The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Volume 06: Nero

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Project Gutenberg's Nero Claudius Caesar (Nero), by C. Suetonius TranquillusThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online atwww.gutenberg.netTitle: Nero Claudius Caesar (Nero) The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Volume 6.Author: C. Suetonius TranquillusRelease Date: December 13, 2004 [EBook #6391]Language: English*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NERO CLAUDIUS CAESAR ***Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David WidgerTHE LIVES OF THE TWELVE CAESARS By C. Suetonius Tranquillus;To which are added,HIS LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS, RHETORICIANS, AND POETS. The Translation of Alexander Thomson, M.D. revised and corrected by T.Forester, Esq., A.M.NERO CLAUDIUS CAESAR.(337)I. Two celebrated families, the Calvini and Aenobarbi, sprung from the race of the Domitii. The Aenobarbi derive boththeir extraction and their cognomen from one Lucius Domitius, of whom we have this tradition: —As he was returning outof the country to Rome, he was met by two young men of a most august appearance, who desired him to announce to thesenate and people a victory, of which no certain intelligence had yet reached the city. To prove that they were more ...

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THE LIVES OF THETWELVE CAESARS By C. Suetonius Tranquillus;To which are added,HIS LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS,RHETORICIANS, AND POETS. The Translation of Alexander Thomson, M.D. revised and corrected by T.Forester, Esq., A.M.

NERO CLAUDIUS CAESAR.(337)I. Two celebrated families, the Calvini andAenobarbi, sprung from the race of the Domitii.The Aenobarbi derive both their extraction andtheir cognomen from one Lucius Domitius, ofwhom we have this tradition: —As he was returningout of the country to Rome, he was met by twoyoung men of a most august appearance, whodesired him to announce to the senate and peoplea victory, of which no certain intelligence had yetreached the city. To prove that they were morethan mortals, they stroked his cheeks, and thuschanged his hair, which was black, to a brightcolour, resembling that of brass; which mark ofdistinction descended to his posterity, for they hadgenerally red beards. This family had the honour ofseven consulships [548], one triumph [549], andtwo censorships [550]; and being admitted into thepatrician order, they continued the use of the samecognomen, with no other praenomina [551] thanthose of Cneius and Lucius. These, however, theyassumed with singular irregularity; three persons insuccession sometimes adhering to one of them,and then they were changed alternately. For thefirst, second, and third of the Aenobarbi had thepraenomen of Lucius, and again the threefollowing, successively, that of Cneius, while thosewho came after were called, by turns, one, Lucius,and the other, Cneius. It appears to me proper to

give a short account of several of the family, toshow that Nero so far degenerated from the noblequalities of his ancestors, that he retained onlytheir vices; as if those alone had been transmittedto him by his descent.II. To begin, therefore, at a remote period, hisgreat-grandfather's grandfather, Cneius Domitius,when he was tribune of the people, being offendedwith the high priests for electing another thanhimself in the room of his father, obtained the(338) transfer of the right of election from thecolleges of the priests to the people. In hisconsulship [552], having conquered the Allobrogesand the Arverni [553], he made a progress throughthe province, mounted upon an elephant, with abody of soldiers attending him, in a sort oftriumphal pomp. Of this person the orator LiciniusCrassus said, "It was no wonder he had a brazenbeard, who had a face of iron, and a heart of lead."His son, during his praetorship [554], proposed thatCneius Caesar, upon the expiration of hisconsulship, should be called to account before thesenate for his administration of that office, whichwas supposed to be contrary both to the omensand the laws. Afterwards, when he was consulhimself [555], he tried to deprive Cneius of thecommand of the army, and having been, byintrigue and cabal, appointed his successor, hewas made prisoner at Corsinium, in the beginningof the civil war. Being set at liberty, he went toMarseilles, which was then besieged; wherehaving, by his presence, animated the people tohold out, he suddenly deserted them, and at last

