The Random Digressions of Drusus Germanicus

The Witch's Inventory

---

It sidelines, by passing over in silence, other, more salient distinctions — as the one between the emperor and everyone else. Conversely, the notion that the worth of a person lies in the judgement of some individual or social group goes against the Stoic principle of the self-sufficiency of excellence, which does not require external validation of any kind.

Thrasea here adjusts his philosophical affiliations to the realities of Roman politics. Olim quidem non modo praetor aut consul sed privati etiam mittebantur qui provincias viserent et quid de cuiusque obsequio videretur referrent; trepidabantque gentes de aestimatione singulorum: Word order underscores the strength of feeling: The order is chiastic: Thrasea correlates and contrasts the past and the present by means of lexical and thematic inversions.

In the course of the sentence, Thrasea sketches out a complete reversal of republican realities in imperial times: At the centre of the design Thrasea places the antithesis de cuiusque obsequio — ad nutum alicuius. By means of two strategic omissions Thrasea manages to suggest that complete nonentities are now in charge at Rome: In effect, Thrasea argues that the Romans have allowed their provincial subjects to become their overlords — a complete inversion of what things used and ought to be. Thrasea claims here that in the olden days not just high-ranking officials but even privati citizens without office or imperium were dispatched to run affairs abroad.

The term referred to the senatorial privilege of travelling at public expense like a legate to look after their personal interests without the requirement of taking on civic duties. Provincials were expected to entertain and support such travellers like a Roman official on public business and bitterly complained about this additional burden.

Cicero, for one, tried unsuccessfully to outlaw this practice. Note also that Thrasea misrepresents the practice: Are we to imagine Thrasea deliberately deviating from the truth to further his case? Or would he and his audience perhaps even Tacitus? The verbs of the relative clause — viserent and referrent — are in the subjunctive, indicating purpose: What did they report on? Thrasea supplies the answer in the indirect question hence the subjunctive quid Thrasea could have added eis but leaves it out, generating a wrong impression of objectivity.

The word makes clear that Thrasea imagines the inspection and reporting to have been far-reaching, extending to every single provincial — a hyperbole bordering on the absurd. The overall design is chiastic — subject praetor , consul , privati verb mittebantur:: A highly condensed mode of expression. Written out in full, the sentence would run: His speech now makes a surprising turn.

Up till now his focus has been on whipping up outrage at provincial conceit and the unwholesome inversion of imperial hierarchies. Now Thrasea suggests that he minds neither the provincials bringing charges nor boasting about their power — the real problem lies elsewhere: The principle has wider applications: As Rudich puts it, perhaps over-assertively: Thrasea is again elliptical: The mood is subjunctive. The syntax here is rather unusual: This is, however, not the only place in the Annals where this construction occurs: Tacitus also uses it at He argues that the provincials should still be able to bring cases against corrupt governors; what must be stopped as he goes on to argue are the false or corrupt votes of thanks.

The verb ostento another frequentative carries the idea of parading or showing off and suggests that Thrasea considers the powers he would like the provincials to retain rather inconsequential. There is a mocking tone to his concession: For Tacitus on real power vs pomp and show, see Thrasea falls back into asyndetic mode — here reinforced by the anaphora of quam: The elegant simplicity of quam malitia , quam crudelitas which come with the force of punches to the face contrasts with the slightly contorted expression laus falsa et precibus expressa , in the course of which laus , a positive notion, comes gradually undone.

The assimilation of laus to malitia and crudelitas conjures a world of rampant immorality in which key ethical and semantic distinctions have broken down. Paradoxically, he claims that trying to win favour frequently amounts to a greater crime than causing offence. The sequence peccantur — demeremur — offendimus is climactic: The alliteration of p and d and the neat antithesis in dum demeremur quam dum offendimus , stressed by the anaphora of dum , also help to make this remark shine.

The word immo here unusually placed second puts a novel, corrective spin on the preceding sentence. It explains why causing offence — an apparent negative — ought not to be considered a cause for concern. Even certain positive qualities virtutes trigger hatred. The phrase stands in apposition to virtutes , indicating two examples of just such excellent if unpopular qualities.

Thrasea invokes a mindset so firm of purpose that no attempt to curry favour has any effect. Overall, the expression evokes the moral discourse of republican Rome and, more specifically, Sallustian idiom: The line of reasoning here seems to be as follows: For someone as reluctant to waste time on connectives as Thrasea, his use of et , which oddly correlates a verb omitted sunt with the one main verb in the sentence inclinat , stands out.

Note also the long, sevenword build up with those resounding polysyllables, and then the simple, self-enacting, anticlimactic finis inclinat. A suffragium is a vote cast in an assembly for a candidate, resolution, or such like , and the phrase suffragia conquirere refers to the canvassing of votes — a common occurrence before elections. In the context of provincial administration, however, Thrasea presents the practice as demeaning and distinctly undesirable: By using the first person plural conquirimus Thrasea suggests that it is not just the reputation of the individual miscreant that is at issue here but that of the entire senate with one implication being: Thrasea here switches from moral indictment to asserting the tangible benefits of his proposed measure: Note the use of moods: If the appropriate measures are taken, so Thrasea seems to suggest, then the desired outcome is not in doubt: In other words, it should be a no-brainer.

The phrase is strongly reminiscent of a passage in Sallust. See Bellum Catilinae 2. Quodsi regum atque imperatorum animi virtus in pace ita ut in bello valeret, aequabilius atque constantius sese res humanae haberent, neque aliud alio ferri neque mutari ac misceri omnia cerneres.

