According to Suetonius (The Twelve Caesars, trans. Robert Graves, 1964):
Nero
started off with a parade of virtue: giving Claudius a lavish funeral,
at which he delivered the oration in person, and finally deifying him.
He also exalted the memory of his father Domitius, and turned over all
his public and private affairs to Agrippina's management. On the day of
his accession the password he gave to the colonel on duty was 'The Best
of Mothers'; and she and he often rode out together through the streets
in her litter. Nero founded a colony at Antium consisting of Guards
veterans, augmented by a group of rich retired centurions, whom he
forced to move ther; and also built them a harbour, at great expense.
As
a further guarantee of his virtuous intentions, he promised to model
his rule on the principles laid down by Augustus, and never missed an
opportunity of being generous or merciful, or of showing what a good
companion he was. He lowered, if he could not abolish, some of the
heavier taxes; and reduced by three-quarters the fee for denouncing
evasions of the Papian Law, which obliged noblement to marry. Moreover,
he presented the commons with forty gold pieces each; settled annual
salaries on distinguished but impoverished senators—to the amount of
5,000 gold pieces in some cases—and granted the Guards battalions a free
monthly issue of grain. If asked to sign the usual execution order for a
felon, he would sigh: 'Ah, how I wish that I had never learned to
write!' He seldom forgot a face, and would greet men of whatever rank by
name without a moment's hesitation. Once, when the Senate passed a vote
of thanks to him, he answered: 'Wait until I deserve them!' He allowed
even the commons to watch him taking exercise on the Campus Martius, and
often gave public declamations. Also, he recited his own poems, both at
home and in the Theatre; a performance which so delighted everyone that
a special Thanksgiving was voted him, as though he had won a great
victory, and the passages he had chosen were printed in letters of gold
on plaques dedicated to Capitoline Jupiter.
He
gave an immense variety of entertainments—coming-of-age parties,
chariot races in the Circus, stage plays, a gladiatorial show—persuading
even old men of consular rank, and old ladies, too, to attend the
coming-of-age parties. He reserved seats for the Knights at the Circus,
as he had done in the Theatre; and actually raced four-camel chariots!
At the Great Festival, as he called the series of plays devoted to the
hope of his reigning for ever, parts were taken by men and women of both
Orders; and one well-known knight rode an elephant down a sloping
tight-rope. When he staged 'The Fire', a Roman play by Afranius, the
actors were allowed to keep the valuable furnishings they rescued from
the burning house. Throughout the Festival all kinds of gifts were
scattered to the people —1,000 assorted birds daily, and quantities of
food parcels; besides vouchers for corn, clothes, gold, silver, precious
stones, pearls, paintings, slaves, transport animals, and even trained
wild beasts—and finally for ships, blocks of City tenements, and farms.
Nero
watched from the top of the proscenium. The gladiatorial show took
place in a wooden theatre, near the Campus Martius, which had been built
in less than a year; but no one was allowed to be killed during these
combats, not even criminals. He did, however, make 400 senators and 600
knights, many of them rich and respectable, do battle in the arena; and
some had to fight wild beasts and perform various duties about the ring.
He staged a naval engagement on an artificial lake of salt water which
had sea-monsters swimming in it; also a ballet performance by certain
young Greeks, to whom he presented certificates of Roman citizenship
when their show ended. At one stage of the Minotaur ballet an
actor, disguised as a bull, actually mounted another who played Pasiphäe
and occupied the hindquarters of a hollow wooden heifer—or that, at
least, was the audience's impression. In the Daedalus and Icarus ballet, the actor who played Icarus, while attempting his first flight, fell beside Nero's couch and spattered him with blood.
Nero
rarely presided at shows of this sort, but would recline in the closed
Imperial box and watch through a window; later, however, he opened the
box. He inaugurated the Neronia, a festival of copetitions in music,
gymnastics, and horsemanship, modelled on the Greek ones and held every
five years; and simultaneously opened his Baths, which had a gymnasium
attached, and provided free oil for knights and senators. Ex-consuls,
drawn by lot, organized the Neronia, and occupied the Praetors' seats.
