The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
charged with selling, in a great scarcity of corn, a bushel of wheat,
which was all he had left, for a hundred denarii, he forbad him to be
relieved by any body, when he came to be in want himself; and accordingly
he died of famine. When sitting in judgment, a cause being brought
before him about some beast of burden, the ownership of which was claimed
by two persons; the evidence being slight on both sides, and it being
difficult to come at the truth, he ordered the beast to be led to a pond
at which he had used to be watered, with his head muffled up, and the
covering being there removed, that he should be the property of the
person whom he followed of his own accord, after drinking.
VIII. For his achievements, both at this time in Africa, and formerly in
Germany, he received the triumphal ornaments, and three sacerdotal
appointments, one among The Fifteen, another in the college of Titius,
and a third amongst the Augustals; and from that time to the middle of
Nero’s reign, he lived for the most part in retirement. He never went
abroad (405) so much as to take the air, without a carriage attending
him, in which there was a million of sesterces in gold, ready at hand;
until at last, at the time he was living in the town of Fundi, the
province of Hispania Tarraconensis was offered him. After his arrival in
the province, whilst he was sacrificing in a temple, a boy who attended
with a censer, became all on a sudden grey-headed. This incident was
regarded by some as a token of an approaching revolution in the
government, and that an old man would succeed a young one: that is, that
he would succeed Nero. And not long after, a thunderbolt falling into a
lake in Cantabria [660], twelve axes were found in it; a manifest sign of
the supreme power.
IX. He governed the province during eight years, his administration
being of an uncertain and capricious character. At first he was active,
vigorous, and indeed excessively severe, in the punishment of offenders.
For, a money-dealer having committed some fraud in the way of his
business, he cut off his hands, and nailed them to his counter. Another,
who had poisoned an orphan, to whom he was guardian, and next heir to the
estate, he crucified. On this delinquent imploring the protection of the
law, and crying out that he was a Roman citizen, he affected to afford
him some alleviation, and to mitigate his punishment, by a mark of
honour, ordered a cross, higher than usual, and painted white, to be
erected for him. But by degrees he gave himself up to a life of
indolence and inactivity, from the fear of giving Nero any occasion of
jealousy, and because, as he used to say, “Nobody was obliged to render
an account of their leisure hours.” He was holding a court of justice on
the circuit at New Carthage [661], when he received intelligence of the
insurrection in Gaul [662]; and while the lieutenant of Aquitania was
soliciting his assistance, letters were brought from Vindex, requesting
him “to assert the rights of mankind, and put himself at their head to
relieve them from the tyranny of Nero.” Without any long demur, he
accepted the invitation, from a mixture of fear and hope. For he had
discovered that private orders had been sent by Nero to his procurators
in the province to get (407) him dispatched; and he was encouraged to the
enterprise, as well by several auspices and omens, as by the prophecy of
a young woman of good family. The more so, because the priest of
Jupiter at Clunia [663], admonished by a dream, had discovered in the
recesses of the temple some verses similar to those in which she had
delivered her prophecy. These had also been uttered by a girl under
divine inspiration, about two hundred years before. The import of the
verses was, “That in time, Spain should give the world a lord and
master.”
X. Taking his seat on the tribunal, therefore, as if there was no other
business than the manumitting of slaves, he had the effigies of a number
of persons who had been condemned and put to death by Nero, set up before
him, whilst a noble youth stood by, who had been banished, and whom he
had purposely sent for from one of the neighbouring Balearic isles; and
lamenting the condition of the times, and being thereupon unanimously
saluted by the title of Emperor, he publicly declared himself “only the
lieutenant of the senate and people of Rome.” Then shutting the courts,
he levied legions and auxiliary troops among the provincials, besides his
veteran army consisting of one legion, two wings of horse, and three
cohorts. Out of the military leaders most distinguished for age and
prudence, he formed a kind of senate, with whom to advise upon all
matters of importance, as often as occasion should require. He likewise
chose several young men of the equestrian order, who were to be allowed
the privilege of wearing the gold ring, and, being called “The Reserve,”
should mount guard before his bed-chamber, instead of the legionary
soldiers. He likewise issued proclamations throughout the provinces of
the empire, exhorting all to rise in arms unanimously, and aid the common
cause, by all the ways and means in their power. About the same time, in
fortifying a town, which he had pitched upon for a military post, a ring
was found, of antique workmanship, in the stone of which was engraved the
goddess Victory with a trophy. Presently after, a ship of Alexandria
arrived at Dertosa [664], loaded with arms, without any person to steer
it, or so much as a single sailor or passenger (408) on board. From this
incident, nobody entertained the least doubt but the war upon which they
were entering was just and honourable, and favoured likewise by the gods;
when all on a sudden the whole design was exposed to failure. One of the
two wings of horse, repenting of the violation of their oath to Nero,
attempted to desert him upon his approach to the camp, and were with some
difficulty kept in their duty. And some slaves who had been presented to
him by a freedman of Nero’s, on purpose to murder him, had like to have
killed him as he went through a narrow passage to the bath. Being
overheard to encourage one another not to lose the opportunity, they were
called to an account concerning it; and recourse being had to the
torture, a confession was extorted from them.