Nam imperium facile eis artibus retinetur quibus initio partum est. The construction — a conditional sequence — is the same though note that Sallust uses a present counterfactual. And both authors trace a similar trajectory from positive beginnings to eventual decline. The quaestio de repetundis the Roman extortion court was the first permanent criminal court or tribunal in Rome, established in BC by the lex Calpurnia mentioned above to try cases of extortion by provincial governors.

In fine style, Thrasea finishes with a succinct summary of his proposal: Magno adsensu celebrata sententia. The ellipsis of est gives the impression of a pithy parallelism, with two phrases in which an attribute magno , celebrata is followed by a noun adsensu , sententia.

The use of the passive both here and in the following sentence keeps Thrasea in the limelight. The other senators remain an anonymous collective. The subject of the sentence is consultum , modified by senatus in the genitive. Here it did not come to pass since the consuls, who presided over the proceedings, intervened. The ablative absolute abnuentibus consulibus has causal force, with abnuentibus introducing an indirect statement, with the infinitive again in the passive: Afinius object to an actual resolution on formal grounds: This part of his argument was extra causam , and while it received the enthusiastic support of the majority of senators, the consuls were wary to add new items, especially those of far-reaching consequences, to the official agenda ad hoc since they had not yet been able to check whether they had the support of the emperor.

And this particular proposal came from Thrasea, who had already upset the emperor on previous occasions with his independence. More specifically, the passage here harks back to the incident with which Tacitus begins his account of the year Just as the two speeches by Thrasea mirror each other, so does the reaction of the presiding consuls. Their negative intervention here recalls their reaction at The scenario affords us telling insights into the workings of the imperial system, and the interrelation of power and character. Thrasea speaks his mind, without regard for the consequences.

The moral majority retains its protective anonymity but can be fired up. Thrasea does not care what the princeps thinks or how he may react; for almost everyone else the mind and disposition of the emperor is the yardstick for their own thoughts and actions. The temporal adverb mox presumably refers to a point in time in the same year AD What do you think is going on?

And does your Tacitus want us to fathom, to wonder, or to flounder? See Cassius Dio It is not entirely clear whether his measure was effective, ineffectual to begin with, or fell into abeyance after a while. After votes of thanks were made in the council, a delegation was sent to Rome to report it to the senate. The law aimed to end both aspects of this practice i.

4. Commentary

The sentence has an air of formality and may well be modelled on the language of the decree itself. This institution, which had Hellenistic and republican precedents, came into its own under Augustus, as an important site of communication between the centre of imperial power in Rome and the provinces: The concilium met, usually, once a year, and after the rites discussed any business that concerned the province. Any formal expressions of thanks would be voted here, and conveyed by a delegation to the Senate.

The normal formulation would have been the inverse, i. Tacitus varies or evades it. This is a regular feature of his narrative and serves a variety of purposes. The Romans themselves traced the beginnings of the practice of writing year-by-year chronicles to the custom of the pontifex maximus recording on a board tabula kept on display outside his place of residence a the names of the high magistrates and b key events of public significance, not least those of a religious nature such as prodigies, on a yearly basis.

The recording started from scratch each year, but the priesthood of the pontiffs also archived the information thus collected. Prodigies are divine signs, and their recording situates the narrative within a supernatural context. What follows are some pointers for how Tacitus integrates the sphere of the divine into his narrative universe. Griffin, for instance, identifies four supernatural forces to which Tacitus appeals in his narrative to render events intelligible: Here is a look at some representative passages that are particularly pertinent for an appreciation of To begin with, it is important to stress that Tacitus recognizes the gods as a force in history that strikes emperors and senators alike.

See, for instance, Annals Isdem diebus nimia luxus cupido infamiam et periculum Neroni tulit, quia fontem aquae Marciae ad urbem deductae nando incesserat; videbaturque potus sacros et caerimoniam loci corpore loto polluisse. The grave illness that followed confirmed the wrath of the gods. They cause havoc, and not only for the princeps. In the wake of the conspiracy of Piso, the wrath of the gods somehow encompasses all of Roman society. Tot facinoribus foedum annum etiam di tempestatibus et morbis insignivere.

Equitum senatorumque interitus, quamvis promisci, minus flebiles erant, tamquam communi mortalitate saevitiam principis praevenirent. Campania was laid waste by a whirlwind, which wrecked the farms, the fruit trees, and the crops far and wide and carried its violence to the vicinity of the capital, where the force of a deadly disease decimated the human population at all levels of society, even though there was no visible sign of unwholesome weather conditions.

But the houses were filled with lifeless bodies, the streets with funerals. Neither sex nor age gave immunity from danger; slaves and the free-born population alike died like flies, amid the laments of their wives and children, who, while tending to the ill and mourning the deceased , became infected, died, and often were burnt on the same pyre.

The deaths of knights and senators, while likewise indiscriminate, gave less rise to lamentation, since it appeared as if they were cheating the savagery of the emperor by undergoing the common lot. In some cases, divine retribution for an act of transgression is virtually instantaneous: In other cases, the gap in time between portent and the advent of doom is disconcertingly long: Too big a gap generates disbelief in the efficacy of prodigies — and the gods.

Tacitus himself draws attention to this problem at Annals Miro tamen certamine procerum decernuntur supplicationes apud omnia pulvinaria, utque quinquatrus, quibus apertae insidiae essent, ludis annuis celebrarentur, aureum Minervae simulacrum in curia et iuxta principis imago statuerentur, dies natalis Agrippinae inter nefastos esset. Thrasea Paetus silentio vel brevi adsensu priores adulationes transmittere solitus exiit tum senatu, ac sibi causam periculi fecit, ceteris libertatis initium non praebuit. This time, Thrasea Paetus, who was wont to let earlier instances of flattery pass either in silence or with a curt assent, walked out of the senate, creating a source of danger for himself, without opening up a gateway to freedom for the others.