At the prize-giving Nero descended to the orchestra-stalls where the
Senators sat, to accept the laurel wreath for Latin oratory and verse,
which had been reserved for him by the unanimous vote of all the
distinguished competitors. The judges also awarded him the wreath for a
lyre solo, but he bowed reverently to them and said 'Pray lay it on the
ground before Augustus's statue!' At an athletic competition held in the
Enclosure, oxen were sacrificed on a lavish scale; that was when he
shaved his chin for the first time, put the hair in a pearl-studded gold
box and dedicated it to Capitoline Jupiter. He had invited the Vestal
Virgins to watch the athletics, explaining that Demeter's priestess at
Olympia were accorded the same privilege.
The
welcome given Tiridates when he visited Rome deserves inclusion in the
list of Neros' spectacles. Cloudy weather prevented Tiridates from being
displayed to the people on the day fixed by Imperial edict; however,
Nero brought him out as soon as possible afterwards. The Guards
battalions marched in full armour around the temples of the Forum, while
Nero occupied his curule chair on the Rostrum, wearing triumphal dress
and surrounded by military insignia and standards. Tiridates had to walk
up a ramp and then prostrate himself in supplication; whereupon Nero
stretched out his hand, drew him to his feet, kissed him, and replaced
his turban with a diadem. When Tiridates's supplication had been
translated into Latin by an interpreter and publicly recited, he was
taken to the Theatre (where he made a further supplication) and offered a
seat on Nero's right. The people then hailed Nero as a conqueror and,
after dedicating a laurel-wreath in the Capitol, he closed the double
doors of the Temple of Janus, as a sign that all war was at an end.
(...)
I
have separated this catalogue of Nero's less atrocious acts—some
forgiveable, some even praiseworthy—from the others; but I must begin to
list his follies and crimes.
Music
formed part of his childhood curriculum, and he early developed a taste
for it. Soon after his accession, he summoned Terpnus, the greatest
lyre-player of the day, to sing to him when dinner had ended, for
several nights in succession, until very late. Then, little by little,
he began to study and practise himself, and conscientiously undertook
all the usual exercises for strengthening and developing the voice. He
would lie on his back with a slab of lead on his chest, use enemas and
emetics to keep down his weight, and refrain from eating apples and
every other food considered deleterious to the vocal chords. Ultimately,
though his voice was still feeble and husky, he was pleased enough
with his progress to nurse theatrical ambitions, and would quote to his
friends the Greek proverb: 'Unheard melodies are never sweet'. His first
stage appearance was at Naples where, disregarding and earthquake,*
* It collapsed just after the audience had dispersed.
he
sang his piece thorugh to the end. He often performed at Naples, for
several consecutive days, too; and even while giving his voice a brief
rest, could not stay away from the theatre, but went to dine in the
orchestra where he promised the crowd in Greek that, when he had downed a
drink or two, he would give them something to make their ears ring. So
captivated was he by the rhythmic applause of some Alexandrian sailors
from a fleet which had just put in, that he sent to Egypt for more. He
also chose a few young knight, and more than 5,000 ordinary youths, whom
he divided into claques to learn the Alexandrian method of
applause—they were known, respectively, as 'Bees', 'Roof-tiles', and
'Brick-bats'—and provide it liberally whenever he sang.*
*The Bees made a loud humming noise. The Roof-tiles clapped with their hollowed hands; the Brick-bats, flat-handed.
It
was easy to recognize them by their bushy hair, splendid dress, and the
absence of rings on their left hands. The knights who led them earned
four gold pieces a performance.
Appearances
at Rome meant so much to Nero that he held the Neronia again before the
required five years elapsed. When the crowd clamored to hear his
heavenly voice, he answered that he would perform in the Palace gardens
later if anyone really wanted to hear him; but when the Guards on duty
seconded the appeal, he delightedly agreed to oblig them. He wasted no
time in getting his name entered on the list of competing lyre-players,
and dropped his ticket into the urn with the others. Guards colonels
carried his lyre as he went up to play, and a group of military tribunes
and close friends accompanied him. After taking his place and briefly
begging the audience's kind attention, he made Cluvius Rufus, the
ex-Consul, announce the title of the song. It was the whole of the opera
Niobe; and he sang on until two hours before dusk. Since this
allowed the remaining competitors no chance to perform, he postponed the
award of a prize to the following year, which would give him another
opportunity to sing. But since a year was a long time to wait, he
continued to make frequent appearances. He toyed with the ide of playing
professional actors in public shows staged by magistrates; because one
of the Praetors had offered him 10,000 gold pieces if he would consent.
