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

1164 NERO. NERO.
again invaded Armenia, and Tiridates attempted It Is probable that some proposals laight have been
to recover it from Tigranes. It seems to have been made to him by the conspirators, and it is probable
agreed between Vologeses and Corbulo that Tiri- that he declined to join them. However this may
dates should have Armenia, and that hostilities be, the time was come for Nero to get rid of his
should cease. But the ambassadors whom Vologeses old master, and, with his counsellors Poppaea and
sent to Rome, returned without accomplishing the Tigellinus near him, he sent Seneca orders to die.
object of their mission, and the war against the The philosopher opened his veins, and, after long
Parthians in Armenia was renewed under L. Cae- suffering, he was taken into a bath or vapour
sennius Paetus. But the incompetence of the room, which stifled him. It seems that Seneca
general caused the ruin of the enterprise, and he died about the time when the conspiracy was diswas forced to sue for terms to Vologeses, and to covered; Lucan and others died after him. The
consent to evacuate Armenia (Tacit. Ann. xv. 16; senate was assembled, as if they were going to
Dion Cass. lxii. 21). In the following year Cor- hear the results of a successful war, and Tigellinus
bulo came to terms with Tiridates, who did homage was rewarded with the* triumphal ornaments.
to the portrait of Nero in the presence of the Roman (Tacit. Ann. xv. 72.)
commander (Tacit. Ann. xv. 30), and promised The death of Poppaea came next. Her brutal
that he would go to Rome, as soon as he could pre- husband, in a fit of passion, kicked her when she
pare for his journey, to ask the throne of Armenia was with child, and she died of the blow. Her
from the Roman emperor. The town of Pompeii body was not burnt, but embalmed and placed in
in Campania was nearly destroyed in this year by the sepulchre of the Julii. Nero now proposed to
an earthquake. Poppaea gave birth at Antium to a marry Antonia, the daughter of the emperor
daughter, who received the title of Augusta, which Claudius and his sister by adoption, but she rewas also given to the mother. The joy of Nero fused the honour, and was consequently put to
was unbounded, but the child died before it was death. Nero, however, did marry Statilia Mesfour months old. sallina, the widow of Vestinus, whom he put to
The origin of the dreadful conflagration at Rome death, because he had married Messallina, with
(A. D. 64) is uncertain. It is hardly credible that whom Nero had cohabited.
the city was fired by Nero's order, though Dion The catalogue of the crimes of Nero makes the
and Suetonius both attest the fact, but these writers greater part of his life, but his crimes show the
are always ready to believe a scandalous tale. character of the man and of the times, and to
Tacitus (Ann. xv. 98) leaves the matter doubtful. what a state of abject degradation the Roman
The fire originated in that part of the circus which senate was reduced, for the senate was made the
is contiguous to the Caelian and Palatine hills, and instrument of murder. The jurist C. Cassius
of the fourteen regiones of Rome three were totally Longinus was exiled to Sardinia. L. Junius Sidestroyed, and in seven others only a few half- lanus Torquatus, a man of merit, L. Antistius.burnt houses remained. A prodigious quantity of pro- Vetus, his mother-in-law Sextia, and his daughter
perty and valuable works of art were burnt, and Pollutia, the wife of Rubellius Plautus, were all
many lives were lost. The emperor set about rebuild- sacrificed. Virtue in any form was the object of
hing the city on an improved plan, with wider streets, Nero's fear. For some reason or caprice the emthough it is doubtful if the salubrity of Rome was peror gave a large sum, which we may assume
improved by widening the streets and making the was public money, to rebuild Lugdunum (Lyon),
houses lower, for there was less protection against which had suffered by a fire; and the town showed
the heat. Nero found money for his purposes by its gratitude, by espousing his* cause when he was
acts of oppression and violence, and even the deserted by every body. The grant, however, was
temples were robbed of their wealth. With these made some years after the conflagration.
means he began to erect his sumptuous golden In the reign of Nero (A. D. 66) Apollonius of
palace, on a scale of magnitude and splendour Tyana visited Rome, and, though he was accused of
which almost surpasses belief. The vestibule con- magic, he had the good luck to escape. Nero now
taimed a colossal statue of himself one hundred and became jealous of the philosophers, and Musonius
twenty feet high (Suet. Ner. c. 31; Martial, Spect. Rufus, a Roman eques and a stoic philosopher,
Ep. 2). The odium of the conflagration which was banished by the emperor. The fragment of
the emperor could not remove from himself, he the sixteenth book of the Annals of Tacitus contried to throw on the Christians, who were then eludes with the account of the death of Annaeus
numerous in Rome, and many of them were put to Melia, the father of Lucan, and C. Petronius, a
a cruel death (Tacit. Ann. xv. 44, and the note of man of pleasure, but probably not the author of
Lipsius). the Satyrica. Nero, as Tacitus says (A4ne. xvi.
The tyranny of Nero at last (A. D. 65) led to 21), now attacked virtue itself in the persons of
the organisation of a formidable conspiracy against Thrasea Paetus and Barea Soranus. The crime
him, which was discovered by Milichus, a freed- of Thrasea was his virtue: the charge against him
man of Flavius Scevinus, a senator and one of the was that he kept away from the senate, and by
conspirators. The discovery was followed by many his absence condemned the proceedings of that
executions. C. Calpurnius Piso was put to death, body. The senate condemned him to die, but he
and the poet Lucan, a vile flatterer of Nero (PLar- had the choice of the mode of death, and he opened
sal. i 33, &c.c), had the favour of being allowed his veins. Soranus was rich, and that made part
to open his veins. Plautius Lateranus was hurried of his crime. He was condemned with his young
to death without having time allowed to embrace his daughter Servilia, who had without his knowledge
children. It is not certain if Seneca was privy to consulted the fortune-tellers to know what would be
the conspiracy: Dion, of course, says that he was. her father's fate. (Tacit. A4nn. xvi. 30, &c.) WVith
the death of Thrasea, who, as the blood flowed
* The critics take the verses to be ironical. Let from his veins, declared it to be a libation to
the reader judge. Jupiter the Liberator, the fragment of the sixteenth