Portents, too, appeared, frequent and futile: These events happened so utterly without any concern of the gods that Nero continued his reign and his crimes for many years to come. Yet Tacitus goes on to dismiss the prodigia as ineffectual because the warning they supposedly constituted resulted neither in a change of behaviour and ritual amendment to avert the apparently imminent danger nor in supernatural punishment of the real criminal, the emperor. The fact that Nero kept on living a life of crime for years to come suggests to Tacitus that the apparent portents lacked divine purpose.

Moreover, as the passage from Annals 16 that we just cited illustrates, before Nero gets his comeuppance he visits Roman society like a wrathful divinity himself. Ultimately, divine efficacy in Roman history has become inscrutable and unpredictable. The world that Tacitus records eludes easy understanding. Some aspects of it are both re-prehensible and incomprehensible. Communication at all levels is seriously distorted.

The name of the consuls is one — but no longer the power-indicator — dating system available in imperial Rome. Tacitus mentions its dedication at the very end of his account of AD 61 Nero] dedicated his new public baths in Rome, a complex that included a gymnasium. Perhaps something else entirely is going on: Has the desire for a suggestive artistic design here overruled the principle of chronological accuracy?

As the name suggests, it was a quintessentially Greek institution — a place for athletic exercise in particular wrestling , communal bathing, and other leisure pursuits such as philosophy. Our sources suggest that Nero himself fancied a career as a wrestler — linked to his sponsorship of gymnasia: He certainly built gymnasia at Rome, Baiae, and Naples; wrestlers competed at his Neronia; he enjoyed watching them in Naples; and he actually employed court wrestlers, luctatores auli.

Contemporary rumor had it that he intended himself to compete in the next Olympic Games among the athletes, for he wrestled constantly and watched gymnastic contests throughout Greece In part, the structure of his narrative provides an eloquent interpretation: Tacitus thus chiastically interrelates the end of 61, the end of 62, and the beginning of Statues of emperors and other members of the imperial family or household were ubiquitous in imperial Rome.

They ensured the visual presence of the princeps in a wide variety of settings, raised the represented figure above the status of ordinary mortals, and more generally constituted an important medium for projecting an image of the reigning princeps to different social groups within the empire: Just as the corporeal being of the emperor, as supreme ruler of the Mediterranean, was endowed with his divine essence or genius, and came to be elevated conceptually above the bodies of his subjects, so too imperial images were conceived differently from those of private individuals.

Unlike most of their subjects, the emperor or empress could exist as effigies in multiple bodies that took the form of portrait statues populating every kind of Roman environment such as fora , basilicae , temples, baths, military camps and houses. New principes , especially if they belonged to a different dynasty, tended systematically to do away with the artistic representations of their predecessors. Divine displeasure at the Hellenizing shenanigans of the emperor could not have been articulated more clearly.

The lightning bolt is the hallmark of Jupiter: This earthquake, which Seneca, in his Natural Histories 6. Hence there is a proleptic point in magna ex parte: Tacitus and his readers would of course have read this passage with the later catastrophe in mind, turning the earthquake mentioned here into an ominous prefiguration of greater evil to come, though not specifically related to the reign of Nero but easily relatable to the imminent fall of the first dynasty of Caesars.

Seismic activity has natural causes but frequently features the same temporal logic as prodigies, insofar as a minor tremor or eruption — at times many years in advance — is then followed by a cataclysmic outbreak. Likewise, prodigies constituted a preliminary indication of divine displeasure that issued a warning of an imminent disaster but also afforded a precious window of opportunity to make amends, appease the gods, and thus avert it.

The Romans understood extreme natural events as divinely motivated signs, but were unaware of — or refused to believe in — the ineluctability of natural disasters such as earthquakes or volcanic eruptions; they preferred to invest in the conviction that proper communication with the gods constituted some safeguard against crises and chaos.

But is that so different from contemporary religious creeds? The scale of the destruction was already immense and hints at the violence of the quake. The Vestal Virgins six at any one time, who, upon entering the college, took a vow of chastity and stayed in position for thirty years or until they died were priestesses of Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth. Devoted in the main to the cultivation of the sacred fire, which was not supposed to go out since it symbolized the eternity of the Roman state, they were associated with the well-being of the Roman commonwealth and its continuity in time.

Any change in personnel owing to a premature death or other event affecting the smooth functioning of the college therefore amounted to an affair of state. Laelia was perhaps the daughter of D. Candidates for the priesthood, girls between 6 and 12 years of age, were offered by their families for the honour. She was found guilty and, despite pleading her innocence, executed by being buried alive. See Suetonius, Domitian 8. Reflect, before reading on, that the sacred institution of the Vestal priesthood with its impeccable republican pedigree and personnel provided for the replenishment of its stock of girls in case of loss: The set text only includes the initial paragraph 23 and then vaults forward to the start of AD 64 at The stretch left out primarily covers — in spectacularly telling contrast — military developments in the Near East.

In the meantime, we have a royal birth! This is the standard annalistic formula for opening a year, especially in the latter portions of the Annals: Memmius Regulus, the son of P.

I, Claudius - Wikipedia

Memmius Regulus, one of the consuls of 31, who died in Tacitus records the death at Eo anno mortem obiit Memmius Regulus, auctoritate constantia fama, in quantum praeumbrante imperatoris fastigio datur, clarus, adeo ut Nero aeger valetudine, et adulantibus circum, qui finem imperio adesse dicebant, si quid fato pateretur, responderit habere subsidium rem publicam. So true was this that Nero, indisposed and surrounded by sycophants predicting the dissolution of the empire, should he go the way of fate, answered that the nation had a resource. To the further inquiry, where that resource was specially to be found, he added: Verginius Rufus, a name that points far into the future.