And he did actually appear in operatic tragedies, taking the parts of
heroes and gods, sometimes even of heroines and goddesses, wearing masks
either modelled on his own face, or on the face of whatever woman
happened to be his current mistress. Among his performances were Canace in Childbirth, Orestes the Matricide, Oedipus Blinded, and Distraught Hercules.
There is a story that a young recruit on guard in the wings recognized
him in the rags and fetters demanded by the part of Hercules, and dashed
boldly to his assistance.
Horses
had been Nero's main interest since childhood; whatever his tutors
might do, they could never stop his chatter about the chariot races at
the Circus. When scolded by one of them for telling his fellow-pupils
about a Leek-Green charioteer who had the misfortune to get dragged by
his team, Nero untruthfully explained that he had been discussing
Hector's fate in the Iliad. At the beginning of his reign he used
every day to play with model ivory chariots on a board, and came up
from the country to attend all the races, even minor ones. at first in
secret and then without the least embarrassment; so that there was never
any doubt at Rome when he would be in residence. He frankly admitted
that he wished the number of prizes increased, which meant that the
contests now lasted until a late hour and the faction-managers no longer
thought it worth while to bring out their teams except for a full day's
racing.
Very
soon Nero set his heart on driving a chariot himself, in a regular
race, and after a preliminary trial in the Palace gardens before an
audience of slaves and loungers, made a public appearance at the Circus;
on this occasion one of his freedmen replaced the magistrate who
dropped the napkin as the starting signal.
However,
these amateur incursions into the arts at Rome did not satisfy him, and
he headed for Greece, as I mentioned above. His main reason was that
the cities which regularly sponsored musical contests had adopted the
practice of sending him every available prize for lyre-playing; he
always accepted those with great pleasure, giving the delegates the
earliest audience of the day and invitations to private dinners. They
would beg Nero to sing when the meal was over, and applaud his
performance to the echo, which made him announce: 'The Greeks alone arr
worthy of my genius; they really listen to music.' So he sailed off
hastily and, as soon as he arrived at Cassiope, gave his first song
recital before the altar of Jupiter Cassius; after which he went the
round of all the contests.
He
ordered these contests which normally took place only at long intervals
to be held during his visit, even if it meant repeating them; and brok
tradition at Olympia by introducing a musical co petition into the
athletic games. When Halius, his freeman-secretary, reminded him that he
was urgently needed at Rome, he would not be distracted by official
business, but answered: 'Yes, you have made yourself quite plain. I am
aware that you want me to go home; you will do far better, however, if
you encourage me to stay until I have proved myself worthy of my
reputation.'
No
one was allowed to leave the theatre during his recitals, however
pressing the reason, and the gates were kept barred. We read of women in
the audience giving birth, and of men being so bored with the music and
the applause that they furtively dropped down from the wall at the
rear, or shammed dead and were carried away for burial. Nero's stage
fright and general nervousness, his jealousy of rivals, and his awe of
the judges, were more easily seen than believed. Though usually gracious
and charming to other competitors, whom he treated as equals, he abused
them behind their backs, and often insulted them to their faces; and if
any were particularly good singers, he would bribe them not to do
themselves justice. Before every performance he would address the judges
wit hthe utmost deference, saying that he had done what he could, and
that the issue was now in Fortune's hands; but that since they were men
of judgement and experience, they would know how to eliminate the factor
of chance. When they told him not to worry he felt a little better, but
still anxious; and mistook the silence of some for severity, and the
embarrassment of others for disfavour, admitting that he suspected every
one of them.
He
strictly observed the rules, never daring to clear his throat an even
using his arm, rather than a handkerchief, to wipe the sweat from his
brow. Once, while actin in a tragedy, he dropped his sceptre and quickly
recovered it, but was terrified of disqualification. The accompanist,
however—who played a flute and made the necessary dumbshow to
illustrated the words—swore the slip had passed unnoticed, because the
audience were listening with such rapt attention; so he took heart
again. Nero insisted on announcing his own victories; which emboldened
him to enter the competition for heralds. To destroy every trace of
previous winners in these contests he ordered all their statues and
busts to be taken downk, dragged away with hooks, and hurled into public
privies. On several occasions he took part in hte chariot racingt, and
at Olympia drove a ten-horse team, a novelty for which he had censured
King Mithridates in one of his own poems. He lost his balance, fell from
the chariot and had to be helped in again; but, though he failed to
stay the course and retired before the finish, the judges nevertheless
awarded him the prize. On the eve of his departure, he presented the
whole province with its freedom and conferred Roman citizenship as well
as large cash rewards on the judges. It was during the Isthmian Games at
Corinth that he stood in the middle of the stadium and personally
announced these benefits.
