XIV.6: Agrippina feigns ignorance.

illic reputans ideo se fallacibus litteris accitam et honore praecipuo habitam, quodque litus iuxta non ventis acta, non saxis impulsa navis summa sui parte veluti terrestre machinamentum concidisset; observans etiam Acerroniae necem, simul suum vulnus aspiciens, solum insidiarum remedium esse, si non intellegerentur; misitque libertum Agerinum qui nuntiaret filio benignitate deum et fortuna eius evasisse gravem casum; orare ut quamvis periculo matris exterritus visendi curam differret; sibi ad praesens quiete opus. atque interim securitate simulata medicamina vulneri et fomenta corpori adhibet; testamentum Acerroniae requiri bonaque obsignari iubet, id tantum non per simulationem.

XIV.6: Agrippina feigns ignorance.

Reflecting there that it was for that reason that she had been summoned by a deceitful letter and held in especial honour, and that the ship had collapsed next to the shore, not driven by winds, nor driven onto the rocks, but from its topmost part like a terrestrial device; noticing, too, Acerronia’s death, at the same time looking at her own wound, (she realised) that the only remedy for the treachery was if it was not understood; and she sent her freedman Agerinus to announce to her son that, due to the kindness of the gods and his own good fortune, she had escaped a serious accident; and she was begging that, however terrified he was by the danger to his mother, he should postpone his concern to visit; there was need of rest for her at the moment. And in the meantime, while feigning composure, she applied medicines to her wound and dressings to her body; she ordered Acerronia’s will to be requested and the goods sealed, the only thing not (done) through pretence.

XIV.7: Nero panics then frames Agerinus.

at Neroni nuntios patrati facinoris opperienti adfertur evasisse ictu levi sauciam et hactenus adito discrimine ne auctor dubitaretur. tum pavore exanimis et iam iamque adfore obtestans vindictae properam, sive servitia armaret vel militem accenderet, sive ad senatum et populum pervaderet, naufragium et vulnus et interfectos amicos obiciendo: quod contra subsidium sibi? nisi quid Burrus et Seneca; quos expergens statim acciverat, incertum an et ante gnaros. igitur longum utriusque silentium, ne inriti dissuaderent, an eo descensum credebant ut, nisi praeveniretur Agrippina, pereundum Neroni esset. post Seneca hactenus promptius ut respiceret Burrum ac sciscitaretur an militi imperanda caedes esset. ille praetorianos toti Caesarum domui obstrictos memoresque Germanici nihil adversus progeniem eius atrox ausuros respondit: perpetraret Anicetus promissa. qui nihil cunctatus poscit summam sceleris. ad eam vocem Nero illo sibi die dari imperium auctoremque tanti muneris libertum profitetur: iret propere duceretque promptissimos ad iussa. ipse audito venisse missu Agrippinae nuntium Agerinum, scaenam ultro criminis parat gladiumque, dum mandata perfert, abicit inter pedes eius, tum quasi deprehenso vincla inici iubet, ut exitium principis molitam matrem et pudore deprehensi sceleris sponte mortem sumpsisse confingeret.

XIV.7: Nero panics then frames Agerinus.

But, as Nero was awaiting reports of the completed crime, it was announced to him that she had escaped, wounded by a light blow and having come so close to death that the mastermind could not be in doubt. Then he was half dead through fear and claiming that any time now she would be there hurrying for revenge: if she armed her slaves or inflamed the military, or if she made her way through to the senate and the people by exposing the shipwreck and her wound and her murdered friends: what defence would there be for him in reply? Unless Burrus and Seneca produced something; he had immediately summoned them as he awakened them (it is unclear whether they knew even before this). Therefore there was a long silence from each, so that they did not pointlessly argue against him, or they believed that things had sunk so far that, unless Agrippina was intercepted, Nero would have to die. Afterwards, Seneca acted with more initiative to the point that he looked at Burrus and asked whether her murder should be an order given to the soldiers. He replied that the praetorians were bound to the whole house of the Caesars and, being mindful of Germanicus, they would venture nothing dreadful against his offspring: that Anicetus should finish off what he had promised. He, with no hesitation, demanded the completion of the crime. In response to this speech, Nero said that on that day imperial power was being given to him, and that the author of so great a gift was a freedman: that he should go quickly and take those most well-disposed to his orders. He himself, when it was heard that the messenger Agerinus had arrived on a mission from Agrippina, spontaneously prepared the scene for an accusation and, while Agerinus was carrying out his instructions, he threw a sword between his feet, then he gave orders for chains to be thrown on him, as if he had been caught out, in order to pretend that his mother had attempted the killing of an emperor, and she had chosen death by her own hand due to the shame of her crime being discovered.