was slain in the battle of Pharsalia. He was a manof little constancy, and of a sullen temper. Indespair of his fortunes, he had recourse to poison,but was so terrified at the thoughts of death, that,immediately repenting, he took a vomit to throw itup again, and gave freedom to his physician forhaving, with great prudence and wisdom, given himonly a gentle dose of the poison. When CneiusPompey was consulting with his friends in whatmanner he should conduct himself towards thosewho were neuter and took no part in the contest,he was the only one who proposed that theyshould be treated as enemies.III. He left a son, who was, without doubt, the bestof the family. By the Pedian law, he wascondemned, although innocent, amongst otherswho were concerned in the death of Caesar [556].Upon this, he went over to Brutus and Cassius, hisnear relations; and, after their death, not only kepttogether the fleet, the command of which had beengiven him some time before, but even increased it.At last, when the party had everywhere beendefeated, he voluntarily surrendered it to (339)Mark Antony; considering it as a piece of servicefor which the latter owed him no small obligations.Of all those who were condemned by the lawabove-mentioned, he was the only man who wasrestored to his country, and filled the highestoffices. When the civil war again broke out, he wasappointed lieutenant under the same Antony, andoffered the chief command by those who wereashamed of Cleopatra; but not daring, on accountof a sudden indisposition with which he was seized,

either to accept or refuse it, he went over toAugustus [557], and died a few days after, notwithout an aspersion cast upon his memory. ForAntony gave out, that he was induced to changesides by his impatience to be with his mistress,Servilia Nais. [558]IV. This Cneius had a son, named Domitius, whowas afterwards well known as the nominalpurchaser of the family property left by Augustus'swill [559]; and no less famous in his youth for hisdexterity in chariot-driving, than he was afterwardsfor the triumphal ornaments which he obtained inthe German war. But he was a man of greatarrogance, prodigality, and cruelty. When he wasaedile, he obliged Lucius Plancus, the censor, togive him the way; and in his praetorship, andconsulship, he made Roman knights and marriedwomen act on the stage. He gave hunts of wildbeasts, both in the Circus and in all the wards ofthe city; as also a show of gladiators; but with suchbarbarity, that Augustus, after privatelyreprimanding him, to no purpose, was obliged torestrain him by a public edict.V. By the elder Antonia he had Nero's father, aman of execrable character in every part of his life.During his attendance upon Caius Caesar in theEast, he killed a freedman of his own, for refusingto drink as much as he ordered him. Beingdismissed for this from Caesar's society, he did notmend his habits; for, in a village upon the Appianroad, he suddenly whipped his horses, and drovehis chariot, on purpose, (340) over a poor boy,

crushing him to pieces. At Rome, he struck out theeye of a Roman knight in the Forum, only for somefree language in a dispute between them. He waslikewise so fraudulent, that he not only cheatedsome silversmiths [560] of the price of goods hehad bought of them, but, during his praetorship,defrauded the owners of chariots in the Circensiangames of the prizes due to them for their victory.His sister, jeering him for the complaints made bythe leaders of the several parties, he agreed tosanction a law, "That, for the future, the prizesshould be immediately paid." A little before thedeath of Tiberius, he was prosecuted for treason,adulteries, and incest with his sister Lepida, butescaped in the timely change of affairs, and died ofa dropsy, at Pyrgi [561]; leaving behind him hisson, Nero, whom he had by Agrippina, thedaughter of Germanicus.VI. Nero was born at Antium, nine months after thedeath of Tiberius [562], upon the eighteenth of thecalends of January [15th December], just as thesun rose, so that its beams touched him beforethey could well reach the earth. While many fearfulconjectures, in respect to his future fortune, wereformed by different persons, from thecircumstances of his nativity, a saying of his father,Domitius, was regarded as an ill presage, who toldhis friends who were congratulating him upon theoccasion, "That nothing but what was detestable,and pernicious to the public, could ever beproduced of him and Agrippina." Another manifestprognostic of his future infelicity occurred upon hislustration day [563]. For Caius Caesar being

