avhich
prudence prescribed him in the relation of contemporary

"^ Dion, bdi. 29.

188 HlSTORr OF THE ROMANS

Discourage- cvents, ill whicli truth could seldom be told Avith-
™mpo°4rjTis- out impugning the conduct of men in power,
^'^^ court favourites or court parasites, if it did not hit

the blots in the character of Cresar himself It was still more
galling, perhaps, to leave the field open to the flatterers and
intriguers who debased history into mere panegyric, and filled
the ear of Rome with unblushing falsehood. The harsh re-
pression exercised towards the utterers of the truth in this
particular, had deterred the most honourable men from her
ill-requited sei"vice, and checked the license of remark on the
personages around him Avhich the Roman magnate cherished
as his birthright. To many this restraint on personal criti-
cism was the sorest point in their servitude. But with this
exception the mind of the educated classes still flowed freely
enough in the well-worn channels of literature, and the sta-
bility of the government was no doubt, in a great degree,
founded on the ease and freedom with which the men of let-
ters moved in their chains, and their general acquiescence in
the position assigned them.'

The class, never numerous at Rome, which interested it-
self in moral speculations, had enjoyed remarkable freedom
from interference at the hands of constituted au-
philosophy at thonty. i he proud aristocracv oi the senate was

Kome with re- ' ^ , "

li^onandgov- little troubled by the nervous alarms at hetero-
doxy, so common to half-instructed democracies,
full of prejudices, and conscious of their want of skill and
learning to defend them. Hence, except once or twice, at
moments of great intellectual disturbance, the government
of the Free State had sufiered the philosophers to teach as
they pleased, and put no restraints on the spirit of inquiry
which was sapping the positive beliefs of the day. If it ever
evinced any jealousy of the new teaching, it was against
the Greek foreigner, not against the heretic, against the

* It is fair to remark, on the other hand, that the strictures of contempo-
rary history were not checked at Rome, as among ourselves within recent times,
by the code of honour, nor practically at least, as it would appear, by a law of
libel.

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 189

enemy of Rome, not the enemy of the gods, that it was di-
rected. The full establishment of the Roman power in the
East was followed by complete acquiescence in the teaching,
however libei-al and daring, which flowed from that source to
the West. From the last century of the republic all attempt
at interference ceased. The young Roman noble was initia-
ted, as a matter of course, in the contentions of the Academy
and the Lyceum ; he traversed the inevitable career from
doubt to rationalism, and from rationalism to doubt again ;
while neither pi'iests nor magistrates complained of the new
sphere of ideas into which he was launched, sure, as they
were, to extinguish in his mind the old belief of his countrv-
men. All the Grecian schools agreed at least in one thing,
namely, to inculcate outward respect for established forms
of religion as an instrument of government. It might be
curious to trace the origin of this peculiar feature in their
teaching ; whether it was a pnident concession to the de-
mands of the authorities, under which they taught ; whether
they were unconsciously swayed by the apprehension that
in the uncertainty which confessedly hung over their own
undetermined principles, the Voice of the People might be
after all a faint echo of the Voice of God : but so it was that
Stoic, Epicurean, Peripatetic and Eclectic, all consented to
practise on public occasions the rites which they not less
openly derided in their speaking and writing. The compro-
mise was certainly efiectual, at least to a late period.

Modern despotisms are charged with allowing the freest
licence of religious discussion, not in the interest of tnith,
but as a necessary compensation for the silence Attitude of op-
they impose upon all discussion on politics.* It ernmrnt^firir'
will be seen that if Roman imperialism is liable sto?c™rader'^^
to the same charge, it was at least no new inven- ^^^ empire.

' This charge, so commonly made against certain Continental governments
at the present day, and with peculiar force against the old monarchy of France
(see De Tocqueville's instructive book, VAncien Regime et la Bevolution, liv. ii.
ch. 11., liv. iii. ch. 2.), may be extended, I conceive, with eqixal truth to oligar-
chies generally.

190 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

tion of tyranny. The Sceptic and the Atheist had been al-
lowed full scope under the government of the senate, and the
Csesars, in leaving religion still open to their attacks, only
followed the state tradition bequeathed them from the repub-
lic. The philosophers, however, while they accepted free-
dom as their right, were not bound thereby to keep terms
with the government which condescended to grant it. They
had a higher mission, and a corresponding sense of duty.
With the gross and immoral practices, indeed, allowed, en-
couraged, sometimes even prescribed, by the Pagan supersti-
tions, philosophy did not concern herself. She did not stoop
to inform or amend the ignorant rabble of the temple-wor-
shippers : but the opposition between her and the govern-
ment became flagrantly wicked and tyrannical, M'as more and
more openly avowed. The wisdom of the Porch was not the
antagonist of vulgar vices ; but her precepts, addressed to
the ruling classes of the empire, stood forth in bold and
startling hostility to the principles of existing authority. The
city of the Stoics was the city of God, not the city of Caesar.
The empire for which they sighed on earth was the empire of
the best and wisest, of the oligarchs of reason, not the em-
pire of the blind ignoble multitude impersonated in the tri-
bune of its choice. Christian moralists have taunted Stoic-
ism with the hopeless distance at which it stood from the
sympathies of mankind in general. Such, they say, is the
nature of man, that it requires the prospect of reward, here
or hereafter, as an efficient stimulus to virtue. This argu-
ment is probably true, and as a general proposition no doubt
the Stoics would have also admitted it. But, having them-
selves no assurance of any such retributive Providence, they
aimed at raising the choicest spirits from the common level
to a higher standard of excellence, and inculcated duty with-
out reward as the end of existence, not as a religion for the
many, but as a philosophy for the few. Shocked as their no-
bler instincts were at the vile degradation of the multitude,
they conceived the Truth as something unappreciable by it.
Could the Truth have been made intelligible to mankind in

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 191

general, it would, in their view, have ceased to be Truth at
all. And this, after all, was very similar to the view of
Christianity itself entertained by some of our primitive teach-
ers. Tcrtullian in a striking passage asserted broadly that the
Caesars would long since have been converted to Christianity,
if Christians could be themselves Ca?sars, that is, if govern-
ment could be Christian.* Christianity, he conceived, must
always stand apart from the ordinary march of affairs ; the
true faith could only be the faith of a chosen congregation ;
mankind in general were equally incapable of moral renova-
tion and of spiritual conversion.

Let the Stoics, then, be judged solely by what they at-
tempted. Their aims were high, but not wide-reaching.
Thev souofht to make some men more than hu- „ . . ,

JO ' J? 1 Pnnciplcs on

man, but there was no question with them of the which stoicism

' ^ . as to be judgea.

few or the many. They boasted that their pre-
ternatural standard of holiness was not absolutely unattain-
able, and if they could point to a single Cato or a single
Thrasea, as having attained to it, their problem was solved,
their principle was established. Virtue had become imper-
sonate. Man had become God. The end of creation was
accomplished. Even from the attempt to accomplish this
end, however imperfectly, other blessings might flow, indi-
rectly and collaterally : though, indeed, by the true mystic
of the Porch these were little heeded. The aspirations, how-
ever, of the Stoics in general were really less visionary and
unpractical. They descended from the clouds to earth to im-
pregnate with noble and fruitful principles such forms of
government as were actually accessible to them. Captivated
as they often were by the aspect of the law, as the exponent
of the Divine Will, the representative of Divine Justice upon
earth, they devoted themselves to moulding it to their no-
tions, and informed it with wise and lofty maxims. Stoicism
enlarged the minds of its worthy votaries by purer concep-
tions of Deity, and more liberal views of humanity, teaching

' Tertull. Apo'og. 21.: "Sed et Caesares credidissent super Christo, si aut
Caesares non essent saeculo necessarii, aut si Chrisiiani potuissent esse Ccesares."

192 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

the unity of God with man, and of men with one another,
asserting the supremacy of the Will over the Passions, of
Mind over Matter, of eternal Duty over temporal Expediency.
It sublimed every aspiration after the Good, the Just, the
Honourable, by pronouncing it the instinct of divinity with-
in us. The immortality of the soul, the triumph of the Right-
eous, a fleeting Present and an illimitable Future, these in-
deed were doctrines which some Stoics held, some perhaps
ventured to teach dogmatically : but they were not the true
vital principles of the sect ; they savoured too much of offer-
ing bribes to virtue, they were, in short, too popular, to se-
duce the sterner preachers of a morality which must have no
regard either to punishment on the one hand, or reward on
the other.'

Galling indeed to the selfish voluptuaries of the palace

must have been the bold and even ostentatious preaching of

these soul-stirring doctrines, which seemed to pro-

Stoicism at- ^ • i /. -, ^

tractive at this claim a higher freedom than that of the bodv, a

period to the . i/.i

noblest charac- noblcr existence than that of the world and the
flesh." Whatever there was of ardour, of gen-
erosity and self-devotion, among the Roman youth at this era
of national torpor, was absorbed in the strong current of
Stoicism. The Epicurism of the earlier empire had been the
plea of men who were ashamed of the renunciation they had
made of their independence. But since independence had
become a mere phantom of the past, the philosophy which

' Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, says M. Denis {Idees Morales dans PAnti'
quite, ii. 253.), faithful to the old traditions of the Porch, speak but fiiintly and
obscurely on the immortality of the soul. Tlie only philosophers who formally
admit it are Seneca, Plutarch, and Maximus Tyrius ; the former as a matter of
Lope, the others as an incontestable dogma.