XIV.8: The murder of Agrippina.

interim vulgato Agrippinae periculo, quasi casu evenisset, ut quisque acceperat, decurrere ad litus. hi molium obiectus, hi proximas scaphas scandere; alii quantum corpus sinebat vadere in mare; quidam manus protendere; questibus, votis, clamore diversa rogitantium aut incerta respondentium omnis ora compleri; adfluere ingens multitudo cum luminibus, atque ubi incolumem esse pernotuit, ut ad gratandum sese expedire, donec aspectu armati et minitantis agminis disiecti sunt. Anicetus villam statione circumdat refractaque ianua obvios servorum abripit, donec ad fores cubiculi veniret; cui pauci adstabant, ceteris terrore inrumpentium exterritis. cubiculo modicum lumen inerat et ancillarum una, magis ac magis anxia Agrippina quod nemo a filio ac ne Agerinus quidem: aliam fore laetae rei faciem; nunc solitudinem ac repentinos strepitus et extremi mali indicia. abeunte dehinc ancilla ‘tu quoque me deseris’ prolocuta respicit Anicetum trierarcho Herculeio et Obarito centurione classiario comitatum: ac, si ad visendum venisset, refotam nuntiaret, sin facinus patraturus, nihil se de filio credere; non imperatum parricidium. circumsistunt lectum percussores et prior trierarchus fusti caput eius adflixit. iam in mortem centurioni ferrum destringenti protendens uterum ‘ventrem feri’ exclamavit multisque vulneribus confecta est.

XIV.8: The murder of Agrippina.

Meanwhile, after Agrippina’s endangerment was common knowledge, as if it had happened by accident, when each man heard the news, he ran down to the shore. Some climbed the barrier of the breakwater, some climbed into the nearest small boats; others waded into the sea as far as the body would allow; some stretched out their hands; the whole shore was filled with complaints, prayers and the noise of those asking various questions and those replying with uncertainty. There flocked a huge crowd with lanterns and, when it was well known that she was safe, they hastened to ingratiate themselves, until they were scattered by the sight of an armed and menacing column of men. Anicetus surrounded her Villa with a guard, broke open the door and dragged away any servants who were in the way, until he came to the door of the bedroom; a few were standing near it, the rest having been frightened off in fear of those bursting in. There was a small lantern and one of the maids in the bedroom, with Agrippina growing more and more nervous because no one had arrived from her son, not even Agerinus: the appearance of good news would be different; but now there was isolation, unexpected noises, and indications of a final misfortune. Then, as the maid was leaving, she announced: ‘Are you, too, deserting me?’ and looked at Anicetus accompanied by Herculeius, the trireme captain, and Obaritus, a centurion of the fleet: and (she said) if he had come to visit, he should announce that she had recovered, but if he intended to complete the crime, that she would not believe it from her son; the murder of his parent had not been ordered. The assassins stood around her bed and first the trireme captain struck her head with a club. Now, stretching out her womb to the centurion who was drawing his sword for the deadly blow, she shouted out ‘Strike the belly’ and with many wounds she was killed.

XIV.9: Agrippina’s funeral.

haec consensu produntur. aspexeritne matrem exanimem Nero et formam corporis eius laudaverit, sunt qui tradiderint, sunt qui abnuant. cremata est nocte eadem convivali lecto et exequiis vilibus; neque, dum Nero rerum potiebatur, congesta aut clausa humus. mox domesticorum cura levem tumulum accepit, viam Miseni propter et villam Caesaris dictatoris quae subiectos sinus editissima prospectat. accenso rogo libertus eius cognomento Mnester se ipse ferro transegit, incertum caritate in patronam an metu exitii. hunc sui finem multos ante annos crediderat Agrippina contempseratque. nam consulenti super Nerone responderunt Chaldaei fore ut imperaret matremque occideret; atque illa ‘occidat’ inquit, ‘dum imperet.’

XIV.9: Agrippina’s funeral.