Twice he declined to be hailed emperor.

Pliny records the inscription that Rufus chose for his tombstone 6. He died in 97, during his third consulship, at the ripe old age of The text thus evokes both dynastic succession and annalistic sequence as two complementary grids for imposing patterns on historical time:. The very simplicity of associating each year with the name of the consuls in office whether initially elected or suffect generates a sense of order and continuity in time more fundamental than the changing dynasties that rule at Rome. There is, then, an ideology built into the annalistic approach to Roman history: But through strategic arrangement of his material, our author activates the pattern as a meaningful foil for his imperial history: Without this obituary, readers would have had much greater difficulties in associating the son with his father and his consulship in 31 or in thinking ahead to the death of Verginius Rufus during his third consulship and the figure who would take his place and deliver the funeral oration.

And far less melodrama to savour. The advanced position of natam , right after the annalistic formula, reinforces the sense of a new beginning also for the imperial household — which Tacitus crushes a few lines later see below, The undramatic record of who held the consulship stands in stark contrast to the triumphs and tragedies of the imperial household.

Navigation menu

The names of the imperial couple Poppaea and Nero in the first sentence about AD 63 instantly counterbalance those of Memmius Regulus and Verginius Rufus and refocus attention from republican office to the doings of the imperial family. She enters the Annals at There was in the capital a certain Poppaea Sabina, daughter of Titus Ollius, though she had taken the name of her maternal grandfather, Poppaeus Sabinus, of distinguished memory, who, with the honours of his consulate and triumphal insignia, outshone her father: She was a woman possessed of all advantages but good character huic mulieri cuncta alia fuere praeter honestum animum.

For her mother, after eclipsing the beauties of her day, had endowed her alike with her fame and her looks: Her conversation was engaging, her wit not without point sermo comis nec absurdum ingenium ; she paraded modesty, and practised wantonness modestiam praeferre et lascivia uti. In public she rarely appeared, and then with her face half-veiled, so as not quite to satiate the beholder, — or, possibly, because that look suited her. She was never sparing of her reputation, and drew no distinctions between husbands and adulterers famae numquam pepercit, maritos et adulteros non distinguens: Thus whilst living in the wedded state with Rufrius Crispinus, a Roman knight by whom she had had a son, she was seduced by Otho [sc.

To get rid of his rival, Nero broke his ties of friendship with Otho, debarred him from court, and ultimately appointed him as governor of Lusitania present-day Portugal ; there he remained for ten years until the outbreak of civil war in After recording the appointment, Tacitus abruptly discontinues his account of what happened between Nero and Poppaea. Much to the delight of Poppaea.

Post finem ludicri Poppaea mortem obiit, fortuita mariti iracundia, a quo gravida ictu calcis adflicta est. That poison played its part I am unable to believe, though the assertion is made by some writers less from conviction than from hatred; for Nero was desirous of children, and love for his wife was a ruling passion. The body was not cremated in the Roman style, but, in conformity with the practice of foreign courts, was embalmed by stuffing with spices, then laid to rest in the mausoleum of the Julian clan.

Still, a public funeral was held; and the emperor at the Rostra eulogized her beauty, the fact that she had been the mother of an infant daughter now divine, and other favours of fortune which did duty for virtues. Within the Annals , the passage is part of a sequence, stretching back to the very beginning of the work: Here the honorands are a newborn baby — and a concubine-turned-wife.

Tacitus expresses his disapproval obliquely with a break in syntax after Augustam. Domitius Ahenobarbus, his uncle Caligula was just succeeding Tiberius as emperor, before soon losing it with everybody. Many Roman nobles had sea-side villas in the region, but it became a particularly significant location for the imperial family. It was where Augustus received a delegation from the Roman people that acclaimed him pater patriae. He was in Antium when news of the fire of Rome reached him Annals This was an excellent way to show loyalty and devotion to the princeps ; on occasion, however, it backfired.

In his biography of Caligula, Suetonius mentions instances in which the emperor demanded that those who had made vows for his health when he was sick kept them after his return to health Votum exegit ab eo, qui pro salute sua gladiatoriam operam promiserat, spectavitque ferro dimicantem nec dimisit nisi victorem et post multas preces. Another who had offered his life for the same reason, but delayed to kill himself, he turned over to his slaves, with orders to drive him decked with sacred boughs and fillets through the streets, calling for the fulfilment of his vow, and finally hurl him from the embankment.

We and Tacitus tend to see the proposed honours as manifestations of corporate servility. It is therefore useful to recall that there is another cultural logic in play. Thus Ittai Gradel argues that this was a technique for the senators to get some purchase on the behaviour of the princeps: The bestowal of honours to someone socially superior, whether man or god, obliged him to return them with benefactions. Or, we might say, to rule well.

It could indeed be honourable to reject excessive honours, and for example, the elder Scipio had excelled in this gloria recusandi. On the other hand, refusing honours also entailed rejecting the moral obligations that went with them, even to the point of recognizing no bonds whatsoever.

So it would be socially irresponsible to reject all such proposals. The front position of the adverb iam helps to generate the impression of escalation: The priesthood of the Arval Brothers, which consisted of senators, vowed sacrifices in case of a successful delivery. After the birth, the manifestations of joy, so Tacitus implies, knew no bounds: The Arval Brothers too fulfilled their vows, as recorded in their Acta under 21 January Polysyndeton the alternating et In turn, a favorable outcome of such prayers led to public days of thanksgiving, on which the citizen body gave thanks for their deliverance.

Every five years, it was to hold Greek games in memory of the victory, modelled on the Games at Olympia: A Roman colony may have been set up in the vicinity. Its local government, coinage, and public inscriptions were Greek. The topic will resurface forcefully later on in the set text. Here it is important to note that the senators clearly knew how to please their princeps. At issue are races in the circus, which already were established at Bovillae in honour of the gens Julia see Map of Italy.