' The expression " the flesh" for human passions, which has been almost
appropriated to Christian teaching, is found at this time in Seneca. In the
Consolatio ad Marciam, c. 24., he says, as St. Paul might have said : " Animo
cum came grave certamen." Comp. Pcrsius, Sat. ii. in fin. :
" Et bona Dis ex hac scclcrata ducere pulpa."

It had been already used commonly by Philo, who took it perhaps from the
Septuagint. Sirac. xxiii. 23.

UNDER THE EMPIRE, I93

excused men for desertino; it was no longer sj^ecially attrac-
tive ; while Stoicism, which could substitute a higher object
in its place, assumed in its turn the ascendant. Under the
Free State it had generally been admitted that the maxims
of the Porch, stiff and harsh as they were, ill accorded with
the conduct of public affairs, and the government of mankind
in general. The experience, perhaps the instinct, of the free-
born Roman assured him that a man could not be an active
and useful citizen, and at the same time the disciple of a
speculative Puritanism. The pretensions of the jurist Sul-
picius to unite the two characters had moved the derision of
Cicero : the attempt of Cato had issued in more serious con-
sequences ; it had hastened the fall of the republic. But
these men had few admirers or followers in their own day.
It was under the empire, when man's free will had no longer
scope for action, that the philosophy which exalted Fate above
all human affairs found accejDtance Avith thoughtful and mel-
ancholy idlers. Stoicism became a consolation for inactivity
not a stimulus to action. Views of the highest wisdom
which led men's speculations away from the deceitful shows
of life, and fixed them upon ideal excellences, might be an
object of suspicion to the government ; they might be inter-
preted by timid and jealous rulers as discontent with exist-
ing circumstances, disaffection towards the empire, a disposi-
tion to change and innovation. Nevertheless, the ^he charge
charge against them, which Tacitus supposes to contumacions-
have been urged by Tigellinus, that they made Suiousness not
men restless and ambitious meddlers with affairs, ^'°" grounded,
is strongly belied by all we read about the most genuine
and consistent professors of Stoicism at this period at Rome.*
Possibly it is not intended to express the opinion of the au-
thor himself: possibly it is directed against the false pretend-
ers to the title, or the ardent patriots who failed to recognise
the purely spiritual character of its precepts. Seneca seems,

Tac. Ann. xiv. 5*7. : " Assumpta Stoicorum arrogantia, sectacque, quae tur-
bidos et negotiorum appetentes faciat."
VOL. VI. — 13

194 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

at all events, to speak more accurately, when he says that
they are in error Avho imagine that the true philosopher is
contumacious, refractory, a despiser of magistrates and gov-
ernments.' Even the notion, so commonly adopted, that the
Stoics particularly devoted themselves to the science of law,
and played a great i^art in constructing the fabric of Roman
jurisprudence, is much mistaken or exaggerated.* The leo-al
principles which can be traced to their moral maxims are but
few ; and, indeed, the reasoners who were bound to maintain
the equality of all sins could hardly have interested them-
selves in the just apportionment of punishments to crimes.
All enthusiasm, no doubt, is hateful to tyranny. The enthu-
siasm of the Stoics was to be feared, to be watched, to be
controlled. Yet this sentiment, checked as it was by the
force of circumstances, and the deadly apathy of society
around it, passed in many noble spirits of the sect into a kind
of quietism. They had no concern with the republic ; they
lived under the gods, not under Csesar.' It became their aim
and pride rather to bear all things than to dare any thing.
They tried to persuade the emperor that he was a slave, but
they made no attempt to deprive him of his sov-

Political inno- f i i •,

cence of its ereignty. Nero would smile, perhaiis, at the dec-

jirofessors, ^ *

lamations he heard on the splendid text of the
poet: Great Father of the Gods, punish Thou tyrants no
other wise than thus : let them behold the Virtue they have
abandoned, and pine away at the loss of her.* On the

' Senec. Ep. '73. : " Errare mihi videntur qui existimant philosophise fideli-
ter deditos contumaces esse ac refractarios, et contemptores niagistratuum."

" This remarlc is opposed to the common opinion of the commentators on
Roman law, which the few and trifling coincidences which Heineccius discovers
between the Stoic and the legal principles are surely not sufficient to justify.
See Anti<pi. Rom. i. i. 3. That under the early empire many jurisconsults were
Stoics would naturally follow from the prevalence of the Stoic philosophy among
the highest order of minds at that period.

' So Apollonius of Tyana, himself an Eclectic, could say in the true spirit of
the Stoics : ffiot Tro?.iTeiac fiev ovSe/juac iii'kti • C^ 7^9 ^"■^ ™<f OeolQ. — Philostr.
Vit. ApoU. V. 35.

* Persius, Sat. iii. 35 : —

UNDER THE EMPIRE. I95

whole, then, the philosophers were little offensive to the gov-
ernment. They enjoyed accordingly an impunity which they
might mistake for deference. It was known, perhaps, that
they were discredited among the masses of the people by the
worthless character of the many hypocrites who assumed
their name ; and the emperors observed with complacency the
popular suspicion under which the best men laboured, con-
founded as they too often were with notorious pretenders.'
To a late peiiod in Nero's reign they remained, as we have
seen, entirely unmolested : it was not till they were urged by
patriotism or humanity to engage in the intrigues of politi-
cal conspirators, that they became objects themselves of im-
perial hostility. Even then, the proscriptions fell on individ-
uals only ; it was never extended to the class : the schools
were never closed, the teachers were never silenced, the prin-
ciples were never condemned.' All this we shall witness at
a later period ; though Stoicism, we shall still remark, was

" Magne Pater Divum, saevos punire tyrannos ....
Haud alia ratione velis ....
Virtutem videant intabescantque relicta."
' Quintil. procem. Inst. i. " Veterum quidem sapientiae professorum multoa
et honesta prsecepisse, et ut praeceperant etiam vixisse, facile concesserim : nos
tris vero temporibus sub hoc nomine maxima in plerisque vitia latuerunt : non
enim virtute et studiis ut haberentur philosophi laborabant, sed vultum et tris-
titiam, et dissentientem a cfeteris habitum pessimis moribus prsetendebant.
Comp. Juvenal, ii. 3. : —

" Qui Curios simulant et Bacchanalia vivunt ....
Fronti nulla fides," &c.

" Canus Julius, the Stoic, is reputed the first of the philosophers who suffer-
ed from the jealousy of the empire. The circumstances of his death, under
Caius, are set forth with great pomp by Seneca {Tranquill. Anim. 14.); but
the charges against him are not mentioned. Paetus suffered under Claudius,
and many philosophers were sacrificed by Nero, but always for political oflences.
The notion that Nero banished the philosophers from Rome and Italy, though
commonly asserted (see Imhof, Bomiiianvs, p. 104.), is unquestionably erro-
neous. It rests merely on the assertion of the rhetorician Philostratus ( Vit.
Apoll. iv. 35.), but this Brucker {Hist. Phil. ii. 118.) very reasonably interprets
of a prohibition of magic, to which Appollonius, according to his biographer,
pretended. See Newman on Apollon. Tyanaeus, in the Encycl. Meiropolitana.

196 HISTORY OP THE ROMANS

not officially smitten, till it perversely attacked an indulgent
prince and a liberal monarchy. The pupil of Seneca, at least,
is guiltless of the persecution of his master's philosophy. I
repeat that Ave must appreciate to its full extent the freedom of
thought conceded by the empire, to understand the patience
of the Romans under the restraint it placed uj^on action.

But these considerations apply only to the higher classes
of the state, to which the exercise of the intellect was a privi-
The revival of ^^S^ dearly prized, earned by toil, guarded with
Aufus^uTfo a jealousy, esteemed the badge of their pre-emi-
fI^'!,*i^o'^^lo nence. Let us turn now to the subjects which

genuine move- ^

™*^°^ interested the vulgar herd of the city and the

provinces, and examine how far the liberty allowed in these
respects might console them for the losses they sustained,
when they placed themselves under a master's control. Lit-
tle as even the multitude believed in the dogmas of the
national religion, they were still devotedly attached to their
ancient rites and usages ; they required their rulers to pay
outward deference to the gods, as symbols, at least, of truth,
if not truth itself, actual and positive. The revival of reli-
gion by Augustus was not mere statecraft : it was the ex-
pression of a real want of the age, and it had great and last-
ing results. If it gave no genuine impulse to belief in the
mind of the Romans, it nevertheless undoubtedly confirmed
them for ages in practices which had all the signs, and some
perhaps of the effects, of actual belief It reanimated the
spirit of worship and respect for superior existences. The
current of men's spiritual affections continued to set steadily
in the direction of ritual observance. The restoration, adorn-
ing, and multiplication of temples went on from Caesar to
Cffisar. The established sacrifices were offered, the appointed
auspices observed, year by year continually. There is no
apparent indication of a decrease in the number of temple-
worshippers ; though the stream of devotion might fluctuate
towards rival fanes, it rolled on with undiminished force and
volume.* The priesthood remained as grave and honourable

