Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/364

Rh 350 NERO utterly destroyed, and seven reduced to ruins. The con flagration is said by all authorities later than Tacitus to have been deliberately caused by Nero himself. 1 But Tacitus, though he mentions rumours to that effect, declares that its origin was uncertain, and his descrip tion of Nero s energetic conduct at the time justifies us in acquitting the emperor of so reckless a piece of incendiar ism. By Nero s orders, the open spaces in the Campus Martius were utilized to give shelter to the homeless crowds, provisions were brought up from Ostia, and the price of corn lowered. In rebuilding the city every pre caution was taken against the recurrence of such a calamity. Broad regular streets replaced the narrow winding alleys. The new houses were limited in height, built partly of hard stone, and protected by open spaces and colonnades. The water supply, lastly, was carefully regulated. But there is nevertheless no doubt that this great disaster told against Nero in the popular mind. It was regarded as a direct manifestation of the wrath of the gods, even by those who did not share the current suspicions of the emperor s guilt. This impression no religious cere monies, nor even the execution of a number of Christians, hastily pitched upon as convenient scapegoats, could altogether dispel. Nero, however, undeterred by fore bodings and rumours, proceeded with the congenial work of repairing the damage inflicted by the flames. In addi tion to the rebuilding of the streets, he gratified his love of magnificence by the erection of a splendid palace for himself. The wonders of his &quot; golden house &quot; were remembered and talked of long after its partial demolition by Vespasian. It stretched from the Palatine across the low ground, afterwards occupied by the Colosseum, to the Esquiline. Its walls blazed with gold and precious stones ; masterpieces of art from Greece adorned its walls ; but most marvellous of all were the grounds in which it stood, with their meadows and lakes, their shady woods, and their distant views. To defray the enormous cost, Italy and the provinces, says Tacitus, were ransacked, and in Asia and Achaia especially the rapacity of the imperial commissioners recalled the days of Mummiusand of Sulla. 2 It was the first occasion on which the provincials had suffered from Nero s rule, and the discontent it caused helped to weaken his hold over them at the very moment when the growing discontent in Rome was gathering to a head. For early in 65 Nero was panic-stricken amid his pleasures by the discovery of a formidable conspiracy against his life and rule. Such conspiracies, prompted partly by the ambition of powerful nobles and partly by their personal fears, had been of frequent occurrence in the history of the Caesars, and now Nero s recent excesses, and his declining popularity, seemed to promise well for the success of the plot. Among the conspirators were many who held important posts, or belonged to the innermost circle of Nero s friends, such as Faenius Rufus, Tigellinus s colleague in the prefecture of the prsetorian guards, Plautius Lateranus, one of the consuls elect, the poet Lucan, and, lastly, not a few of the tribunes and centurions of the praetorian guard itself. Their chosen leader, whom they destined to succeed Nero, was C. Calpurnius Piso, a handsome, wealthy, and popular noble, and a boon com panion of Nero himself. The plan was that Nero should be murdered when he appeared as usual at the games in the circus, but the design was frustrated by the treachery of a freedman Milichus, who, tempted by the hope of a large reward, disclosed the whole plot to the emperor. In a frenzy of sudden terror Nero struck right and left among 1 Tac., Ann., xv. 38 ; Suet.. Nero, 38 ; Dio Cass.. Ixii. 16 ; Pliny, N.H., xvii. 5. 2 Tac., Ann., xv. 42; Suet., Nero, 31 ; cf. Friedlander, Sitten- geschichte, Hi. 67-69. the ranks of the conspirators. Piso was put to death in his own house ; and his fall was rapidly followed by the execution of Fsenius Rufus, Lucan, and many of their less prominent accomplices. Even Seneca himself, though there seems to have been no evidence of his complicity, could not escape the frantic suspiciousness of the emperor, stimulated as it may have been in his case by the jealousy of Tigellinus and Poppsea. The order for his death reached him in his country house near Rome, and he met his fate with dignity and courage. For the moment Nero felt safe ; but, though largesses and thanksgivings celebrated the suppression of the conspiracy, and the dazzling round of games and shows was renewed with even increased splendour, the effects of the shock were visible in the long and dreary list of victims who during the next few months were sacrificed to his restless fears and savage resentment. Conspicuous among them was Psetus Thrasea, whose irreconcilable non-conformity and unbending virtue had long made him distasteful to Nero, and who was now suspected, possibly with reason, of sympathy with the con spirators. The death of Poppsea in the autumn of 65 was probably not lamented by any one but her husband, but the general gloom was deepened by a pestilence, caused, it seems, by the overcrowding at the time of the fire, which decimated the population of the capital. Early, however, in the summer of 66, the visit of the Parthian prince Tiridates to Italy seemed to shed a ray of light over the in creasing darkness of Nero s last years. Corbulo had settled matters satisfactorily in Armenia. The Parthians were grati fied by the elevation to the Armenian throne of their king s brother, and Tiridates, in return, consented to receive his crown from the hands of the Roman emperor. In royal state he travelled to Italy, and at Rome the ceremony of investiture was performed with the utmost splendour. Delighted with this tribute to his greatness, Nero for a moment dreamt of rivalling Alexander, and winning fame as a conqueror. Expeditions were talked of to the shores of the Caspian Sea and against the remote Ethiopians, but Nero was no soldier, and he quickly turned to a more congenial field for triumph. He had long panted for an opportunity of displaying his varied artistic gifts before a worthier and more sympathetic audience than could be found in Rome. With this view he had already, in 64, appeared on the stage before the half-Greek public of Naples. But his mind was now set on challenging the applause of the Greeks themselves in the ancient home of art. Towards the end of 66 he arrived in Greece, accompanied by a motley following of soldiers, courtiers, musicians, and dancers, determined to forget for a time Rome and the irksome affairs of Rome with its conspiracies and intrigues. No episode in Nero s reign has afforded such plentiful material for the imagination of subsequent writers as his visit to Greece ; but, when every allowance is made for exaggeration and sheer invention, it must still be confessed that the spectacle presented was unique. 3 The emperor appeared there professedly as merely an enthusiastic worshipper of Greek art, and a humble candidate for the suffrages of Greek judges. At each of the great festivals, which to please him were for once crowded into a single year, he entered in regular form for the various competitions, scrupulously conformed to the tradition and rules of the arena, and awaited in nervous suspense the verdict of the umpires. The dexterous Greeks, flattered by his genuine enthusiasm, humoured him to the top of his bent. Everywhere the imperial competitor was victorious. Crowns were showered upon him, and crowded audiences importuned him to display his talents. The delighted emperor protested that only Suet., Nero, 19-24 ; Dio Cass., Epit., Ixiii. 8-16.