requested by his sister to give the child what namehe thought proper—looking at his uncle, Claudius,who (341) afterwards, when emperor, adoptedNero, he gave his: and this not seriously, but onlyin jest; Agrippina treating it with contempt, becauseClaudius at that time was a mere laughing-stock atthe palace. He lost his father when he was threeyears old, being left heir to a third part of hisestate; of which he never got possession, thewhole being seized by his co-heir, Caius. Hismother being soon after banished, he lived with hisaunt Lepida, in a very necessitous condition, underthe care of two tutors, a dancing-master and abarber. After Claudius came to the empire, he notonly recovered his father's estate, but wasenriched with the additional inheritance of that ofhis step-father, Crispus Passienus. Upon hismother's recall from banishment, he was advancedto such favour, through Nero's powerful interestwith the emperor, that it was reported, assassinswere employed by Messalina, Claudius's wife, tostrangle him, as Britannicus's rival, whilst he wastaking his noon-day repose. In addition to thestory, it was said that they were frightened by aserpent, which crept from under his cushion, andran away. The tale was occasioned by finding onhis couch, near the pillow, the skin of a snake,which, by his mother's order, he wore for sometime upon his right arm, inclosed in a bracelet ofgold. This amulet, at last, he laid aside, fromaversion to her memory; but he sought for it again,in vain, in the time of his extremity.VII. When he was yet a mere boy, before he

arrived at the age of puberty, during thecelebration of the Circensian games [564], heperformed his part in the Trojan play with a degreeof firmness which gained him great applause. Inthe eleventh year of his age, he was adopted byClaudius, and placed under the tuition of AnnaeusSeneca [565], who had been made a senator. It issaid, that Seneca dreamt the night after, that hewas giving a lesson to Caius Caesar [566]. Nerosoon verified his dream, betraying the cruelty of hisdisposition in every way he could. For heattempted to persuade his father that his brother,Britannicus, was nothing but a changeling, becausethe latter had (342) saluted him, notwithstandinghis adoption, by the name of Aenobarbus, asusual. When his aunt, Lepida, was brought to trial,he appeared in court as a witness against her, togratify his mother, who persecuted the accused.On his introduction into the Forum, at the age ofmanhood, he gave a largess to the people and adonative to the soldiers: for the pretorian cohorts,he appointed a solemn procession under arms,and marched at the head of them with a shield inhis hand; after which he went to return thanks tohis father in the senate. Before Claudius, likewise,at the time he was consul, he made a speech forthe Bolognese, in Latin, and for the Rhodians andpeople of Ilium, in Greek. He had the jurisdiction ofpraefect of the city, for the first time, during theLatin festival; during which the most celebratedadvocates brought before him, not short and triflingcauses, as is usual in that case, but trials ofimportance, notwithstanding they had instructionsfrom Claudius himself to the contrary. Soon

afterwards, he married Octavia, and exhibited theCircensian games, and hunting of wild beasts, inhonour of Claudius.VIII. He was seventeen years of age at the deathof that prince [567], and as soon as that event wasmade public, he went out to the cohort on guardbetween the hours of six and seven; for the omenswere so disastrous, that no earlier time of the daywas judged proper. On the steps before the palacegate, he was unanimously saluted by the soldiersas their emperor, and then carried in a litter to thecamp; thence, after making a short speech to thetroops, into the senate-house, where he continueduntil the evening; of all the immense honours whichwere heaped upon him, refusing none but the titleof FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY, on account of hisyouth,IX. He began his reign with an ostentation of dutifulregard to the memory of Claudius, whom he buriedwith the utmost pomp and magnificence,pronouncing the funeral oration himself, and thenhad him enrolled amongst the gods. He paidlikewise the highest honours to the memory of hisfather Domitius. He left the management of affairs,both public and private, to his mother. The wordwhich he gave the first day of his reign to thetribune on guard, was, "The (343) Best ofMothers," and afterwards he frequently appearedwith her in the streets of Rome in her litter. Hesettled a colony at Antium, in which he placed theveteran soldiers belonging to the guards; andobliged several of the richest centurions of the first

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