The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
so captivated Nero that he redeemed her, and became greatly attached to
her. She is supposed to be the concubine of Nero mentioned by St.
Chrysostom, as having been converted by St. Paul during his residence at
Rome. The Apostle speaks of the “Saints in Caesar’s household.”--Phil.
iv. 22.]
[Footnote 591: See Tacitus, Annal. xv. 37.]
[Footnote 592: A much-frequented street in Rome. See CLAUDIUS, c. xvi.]
[Footnote 593: It is said that the advances were made by Agrippina, with
flagrant indecency, to secure her power over him. See Tacitus, Annal.
xiv. 2, 3.]
[Footnote 594: Olim etiam, quoties lectica cum matre veheretur,
libidinatum inceste, ac maculis vestis proditum, affirmant.]
[Footnote 595: Tacitus calls him Pythagoras, which was probably the
freedman’s proper name; Doryphorus being a name of office somewhat
equivalent to almoner. See Annal. B. xv.]
[Footnote 596: The emperor Caligula, who was the brother of Nero’s
mother, Agrippina.]
[Footnote 597: See before, c. xiii. Tiridates was nine months in Rome or
the neighbourhood, and was entertained the whole time at the emperor’s
expense.]
[Footnote 598: Canusium, now Canosa, was a town in Apulia, near the mouth
of the river Aufidus, celebrated for its fine wool. It is mentioned by
Pliny, and retained its reputation for the manufacture in the middle ages,
as we find in Ordericus Vitalis.]
[Footnote 599: The Mazacans were an African tribe from the deserts in the
interior, famous for their spirited barbs, their powers of endurance, and
their skill in throwing the dart.]
[Footnote 600: The Palace of the Caesars, on the Palatine hill, was
enlarged by Augustus from the dimensions of a private house (see AUGUSTUS,
cc. xxix., lvii.). Tiberius made some additions to it, and Caligula
extended it to the Forum (CALIGULA, c. xxxi.). Tacitus gives a similar
account with that of our author of the extent and splendour of the works
of Nero. Annal. xv. c. xlii. Reaching from the Palatine to the Esquiline
hill, it covered all the intermediate space, where the Colosseum now
stands. We shall find that it was still further enlarged by Domitian, c.
xv. of his life is the present work.]
[Footnote 601: The penates were worshipped in the innermost part of the
house, which was called penetralia. There were likewise publici penates,
worshipped in the Capitol, and supposed to be the guardians of the city
and temples. Some have thought that the lares and penates were the same;
and they appear to be sometimes confounded. They were, however,
different. The penates were reputed to be of divine origin; the lares, of
human. Certain persons were admitted to the worship of the lares, who
were not to that of the penates. The latter, as has been already said,
were worshipped only in the innermost part of the house, but the former
also in the public roads, in the camp, and on sea.]
[Footnote 602: A play upon the Greek word moros, signifying a fool, while
the Latin morari, from moror, means “to dwell,” or “continue.”]
[Footnote 603: A small port between the gulf of Baiae and cape Misenum.]
[Footnote 604: From whence the “Procul, O procul este profani!” of the
poet; a warning which was transferred to the Christian mysteries.]
[Footnote 605: See before, c. xii.]
[Footnote 606: Statilius Taurus; who lived in the time of Augustus, and
built the amphitheatre called after his name. AUGUSTUS, c. xxiv. He is
mentioned by Horace, Epist. i. v. 4.]
[Footnote 607: Octavia was first sent away to Campania, under a guard of
soldiers, and after being recalled, in consequence of the remonstrances of
the people, by whom she was beloved, Nero banished her to the island of
Pandataria.]
[Footnote 608: A.U.C. 813.]
[Footnote 609: Seneca was accused of complicity in the conspiracy of
Caius Piso. Tacitus furnishes some interesting details of the
circumstances under which the philosopher calmly submitted to his fate,
which was announced to him when at supper with his friends, at his villa,
near Rome.--Tacitus, b. xiv. xv.]
[Footnote 610: This comet, as well as one which appeared the year in
which Claudius died, is described by Seneca, Natural. Quaest. VII. c.
xvii. and xix. and by Pliny, II. c. xxv.]
[Footnote 611: See Tacitus, Annal. xv. 49-55.]
[Footnote 612: The sixteenth book of Tacitus, which would probably have
given an account of the Vinician conspiracy, is lost. It is shortly
noticed by Plutarch.]
[Footnote 613: See before, c. xix.]
[Footnote 614: This destructive fire occurred in the end of July, or the
beginning of August, A.U.C. 816, A.D. 64. It was imputed to the
Christians, and drew on them the persecutions mentioned in c. xvi., and
the note.]
[Footnote 615: The revolt in Britain broke out A.U.C. 813. Xiphilinus
(lxii. p. 701) attributes it to the severity of the confiscations with
which the repayment of large sums of money advanced to the Britons by the
emperor Claudius, and also by Seneca, was exacted. Tacitus adds another
cause, the insupportable tyranny and avarice of the centurions and
soldiers. Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, had named the emperor his heir.
His widow Boadicea and her daughters were shamefully used, his kinsmen
reduced to slavery, and his whole territory ravaged; upon which the
Britons flew to arms. See c. xviii., and the note.]
[Footnote 616: Neonymphon; alluding to Nero’s unnatural nuptials with
Sporus or Pythagoras. See cc. xxviii. xxix. It should be neonymphos.]
[Footnote 617: “Sustulit” has a double meaning, signifying both, to bear
away, and put out of the way.]
[Footnote 618: The epithet applied to Apollo, as the god of music, was
Paean; as the god of war, Ekataebaletaes.]
