A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

NERO. *NERO. 1183
of Poppaea Sabina, the wife of his companion Otho, anger of the gods (Dion Cass. 1xi. 16, ed. Reia woman notorious for her dissolute conduct. Otho marus, and the note). Nero drowned his rewas got out of the way by being made governor of flections in fresh riot, in which he was encouraged
Lusitania, where he acquired some credit, and by a band of flatterers. One of his great passions
passed the ten remaining years of Nero's life. was chariot-driving, and he was ambitious to gain
The affairs of Armenia, which had been seized credit as a musician, and actually appeared as a
by the Parthians, occupied the Romans from the performer on the theatre. At the same time his
beginning of Nero's reign, and Domitius Corbulo extravagance was exhausting the finances, and prewas sent there to conduct the war. This vigorous paring the way for his ruin, though unfortunately
commander re-established discipline among the it was still deferred for some years.
troops. The chief struggle commenced A. D. 58, In A. D. 60, Nero was consul for the fourth time
with Tiridates, who had been made king of Armenia with C. Cornelius Lentulus for his colleague. There
by the Parthian king Vologeses, who was his was a comet in this year, which then, as in more
brother. Corbulo was ambitious to make the recent times, was considered to portend some great
Roman arms again triumphant in the countries in change. In this year Tigranes was settled as king
which L. Lucullus and Cn. Pompeius had once of Armenia, and the Roman commander Corbulo,
acquired military fame. After some attempt at leaving some soldiers to protect him, retired to his
negotiation, Corbulo prosecuted the war with great province of Syria. The fear of Nero now induced
activity, He took and destroyed Artaxata, the him to urge Rubellius Plautus, who belonged to
capital of Armenia; and afterwards, marching to the family of the Caesars through his mother Julia,
the town of Tigranocerta, which the Romans had the daughter of Drusus, to leave Rome. Plautus
formerly captured under Lucullus, he took this was a man of good character, and Nero considered
strong place also, or, according to other accounts, it him a dangerous rival. He retired to Asia, where
surrendered like Artaxata (Tacit. Ann. xiii. 41, xiv. he was put to death two years after by Nero's
24). The capture of Tigranocerta took place A. D. order (Tacit. Ann. xiv. 2-2; Dion Cass. lxii. 14).
60, and the Romans were now complete masters of In A. D. 61, the great rising in Britain under
Armenia. The affairs of the Rhenish frontier Boadicea took place, which was put down by the
were tolerably quiet in the early part of Nero's ability and vigour of the Roman commander Suereign. The Roman soldiers, under Paullinus Pom- tonius Paullinus.
peius on the lower Rhine, were employed in finish- The praetor Antistius was charged with writing
ing the embankments which Drusus had begun scandalous verses against Nero, and he was tried
sixty-three years before for checking the waters of under the law of majestas, and only saved by
the river; and L. Vetus formed the noble design Thrasea from being condemned to death by the
of uniting the Arar (Saone) and Moselle by a senate. Antistius was banished, and his property
canal, and thus connecting the Mediterranean and made public. Fabricius Veiento, who had written
the German Ocean by an uninterrupted water com- freely against the senate and the priests, was conmunication, through the Rhone and the Rhine. victed and banished from Italy. His writings
But the mean jealousy of Aelius Gracilis, the legatus were ordered to be burnt, the consequence of which
of Belgica, frustrated this design. was they were eagerly sought after and read: when
Nero's passion for Poppaea was probably the they were no longer forbidden they were soon forimmediate cause of his mother's death. Poppaea gotten, as Tacitus remarks (Ann. xiv. 49), and his
aspired to marry the emperor, but she had no hopes remark has much practical wisdom in it. The
of succeeding in her design while Agrippina lived, death of Burrhus (A. D. 62) was a calamity to the
and accordingly she used all her arts to urge Nero state. Nero placed in command of the praetorian
to remove out of the way a woman who kept him troops, Fennius Rufus and Sofonius Tigellinus:
in tutelage and probably aimed at his ruin. That Rufus was an honest inactive man; Tigellinus was
Agrippina might have attempted to destroy her son, a villain, whose name has been rendered infamous
or at least to give the imperial power to some new by the crimes to which he urged his master, and
husband of her choice, is probable enough; and it those which he committed himself. Seneca, who
is a significant fact, that we find her own head and saw his credit going, wisely asked leave to retire;
that of Nero on the same face of a medal, and that and the philosopher, who could not approve of all
at the beginning of his reign she was hardly pre- Nero's excesses, though his own moral character is
vented from assuming the discharge of the imperial at least doubtful, left his old pupil to follow his
functions (Tacit. Ann. xiii. 5). After an unsuc- own way and the counsels of the worst men in
cessful attempt to cause her death in a vessel near Rome.
Baiae, she was assassinated by Nero's order (A. D. Nero was now more at liberty. In order that
59), with the approbation at least of Seneca and he might marry Poppaea, he divorced his wife
-Burrhus, who saw that the time was come for Octavia, on the alleged ground of sterility, and in
the destruction either of the mother or the son eighteen days he married Poppaea. Not satisfied
(Tacit. Ann. xiv. 7). The death of Agrippina was with putting away his wife, he was instigated by
communicated to the senate by a letter which Poppaea to charge her with adultery, for which
Seneca drew up, and this servile body, with the there was not the slightest ground, and she was
exception of Thrasea Paetus, returned their congra- banished to the little island of Pandataria, where
tulations to the emperor, who shortly after returned she was shortly after put to death. According
to Rome. But though he was well received, he to Tacitus (Anln. xiv. 64) Octavia was only in
felt the punishment of his guilty conscience, and her twentieth year; her unhappy life and her unsaid that he was haunted by his mother's spectre timely death were the subject of general com(Suet. Ner. 34). A great eclipse of the sun hap- miseration.
pened during the sacrifices which were made for The affairs of Armenia (A. D. 62) were still in a
the death of Agrippina, and there were other signs troubled state, and the accounts of the historians
which superstition interpreted as tokens of the of the period are not very clear.- The Parthians