' This assertipn is opposed to the general opinion, and writers on the sub-

UNDER THE ElklPIRE. I97

a function as ever ; the temples continued to receive lavish
gifts and endowments. Though the most illustrious of the
oracles fell into disuse, and the silence of Apollo at Delphi
was ascribed to the growing sinfulness of the times by the
pious apprehensions of the multitude, to the jealous policy of
kings by the juster a]3servation of political reasoners, the
science of divination flourished with unabated luxuriance, and
new prophets sprang into repute to attract the inquirers who
were repelled from the voiceless tripods of the old/ The
priests contrived to retain the sul>mission of the vulgar, ever
willingly persuaded, to their pretended communications with

ject have repeated one another, or appealed m succession to a common stock
of tests in confirmation of a different view. I believe the texts in question are
the following only : Propert. ii. 6. 35. : —

. . . . " Velavit aranea fanum
Et mala desertos occupat herba Deos ;"

and iiL 13. 4*7. : —

" At nunc desertis cessant sacraria lucis,
Auriun omnes victa, jam pietate colunt ;"

both of which, besides their rhetorical character, refer to a period antecedent
to the revival we are considering. Philostratus, in Vit. Apoll. i. 2., says that
some temples were refilled by his philosopher after having sufiered desertion '1
but this does not refer to Rome or Italy. The passage in Pliny, Ep. v. 97., and
Lucian, Timon, 4., refer, such as they are, to another period. Such are the
slender authorities, however, which seem to satisfy Neander, Kircliengeschichte,
i. 80.: Tzschimer, Fall des Heidentlmms, 113.; and Schmidt, a sedulous col-
lector of texts, Denk nnd Glaubensfi-eiheit, 168.

^ On the silence of the Delphic oracle, Juvenal, vi. 555. ; —

. . . . " Delphis oracula cessant."
Lucan gives one reason which might be assigned for it: v. 113. : —
" Postquam reges timuere futura
Et Superos vetuere loqui :"
And again, 140. : —

" Seu Paean, sohtus templis arcere nocentes,
Ora quibus solvat nostro non invenit sevo."
Comp. Plutarch, de Defectu Oracidorum, 5. foil. Lucian, indeed, at a some-
what later period, seems to refer to Delphi as still prophetic : 7j ipevdelg elcrlv ol
vvv eKTvinTOVTcg ekeI xP^'^fJ-oi. — Alexander, 42. But possibly the work is not
genuine. .

198 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

heaven, by the fame of wonders worked by images or in tem-
ples, and still more by the supposed fulfilment of their
auguries. It was the interest of the government to humour
this submission under discreet regulations, and of its more
enlightened subjects to humour the government itself by
affecting to join in it, so that the populace became the victim
of a double conspiracy. The policy of the state is freely
disclosed to us in the counsels ascribed by Dion to Mcecenas,
which no doubt represent in substance the views of the em-
perors and their advisers even at this period. Be careful, he
said, yourself to worship the gods always and everywhere,
according to the customs of Rome, and compel others to do
likewise ; but detest and punish the promoters of strange
religions, not for the sake of the gods only, hut because such
innovaters beguile men into foreign sentiments and customs,
and hence arise plots, combinations, and clubs, which are
especially dangerous to monarchy.^ To maintain the exclu-
sive practice of the genuine Roman religion, if indeed it could
be accurately defined, had been long deemed impossible
under the republic. A compromise had been effected by
granting toleration, sometimes by special decree, as in the
case of the Jews, to certain foreign cults established in their
own countries, which it seemed expedient to tolerate, or
which had taken too deep root in Rome to be really ex-
tirpated. Any other practices or belief, however, that made
their way into the city from abroad, must do so at their peril.
They were liable at any moment to legal animadversion, and
it required the enactment of no new, the rescinding of no old
law, to expose them to proscription, whenever the jealousy
of the monarchy, more sensitive than the Free State, was
awakened acrainst them."

' Dion, lii. 36. Comp. Cic. de }eg. ii. 8. : " Separatim nemo habessit decs,
neve novos, sive advenas, nisi publice adscitos, privatim colunto."

" Such was the distinction between the reUgiones licita) and illicitae. Ter-
tullian, Apol. 4. 21.; Minucius yelix, Octav. 8. Judaism was licensed, though
occasionally the license was withdrawn, and its professors expelled from Rome
by a special decree. Christianity, as we shall see, was unlicensed. It had no

UNDER THE EMPIRE. I99

The policy of Augustus, accordingly, in the matter of re-
ligion, was a more systematic enforcement of the principles
of the republic, namely, to endow the state re-

. . ' ' "^ ' ^ , Position of the

ligion with emoluments and honours, to tolerate Eoman reiigrion

TTf- 1 1 /.1'T t'° relation to

certain accredited loreign cults, but to lorbid and the supersti-

, , % - _ tions of Gaul

repress all strange and novel usages. It was and Syria re-
the attemj^t, in short, to cast the religious sen-
timents of the age in a mould, once for all, from which
there should be no escape for the future.' The moment
might appear well chosen for such an attempt, when in the
prevailing fusion of nations and opinions, and the wide-
spread disappointment of moral and religious speculations,
men seemed content to rest from all further experiment in
a decently-veiled atheism or pantheism. Such an attempt
seems to have succeeded for once in the history of China ; but
it was singularly ill-timed, as became speedily apparent, in
the age and clime which witnessed the origin of Christianity.
And, indeed, not yet to advert to the phenomenon of the
Christian revelation, the spiritual activity of the human mind
throughout the East, at this moment, Avas such as to defy the
control of the emperor's or the praetor's edicts. The ideas of
Druidism, the religion of the "West, were almost powerless.
In Rome they collapsed instantaneously ; in the cities of Gaul
they yielded without a struggle to Roman forms and nomen-
clature : it was only in the deep woods and silent plains that
they retained a spark of vitality. Not so the Syrian element-
al-worship ; not so the moral convictions of Judaism and
Tsabaism. The crowds which flocked to Rome from the
eastern shores of the Mediterranean brought with theni
practices and prejudices hardly worthy, perhaps, to be called

legal standing in Rome, and, not being a national religion, I presume it had no
legal standing anywhere. I merely allude to this subject here to mark the dis-
tinction.

' It may be worth while to remind the reader of the three constituent ele-
ments of the Roman religion : 1. the service of the old Sabine or Italian divini-
ties; 2. the aruspicinal discipline, &c., derived principally from Etruria; 3.
the cult of certain foreign deities introduced generally by the advice of special
oracles (publice ascites), such as those of Ceres, JSsculapius, and Cybele.

200 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

beliefs, -which disdained amalgamation with Italian paganism,
and however distorted they might he from their original
types, acknowledged no constraining influence from the opin-
ions and usages around them. The stronger sentiment, as
usual, attracted and controlled the weaker. Jupiter had con-
quered Hesus and Taranis, but he was a child in the hands
of Mithras and Melcarth. The broader forms of the Syrian
religion, as established in its native countries, were tolerated
in Rome ; and from toleration they advanced without pause
or hesitation on a career of active proselytism. The symbolic
rites of Cybele and Astarte invaded the streets and the forum,
and carried off crowds of worshippers from the shrines of
Juno and Diana. But they too were tolerant in their turn,
and demanded no exclusive devotion from their converts :
the idleness and wealth of Rome could afford time and means
for the celebration of many new ceremonies in addition to the
simple performance of divine service which its own religion
prescribed.' They offered, and herein was the secret of iheir
success, a mental excitement without the fatigue and agita-
tion of argument. In philosophy no step could be taken
without some use of the reasoning powers ; every man held
his opinions in defiance of all opponents ; even the schools of
oratory as well as of philosophy had their sects, their mas-
ters, their maxims, and their disputations. The noble Roman,
indeed, for the most part entertained a professional sojihist to
think and argue for him : nevertheless it was not till he aban-
doned his philosophy for his religion that he was completely
relieved from intellectual toil and discipline ; and doubtless
the outward observance of ritual forms was in a great degree
the refuge to which he fled from the painful questions of
morals and metaphysics. The curious and sometimes awful

' " Rem divinam faccre," to perform holy rites, consisted in the occasional
sacrifice, the daily burning of incense and casting of salt and flour into the
flame, the one in the temples, the other on the domestic hearth or altar. The
more public solemnities, such as processions, hjTnns, and musical services, to-
gether with the fasts and vigils appropriated to foreign divinities, were gener-
ally less familiar to the Roman ritual.

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 201

rites of initiation, the tricks of the magicians, the pretended
virtues of charms and amulets, the riddles of emblematical
idolatry, enshrined in the form of brutes or monsters half-
brute half-human, with which the superstitions of the East
abounded, amused the languid interests of the voluptuary
who, as has been well remarked, had neither the energy for
a moral belief, nor the boldness requisite for a logical scepti-
cism.'

While the men's minds were still too hardy to submit to
these voluptuous excitements, the women had thrown them-
selves into them with all the passionate self-aban- jj^g Kon,an
donment of their weaker natures. Uninstructed, na*t"d b/The
ill-treated, half-employed, yet vain of the out- Ses^of thr
ward show of deference the laws and habits of ^'^stem cults,
the age continued to accord them, the Roman matrons fol-
lowed these frivolous novelties with a fervour which scandal-
ized their supercilious lords. They rushed from the sordid
constraint of their lives at home to the licentious freedom of
the veiled orgy and masquerading procession. In them they
sought too for spiritual consolation, and they found, at least,
an occupation and an interest.'' And beyond this their im-
aginations were kindled with ideas of communion with the
Deity, and exaltation above earthly things, which made them
the dupes of charlatans, the prey of ribald intriguers. The
story of the unscrupulous gallant who gained possession of
his mistress by personating the god Anubis with the con-
nivance and aid of the priests, is one instance recorded, out
of many, no doubt, which have passed into oblivion, of the
crimes and injuries Avhich vexed the souls of the Roman hus-

' Such is nearly the expression of De BrogUe in speaking on this subject, in
his VEglise et VUmpire, i. 49.