[Footnote 619: Pliny remarks, that the Golden House of Nero was
swallowing up all Rome. Veii, an ancient Etruscan city, about twelve
miles from Rome, was originally little inferior to it, being, as Dionysius
informs us, (lib. ii. p. 16), equal in extent to Athens. See a very
accurate survey of the ruins of Veii, in Gell’s admirable TOPOGRAPHY OF
ROME AND ITS VICINITY, p. 436, of Bohn’s Edition.]
[Footnote 620: Suetonius calls them organa hydralica, and they seem to
have been a musical instrument on the same principle as our present
organs, only that water was the inflating power. Vitruvius (iv. ix.)
mentions the instrument as the invention of Ctesibus of Alexandria. It is
also well described by Tertullian, De Anima, c. xiv. The pneumatic organ
appears to have been a later improvement. We have before us a contorniate
medallion, of Caracalla, from the collection of Mr. W. S. Bohn, upon which
one or other of these instruments figures. On the obverse is the bust of
the emperor in armour, laureated, with the inscription as AURELIUS
ANTONINUS PIUS AUG. BRIT. (his latest title). On the reverse is the
organ; an oblong chest with the pipes above, and a draped figure on each
side.]
[Footnote 621: A fine sand from the Nile, similar to puzzuclano, which
was strewed on the stadium; the wrestlers also rolled in it, when their
bodies were slippery with oil or perspiration.]
[Footnote 622: The words on the ticket about the emperor’s neck, are
supposed, by a prosopopea, to be spoken by him. The reply is Agrippina’s,
or the people’s. It alludes to the punishment due to him for his
parricide. By the Roman law, a person who had murdered a parent or any
near relation, after being severely scourged, was sewed up in a sack, with
a dog, a cock, a viper, and an ape, and then thrown into the sea, or a
deep river.]
[Footnote 623: Gallos, which signifies both cocks and Gauls.]
[Footnote 624: Vindex, it need hardly be observed, was the name of the
propraetor who had set up the standard of rebellion in Gaul. The word
also signifies an avenger of wrongs, redresser of grievances; hence
vindicate, vindictive, etc.]
[Footnote 625: Aen. xii. 646.]
[Footnote 626: The Via Salaria was so called from the Sabines using it to
fetch salt from the coast. It led from Rome to the northward, near the
gardens of Sallust, by a gate of the same name, called also Quirinalis,
Agonalis, and Collina. It was here that Alaric entered.]
[Footnote 627: The Via Nomentana, so named because it led to the Sabine
town of Nomentum, joined the Via Salara at Heretum on the Tiber. It was
also called Ficulnensis. It entered Rome by the Porta Viminalis, now
called Porta Pia. It was by this road that Hannibal approached the walls
of Rome. The country-house of Nero’s freedman, where he ended his days,
stood near the Anio, beyond the present church of St. Agnese, where there
was a villa of the Spada family, belonging now, we believe, to Torlonia.]
[Footnote 628: This description is no less exact than vivid. It was easy
for Nero to gain the nearest gate, the Nomentan, from the Esquiline
quarter of the palace, without much observation; and on issuing from it
(after midnight, it appears), the fugitives would have the pretorian camp
so close on their right hand, that they might well hear the shouts of the
soldiers.]
[Footnote 629: Decocta. Pliny informs us that Nero had the water he
drank, boiled, to clear it from impurities, and then cooled with ice.]
[Footnote 630: Wood, to warm the water for washing the corpse, and for
the funeral pile,]
[Footnote 631: This burst of passion was uttered in Greek, the rest was
spoken in Latin. Both were in familiar use. The mixture, perhaps,
betrays the disturbed state of Nero’s mind.]
[Footnote 632: II. x. 535.]
[Footnote 633: Collis Hortulorum; which was afterwards called the Pincian
Hill, from a family of that name, who flourished under the lower empire.
In the time of the Caesars it was occupied by the gardens and villas of
the wealthy and luxurious; among which those of Sallust are celebrated.
Some of the finest statues have been found in the ruins; among others,
that of the “Dying Gladiator.” The situation was airy and healthful,
commanding fine views, and it is still the most agreeable neighbourhood in
Rome.]
[Footnote 634: Antiquarians suppose that some relics of the sepulchre of
the Domitian family, in which the ashes of Nero were deposited, are
preserved in the city wall which Aurelian, when he extended its circuit,
carried across the “Collis Hortulorum.” Those ancient remains, declining
from the perpendicular, are called the Muro Torto.--The Lunan marble was
brought from quarries near a town of that name, in Etruria. It no longer
exists, but stood on the coast of what is now called the gulf of
Spezzia.--Thasos, an island in the Archipelago, was one of the Cyclades.
It produced a grey marble, much veined, but not in great repute.]
[Footnote 635: See c. x1i.]
[Footnote 636: The Syrian Goddess is supposed to have been Semiramis
deified. Her rites are mentioned by Florus, Apuleius, and Lucian.]
[Footnote 637: A.U.C. 821--A.D. 69.]
[Footnote 638: We have here one of the incidental notices which are so
valuable in an historian, as connecting him with the times of which he
writes. See also just before, c. lii.]
[Footnote 639: Veii; see the note, NERO, c. xxxix.]
[Footnote 640: The conventional term for what is most commonly known as,
“The Laurel, meed of mighty conquerors,
And poets sage,”--Spenser’s Faerie Queen.
is retained throughout the translation. But the tree or shrub which had
this distinction among the ancients, the Laurus nobilis of botany, the
Daphne of the Greeks, is the bay-tree, indigenous in Italy, Greece, and
the East, and introduced into England about 1562. Our laurel is a plant
of a very different tribe, the Prunes lauro-cerasus, a native of the
Levant and the Crimea, acclimated in England at a later period than the
bay.]
[Footnote 641: The Temple of the Caesars is generally supposed to be that