The History of Rome: Rise and Fall of the Empire. John Bagnell Bury
of this crime, which could not be brought home to them. But as “hatred of the human race” was in popular credence imputed to Christians, they were thought capable of it. A considerable number were condemned—really because they were proved to be Christians, but nominally on the ground that they were incendiaries. They were put to death with mockery. Some, wrapped in skins, were torn to pieces by dogs; others, arrayed in the tunica molesta, were set on fire to serve as torches by night. Nero gave up the Vatican gardens to the spectacle of these tortures, and at the same time exhibited a show in the circus there, appearing himself dressed as a charioteer. The sacrifice of these victims soothed the exasperation of the populace, and the Emperor’s callousness even brought about a revulsion of feeling.
The Christians of Rome were sacrificed because Nero required scapegoats; but the question arises, why were the Christians, who as yet had attracted little public attention, selected for the purpose? Contemporary literature shows that at this time the Jews were objects of general hatred and suspicion, and it might seem more natural that they should have been suspected and punished by the government. It is impossible to answer the question with certainty, but, it has been plausibly suggested that the Jews themselves may have shifted the charge from their own body upon the Christians, whom they hated bitterly. They might have been the more easily able to effect this through the influence of Poppaea Sabina of whose leaning towards the Jews and their religion there is undoubted evidence.
SECT. IV. — THE CONSPIRACY OF PISO
Tigellinus was unwearied in scenting out pretenders to the Principate. By this policy, he helped to fill the imperial coffers and to render himself indispensable. In 64 A.D., D. Junius Torquatus Silanus was accused of treason and driven to suicide. But a profound and widely-spread discontent prevailed among the nobles, and a conspiracy was formed, which came to a head in the spring of 65 A.D.. C. Calpurnius Piso, whom the conspirators chose to fill the place of Nero, was one of the most prominent and popular men in Rome at this time. He lived in magnificent style, was lavish of his wealth, and was ready to place his powers of oratory at the service of the poor. He had winning manners, and his life was as dissolute as that of Nero or Tigellinus. He lazily consented to be the centre of a plot, the dangers of which he was not sufficiently ambitious to share. What seemed to give this enterprise a considerable chance of success, was the adherence of Faenius Rufus, the praetorian prefect, who was jealous and afraid of his powerful colleague Tigellinus. Along with Rufus a number of the tribunes and officers, who had been passed over by Tigellinus, joined the conspiracy; conspicuous among these was the tribune Subrius Flavius. Among the rest were the consul designate Plautius Lateranus : Antonius Natalis, a friend of Piso Annaeus Lucanus, the poet, whose verses had incurred the disfavor of the Emperor; Claudius Senecio, a courtier constantly in attendance on Nero, and so able to keep his associates aware of what was going on in the palace. Lucan’s mother and a freed woman named Epicharis were also initiated into the project. Epicharis tried to win over an officer of the fleet, Volusius Proculus, who was supposed to have a grudge against Nero, but he deceived her expectation by revealing the affair to the Emperor. As, however, she had mentioned no names, the conspirators were not discovered.
They then decided to kill Nero during the feast of Ceres, between the 12th and 19th of April, at the games in the circus. The plan was the same as that which had been successfully adopted by the assassins of Julius Caesar. Lateranus was to present a petition to Nero, and clinging to his legs throw him on the ground; the rest were to bury their weapons in his body. But Flavius Scaevinus, who claimed the first blow, foolishly betrayed the secret, which had hitherto been closely preserved. He made his will, gave the dagger, which he had chosen for the deed, to his freedman Milichus to sharpen, got ready the appliances for binding up wounds, and gave his slaves and freedmen a luxurious feast. These unusual proceedings excited the suspicions of Milichus, who at daybreak sought and obtained an audience with Nero. Scaevinus was arrested, but his examination led to nothing, and the plot would not have been discovered if Milichus had not remembered the frequent visits which his master received from Natalis. When Natalis was examined separately, his evidence did not agree with that of Scaevinus, and in this way the accusation of the freedman was proved to be well-founded. Threats of torture and promises of mercy induced the two conspirators to vie with each other in revealing the names of their associates. Their conduct contrasted with the constancy of Epicharis, who submitted to tortures, and in the end strangled herself rather than betray her trust. The names of the military conspirators had not been disclosed, and Faenius Rufus took his seat beside Tigellinus at the trial and sought to divert suspicion from himself by his zeal as a judge. But when one of the accused denounced him, he turned pale, and could not defend himself. The proceedings against the victims were summary, but they were allowed to choose their own mode of death. Piso, who had shown irresolution and cowardice through the whole episode, and Lateranus were slain without resistance, and Piso made a cringing will in favor of the Emperor.