Now Antium was to receive games as well, in honour of the gens Claudia and the gens Domitia the dative singular genti is to be supplied with both Claudiae and Domitiae. Nero shared ancestors with all three gentes. But the extraordinary honour he now accorded to Antium — in implicit rivalry with Bovillae — suggests a deliberate attempt to step outside the shadow of Augustus. Fully-built stone circuses will be seen to be very rare outside Rome at such an early date. Undoubtedly it was the special connection of the Julian gens with Bovillae that prompted the construction of this circus, for the reputed origin of Julus was at nearby Alba Longa whence the ancient cults had been transferred to Bovillae prior to the Augustan period.

Under Tiberius at the end of AD 16 a shrine to the Julian gens and a statue of the divine Augustus were dedicated at Bovillae. Augustus may have established a college of youths collegia iuvenum at Bovillae, while in AD 14 Tiberius established the sodales Augustales which administered the cult of the gens Iulia. Both organizations may have been involved with the games at Bovillae. Circus games are specifically alluded to in AD Thus the circus was probably used chiefly for games held under the close auspices of the emperor or the cult of the emperor, and it may have been located in close proximity to the shrine sacrarium of the Julian gens.

It is hard to resist the conclusion that the monumental entertainment buildings of Bovillae, like some of its other public buildings, were a special project of Augustus and Tiberius. Nero could clearly not hold his own in terms of military achievement, so he decided to excel in a field of social practice on which no princeps had hitherto left a conspicuous mark: Rursusque exortae adulationes censentium honorem divae et pulvinar aedemque et sacerdotem. All the efforts were as written on water.

Tacitus announces this anticlimax with laconic brevity and a mocking f -alliteration. The language is very matter-of-fact and unelaborated, again contrasting the simple reality of the death with the extravagant honours previously listed. In terms of syntax and placement in the sentence the phrase mirrors dato et Poppaeae eodem cognomento at The verb exorior hints at novelty, and the proposed honours were indeed unprecedented: All four items are accusative objects of censentium the genitive plural present active participle of censeo , dependent on adulationes: Tacitus again employs polysyndeton to stress the profusion of honours showered on the dead baby by the supine senators and as with the ablative absolute to set up a correlation this time on the level of style between the events at her birth and upon her death.

The senators proposed to deify the baby-girl. But we are supposed to recall what other emperors had dreamed up in this respect. Drusilla was married to Marcus Lepidus, at once the favorite and lover of the emperor, but Gaius [sc. Caligula] also treated her as a concubine. When her death occurred at this time, her husband delivered the eulogy and her brother accorded her a public funeral. All the honours that had been bestowed upon Livia were voted to her, and it was further decreed that she should be deified, that a golden effigy of her should be set up in the senate-house, and that in the temple of Venus in the Forum a statue of her should be built for her, 3 that she should have twenty priests, women as well as men; women, whenever they offered testimony, should swear by her name, and on her birthday a festival equal of the Ludi Megalenses should be celebrated, and the senate and the knights should be given a banquet.

She accordingly now received the name Panthea, and was declared worthy of divine honours in all the cities. For this declaration he received a million sesterces. The singular surprises in its conspicuous modesty: Another very short and therefore emphatic sentence, in which Tacitus makes explicit how highly strung Nero was. The advanced position and parallelism of ut laetitiae, ita maeroris both genitives are dependent on immodicus highlight that Nero is prone to excess at either end of the emotional spectrum.

Valerie French provides some numbers: Tacitus here connects the last major event he recounted in his coverage of 62 the speech of Thrasea on provincial government with the first major event in his account of 63, i. More precisely, the phrasing here stands in intratextual dialogue with the very end of the surviving portion of the Annals: The last image where the text breaks off is of Thrasea dying slowly in excruciating pain after opening his veins by order of the princeps Thraseam prohibitum immoto animo praenuntiam imminentis caedis contumeliam excepisse: Embedded within coverage of Thrasea occurs an ablative absolute in which Tacitus dispatches the rest of the senate.

Immediately after the birth. The sentence introduces a surprising turn: Within the relative clause iactaverit introduces an indirect statement with se as subject accusative and reconciliatum esse as verb. There is an interesting shift in grammatical position from the relative clause to the second part of the indirect statement dependent on ferunt: It is another instance in which Tacitus uses evaluative syntax: What we get here is a throw-back to the times when Seneca c.

Tacitus often reports a story in this manner, neither mentioning his sources nor vouching for the story himself. Here, he tells the little tale to illustrate aspects of the intertwined characters of three major figures. The position of gloria at the beginning suggests that the outcome of the event was as it should be, then the delayed and threatening pericula reminds us that the world of Neronian Rome was not so fair and just, and that something more sinister was awaiting them. Ultimately, both had to commit suicide. This powerful metaphor gives the ominous sense of their futures: And with her went — the whole shooting-match.

Poppaea and Nero, Seneca and Thrasea. The dynasty of Augustus, the Annals of Tacitus. Licinio consulibus acriore in dies cupidine adigebatur Nero promiscas scaenas frequentandi. As we have seen, this is the annalistic formula that indicates the beginning of the consular year our AD Marcus Licinius Crassus Frugi, however, was indicted for treason by the delator M. Aquilius Regulus and executed by Nero. The sentence is beautifully balanced: At the same time, further syntactical aspects and relations generate the impression that Nero is carried away by disgraceful desire:.

This episode reinforced their initial suspicions that Claudius was not fit for public office. This is how he was defined by scholars for most of history and Graves uses these peculiarities to develop a sympathetic character whose survival in a murderous dynasty depends on being underestimated. Graves's interpretation of the story owes much to the histories of Gaius Cornelius Tacitus , Plutarch and especially Suetonius Lives of the Twelve Caesars.

