3.A REIGN THAT IS CRUEL IS STORMY
4. This is really to forgive, when you know that there will be many to take up your quarrel; and while you could do yourself the favor of
shedding an enemy’s blood, then not merely to grant deliverance, but to guarantee it.
What was pertinent to the comparison of the example has now been made clear: Augustus benefited so much by his clemency toward Cinna, that he
made him his friend, and was no longer assailed with any stratagems by anyone. Therefore another example is given, in which Augustus pardoned the vanquished with a happy issue for himself. Seneca hereby attracts Nero to the same gentle-dealing. Ovid [Trist., 2.4548], writing to Augustus, attests to this:
Many even exalted with riches and honors, I have seen, who had taken up arms against thy person.
The day the warfare ended, ended for thee the wrath of war;
And both sides together bore offerings to the temples.
The same [Ep. Pont., 1.2.123128]:
But a prince, slow to punish, quick to reward, And who grieves, as often as he is forced to be severe;
One who ever conquers, that he may spare the conquered, And who has shut up civil warfare with everlasting locks.
One who prevents many a crime by the dread of punishment, but few by punishment itself; And who hurls few bolts, and those with an unwilling hand.
YOUR GREAT-GRANDFATHER
It would not be easy to find someone who could unravel how Nero was related to Augustus by this degree of kinship. For his great-grandfather in the paternal line was the Domitius who, as a praetor, proposed that Caesar, upon the expiration of his consulship, should be called to account before the senate for his administration of that office, which was supposed to be contrary both to the omens and the laws: Afterwards, when he was consul himself, he tried to deprive him of command of the Gallic troops, and having been appointed his successor by a faction, he was made prisoner at Corphinum at the beginning of the civil war.., and at last was slain in the battle of Pharsalia. [Suet., Nero, 2.2f] By this reckoning Augustus should have been called not his great-grandfather, but his great- grandmother’s brother. For Octavius the father of Augustus had a daughter Octavia, who was married to Antony, and bore him two daughters; one named Antonia the elder, gave birth, by Domitius the grandfather, to Domifius the father. The maternal great-grandfather was Tiberius Nero the husband of Livia Drusilla who afterward married Augustus. For from her he conceived Drusus, the father of Germanicus. From him in turn
Agrippina the mother of Nero was conceived. Nor is it easy to consider him to be an adoptive great-grandfather. For Nero was adopted by
Claudius his great uncle, the son of Drusus, who was the stepson of Augustus. For this reason, not even by a stretching of language, would he be the son of a great-grandchild, but a great-grandson. Nevertheless, in one way, he can be so called by right of adoption: because Augustus adopted Drusus as his stepson, who was the natural great-grandfather of Nero.
Tacitus [Ann., 13.34.1]: With Nero now consul for the third time, Valerius Messala entered upon the consulship; his great-grandfather, Corvinus the orator, was now by a few old men remembered as a colleague in that office with the deified Augustus, the great-great-grandfather of Nero. This is indeed worth noting, from the same Tacitus [Ann., 14.53.2], that in a discourse of Seneca to Nero, Augustus was called Nero’s great-great- grandfather, and [Ibid., 14.55.2] in Nero’s discourse to Seneca, his grandfather. Alciatus winks at this, while at other times he chases after trifles.
A COCCEIUS
I identify him as L. Cocceius, who previously being a common friend of Octavius and Antony, had been the author of a pact of peace between them.
A DEILLIUS
I read DEILLIOS, without the support of any reading, but by no light conjecture.! take him to be that Deillius whom Messala Corvinus used to call “the deserter of the civil wars”: because (as Seneca, Suas. [1.7], has written) he had gone over from Dolabella to Cassius, entering an agreement to kill Dolabella. Then he had passed over from Cassius to Antony, and at last from Antony to Augustus. In this passage “Deillius” is unquestionably to be read. Plutarch also mentions him in his life of Antony [25.2; 59.4], where nevertheless the corrupt reading Delius is found in common texts.
AND THE WHOLE CIRCLE OF THOSE ADMITTED TO THE INNER CHAMBER
That this office was of no mean dignity among the functionaries of the court, I am quite certain. For they were the socalled “admissionals” who as
they pleased, excluded or admitted persons to the royal bedchamber.
Lampridius [Alex. Sev., 4.3]: He would be greeted as one of the senators, with the curtain open, the ushers of the privy chamber having withdrawn, or with only those who had been ministers at the door. Suetonius [Vesp., 14]: Being in a great consternation after he was forbidden the court in the time of Nero, and asking those about him, what he should do? or, whether he should go? an “admissions officer” threw him out and bade him go to Morbonia. The master of admissions was in charge of these, as Ammianus Marcellinus recalls [15.5.18]. The Macedonian kings had almost the same sort of persons. Curtius [6.7.17]: Ceballinus stood before the palace entrance (for he did not have the privilege of access thereto) and waited for someone from the first cohort of friends to usher him in to the king. And [Ibid., 8.6.6] he also says that the noblest youth of the Macedonian community were commonly enlisted in that cohort which was the seedbed of leaders and prefects. Now Seneca adds the epithet INTERIORIS (“inner”) for emphasis. Suetonius, Calig. [19.3]: But when I was a boy I heard my grandfather say, that the reason assigned by the courtiers of the inner circle was this... Statius, Thebaid., [1.198f]:
The chosen council of the gods had assembled In heaven’s inner depths.