"^ Strabo may have pointed his general remark on the superior devotion of
the female sex from personal observation: aTravreg yap r?;f deiaiSaijuoviac
c-PXVyovg olovTat rac ywalKag' avrac de koI Tovg avSpaq npoKuTxivvTai Trpdc
rag ettI irMov depaTrEtag tuv deuv, Kal eoprdf, /cat noTviaofiovg- anaviov tT el
Tig avfjp Kad" avrbv ^uv EvpioKETOc TocovTog. — vii. 3. p. 29*7. See Lipsius on
Tac. Ami. xiii. 32.

202 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

bands.' Augustus had already banished the Egyptian rites
from Home ; but they triumphed over his decrees. Tiberius
repeated the same experiment on the submission of their
devotees ; he caused the temples of Isis to be razed, and
even, it is said, executed her priests.' But the

which at length . . ^ .

prevail over the men wcrc now lollowing m the tram oi the wo-
men. The effeminacy of the times involved both
sexes in the same vortex of su})erstition ; the Nile-Gods con-
tinued to fascinate their votaries with charms which could
not be dissolved ; the idol of the blear-eyed Egyptian still
brandislied the terrors of her cymbal, and threatened with
blindness the perjurer of the forum. ^ The rites of the Syrian
Goddess, if less dangerous than the Isiac to morals and less
insulting to the majesty of the Roman household, Avere per-
haps even more degrading. They were more attractive, it
would seem, to the lower classes than to the patrician rulers
of the state, and thereby escaped the same animadversion.
The priests of Astarte roamed from village to village, carry-
ing their sacred image on an ass's back, and at every halt
attracted the gaping rustics with the strains of their flutes,
danced in a circle round the goddess with their hair dripping

' Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 3. A Roman knight, Decius Mundus, had tried in
vain to seduce Paulina by presents and flatteries. One of his female slaves
promised to gain him the object of his passion, and bribed the priests of Isis,
whom Paulina worshipped. The priests assure the devotee that Anubis had
promised to appear to her. She hastens delighted to the temple ; the doors
are closed, the Ughts extinguished, the god reveals himself and demands fa-
vours which she dares not deny. Mundus boasts that he has enjoyed her under
the semblance of the god. She discloses the injury to her husband, who com-
plains to the emperor Tiberius. Mundus is banished, the priests crucified, the
temple overthrown.

'^ The cults of Egypt, with their allegorical monsters and hideous sjinbols,
were peculiarly hateful to the Romans, who regarded such superstitions as ab-
normal. But political jealousy contributed to this exceptional treatment, for
they do not seem to have been always excluded from the religionea licitce, or
licensed observances.

^ Juvenal, xiii. 93. : —

" Decernat quodcunquc volet de corpore nostro
Isis, et irato feriat mea lumina sistro."

UNDER THE EMPIRE, 203

with unguents, cut themselves with knives and swords, and
dashed their own blood around them, handing finally a cap
from rank to rank for the pence, figs, or crusts of the admir-
ing spectators.' The obscene mutilation of the priests of
Cybele excited still more astonishment, mingled, no doubt,
with superstitious terror ; but though, as the Mother of the
Gods, she was honoui-ed by the Roman matrons with the sol-
emn feast of the Megalesia, the frantic asceticism of her
Eastern devotees found probably no imitators among the
manlier sons of Italy.

The apologists for polytheism had not yet proclaimed
their theory that all the various gods of various nations were
onlv diverse representations of the same Essen-
tial Unity. They had gone no further than to rived for appre-

. . , . . _, elating the Idea

countenance the politic interpretations oi Caesar of the Divine

1 1 1 • /-I T 1 Unity, the es-

and Augustus, who announced to their (jraulish sentiai dogma

1 • i-i->i 1 rr\ T '^^ Judaism.

subjects that Belenus and ieutates were merely
other names for Apollo and Mercury. Nevertheless, amidst
the distraction of the religious sentiment between its thou-
sands of devotional objects, the time had come for some faint
and timid appreciation of the idea of the Divine Unity pre-
sented by the nobler theology of the Jews. The Jewish re-
ligion had come first under the close observation of the
Romans after the conquest of Palestine by Pompeius. Some
thousands of the inhabitants had been carried off into slavery,
and of these a large proportion, reserved perhaps to grace
the conqueror's triumph, had been sold in the Roman mar-
kets. Several princes of the nation had been retained as
hostages ; and these personages, who were treated with great
show of courtesy, were allowed, no doubt, the attendance of
clients of their own race. The way to the capital of the
world was opened, and the Jews continued to flock thither
of their own accord : they were impelled by their thirst of

* Lucian, Lticius, 32. Apuleius, Metmnorph. viii. in fin., describes these
proceedings with his usual animation. His scene is laid beyond the Adriatic,
yet there seems no reason to doubt that these ribaldries were imported into
Italy.

204 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

lucre and their restless industry : yet they possessed, as far
as we know, no special arts or aptitude, like the Greeks or
Egyptians, for making themselves necessary or acceptable
yisitors at the doors of the native Italians. Much did the
Romans marvel at the swarms of these uncouth adventurers,
with their deeply-marked physiognomy, their strong national
feelings, their far-reaching i-eminiscences of past glory, their
proud anticipation of a more splendid future, their exclusive
usages, their vacant fanes, their incommunicable Deity.
They thronged together in particular quarters of the city,
which they almost made their own : * their numbers soon
amounted to many thousands, and the turbulence which was
early remarked as characteristic of them, caused the senate to
regard them with jealousy, its orators to denounce them as
The Jews in daugcrous subjccts. But they wcrc fortuuatc in
i^ed*bv^rhr&-st finding patrons, first in Coesar and afterwards in
Caesars. Augustus, who sccurcd them the free exercise of

their religion, countenanced their assemblies, made gifts to
their temple, and even admitted them along with the citizens
of the republic to a share in the largesses of corn." If the
distribution took place on their Sabbath, the Jews were al-
lowed to apply for their share on the day following. The
mysteriousness of their belief, or rather, perhaps, the earnest-
ness of its devotees, exercised an extraordinary influence on
the Roman mind. Amidst many public expressions of hatred
and disgust, knights and senators still turned towards it Avith
curiosity, interest, and awe. In Palestine rude centurions
lowered their ensigns before its symbols, or built synagogues
for its worshippers. In Rome the name of its first expounder

* Philo, Leg. ad Cai. p. 1014. : T;)!' irepav tov Ti^ipeuc iroTafiov lityaXrjv
rf)q 'Pi^firfc airoTOfir/v . . . KaTEXOfihniv Koi o'lKovfiivtp^ npoc 'lovSaiuv. Most
of them, it is added, were captives who had been enfranchised, and had become
Roman citizens.

' Philo, Leff. ad Cai. p. 1015. This is an important fact for the considera-
tion of those who estimate the number of the citizens from the number of these
recipients of corn. According to Josephus, — but allowance must be made for
his spirit of exaggeration, — no less than 8000 Jews resident in Rome joined on
one occasion in a petition to Augustus. Joseph. Antiq. xvii. 11. 1.

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 205

was held in honour ; its sacred books were not unknown, the
glowing imagery of their poetry Avas studied and reproduced.
Men and women, the latter doubtless the most numerously,
crowded its place of meeting, observed its holy days, and
respected its antique traditions. Many, it would Judaism be-
seem, were admitted to some partial communion ab^'among'the
with the Jewish worshippers : though we do not <=i"^«"8'
hear of their submitting to the initiatory rites, or to the pecu-
liar abstinences of national Judaism. The foreigner was still
reserved in imparting to these converts the secrets of his
faith ; and the best informed of the Romans continued, to a
late period, possessed with the notion that he either had no
God at all, or adored him under a vile and bestial symbol, or
possibly did not really know what he believed or wherefore.'
This dallying with Judaism was a fashionable weakness :
it furnished interest or excitement to the dissipated idlers to
whom Ovid addressed his meretricious poetiy.'* andisintro-
To such persons it was probably first recom- tiwfreedmcnof
mended through the medium of the slaves from *^® palace.
Palestine who swamned in patrician households. The empe-
ror's palace itself seems to have been a nursery of Jewish
usages and opinions. The Columbaria of Claudius, recently
discovered, reveal a number of Hebrew names among the
imperial freedmen ; and, what is still more remarkable, many
are the same names, albeit Greek and not Hebrew, which
occur in the salutations of St. Paul to his fellow-countrymen
in the capital.' Assuredly there were in Gcesar's household

^ Comp. Juvenal, xir. 97: "Nil praeter nubes et coeli numen adorant."
Lucan, Phars. ii. 592.: "Et dedita sacris Incerti Judaea Dei." Seneca, quoted
by S. Augustin, de Civ. Dei, vi. 11. : "Major pars populi faeit quod cur faciat
ignorat." For the symbol, the ass's head, see Tae. Hist. v. 4.

