repl. ate, and perceiving that all his villainies passed for acts of who had been long the concubine of Nero, and, as her adul- 61. Forthwith the people went up to the capitol in transport, and at length poured forth unfeigned thanks to the gods. They threw down the statues of Poppaa, carried those of Octavia upon their shoulders, wreathed them with garlands, and placed them on the forum and the temples. They even went to offer the tribute of their applause to the prince; the prince was made the object of their grateful adoration. And now they were filling the palace with their crowd and clamor, when parties of soldiers were sent out, who by beating them and threatening them with the sword, terrified and dispersed them: whatever was overthrown during the tumult was restored, and the tokens of honor to Poppaa replaced. This woman, ever prone to atrocities from the impulse of hatred, and now stimulated by her fears also, lest either a more violent outbreak of popular violence should take place, or Nero should succumb to the inclination of the people, threw herself at his knees, and said therewith, "her circum c. 62.] ARTIFICE OF POPPAA. 393 stances were not in that state that she should contend about her marriage with him, though that object was dearer to her than life: but her very life was placed in imminent jeopardy by the dependents and slaves of Octavia, who calling themselves the people of Rome, had dared to commit acts in time of peace which were seldom produced by war. But those arms were taken up against the prince: they only wanted a leader, and a civil commotion once excited, they would soon find one. Octavia has only to leave Campania and come into the city; when at her nod, in her absence, such tumults were raised. But if this was not the object, what crime had she committed? whom had she offended? was it because she was about to give a genuine offspring to the family of the Cæsars, that the Roman people chose that the spawn of an Egyptian flute-player' should be palmed upon the imperial eminence? To sum up all, if that step was essential to the public weal, he should call home his mistress voluntarily rather than by compulsion, or consult his safety by a righteous retribution. The first commotion had subsided under moderate applications, but if they should despair of Octavia's being the wife of Nero, they would give her another husband." Ani 62. This artfully compounded speech, adapted to excite fear and rage, at once produced the desired effect, and terrified while it inflamed the imperial hearer: but a suspicion resting only on the evidence of a slave, and neutralized by the asseverations of the tortured maids, was not strong enough for this purpose. It was therefore resolved that some person should be found who would confess the guilty commerce, and who might also be plausibly charged with the crime of rebellion. cetus2 was judged a fitting instrument for this purpose; the same who had accomplished the murder of his mother, and, as I have related, commanded the fleet at Misenum; whom the emperor, after that horrid service, held in light esteem, but afterward in extraordinary detestation: for the ministers of nefarious deeds seem in the eyes of their employers as living reproaches of their iniquity. Him therefore Nero summoned; and told him, "that he alone had saved the life of the prince from the dark devices of his mother: an opportunity for a service of no less magnitude now presented itself, by relieving 1 This was Eucerus, a native of Alexandria, mentioned in c. 60. 2 For Anicetus, the murderer of Agrippina, see this book, c. 7. him from a wife who was his mortal enemy: nor was there need of force or arms; he had only to admit adultery with Octavia. He promised rewards, which he said must indeed be kept a secret for the present, but of great value, and also a delightful retreat; but threatened him with death, if he declined the task. Anicetus, from an inherent perversity of principle, and a facility in crime produced by the horrible transactions in which he had been already engaged, even exceeded his orders in lying, and made confession of the adultery to the friends of the prince, whom he had summoned as a council. He was then banished to Sardinia, where he lived in exile, but not in poverty, and where he died a natural death. 63. Now Nero in an edict stated, "that Octavia, in hopes of engaging the fleet in her conspiracy, had corrupted Anicetus the admiral:" and forgetting that he had just before accused her of barrenness, he added, "that in guilty consciousness of her lust, she had produced abortion; and that all these were clearly proved to him." And he confined her in the island Pandataria. Never was there any exile who touched the hearts of the beholders with deeper compassion: some there were who still remembered to have seen Agrippina banished by Tiberius: the more recent sufferings of Julia1 were likewise recalled to mind, confined there by Claudius: but they had experienced some happiness, and the recollection of their former splendor proved some alleviation of their present horrors. To Octavia, in the first place, the day of her nuptials was in place of a funeral day, being brought under a roof where she encountered nothing but memorials of woe; her father cut off by poison, and soon afterward her brother ;2 then a handmaid more influential than her mistress; Poppaa wedded to her husband, only to bring destruction on his lawful wife: and lastly, a crime laid to her charge more intolerable than death in any shape. 