Tacitus, Annals, 15.20-23, 33-45

Graves translated Suetonius before writing the novels. Graves claimed that after he read Suetonius , Claudius came to him in a dream one night and demanded that his real story be told. The life of Claudius provided Graves with a way to write about the first four emperors of Rome Augustus , Tiberius , Caligula and Claudius from an intimate point of view. The real Claudius was a trained historian and is known to have written an autobiography now lost in eight books that covered the same period. I, Claudius is a first-person narrative of Roman history from the reigns of Augustus to Caligula; Claudius the God is written as a later addition documenting Claudius' own reign.

Graves provides a theme for the story by having the fictional Claudius describe a visit to Cumae , where he receives a prophecy in verse from the Sibyl and an additional prophecy contained in a book of "Sibylline Curiosities". The latter concerns the fates of the "hairy ones" i. The Caesars — from the Latin word "caesar", meaning "a fine head of hair" who are to rule Rome. The penultimate verse concerns his reign and Claudius assumes that he can tell the identity of the last emperor described.

Graves establishes a fatalistic tone that plays out at the end of Claudius the God , Claudius predicts his assassination and succession by Nero. At Cumae, the Sibyl tells Claudius that he will "speak clear". Claudius believes this means that his secret memoirs will be one day found and that he, having written the truth, will speak clearly, while his contemporaries, who had to distort their histories to appease the ruling family, will seem like stammerers. Since he wishes to record his life for posterity, Claudius chooses to write in Greek , which will remain "the chief literary language of the world".

This enables Graves to offer explanations of Latin wordplay or etymologies that would be unnecessary for native Latin speakers. Claudius establishes himself as the author of this history of his family and insists on writing the truth, which includes harsh criticism of the deified Augustus and especially Livia. During his prosperous reign, Augustus is plagued by personal losses as his favored heirs, Marcellus , Marcus Agrippa , Gaius Caesar and Lucius Caesar , die.

Claudius reveals that these untimely deaths are all the machinations of Augustus' cold wife Livia, who seeks to make her son Tiberius succeed Augustus. As these intrigues occur, the sickly Tiberius Claudius is born, to be shunned and mocked by his family. Only his brother Germanicus and his cousin Postumus treat him with any kindness. He eventually is given a great tutor Athenodorus , who fosters a love of history and republican government in Claudius.

During this early age Claudius is advised by his idol Asinius Pollio to play the fool to survive. Postumus is framed for raping Livilla and beating his niece Aemilia; Augustus has him banished to an island but Postumus relays the truth to Claudius.

The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 4

Claudius passes this on to Germanicus, who convinces Augustus of Postumus' innocence. Augustus removes Postumus for a double named Clemens and secretly writes a will restoring Postumus as his heir but Livia manages to discover this and poisons Augustus. Tiberius is declared Emperor but the legions of Germany refuse to accept Tiberius and instead declare Germanicus as his Emperor.

Germanicus, shocked and confused, refuses, instead he sends his wife and youngest son Caligula away and asks Claudius for an enormous sum of money to pay the soldiers. Claudius agrees and pretends that they are gambling debts. With the money and the return of Caligula, Germanicus ends the mutiny and has several successful campaigns in Germany. In the midst of this, Claudius is informed that Postumus is alive and secretly forming a resistance group to take back his rightful place in Rome.

Claudius' letters to Germanicus about Postumus are intercepted by Livia; Postumus is later captured and executed by Tiberius. Livia, recognizing that Claudius is a threat, sends him to Carthage to avoid contact with Germanicus. Growing to fear Germanicus more and more, Tiberius sends a hostile governor, Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso , to spy on Germanicus. Germanicus soon becomes plagued by witchcraft before dying of poison. It is later revealed that Germanicus' son Caligula was the instigator of the witchcraft.

As Tiberius becomes more hated, he increasingly relies on his Praetorian Captain Sejanus who is able to make Tiberius fear Germanicus' wife Agrippina and his own son Castor. Sejanus secretly plots with Livilla to usurp the monarchy by poisoning Castor and beginning to remove any ally of Agrippina and her sons. Agrippina only survives due to the protection of Livia, who holds vital information of Augustus' true opinion of Tiberius.

Livia then has a surprising dinner, to which Claudius and Caligula are invited. She predicts that Caligula will become Emperor not Caligula's older brothers and that Claudius will succeed him. Livia begs Claudius to swear to make her a goddess she believes it will grant her a blissful afterlife , which he agrees to. Claudius later is invited to Livia on her deathbed and reveals that Caligula betrayed his promise. He paid special attention to transportation. Throughout Italy and the provinces he built roads and canals.

Closer to Rome, he built a navigable canal on the Tiber , leading to Portus , his new port just north of Ostia. This port was constructed in a semicircle with two moles and a lighthouse at its mouth. The construction also had the effect of reducing flooding in Rome. The port at Ostia was part of Claudius' solution to the constant grain shortages that occurred in winter, after the Roman shipping season.

The other part of his solution was to insure the ships of grain merchants who were willing to risk travelling to Egypt in the off-season. He also granted their sailors special privileges, including citizenship and exemption from the Lex Papia-Poppaea , a law that regulated marriage. In addition, he repealed the taxes that Caligula had instituted on food, and further reduced taxes on communities suffering drought or famine.

The last part of Claudius' plan was to increase the amount of arable land in Italy. This was to be achieved by draining the Fucine lake , which would have the added benefit of making the nearby river navigable year-round. The tunnel was crooked and not large enough to carry the water, which caused it to back up when opened.