^ Ovid, Art Amand. i. 416. ; JRem. Amor. 220. ; Tibull. i. 3. 18.

^ I refer to Mr. Lightfoot's account of the inscriptions in certain Columbaiia
recently discovered at Rome, Journal of Class. Philol. No. X. p. 57. from
Henzen's supplement to Orelli's Collection. These were receptacles for the
ashes of slaves and freedmen of the imperial family. Some of the names, as
Hennas and Nereis, are connected with the Claudian gens ; others, as Tryphasna
and Tryphera, with the Valerian, that of Messalina ; others, as Crescens, Phile-

206 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

both slaves and freedraen of every race and nation subject to
Rome : but that the connexion between it and Judea should
be more than usually close, might be expected from the fa-
vour in Avhich the Jews were held by the first emperors, and
from the intimacy of the imperial family with so many Jew-
ish princes detained within the precincts of the palace. Judea,
under the sway of the procurators, was governed directly
from the emperor's own chamber ; in one instance a freedman
of the emperor administered its affairs, as his master's private
property.' When we read in the Jewish historian that Pop-
poea, the murderess and adulteress, was a devout icoman, we
must suppose that she was regarded as a patroness by the
JeAvish clients of Nero's household ; in moments of tlireat-
ened persecution she may have befriended them, nor is it im-
probable that she admired their usages, humoured their prej-
udices, and partook of the fashionable inclination to join in
their ceremonies.*

The favour in which the Jews were held by the emperor
was indeed precarious. Beyond the walls of the palace, and
Turbulence of o^ Other uoblc mansious, they were, as we have
Eome^^^^ The Said, generally disliked ; the apprehension which
Ivinces'lea*- their unquict attitude at home continued more
ousy of them, j^jj^ more to iuspirc, penetrated to the centre of
the Roman power, and even at Rome every outbreak of sul-
len fierceness among them was regarded as a symptom of
national disaffection. They were accused not of turbulence
only, but of corrupting the minds of women; and when,
under Tiberius, an effort, as we have seen, was made by the
government to check the growing relaxation of female man-

tus, Hymenaius, are mentioned as Caesar's freedmcn ; others again, viz. Philolo-
gus and Ampliatus (Amplias), occur independently. Among them are some
names apparently Jewish, as Baricha, Zabda, Achiba, Giddo, Sabbatis, all
Valerii, One at least, Sentia Renata, seems to bespeak a Christian baptism.
Comp. Romans, c xvi.

' Felix, the favourite of Claudius and Nero, was procurator of Judea, and
married to Drusilla, the daup^hter of Agrippa. Tac. Hht. v. 9.

' Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 7. 11. The dancer Apaturius, Poppaea's favourite,
was a Jew.

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 207

ners, the Jews were marked out for proscription together
with the Egyptians. The priests of Isis had been convicted
of flagrant immorality, and there was a presumed connex-
ion, of oi-igin if not of character, between her rites and those
of the Jewish divinity.' Besides the disafiection and the
licentiousness imputed to them, they disturbed the peace of
the city ; for the Jews and Egyptians renewed in Rome the
pei'petual quarrel of their nations in Alexandria, till they
provoked the police of the streets to crush them both to-
gether. The rites of both people were interdicted, and four
thousand of the free descendants of Jewish slaves and cap-
tives were transported at once to Sardinia, while all the Jews
at Rome of free origin were required to quit the shores of
Italy, or abjure their profane superstition.^ It would seem,
however, that the latter part, at least, of this severe edict
was not strictly executed. The Jews bowed to the storm,
conformed perhaps for a time, but soon returned to their old
quarters and renewed their old practices. Those who were
attached to the magnates of the city found, no doubt, power-
ful protectors. They celebrated the birthday of their de-
ceased king, and adored him as a god with pomp and fer-
vour, to avert perhaps the jealousy of the government, to
which the worship of Jehovah seemed a bond of more dan-
gerous sympathy.*

^ The ancient emigration of the Jews from Egypt was known, though under
strange disfigurements, to the Romans (Tac. Hist. v. 3.) ; the influence of the
Jewish race in Alexandria was also notorious ; and the Jew3 in Rome spoke
probably the same dialect of Greek as their brethren in Egypt. We may pre-
sume, moreover, that they had imbibed from the Alexandrians, or imparted to
them, many religious as well as social usages. The linen robes and fillets com-
mon to the priesthoods both of Jerusalem and Alexandria seemed to connect
them with one another, and were a conspicuous point of difference between
them and the priesthoods ol Greece and Rome. Thus Lucan, with a distinctive
epithet, "Linigerum placidis compellat Achorea dictis," x. 175.

° Tac. Ann. ii. 85. ; Suet. Tib. 36. ; Joseph. Aniiq. xviii. 3. 5. See above,
chapter xliv.

' This is the interpretation which Salvador, I think justly, puts upon the
lines of Persius, Sat. v. 180. : —

" At cum
Herodis venere dies, unctaque fenestra

208 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

Thus at Rome, as well as in their own country, the Jewish
people were divided into two classes or factions, of which the
The Jews at ^nc retained the zeal and cherished the aspira-
the™o\vn'coun- tions of its national heroes, the other, more
?nto two'fac- courtly and discreet, yielded to the moral influ-
tions. gj^gg ^^f ^i^g conquerors, and was content to ex-

change the subjection of its native land for its own personal
advantage. While the slaves of the Palatine acquiesced
with a complacent smile in their gilded servitude, the artifi-
cers and chapmen of the Transtiberine, and the pedlars of the
Egerian valley, were agitated year by year with rumours of
new Messiahs appearing in the streets of Jerusalem or on the
slopes of the wilderness, and drawing after them excited
multitudes, till their career was rudely intercepted by the
Roman sword. The direct establishment of the Roman
power in Palestine by Claudius, following so soon upon the
brutal attack on the Jewish faith by Caius, seems to have
driven this frantic populace of Judea to a succession of des-
perate outbreaks. Among the Jewish sojourners in foreign
cities, connected as they were by constant intercourse with
their native land, the same restless feeling was speedily
manifested. It is thus that we' can best explain the hasty
notice of Suetonius, when he states that Claudius once more
expelled the Jews from Rome, on account of their repeated
riots at the instigation of a certain Chrestus.' This name, as
is well known, was a form of the title Cliristus, the anointed
Messiah, familiar to the Romans and derived from the Hellen-
istic Jews themselves, and was the watchword, no doubt, of
the disturbers of peace in the city, who looked, at every fi-esh
arrival of exciting news from home, for a divine manifesta*

Dispositas pingucm nebulam vomuerc luccrnje . . ,
Labra moves tacitus, recutitaque Sabbata palles."

Herod Agrippa was dead some years before these lines were written : the
liomaf^e or worship was paid to his memory.

' Suet. Claud. 25. : " Judaeos impulsore Chrcsto assidue tumuUuantes Roma
expuht." Tertullian {Apol. 3.) and Lactantius {Inst. i. 4. 7., iv. 7. 5.) explain
this word as a metonym for Christ, signifying just or good.

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 209

tion in favour of the kingdom of Jehovah/ The scarcity
which befell the city as well as the pi-ovinces at this period
might furnish a further motive for an act of prudential sever-
ity. It was manifestly expedient to remove from the midst
of the needy populace of the forum the most fierce and tur-
bulent of their fellow-subjects. With the return of better
times the Jews returned also ; but meanwhile the proscrip-
tion would again have been partial only ; the Herodians,
under the shelter of noble houses, would shrink from the gen-
eral persecution, and repudiate, no doubt, with earnest pro- •
testations, the crimes and follies of the zealots.

Not that the luxurious dependants of the Roman nobles
were themselves unmoved amidst the universal ferment of Jew-
ish opinion. They were vain of their own posi- spiritual pride
tion, and of the influence they had attained over freedmerat'^
their masters ; they were proud of the number of ■'^^'°'°'^-
fellow-slaves or freedmen, for the most part refined and intel-
ligent Greeks, who sate at their feet to hear their ancient
lore, and drank in with warmed imaginations the wonders of
the Law, and the splendid promises of the Pi'ophets. God,
they believed, still spake by their mouths ; exiles and out-
casts as they were, they were still the depositaries of His
oracles ; in the power of their own eloquence they felt the
yet unexhausted power of a living faith in Jehovah. They
were convinced that there was still a future before them, a
future of glory and spiritual empire ; though they sought in
vain to penetrate the designs of Providence, and scan the
process through which it was to be developed. They too
had heard of a Christ here and a Christ there ; but they had
no hope of a temporal deliverance, and the destruction of

^ ^Ye know the time and place where the believers in Jesus were first called
Christians {Ads, xi. 26. xPVf^ariaai, "received the title, already popularly
known, of Christians") ; but this does not show that the followers of false
Christs had not received the name before, or that the name was not commonly
given to both by the heathens without discrimination. For the false Christs,
see the commentators on S. Matth. xxiv. 24. ipevdoxp'KTToi, and Joseph. Antiq.
xviii. 1. 1. on Judas the Gaulonite, and xx. 5. 1. on Theudas. Comp. for the
Jewish view of the subject, Salvador, Bomin. Rom. en Judee, i. 435.
VOL VI. — 14

210 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

each pretended Messiah was a relief to them rather than a
disappointment. It was to minds thus prepared tliat the
message of Jesus, the true Christ, the spiritual king of the
Jews, was announced. Among the many deliverers who had
risen and fallen, one alone, it was declared, had risen again :
crucified, dead and buried, He had been raised from the
grave by the hand of the Almighty.