For this reason also Virgil calls the sanctuary the “inner house” [A., 2.483f].
A DOMITIUS, A MESSALA, AN ASXNIUS, A QCERO All these men supported the forces of Cassius and Brutus. When these were conquered, certain of them even allied themselves with Sextus Pompey. Domitius, along with others concerned in the death of Caesar, was condemned by the Pedian Law, although innocent. He went over to Brutus and Cassius. From them he received the fleet and kept it for a long time. When their fortunes were ruined, he surrendered to Antony, and was restored to his country and filled the highest offices. Finally, when civil war broke out between Octarian and Antony, he withdrew from Antony, and crossed over to Octarian in a small boat. See Plutarch [Ant., 63.2], and Suetonius [Nero, 3.1f]. But Seneca perhaps is referring to another man.
For he did not flourish in the city through Augustus’ largesse, because he had been accepted into confidence not by Augustus, but by Antony, and
not as a humble suppliant, but as a person of great merit, as he who
repaired the ravages of the war with great energy, and, shortly after leaving Antony and going over to Augustus, passed away. Unless you prefer to believe that Seneca has purposely twisted history to praise Augustus.
Concerning MESSALA, Plutarch [Brut., 40.1] relates that he was very intimate with Cassius and the day before his lamentable defeat at Philippi, had supper with him, when he had very few of his servants at that meal.
Here is sure proof that he was highly esteemed, because after Brutus had obtained the right wing for himself from Cassius, Messala was added to it, as he had with him the most warlike part of the troops. Afterward,
reconciled to Augustus, he was made consul, and at the behest of the Senate, hailed Augustus as “father of his country.” He was also the first urban prefect, according to Dio Cassius [cf. 5254] and Eusebius [Chron., A° 1991]. Now ASINIUS, whom Seneca mentions, is not Asinius Pollio, who followed Julius in the civil wars, and furnished strong support to him against Pompey, whom Cicero in one of his Philippics [13.21.49] included among the portents of Caesar’s friends, and with whom, as with one’s closest friend, Julius took counsel concerning the crossing of the Rubicon (as Suetonius declares [Jul., 31.2]) and who afterward assisted Augustus in defeating Sextus Pompey, as Plutarch writes [Cato Minor, 53.24]. I would prefer to identify him with Asinius Gallus, or some other person of their number who strove for liberty. Understand CICERO here to be the son, who while his father was still alive was summoned by Brutus to his camp, and considered among the leaders of the first rank. He did many things very well, says Plutarch [Brut., 26.3]. He also defeated Caius Antony in battle near Byllidis. Afterwards he fought in Sextus Pompey’s forces.
When Augustus obtained victory [App., B.C., 4.51.221]: in order to excuse himself from the betrayal of Cicero, Augustus kindly spared him. At once he declared him high priest, and not much later appointed him consul, and praetor of Syria. When later on Antony was defeated at Actium, as consul he frequently pronounced legal judgment on the people, and sat on the rostra in that place where the head and hands of his parent had hung.
Plutarch in his Life of Cicero [49] adds that he was adopted by Augustus as colleague in the consulate in which year the Senate cast domn the statues of Antony and abolished some ornaments, so that by a divine fate the ultimate vengeance came to Cicero’s house. It is not without reason then,
that Seneca calls these men the flower of the city, for they held no mediocre position.
LEPIDUS HIMSELF
The first division of the empire among them took place after the
insurrections raised by Fulvius and L. Antony. All the territories stretching to the east were granted to Antony; Caesar was awarded the parts to the west, so as to make the Ionian Sea the boundary; Lepidus received Africa [Plut., Ant. 30.4]. Already at this time the power of Caesar advanced beyond Lepidus, although up till then Lepidus had been his superior in dignity and honor. Thus they nevertheless remained content until Lepidus called upon by Octavius to assist in defeating Sextus Pompey, taking pride in the loyalty of twenty-two (or as others would have it), twenty legions, laid claim to the leadership for himself. Then Octavius, having entered his camp, although at the risk of death, yet obtained control, having been received with a military greeting. Lepidus, in desperate straits obtained his life by laying down his office, was relegated to Circeri, where he finished his remaining years. This account has been drawn partly from Appian, partly from Plutarch, partly also from Suetonius.
FOR MANY YEARS HE ALLOWED
And this ought not to be reckoned among the praises of Octavius, who at his first opportunity despoiled Lepidus of all dignity.
THE OFFICE OF THE CHIEF PONTIFF
Lepidus after the death of Julius Caesar took the office of chief pontiff and discharged it until his death, even after he was exiled. Upon his death, Caesar Augustus took it upon himself. [cf. Suet., Aug. 31.1] The chief pontiff used to be created by the college of pontiffs, then during the consulate of Cn. Domitius the right of election had been transferred to the people [cf. Suet., Nero, 2.1]. The Priestly office carried with it honor of the very highest order. For the pontiffs so gripped the people’s minds with superstition that they were, publicly and privately, of the highest authority in the city. The Chief Pontiff was notable and preeminent among all the pontiffs.
FOR HE PREFERRED TO HAVE IT CALLED AN HONOR Epiphonema.