XI. These dangers were followed by the death of Vindex, at which being
extremely discouraged, as if fortune had quite forsaken him, he had
thoughts of putting an end to his own life; but receiving advice by his
messengers from Rome that Nero was slain, and that all had taken an oath
to him as emperor, he laid aside the title of lieutenant, and took upon
him that of Caesar. Putting himself upon his march in his general’s
cloak, and a dagger hanging from his neck before his breast, he did not
resume the use of the toga, until Nymphidius Sabinus, prefect of the
pretorian guards at Rome, with the two lieutenants, Fonteius Capito in
Germany, and Claudius Macer in Africa, who opposed his advancement, were
all put down.
XII. Rumours of his cruelty and avarice had reached the city before his
arrival; such as that he had punished some cities of Spain and Gaul, for
not joining him readily, by the imposition of heavy taxes, and some by
levelling their walls; and had put to death the governors and procurators
with their wives and children: likewise that a golden crown, of fifteen
pounds weight, taken out of the temple of Jupiter, with which he was
presented by the people of Tarracona, he had melted down, and had exacted
from them three ounces which were wanting in the weight. This report of
him was confirmed and increased, as soon as he entered the town. For
some seamen who had been taken from the fleet, and enlisted (409) among
the troops by Nero, he obliged to return to their former condition; but
they refusing to comply, and obstinately clinging to the more honourable
service under their eagles and standards, he not only dispersed them by a
body of horse, but likewise decimated them. He also disbanded a cohort
of Germans, which had been formed by the preceding emperors, for their
body-guard, and upon many occasions found very faithful; and sent them
back into their own country, without giving them any gratuity, pretending
that they were more inclined to favour the advancement of Cneius
Dolabella, near whose gardens they encamped, than his own. The following
ridiculous stories were also related of him; but whether with or without
foundation, I know not; such as, that when a more sumptuous entertainment
than usual was served up, he fetched a deep groan: that when one of the
stewards presented him with an account of his expenses, he reached him a
dish of legumes from his table as a reward for his care and diligence;
and when Canus, the piper, had played much to his satisfaction, he
presented him, with his own hand, five denarii taken out of his pocket.
XIII. His arrival, therefore, in town was not very agreeable to the
people; and this appeared at the next public spectacle. For when the
actors in a farce began a well-known song,
Venit, io, Simus [665] a villa:
Lo! Clodpate from his village comes;
all the spectators, with one voice, went on with the rest, repeating and
acting the first verse several times over.
XIV. He possessed himself of the imperial power with more favour and
authority than he administered it, although he gave many proofs of his
being an excellent prince: but these were not so grateful to the people,
as his misconduct was offensive. He was governed by three favourites,
who, because they lived in the palace, and were constantly about him,
obtained the name of his pedagogues. These were Titus Vinius, who had
been his lieutenant in Spain, a man of insatiable (410) avarice;
Cornelius Laco, who, from an assessor to the prince, was advanced to be
prefect of the pretorian guards, a person of intolerable arrogance, as
well as indolence; and his freedman Icelus, dignified a little before
with the privilege of wearing the gold ring, and the use of the cognomen
Martianus, who became a candidate for the highest honour within the reach
of any person of the equestrian order [666]. He resigned himself so
implicitly into the power of those three favourites, who governed in
every thing according to the capricious impulse of their vices and
tempers, and his authority was so much abused by them, that the tenor of
his conduct was not very consistent with itself. At one time, he was
more rigorous and frugal, at another, more lavish and negligent, than
became a prince who had been chosen by the people, and was so far
advanced in years. He condemned some men of the first rank in the
senatorian and equestrian orders, upon a very slight suspicion, and
without trial. He rarely granted the freedom of the city to any one; and
the privilege belonging to such as had three children, only to one or
two; and that with great difficulty, and only for a limited time. When
the judges petitioned to have a sixth decury added to their number, he
not only denied them, but abolished the vacation which had been granted
them by Claudius for the winter, and the beginning of the year.
XV. It was thought that he likewise intended to reduce the offices held
by senators and men of the equestrian order, to a term of two years’
continuance; and to bestow them only on those who were unwilling to
accept them, and had refused them. All the grants of Nero he recalled,
saving only the tenth part of them. For this purpose he gave a
commission to fifty Roman knights; with orders, that if players or
wrestlers had sold what had been formerly given them, it should be
exacted from the purchasers, since the others, having, no doubt, spent
the money, were not in a condition to pay. But on the other hand, he