These things are reported with consensus. Whether Nero gazed at his dead mother and praised the shape of her body, there are those who record it and there are those who reject it. She was cremated the same night on a dinner couch, and with a cheap funeral. Nor, while Nero was in charge of affairs, was the ground heaped up or enclosed. Later on, due to the care of her household staff, she received a modest tomb, near the road to Misenum and the villa of Caesar the dictator, which looks out from a very elevated position onto the bays situated below. When the pyre was lit, her freedman, called Mnester, stabbed himself with a sword: it is uncertain whether through affection towards his mistress or fear of death. Agrippina had believed this would be her ending many years before, and had made light of it. For when she was consulting about Nero, the astrologers replied to her that he would be emperor and kill his mother; and she said, ‘Let him kill, as long as he is emperor.’

XIV.10: Nero is both haunted and flattered.

sed a Caesare perfecto demum scelere magnitudo eius intellecta est. reliquo noctis modo per silentium defixus, saepius pavore exsurgens et mentis inops lucem opperiebatur tamquam exitium adlaturam. atque eum auctore Burro prima centurionum tribunorumque adulatio ad spem firmavit, prensantium manum gratantiumque quod discrimen improvisum et matris facinus evasisset. amici dehinc adire templa et coepto exemplo proxima Campaniae municipia victimis et legationibus laetitiam testari: ipse diversa simulatione maestus et quasi incolumitati suae infensus ac morti parentis inlacrimans. quia tamen non, ut hominum vultus, ita locorum facies mutantur, obversabaturque maris illius et litorum gravis aspectus (et erant qui crederent sonitum tubae collibus circum editis planctusque tumulo matris audiri), Neapolim concessit litterasque ad senatum misit quarum summa erat repertum cum ferro percussorem Agerinum, ex intimis Agrippinae libertis, et luisse eam poenas conscientia quasi scelus paravisset.

XIV.10: Nero is both haunted and flattered.

But it was only when the crime had been completed that its enormity was understood by Caesar. During the rest of the night, sometimes he was transfixed in silence, quite often, rising in panic and out of his mind, he would await the dawn as though it would bring his destruction. And, on Burrus’ initiative, the flattery of the centurions and the tribunes first strengthened him to hope, as they took his hand and congratulated him because he had avoided the unforeseen crisis and his mother’s crime. Then friends approached temples and, when the precedent had been set, the neighbouring towns of Campania testified to their happiness with sacrifices and embassies: he, with the opposite pretence, was sorrowful and, as if opposed to his own security, weeping over the death of his parent. However, because the appearances of places do not change like people’s expressions do, and the sight of that sea and the shore was viewed as burdensome (and there were those who believed that the sound of a trumpet was heard in the high hills around, and of lamentation from his mother’s grave), he withdrew to Naples and sent a letter to the senate, the gist of which was that Agerinus, one of Agrippina’s closest freedmen, had been discovered as an assassin with a sword, and that she had paid the penalty from her guilty conscience on the grounds that she had prepared the crime.

XIV.11: Nero’s confession speech.

adiciebat crimina longius repetita, quod consortium imperii iuraturasque in feminae verba praetorias cohortes idemque dedecus senatus et populi speravisset, ac postquam frustra habita sit, infensa militi patribusque et plebi dissuasisset donativum et congiarium periculaque viris inlustribus struxisset. quanto suo labore perpetratum ne inrumperet curiam, ne gentibus externis responsa daret. temporum quoque Claudianorum obliqua insectatione cuncta eius dominationis flagitia in matrem transtulit, publica fortuna extinctam referens. namque et naufragium narrabat: quod fortuitum fuisse quis adeo hebes inveniretur ut crederet? aut a muliere naufraga missum cum telo unum qui cohortes et classes imperatoris perfringeret? ergo non iam Nero, cuius immanitas omnium questus anteibat, sed Seneca adverso rumore erat quod oratione tali confessionem scripsisset.

XIV.11: Nero’s confession speech.

He threw in accusations recalled from further back, alleging that she had hoped for a share of his imperial power and for the praetorian cohorts to swear their oaths to a woman, and the same disgrace for the senate and the people. And, when she was kept frustrated, became hostile to the soldiers, the senators and the common people, and had argued against the donative and the people’s payout and had contrived perils for distinguished men. With what great effort from him had it been achieved that she did not burst into the senate house, nor issue replies to foreign nations. Furthermore, in an indirect attack on the Claudian period, he transferred to his mother all the scandals of that reign, alleging that it was due to the nation’s good luck that she had been terminated. For he even spoke about the wreckage of the ship: but who could be found so dim-witted that he believed this had happened by chance? Or that a single man with a dagger, sent by a shipwrecked woman, could break through the emperor’s cohorts and fleets? So it was no longer Nero, whose monstrosity surpassed everyone’s complaints, but Seneca who received public disapproval, on the grounds that in a speech like this he had actually written a confession.