Among the first whose names were betrayed, and who were condemned to die, was the philosopher Seneca. It is not improbable that he was really implicated in the enterprise, and in any case it seems to have been the wish of the military associates in the plot to elevate him, instead of Piso, to the supreme power. If Nero had any wish to spare his former tutor, he was hindered by Poppaea and Tigellinus. Seneca had just returned from Campania with his wife Paulina, and was staying at a country house four miles from the city. When the message of death was brought, his wife declared her resolution of dying along with him, and they severed the veins of their arms. The flow of blood in Seneca’s old frame was languid, and his agony was protracted. As he lay slowly bleeding, he dictated a composition which was afterwards published. To hasten his end, he swallowed poison, which, however, had no effect on his drained body, and death was finally brought about by the steam of a hot bath. But Paulina was not permitted to die. Nero had no cause of hatred against her, and her arms were bound up by the orders of the soldiers. She lived some years longer, faithful to her husband’s memory, and the lasting pallor of her skin was a monument of her attempt to die with him.
The fate of this distinguished philosopher and that of his nephew, the poet Lucan, give this abortive conspiracy a certain celebrity. Lucan opened his veins in the bath, and, as he felt the animation depart from his feet and hand, recited appropriate verses of his own, describing a wounded soldier bleeding to death. Subrius Flavus, a tribune of one of the praetorian cohorts, distinguished himself by his bold words to Nero. When the tyrant asked him why he conspired, he replied: “Because I hated you. None of the soldiers was more loyal, as long as you deserved our affection. I began to hate you, when you became an assassin of your mother and your wife, a charioteer, an actor and an incendiary”. The consul Vestinus was included among the victims, although his guilt was not clear, and it is said that Nero wanted to get rid of him, on account of his wife Statilia Messalina. Nero married Messalina in the following year.
Natalis was pardoned. Milichus was richly rewarded, and received the name of “Preserver”. The praetorian guards received each man two thousand sesterces, and were for the future provided with bread free of cost. Triumphal decorations were grunted to the prefect Tigellinus, Cocceius Nerva, and Petrooius Turpilianus, who had helped in the judicial proceedings, and their statues were set up in the Palatium. Consular insignia were conferred on Nymphidius Sabinus, who had succeeded Faenius Rufus as praetorian prefect. A temple was erected to Salus, the dagger of Scaevinus was dedicated to Jupiter the Avenger, and the month of April was named Neronianus. It was even proposed, but the proposal was rejected, to erect a temple to Nero. It is noteworthy that a full account of the judicial proceedings, which were conducted by the imperial consilium, was published.
Both later in 65 A.D., and in the succeeding year, executions took place which seem to have been in some way connected with the conspiracy of Piso. Annaeus Mela, brother of Seneca and father of Lucan, was condemned on the ground of a forged letter of his son, charging him with complication in Piso’s plot. He was a rich man, and Nero wanted his possessions. About the same time perished T. Petronius, on the charge of a suspicions friendship with the conspirator Scaevinus, but really on account of the jealousy of Tigellinus. Petronius was a man who made the pleasures of vice a fine art, and his judgment was regarded as the standard of taste in all matters of luxury at Rome. He was “the glass of fashion”. His feasts were elegant, his debauchery refined. He was named Arbiter, as the arbitrator or director of the Emperor’s pleasures, and