64. And this young lady, in her twentieth year, thrown among centurions and common soldiers, and already bereft of life under the presage of impending woes, did not, however, as 1 Julia, the daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina, was banished by the emperor Claudius, A.U.c. 794. 2 The emperor Claudius her father, and her brother Britannicus, were both poisoned. See Annals, xii. 67, and xiii. 16. c. 65.] OCTAVIA PUT TO DEATH. 1 395 yet enjoy the repose of death. After an interval of a few days she was ordered to die, when she protested, "she was now a widow, and only the emperor's sister;" appealed to the Germanici, the common relatives of Nero and herself; and lastly, invoked the name of Agrippina, observing, "that had she lived, her marriage-state would have been made wretched, but she would not have been doomed to destruction." She was then tied fast with bonds, and her veins opened in every joint; and because the blood, coagulated from the effect of fear, flowed too slowly, her death was accelerated by the vapor of a bath, heated to the highest point. A deed of still more atrocious brutality was added; her head was cut off and conveyed to the city for Poppaa to see it. Offerings at the temples were decreed by the fathers on account of these events: a circumstance which I have recorded in order that all those who shall read the calamities of those times, as they are delivered by me or any other authors, may conclude by anticipation, that as often as a banishment or a murder was perpetrated by the prince's orders, so often thanks were rendered to the gods; and those acts which in former times were resorted to to distinguish prosperous occurrences, were now made the tokens of public disasters. Still I will not suppress the mention of any decree of the senate which is marked by unheard-of adulation, or the extremity of abject servility. 65. The same year Nero is believed to have destroyed by poison the most influential of his freedmen, Doryphorus, for opposing his marriage with Poppaa; Pallas,2 because his protracted life kept him out of the vast riches he had accumulated. Romanus had secretly criminated Seneca, as an accomplice of Caius Piso ;3 but sunk himself under the same charge brought by Seneca with greater force of evidence. Piso in consequence became alarmed; and a powerful and extensive conspiracy was formed against Nero, but it proved abortive. 1 Nero was adopted by Claudius her father, and consequently was brother to Octavia. 2 Doryphorus, according to Dio, was private secretary to Nero. Pallas, the freedman of Claudius, has been often mentioned. He was dismissed from all his employments by Nero. (See Annals, xiii. 14.) Brotier says that his monument was found near Rome, A.D. 1720. 3 For more of Piso, see Annals, xv. 48. BOOK XV. 1. MEANWHILE Vologeses, king of the Parthians, having heard of the acts of Corbulo, and that Tigranes, an alien, was placed upon the throne of Armenia,1 while he was desirous of seeking revenge for the contempt shown for the high claims of the Arsacidæ by the expulsion of his brother, was perplexed with conflicting considerations, when on the other hand he reflected on the Roman greatness, and the respect he had for the treaty which had continued without interruption between him and the Romans; for he was naturally wanting in decision, and was also hampered by the defection of the Hyrcanians, and the various wars growing out of it. Moreover, while in this state of suspense, he was further excited by intelligence of fresh indignities; for Tigranes, passing the confines of Armenia, had devastated the territories of the Adiabenians, a bordering nation, more extensively and leisurely than comported with a mere predatory excursion: while the chiefs of the nations gave vent to their indignation, "that they should have sunk so low, that they were overrun, by a Roman general, but an undisciplined hostage, who had for so many years been numbered among slaves." His distress was inflamed by Monobazus, sovereign of the Adiabenians, who asked angrily, "what succor he could seek, or from what quarter? Armenia was already given up, and the adjacent regions would follow it; and, unless they were defended by the Parthians, they would consider that bondage under the Romans was lighter to such as surrendered themselves than to those who staid to be subdued." Tiridates too, a fugitive from his kingdom, affected him in no small degree by the silent appeal of his presence; still more when he complained, "that mighty empires were not to be held together by inaction; that men and arms must be Tigranes, descended from the nobility of Cappadocia, Nero to ascend the throne of Armenia. Annals, xiv. 26. not indeed was sent by |