XIV.12: Praise, protest, prodigies and pardons.

miro tamen certamine procerum decernuntur supplicationes apud omnia pulvinaria, utque Quinquatrus quibus apertae insidiae essent ludis annuis celebrarentur; aureum Minervae simulacrum in curia et iuxta principis imago statuerentur; dies natalis Agrippinae inter nefastos esset. Thrasea Paetus silentio vel brevi adsensu priores adulationes transmittere solitus exiit tum senatu ac sibi causam periculi fecit, ceteris libertatis initium non praebuit. prodigia quoque crebra et inrita intercessere: anguem enixa mulier et alia in concubitu mariti fulmine exanimata; iam sol repente obscuratus et tactae de caelo quattuordecim urbis regiones. quae adeo sine cura deum eveniebant ut multos post annos Nero imperium et scelera continuaverit. ceterum quo gravaret invidiam matris eaque demota auctam lenitatem suam testificaretur, feminas inlustres Iuniam et Calpurniam, praetura functos Valerium Capitonem et Licinium Gabolum sedibus patriis reddidit, ab Agrippina olim pulsos. etiam Lolliae Paulinae cineres reportari sepulcrumque extrui permisit; quosque ipse nuper relegaverat, Iturium et Calvisium poena exolvit. nam Silana fato functa erat, longinquo ab exilio Tarentum regressa labante iam Agrippina, cuius inimicitiis conciderat, vel mitigata.

XIV.12: Praise, protest, prodigies and pardons.

Nevertheless, in a bizarre contest of the leading men, public prayers were decreed at all the shrines, and that the Quinquatrus, during which the plot had been detected, should be celebrated with annual games; a golden statue of Minerva should be placed in the senate house, and one of the emperor alongside; that Agrippina’s birthday should be one of the unlucky days. Thrasea Paetus, who used to pass over previous displays of flattery in silence or with brief applause, then walked out of the senate and created a reason for danger to himself, without providing an element of freedom for the others. Prodigies occurred, too, numerous and ineffectual: a woman gave birth to a snake and another died from a thunderbolt during intercourse with her husband; then the sun suddenly darkened and the fourteen districts of the city were struck from the sky. These things occurred so far detached from the concern of the gods that, for many years afterwards, Nero continued his reign and his crimes. But, in order to aggravate resentment of his mother and to demonstrate that his clemency had been increased by her removal, he restored to their ancestral homes the noble women Iunia and Calpurnia, and men who had fulfilled the office of praetor, Valerius Capito and Licinius Gabolus, at one time exiled by Agrippina. He also allowed the ashes of Lollia Paulina to be brought home and a tomb erected. And men whom he himself had relegated recently, Iturius and Calvisius, he freed from punishment. For Silana had met her fate after returning to Tarentum from her long exile, because Agrippina, by whose hostility she had fallen, was already losing her grip, or had softened.

XIV.13: Victor Servitii Publici.

tamen cunctari in oppidis Campaniae, quonam modo urbem ingrederetur, an obsequium senatus, an studia plebis reperiret anxius: contra deterrimus quisque, quorum non alia regia fecundior extitit, invisum Agrippinae nomen et morte eius accensum populi favorem disserunt: iret intrepidus et venerationem sui coram experiretur; simul praegredi exposcunt. et promptiora quam promiserant inveniunt, obvias tribus, festo cultu senatum, coniugum ac liberorum agmina per sexum et aetatem disposita, extructos, qua incederet, spectaculorum gradus, quo modo triumphi visuntur. hinc superbus ac publici servitii victor Capitolium adiit, grates exolvit seque in omnes libidines effudit quas male coercitas qualiscumque matris reverentia tardaverat.

XIV.13: Victor Servitii Publici.

In spite of this, he lingered in the towns of Campania, anxious as to how he should enter the city, and whether he would find obedience from the senate or enthusiasm from the people. In response, all the worst men, of which no other court has ever been more abundant, declared that the name of Agrippina was hateful and that his support from the people had been kindled by her death: he should go fearlessly and experience at first hand the veneration for him; at the same time they demanded to go ahead of him. And they found things more ready than they had promised: the tribes coming to meet them, the senate in festive clothing, columns of wives and children arranged by sex and age, and, set up where he would progress, tiers of spectator seats, in the way that triumphs are viewed. Hence with pride and as a winner of public servitude he approached the Capitol, paid his thanks and poured himself into all the lusts which, although poorly controlled, had been restrained by whatever kind of respect he had had for his mother.