On the first succeeding Pentecost after this aAvful fact was
reported to have occurred, the doctrines and pretensions of
Reception of the disciplcs of this risen Jesus had been pro-
amon'^^thi^ pouuded to a concoursc of Jews and proselytes,
anTtheir'p^se- assembled at Jerusalem from all quarters of the
lytes. Avorld, Sojourncrs at Rome had returned there

full of the solemn tidings, and from that time the peculiar
character of the new revelation, as the announcement of a
spiritual, not a temporal deliverance, had been circulated
from mouth to mouth among the Jews of the capital. By
some among them such a vicAV, as we have seen, might be
entertained with favour, though by others it would be abhor-
red as treason to the national cause. At first, however, there
would be no question, in any quarter, of the abandonment of
ancient rites and usages. If a few more ardent or more ten-
der spirits were at once captivated by the first shadowing
forth of true Christian liberty, they would not dream as yet
of seceding from the rest on matters of religious discipline.
They would join with their brethren in urging upon their
foreign proselytes that entire submission to the Hebrew law
which was demanded, not often successfully, by the strictest
adherents of the old belief Again, year by year, visitors
from this Jewish society would arrive at Jerusalem, and from
them the Christian Church, now beginning to take a specific
form in the place of its origin, would learn that a small knot
of inquirers in the distant capital had accepted their an-
nouncement of the Messiahship of Jesus, and were ripe for
further instruction in the mysteries of his faith. At last, in
the fulness of time, the greatest of their teachers, Paul, the
eloquent and the learned, addressed this little flock in a letter of

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 211

spiritual admonition, which laid, in fact, the real foundation
of Christianity in Rome. Now, supposing the special appii-
people to whom this missive was directed to be, themrf^st.
as I have here represented them, Jews and Greeks, f^^l^ EpIstiT^
retainers of aristocratic households, clients, for in- ^'^ *^® Komans.
stance, of the great Narcissus and even of the emperor him-
self, to none could the warning with which it commences, of
the fearful depths of vice to which heathenism had fallen,
have been more peculiarly appropriate. On none could the
general scope of its argument, that the Gospel was given to
the Jews first, the teachers, and next to the Greeks, the prose-
lytes, of the Roman synagogue, tell with greater efiect. That
circumcision was not essential, that the works of the law
were inefiectual, that faith and grace are the foundations of
a true Christian calling, — such would be the topics upper-
most in the mind of a preacher to thoughtful and perplexed
believers, anxious to conform to the old Avays in all things,
but unable to enforce conformity upon their foreign adher-
ents. And lastly, the exhortation to remain subject to the
higher powex's would speak with emphasis to that class among
the Jews who had hitherto kept aloof from the intrigues of
their impatient countrymen, and proclaimed themselves obe-
dient in everything, first to their own jjatrons and masters,
and next to the political authorities under which they lived.*
The Epistle to the Romans is, I conceive, especially address-
ed to the godly few of that patrician following, half Jew,
half Grecian, who were feeling their way still timidly and
doubtfully to belief in Jesus of Nazareth, the son of God,
the true Messiah, the founder of the spiritual kingdom of
Israel.''

' Romans, i. 8. foil., i. 16., iii. 25. foil, xiii. 1. foil. "They that are of the
household of Narcissus" (xvi. 11.) are mentioned along with the others of whom
so many appear to have been " of Caesar's household." It is reasonable to infer
that this Narcissus is the favourite of Claudius.

^ On this supposition the remarkable compliment, if I may so call it, to this
congregation, that their faith was spoken of throughout the world (Horn. i. 8.),
receives an apt explanation. The disposition of these conspicuous freedmeu
towards Christianity would be reported to the family of the procurator in Judea,

212 HISTORY OF THE ROMAN'S

This epistle, -vrritten in the East in the year 811 (a. d. 58),

■was followed, after an interval, perhaps, of three years, by

the arrival of the apostle himself at Rome. He

Arrival of St. . __ .

Paul in Rome. Came m Donds. He had been seized and nearly
A. D. 61. killed by his countrymen at Jerusalem, for preach-
ing the true Messiah. He had been accused by
them to the Romans as a mover of sedition. But he had
proclaimed himself a Roman citizen, had appealed to Coesar,
and, though brought as a prisoner to the imperial tribunal,
he came under the protection of the government.' At Rome,
he avowed, no doubt, his real character as a teacher of a
harmless doctrine, already known, and not unfavourably, in
the highest quarters ; and though long detained untried,
through the indolence, probably, of the emperor, he suffered
no other inconvenience. He was guarded by the prsetorians
within the precincts of the palace, lodged in a hired cabin at-
tached, it may be supposed, to its outer courts, such as those
commonly occuj^ied by the retainers of a noble patron ; free
access to him was allowed to his compatriots and co-religion-
ists, and for two years he was employed in preaching and ex-
tending the faith even among the members of Cajsar's house-
hold.' Of the perfect security Avith which the Gospel of the

and thence would doubtless be published abroad as an important fact among
the Jews and Christians everywhere.

* The exact dates of these events are not important to this history, and I do
not mean to express a decided opinion about them. I have followed the opin-
ions which seemed to me on the whole the best supported.

" The phrase in Phil. i. 13., kv 6/lu ro irpaiTupiu, as is well known, has
been diversely interpreted, of the emperor's palace, and of the camp of the prae-
torians. I incline to the former interpretation. St. Paul, we must remember,
speaks as a foreigner. In the provinces the emperor was known, not as Prin-
ceps, but as Imperator. In Judea, governed more immediately by him through
the imperial procurators, he would be more exclusively regarded as a military
chief. The soldier, to whom the apostle was attached with a chain, would
speak of him as his general. When Paul asked the centurion in charge of him,
" Where shall I be confined in Rome ? " the answer would be, " In the praeto-
rium," or the quarters of the general. 'WTicn led, as perhaps he was, before the
emperor's tribunal, if he asked the attending guards, " Where am I ? " again
they would reply, " In the praetorium." The emperor was protected in his

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 213

true Christ was professed at this time at Rome there can be
no question. To account for it some have supposed an inti-
macy betAveen Paul and the prefect Burrhus, or the minister
Seneca, and the writings of the apostle and the philosopher
present certainly some striking points of apparent sympathy.
At a later period it was gravely asserted among the new
sect, that Tiberius, on the official statements of Pontius Pi-
late, had acknowledged the divinity of the culprit Avhom the
procurator had crucified, and had demanded divine honours
from the senate for the Founder of Christianity. These the
senate, it was said, declined to sanction: the emperor, how-
ever, insisted that the Christians should be allowed at least a
full toleration.' The story itself, as told by Tertullian, is
probably groundless throughout ; but it shows at least, and
such is the purpose for which Tertullian cites it, that the early
indulgence of the government to Christianity was an admit-
ted fact which challenged explanation. Whatever may be
the value of these traditions, the opposition in which the true

palace by a body-guard, lodged in its courts and standing sentry at its gates :
and accordingly they received the name of " praetorians." After the establish-
ment of a camp for his body-guard outside the city, a cohort was still kept al-
ways in attendance on the emperor's person, and in his principal residence, and
this accordingly in military language continued, I conceive, to bear the title
familiar to the soldiers. The palace, like other patrician mansions, was sur-
rounded by numerous cabins, tenanted by the retainers of the great man him-
self, and in one of these, as " a hired house," the apostle was permitted to
dwell, from the favour, perhaps in which his nation was held, instead of being
cast into the vaults beneath the palace floors.

' Tertull. Apol. 5. : " Tiberius .... annunciatum sibi ex Syria Paltestina
quod illic veritatem illius divinitatis revelaverat, detulit ad Senatum cum praero-
gativa suffragii sui. Senatus, quia non ipse probaverat, respuit. Csesar in sen-
tentia mansit, comminatus periculum acccusatoribus Christianorum." This
strange story has been generally rejected as incredible by the best critics and
historians. It may be remarked, however, that the official minute of our Lord's
trial and sentence was no doubt transmitted by the procurator to the emperor,
and was deposited in the archives at Rome. It was hence perhaps that Tacitus
was able to speak so pointedly of the execution of Christ by Pontius Pilate :
"Auctor nominis ejus Christus, Tiberio imperitante, per procuratorem Pontium
Piletum supplicio affectus erat." — Ann. xv. 44.

214 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

believers stood to the assertors of false and temporal Mes-
siahs would be alone a sufficient motive for the favour they
manifestly received.