The resultant flood washed out a large gladiatorial exhibition held to commemorate the opening, causing Claudius to run for his life along with the other spectators. The draining of the lake continued to present a problem well into the Middle Ages. Because of the circumstances of his accession, Claudius took great pains to please the Senate. During regular sessions, the Emperor sat among the Senate body, speaking in turn. When introducing a law, he sat on a bench between the consuls in his position as holder of the power of Tribune the Emperor could not officially serve as a Tribune of the Plebes as he was a Patrician , but it was a power taken by previous rulers.

He refused to accept all his predecessors' titles including Imperator at the beginning of his reign, preferring to earn them in due course. He allowed the Senate to issue its own bronze coinage for the first time since Augustus. He also put the Imperial provinces of Macedonia and Achaea back under Senate control. Claudius set about remodeling the Senate into a more efficient, representative body.

He chided the senators about their reluctance to debate bills introduced by himself, as noted in the fragments of a surviving speech:. If you accept these proposals, Conscript Fathers, say so at once and simply, in accordance with your convictions. If you do not accept them, find alternatives, but do so here and now; or if you wish to take time for consideration, take it, provided you do not forget that you must be ready to pronounce your opinion whenever you may be summoned to meet.

It ill befits the dignity of the Senate that the consul designate should repeat the phrases of the consuls word for word as his opinion, and that every one else should merely say 'I approve', and that then, after leaving, the assembly should announce 'We debated'.

In 47 he assumed the office of censor with Lucius Vitellius , which had been allowed to lapse for some time. He struck the names of many senators and equites who no longer met qualifications, but showed respect by allowing them to resign in advance. At the same time, he sought to admit eligible men from the provinces. The Lyon Tablet preserves his speech on the admittance of Gallic senators, in which he addresses the Senate with reverence but also with criticism for their disdain of these men. He even jokes about how the Senate had admitted members from beyond Gallia Narbonensis Lyons, France , i.

He also increased the number of Patricians by adding new families to the dwindling number of noble lines. Nevertheless, many in the Senate remained hostile to Claudius, and many plots were made on his life. This hostility carried over into the historical accounts.

As a result, Claudius reduced the Senate's power for the sake of efficiency. The administration of Ostia was turned over to an Imperial Procurator after construction of the port. Administration of many of the empire's financial concerns was turned over to Imperial appointees and freedmen. This led to further resentment and suggestions that these same freedmen were ruling the Emperor. Several coup attempts were made during Claudius' reign, resulting in the deaths of many senators.

Appius Silanus was executed early in Claudius' reign under questionable circumstances. It ultimately failed because of the reluctance of Scribonianus' troops, which led to the suicide of the main conspirators. Many other senators tried different conspiracies and were condemned. Claudius' son-in-law Pompeius Magnus was executed for his part in a conspiracy with his father Crassus Frugi.

Valerius Asiaticus was executed without public trial for unknown reasons. The ancient sources say the charge was adultery , and that Claudius was tricked into issuing the punishment. However, Claudius singles out Asiaticus for special damnation in his speech on the Gauls, which dates over a year later, suggesting that the charge must have been much more serious.

Asiaticus had been a claimant to the throne in the chaos following Caligula's death and a co-consul with the Titus Statilius Taurus Corvinus mentioned above. Most of these conspiracies took place before Claudius' term as Censor , and may have induced him to review the Senatorial rolls. The conspiracy of Gaius Silius in the year after his Censorship, 48, is detailed in the section discussing Claudius' third wife, Messalina. Suetonius states that a total of 35 senators and knights were executed for offenses during Claudius' reign.

Claudius was hardly the first emperor to use freedmen to help with the day-to-day running of the Empire. He was, however, forced to increase their role as the powers of the princeps became more centralized and the burden larger. This was partly due to the ongoing hostility of the Senate, as mentioned above, but also due to his respect for the senators. Claudius did not want free-born magistrates to have to serve under him, as if they were not peers. The secretariat was divided into bureaus, with each being placed under the leadership of one freedman.

Narcissus was the secretary of correspondence. Pallas became the secretary of the treasury. Callistus became secretary of justice. There was a fourth bureau for miscellaneous issues, which was put under Polybius until his execution for treason. The freedmen could also officially speak for the Emperor, as when Narcissus addressed the troops in Claudius' stead before the conquest of Britain. Since these were important positions, the senators were aghast at their being placed in the hands of former slaves.

If freedmen had total control of money, letters, and law, it seemed it would not be hard for them to manipulate the Emperor. This is exactly the accusation put forth by the ancient sources. However, these same sources admit that the freedmen were loyal to Claudius. He was similarly appreciative of them and gave them due credit for policies where he had used their advice.

However, if they showed treasonous inclinations, the Emperor did punish them with just force, as in the case of Polybius and Pallas' brother, Felix. There is no evidence that the character of Claudius' policies and edicts changed with the rise and fall of the various freedmen, suggesting that he was firmly in control throughout. Regardless of the extent of their political power, the freedmen did manage to amass wealth through their positions.

Pliny the Elder notes that several of them were richer than Crassus , the richest man of the Republican era. Claudius, as the author of a treatise on Augustus' religious reforms, felt himself in a good position to institute some of his own. He had strong opinions about the proper form for state religion.

He refused the request of Alexandrian Greeks to dedicate a temple to his divinity, saying that only gods may choose new gods. He restored lost days to festivals and got rid of many extraneous celebrations added by Caligula. He re-instituted old observances and archaic language. Claudius was concerned with the spread of eastern mysteries within the city and searched for more Roman replacements.

He emphasized the Eleusinian mysteries which had been practiced by so many during the Republic. He expelled foreign astrologers, and at the same time rehabilitated the old Roman soothsayers known as haruspices as a replacement. He was especially hard on Druidism , because of its incompatibility with the Roman state religion and its proselytizing activities. Claudius forbade proselytizing in any religion, even in those regions where he allowed natives to worship freely.