Nevertheless, there is no ground for supposing that, under
the shelter of this indulgence, the young disciples shunned
story <.f Pom- the genuine practice of their profession, or walk-
Fn im.stnuion'' ^^ unworthily of their spiritual hopes. The faint
of the Koman* ^raccs left US by history may suggest a pleasing
converts. picture to the imagination of the life and conver-

sation of the first Christians at Rome, that little band of
earnest and spiritual converts, first exploring by the light of
conscience the rudiments of the new doctrine, then receiving
clearer instruction from the letters, and lastly from the mouth
of the inspired apostle, strengthened by his presence, inflam-
ed by his zeal, reasoning ardently Avith the more timid of
their brethren, gradually overcoming the scruples of some,
bearing with the prejudices of others, suffering patiently the
scorn of the proud and worldly with whom they mingled,
and presenting to their curious visitors from surrounding
Paganism the first and purest example of zeal beautified by
charity. Some minds there were at Rome which shrank
with a rebound from the grosser forms of corruption thrust
everywhere upon them ; some which were softened to feel-
ings of humanity by the general ease and tranquillity of the
times ; some, again, which warmed with spiritual emotions
under the fervent teaching of virtuous philosophers : even in
that sink of vice, under the flaunting banners of lust and
cruelty, there was a preparation at Avork for the reception of
Gospel truth, and the plain preaching of St. Paul was more
attractive perhaps to many than the strange rites and mys-
teries of the Jewish synagogue. But the apostle preached to
his disciples in bonds, and of the multitudes who came to
hear him, no man forbidding him, the true children of Rome
were themselves still under constraint of pride and prejudice,
and dependent on the idols of society around them, from
which few, perhaps, could wholly escape. Jews and Greeks
might submit to the yoke of a crucified Redeemer, but con-

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 215

version among the native Italians was as yet rare and imper-
fect/ To renounce a world with which it might seem impos-
sible to mingle without defilement, rather than seek by active
labours to purify it, would be the refuge of the grave and
gloomy spirits which really broke through the restraints of
law and custom to join themselves to a divine Saviour. The
story of Pomponia Groecina, supposed by many to have been
one of these Roman believers, may be taken at least in illus-
tration of the form which belief might be expected to assume
among a reserved and sensitive people, disdaining the spirit
of j^roselytism, and ashamed to the last of rejecting their
domestic and national ideas. This noble matron, the wife of
Aulus Plautius, the conqueror of Britain, was, it seems, de-
nounced to the emperor as gicilty of a foreign superstition ;
a charge implying not merely participation in the rites of a
licensed religion, but abandonment of the national worship,
such as Christianity perhaps alone then demanded of its vo-
taries.* Nero, from respect for a brave and loyal officer, or

' A great proportion of the converts greeted by St. Paul in the last chapter
to the Romans bear Greek names. They may have been Jews or other foreign-
ers, but assuredly not Romans by birth. The same was probably the case of
those with Latin names also. Mr. Williams's attempt to identify the Pudens
and Claudia of Martial (iv. 13., xi. 56.) with the converts mentioned by St. Paul
(2 Tim. iv. 21.) is interesting; but we must not forget — 1. that both these
names are very common at the period : 2. that the name of Pudens in the
Chichester inscription is only conjectural : 3. that the character Martial gives
of Pudens is painfully inconsistent with the Christian profession. The Claudia
of Martial was, he says, of British extraction. In our island, as in Gaul, many
chiefs were enrolled no doubt in the imperial gens, and it is idle to assign this
lady to any one British family in particular. At all events, the notion of Cam-
den and Fuller, that she was a daughter of Caractacus domiciled in Rome,
seems as plausible as that which derives her from Tib. Claudius Cogidubnus,
the king of the Regni in Sussex. See, however, Williams's Esmy on Pudens,
&c., or an abstract of his arguments in Alford's Greek Test. iii. 104.

"^ Such, no doubt, should in strictness have been the demand of Judaism
also : but there is ample evidence of the compromise which the Jews generally
allowed to their half-attached followers and admirers. Herod, for instance,
made no doubt conditions with them, like Naaman the Syrian, who stipulated
that he should be allowed to bow, when he stood with his master in the temple
of Rimmon. 2 Jungs, v. 18.

216 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

possibly from a feeling of indulgence, as above explained,
towards the new sect, refused to entertain the accusation
himself, and referred it to the domestic tribunal of the hus-
band and his kinsmen. Pomponia was examined by lenient
judges, and by their tendez'ness, their ignorance, or their in-
difference, was suffered to escape unj^unished. But it was
remarked with awe by the frivolous society around her, that
she withdrew from all conversation with them, shrank into
the secret companionship of her own pensive meditations,
and passed the rest of her life, which was prolonged many
years, in reserve and retirement. Such, it would seem, Avere
the effects, most foreign to the spirit of the age, which might
be expected from conversion to Christianity in a noble ma-,
tron of Rome.*

St. Paul was kept under restraint for at least two years,
but soon after that period was set at liberty ; a further tes
Outburst of the timony, it would appear, to the acknowledged in-
persecution. offensiveness of his sect.^ Yet in little more than
another year we read with surprise of the sudden persecution
directed against it by Nero, and we hear that he was induced
to denounce the Christians as the authors of the conflagra-
tion, to propitate the popular feeling ; for none others were
so detested for their strange and mischievous siqyerstitioii, or
so generally lield guilty of the most abomi?iable crimes, of
the crime, indeed, of hatred towards the whole human raceJ"

' Tac. Ann. xiii. 32. (a. r. 810): " Superstitionis externa; rca :" an expres-
sion which has been very generally interpreted of conversion to Christianity.
See Lardner, Testimonies, i, 344. The Romans, indeed, ascribed Pomponia's
long melancholy to grief for the murder of Julia by Messalina, fourteen years
earlier. Tac. 1. c. ; Dion Ix. 18. It seems not unreasonable to suppose that
sorrow turned her mind to spiritual consolations.

* That the apostle was detained at Rome for two years appears from the
conclusion of the Ads. His release is presumed on the authority of tradition
embodied in the early church histories, and supported inferentially by the Epis-
tles. Supposing him to have reached Rome early in 814 (a. d. 61), he may
have quitted it again in 816, the year before the persecution.

' Tac. Ann. xv. 44.: "Per flugitia invisos .... odio generis humani
.... sontes et novissima supplicia meritos." Suet. Ner. 16.: "Genus
hominum superstitionis novaB et maleficae."

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 217

The horror of the sacrifice will be enhanced if we consider
the position and character of its victims, such as I have rep-
resented them. They were not a base and turbulent rabble
like the mass of the Jewish residents, who had been more
than once swept away by general edicts of exile or deporta-
tion ; but a mixed company of Greeks and Romans, as well
as Jews, some well-born, all perhaps instructed and accom-
plished, capable of appreciating the refined intelligence of
the Apostle, all trained by habit, as well as by principle, to
obey the laws, and respect the usages of those around them.
Not only were men and women of gentle nature j^ut to the
most cruel of deaths, — not only was mockery added to their
pangs, — but the process against them seems to have been
more summary and informal than we read of in the persecu-
tions of later times.*

Critical readers have, I believe, often felt a difficulty in
accepting the plain assertions of Tacitus and Suetonius on
this subject. They have remarked that there is

1 • • 1 1 11. T 1 . ,. , Difficulty of

nothmg m the known habits and teachmg of early accounting for
Christianity to account for such infatuated ha- persecution of

, T Tj? 1 -I ^^ . • • , the Christians.

tred. It here and there a patrician convert vex-
ed his kinsmen by withholding the domestic offering, such
cases were at least extremely rare, nor would they be noticed
by the vulgar, whose clamours alone are recorded. The
usages of the disciples were indeterminate in their outward
form ; their tenets were mostly subjective ; there was little
in either that could ojDenly clash with popular prejudices.
The first Christians at Rome did not separate themselves
from the heathens, nor renounce their ordinary callings ; they

' This may be inferred, I think, from the words of Tacitus, compared with
later accounts of the punctilious observance of form in the proceedings against
the Christians. It was only towards the end of the last and worst of the perse-
cutions, that of Diocletian, according to their own confession, that punishment
was summarily inflicted. See Ruinart, praef. in Ad. Martyr, p. xxix., from
Eusebius. Up to that time every judicial sentence had bpen formally register-
ed, and Christian inquirers, when they found these fewer than they had expect-
ed, declared that the registers had been tampered with. Comp. Prudentius,
Peristcph. i. "75 : "Chartulas blasphemus olim nam satelles abstulit."

218 HISTORY OF THE ROilANS

intermarried with unbelievers, nor even in their unions with
one another did they reject the ordinary forms of la\\^' It
would seem that they burnt their dead after the Roman
fashion, gathered their ashes into the sepulchres of their
patrons, and inscribed over them the customary dedication
to the Divine Spirits.^ They wore no distinctive garb like
the professors of philosophy ; they continued to dwell in the
midst of their unconverted countrymen, frequented their syn-
agogues and respected their sabbaths, at the same time that
they paid special honour to the day which followed the sab-
bath, as the day of their Lord's resurrection. Before St.
Paul came among them they can hardly have had a ministry,
nor can we speak with certainty of any definite provision
being made even by him at Rome for this distinctive badge
of an independent religion. Christianity Avith them was
eminently a doctrine rather than a ceremonial. They invest-
ed, indeed, with mysterious significance their rites of Initia-
tion and Communion ; and in the typical language in which
the meaning of these sacraments was shrouded the heathens
might find a motive for jealousy.' Xevertheless, such mys-
teries were common to the pagan cults also, and the miscon-
struction eventually put on them in the case of the Chris-
tians Avas the consequence, perhaps, rather than the cause,
of the odium in which the sect came itself to be held.*

' Mixed marriages were denounced by Tertullian and C}-prian ; but not, as
far as we know, earlier. The ceremonial of Christian marriage, the espousals,
the ring, and other particulars, are derived from heathen usage, nor is there any
trace of a special church service in primitive times. The passage from Tertul-
lian, ad Uxor. ii. 8, 9., proves nothing to the contrary. Christians made it a
matter of conscience to obtain the consent and blessing of the bishop.