It is also reported that at one time he expelled the Jews from Rome, probably because the Jews within the city caused continuous disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus. According to Suetonius, Claudius was extraordinarily fond of games. He is said to have risen with the crowd after gladiatorial matches and given unrestrained praise to the fighters. Soon after coming into power, Claudius instituted games to be held in honor of his father on the latter's birthday. Claudius organised a performance of the Secular Games , marking the th anniversary of the founding of Rome.

Augustus had performed the same games less than a century prior. Augustus' excuse was that the interval for the games was years, not , but his date actually did not qualify under either reasoning. At Ostia, in front of a crowd of spectators, Claudius fought a killer whale which was trapped in the harbour. The event was witnessed by Pliny the Elder:. A killer whale was actually seen in the harbour of Ostia, locked in combat with the emperor Claudius. She had come when he was completing the construction of the harbour, drawn there by the wreck of a ship bringing leather hides from Gaul, and feeding there over a number of days, had made a furrow in the shallows: The Emperor ordered that a large array of nets be stretched across the mouths of the harbour, and setting out in person with the Praetorian cohorts gave a show to the Roman people, soldiers showering lances from attacking ships, one of which I saw swamped by the beast's waterspout and sunk.

Claudius also restored and adorned many public venues in Rome. At the Circus Maximus , the turning posts and starting stalls were replaced in marble and embellished, and an embankment was probably added to prevent flooding of the track. Suetonius and the other ancient authors accused Claudius of being dominated by women and wives, and of being a womanizer. Claudius married four times, after two failed betrothals.

The first betrothal was to his distant cousin Aemilia Lepida , but was broken for political reasons. The second was to Livia Medullina , which ended with Medullina's sudden death on their wedding day. Plautia Urgulanilla was the granddaughter of Livia's confidant Urgulania. During their marriage she gave birth to a son, Claudius Drusus. Drusus died of asphyxiation in his early teens, shortly after becoming engaged to Junilla, the daughter of Sejanus. Claudius later divorced Urgulanilla for adultery and on suspicion of murdering her sister-in-law Apronia. When Urgulanilla gave birth after the divorce, Claudius repudiated the baby girl, Claudia, as the father was allegedly one of his own freedmen.

This action made him later the target of criticism by his enemies. Soon after possibly in 28 , Claudius married Aelia Paetina , a relative of Sejanus, if not Sejanus's adoptive sister. During their marriage, Claudius and Paetina had a daughter, Claudia Antonia. He later divorced her after the marriage became a political liability, although Leon suggests it may have been due to emotional and mental abuse by Paetina. Some years after divorcing Aelia Paetina, in 38 or early 39, Claudius married Valeria Messalina , who was his first cousin once removed and closely allied with Caligula's circle.

Shortly thereafter, she gave birth to a daughter, Claudia Octavia. A son, first named Tiberius Claudius Germanicus, and later known as Britannicus , was born just after Claudius' accession.

This marriage ended in tragedy. The ancient historians allege that Messalina was a nymphomaniac who was regularly unfaithful to Claudius— Tacitus states she went so far as to compete with a prostitute to see who could have the most sexual partners in a night [43] —and manipulated his policies in order to amass wealth. Sources disagree as to whether or not she divorced the Emperor first, and whether the intention was to usurp the throne. Under Roman law, the spouse needed to be informed that he or she had been divorced before a new marriage could take place; the sources state that Claudius was in total ignorance until after the marriage.

Claudius did marry once more. The ancient sources tell that his freedmen put forward three candidates, Caligula 's third wife Lollia Paulina , Claudius's divorced second wife Aelia Paetina and Claudius's niece Agrippina the Younger. According to Suetonius, Agrippina won out through her feminine wiles. The truth is probably more political. This weakness was compounded by the fact that he did not yet have an obvious adult heir, Britannicus being just a boy. Agrippina was one of the few remaining descendants of Augustus, and her son Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus the future Emperor Nero was one of the last males of the Imperial family.

Coup attempts could rally around the pair and Agrippina was already showing such ambition. It has been suggested that the Senate may have pushed for the marriage, to end the feud between the Julian and Claudian branches. In any case, Claudius accepted Agrippina and later adopted the newly mature Nero as his son. Nero was married to Claudius' daughter Octavia, made joint heir with the underage Britannicus , and promoted; Augustus had similarly named his grandson Postumus Agrippa and his stepson Tiberius as joint heirs, [50] and Tiberius had named Caligula joint heir with his grandson Tiberius Gemellus.

Adoption of adults or near adults was an old tradition in Rome, when a suitable natural adult heir was unavailable as was the case during Britannicus' minority. Claudius may have previously looked to adopt one of his sons-in-law to protect his own reign. Besides which, he was the half-brother of Valeria Messalina and at this time those wounds were still fresh.

Nero was more popular with the general public as the grandson of Germanicus and the direct descendant of Augustus. The historian Suetonius describes the physical manifestations of Claudius' affliction in relatively good detail. He stammered and his speech was confused. He slobbered and his nose ran when he was excited. The Stoic Seneca states in his Apocolocyntosis that Claudius' voice belonged to no land animal, and that his hands were weak as well.

However, he showed no physical deformity, as Suetonius notes that when calm and seated he was a tall, well-built figure of dignitas.

• The Music of Being Free
• Games for Kids:Easy Indoor or Outdoor Games for Your Children to Have Fun Require Nothing or Little Equipment for Every Child Aged 2 and Up
• One More Day
• Claustrophobia
• Dangerous Territories: Struggles for Difference and Equality in Education