' Such is the interpretation which, it seems, must be given to the letters D.
M, (dis manibus), which occur so frequently on the tombs of the early Chris-
tians at Rome. See Muratori in the Roman Acad. Arvhcol. xiii. 39. foil. (Light-
foot, 1. c.)

' As regards the Eucharist at least, the language of the Christian liturgies,
which the further we inquire seem to remount higher in primitive antiquity, is
more decided and uniform than that of the fathers.

* We do not know when the notorious calumnies against the Christian love-
feasts were first propounded : but they arc first referred to by the apologists in

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 219

The precipitate harshness, indeed, with which men and
women of the world have judged the spirit of devotion in
modern times, the sourness, the self-righteous- Christianity
ness, the hypocrisy they have ascribed to it, may Eome°before '^
indicate to us the feeling with wliich such of the timeafter'i^e-
Romans as came personally in contact with this ^°-
saintly community might regard its character and habits.
They would express, no doubt more openly than our milder
manners allow, their Avonder, their vexation, and their scorn.
But the atrocious language of Tacitus and Suetonius far
transcends this limit, and we are lost in wonder at the charo-e
of firing the city, with the general imputation of hating all
mankind, against a sect so unobtrusive as well as so innocent.
Nor can we fail to remark how short a time is allowed by
our accounts for the growth of this hostile feeling. Up to
the arrival of St. Paul the Christians form evidently an ob-
scure and unorganized society ; within three years from that
date the whole city is filled with inveterate detestation of
them. This is the more strange when we observe how little
attention, except in this instance, Christianity attracted at
this period in Rome. It has not been mentioned by Lucan,
or the elder Pliny, though both these writers have noticed
the manners of the Jews ; nor by Seneca, though Seneca is
full of the tenets of the philosophers ; nor by Persius, though
Persius is a shrewd observer of the salient features of society
generally. Such is the silence of the contemporaries of St.
Paul and Nero. Had the Christians occupied, even in the next
generation, a large space in Roman eyes, could the painters of
manners such as Juvenal and Martial, who have dashed in,
with such glaring colours, Jews, Greeks, and Egyptians, have
failed to fill their canvas with portraits and caricatures of
them ? * Half a century had passed from the Neronian per-

the second or perhaps the third century. See Minucius Felix, Odav. 9. ; Ter-
tuU. Apol. 3. ; Athenagoras, 4.

' Juvenal alludes (vii. 257.) to the cause of Nero's persecution, and to the
mode of punishment. Comp. also i. 155. Martial notices the fortitude of
those who refused to sacrifice with the stake and pitched shirt before them

220 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

sedition before we meet with the fii-st charges now extant
against them.

Such being the grounds for questioning the accuracy of our
accounts of this matter, it has been suggested that it was
Question as to against the Jews, not the Christians, the devotees
desiSnatorns ^^ falsc Christs, not the worshippers of Jesus, the
'• Christians." wolvcs of the Transtibcrinc, not the lambs of the
Palatine, that Nero's edict was really directed. We have
seen how obnoxious the Jews generally were to the bigotry
of the Roman populace : they were reproached with their
ferocity, isolation, and spiritual pride ; the turbulence of
their fanatical Christ seekers had already provoked both
prince and people. The menacing attitude they held in their
own country was a cause at this moment of increased exas-
peration. It was easy to imagine that the compatriots of the
men who were levying war against Rome in Palestine had
kindled a conflagration in the capital itself. Tiberius had
gratified the popular clamour by deporting thousands of these
wretches to Sardinia. Claudius had expelled them in a body
from Rome. The people now stimulated Nero to make
shorter and bloodier work with them ; and the fanatics of the
city were subjected to the same barbarous vengeance which
had alighted repeatedly on their brethren in the mountains of
Galilee and the wilderness of Judea. It is conjectured that
our authorities, writing fifty years later, confused the Jews
with the Christians. That Suetonius, in a previous statement,
had fallen into such an error, is generally admitted. He may
have done the same in this place. Tacitus, though a graver
authority, is liable to the charge of colouring the events he
describes witli the hues of his own period. AVhen he wrote
the filse Christs were extinguished and forgotten, but the
true Christ had become notorious throughout the empire.
The true believers, meek and inoffensive as they were, had
succeeded, by an unjust fate, to all the odium which had

(x. 25.). This may refer to the later persecution of Trajan. There can be
little doubt that this barbarous torture was invented before Xcro (see Senec.
Epkt. 14.), and continued to be practiced after liim.

UNDER THE EMPIRE. 221

popularly attached to the fanatics. On the Christians, re-
garded as a remnant or revival of Judaism, Tacitus, it may
be supposed, bestowed all the bitterness which a terrible war
had engendered in Roman breasts against everything Jewish.^
They were lying at the moment under sentence of proscrip-
tion by his master, Trajan : they were deserting the temples,
withholding sacrifice from the imperial altars, meeting in se-
cret and illicit conclave in the provinces, and Pliny, the friend
of Tacitus, was inquiring how he should proceed tow^ards
them," Whatever the historian may think of the charges of
immoi-ality calumniously preferred against them, their antici-
pations of a world-wide triumph, of the fall of the empire,
and the dissolution of the age in fire, might be held as dam-
ning evidence against them, and entitle them in his view to a
return of that scorn and hatred which they were deemed
themselves to cherish against the whole frame of so-
ciety.'

Such is the view recommended to us by the great name
of Gibbon, Avhich it is due perhaps to his character as an his-
torian to lay before the reader. Though liable to conjecture of
the suspicion of interested motives, he is too O'*''^""-
shrewd to advance even an interested argument without
reasonable grounds. But the existence of Christians in the
time of Nero is no longer held to depend in any degree on
the testimony of Tacitus, nor does the conjecture merit in

* It should be noticed, to show how readily Tacitus might confound the
Jews and the Christians, that he characterizes both in precisely the same re-
markable terms. Comp. of the Christians, Ann. xv. 44. : " Odio generis hu-
mani ; " and of the Jews, Hist. v. 5. : " Adversus omnes aUos hostile odium."

' Plm. Episi. X. 96. (97.) : a letter supposed to have been written in the
year 104, probably a few years earlier than the later books of the Annals.

^ These topics had not been untouched by St. Paul ; but it will be readily
conceived that it was after the fall of Jerusalem and the publication of the
Apocalypse that they became most prominent, and began to attract the notice
of the heathens. Dr. Milman, feeling the difficulty which attaches to our ac-
counts of the Neronian persecution, has suggested that the popular hatred tow-
ards the Christians, and belief in their guilt, were caused by their vaunts of
an impending conflagration of the world. Hist, of Christianity, ii. 37.

222 HISTORY OF THE ROMANS

itself the disdain, real or affected, with which our polemics
have generally treated it.'

For myself, peq^lexed by the received account, yet scru-
pling to admit such entire misapprehension on the part of our
Another view authorities, I cravc a fair consideraiion for anoth-
suggested. ^j. Suggestion : — that the suspicions of the Roman

mob were directed against the turbulent Jews, notorious for
their appeals to the name of Christ, as an expected prince or
leader : — that these fanatics, arrested and questioned, not so
much of the burning as of their political creed, sought to
implicate the true disciples, known to them and hated by
them, however obscure and inoffensive in Roman eyes, in the
same charge :' — that the true Christians, thus associated in the
charge of Christ-worship, avowed the fact in their own sense,
a sense which their judges did not care to discriminate : — that
the believers became thus more or less sufferers, though dou-
bly innocent both of the fire and of political disaffection : —
finally, that our historians, misled by this false information,
finding even in the public records that the name of Christ
was the common shibboleth of the victims, too readily imag-
ined that the persecution was directed against the Chris-
tians only. Frightful as this attack on the brethren was, it
thus fell only obliquely upon them ; it may be hoped that it
was as transient as it was sudden. If we may draw any con-
clusions from the monuments lately discovered of the Clau-
dian freedmen, it would seem that many of the disciples,
whom St. Paul had greeted by name, died quietly in their
beds. Though Christian writers have concurred in citing
the Xeronian as the first of their persecutions, it is remark-
able that the Church has specified none of its victims among

' Gibbon, Bed. and Fall, ch. xvi.

" The animosity of the Jews of the old faith to the Christian reformers is
strongly marked in the Ads of the Apostles, and recurs again in almost the
earliest documents of the first apostolic age. See particularly Martyr. Poly-
carp, c. 13. ; Justin Martyr, Dialog, and Apol. ; Tertullian, adv. Jvdceos. Taci-
tus himself points to the betrayal of one set of victims by another : " primo
correpti qui fatebantur. deinde indicio eorum multitudo ingens."

UNDER THE EMPIRE, 223

her noble army of Martyrs.' St. Paul himself is not suppos-
ed to have fallen on this occasion. Absent at the time from
Rome, he returned there soon after ; but in the epistle he wrote
from thence within two or three years of this date, no allusion
occurs to the recent sufferings of his disciples. The story that
he was beheaded at Rome in the last year of Nero has been
current from early times ; but this tradition, however proba-
ble in itself, is attended with circumstances which show
how little it was connected, in the minds of the first Chris-
tians, with the theory of a general proscription of their
faith.^

The notion that Xero's measures extended to the provinces,
or issued in a standing decree against Christianity, though
atte