Returning
to Italy, Nero disembarked at Naples, where he had made his debut as a
singer, and ordered part of the city wall to be razed—which is the Greek
custom whenever the victory in any of the Sacred Games comes home. He
repreated the same performance at Antium, at Alba Longa, and finally at
Rome. For his processional entry into Rome he chose tha charion which
Augustus had used in his triumph nearly a hundred years previously; and
wore a Greek mantle spangled with gold stars over a purple robe. The
Olympic wreath was on his head, the Pythian wreath in his right hand,
the others were carried before him, with placards explaining where and
against whom he had won them, what songs he had sung, and in what plays
he had acted. Nero's chariot was followed by his regular claque, who
shouted that they ware Augustus's men celebrating Augustus's triuph. The
procession passed through the Circus (he had the entrance arch pulled
down to allow more room, then by way of the Velabrum and the Forum to
the Palatine Hill and the Temple of Apollo. Victims were sacrificed in
his honour all along the route, which was sprinkled with perfume, and
the commons showered him with song-birds, ribbons, and sweetmeats as
compliments on his voice. He hung the wreaths above the couches in his
sleeping quarters, and set up several stautes of himself playing the
lyre. He also had a coin struck with the same device. After this, it
never occurred to him that he ought to refrain from singing, or even
sing a little less; but he saved his voice by addressing the troops only
in written orders, or in speeches delivered by someone else; and would
attend no entertainment or official business unless he had a
voice-trainer standing by, telling him when to spare his vocal chords,
and when to protect his mouth with a handkerchief. Whether he offered
people his friendship or plainly indicated his dislike for them, often
depended on how generously or how feebly they had applauded.
It
might have been possible to excuse his insolent, lustful, extravagant,
greedy, or cruel early practices (which were, I grant, more furtive than
aggressive), by saying that boys will be boys; yet at the same time,
this was clearly the true Nero, not merely Nero in his adolescence. As
soon as night fell he would snatch a hat or cap and make a round of the
taverns, or prowl the streets in search of mischief—and not always
innocent mischief either, because one of his games was to attack men on
their way home from dinner, stab them if they offered resistence, and
then drop their bodies down the sewers. He would also break into shops,
afterwards opening a miniature market at the Palace with the stolen
goods, dividing them up into lots, auctioning them himself, and
squandering the proceeds. During these escapades he often risked being
blinded or killed—once he was beaten almost to death by a senator whose
wife he had molested, which taught him never to go out after dark unless
an escort of senior officers was following him at a discreet distance.
He would even secretly visit the Theatr by day, in a sedan chair, and
watch the quarrels among the pantomime actors, cheering them on from the
top of the proscenium; then, when they cam to blows and fought it out
with stones and broken benches, he joined in the fun by throwing things
on the heads of the crowd. On one occasion he fractured a praetor's
skull.
Gradually
Nero's vices gained the upper hand: he no longer tried to laugh them
off, or hide, or deny them, but turned quite brazen. His feasts now
lasted from noon till midnight, with an occasional break for diving into
a warm bath or, if it were summer, into snow-cooled water. Sometimes he
would drain the artificial lake in the Campus Martius, or the other in
the Circus, and hold public dinner parties there, including prostitutes
and dancing-girls from all over the City among his guests. Whenever he
floated down the Tiber to Ostia, or cruised past Baiae, he had a row of
temporary brothels erected along the shore, where s number of
noblewomen, pretending to be madams, stood waiting to solicit his
cusstom. He also forced his friends to provide him with dinners; one of
them spent 40,000 gold pieces on a turban party, and another even more
on a rose banquet.
Not
satisfied wit hseducing free-born boys and married women, Nero raped
the Vestal Virgin Rubria. He nearly contrived to marry the freedwoman
Acte, by persuading some friends of consular rank to swear falsely that
she came of royal stock. Having tried to turn the boy Sporus into a girl
by castration, he went through a wedding ceremon y with him—dowry,
bridal veil and all—which the whole Court attended; then brought him
home, and treated him as a wife. He dressed Sporus in the fine clothes
normally worn by an Empress and took him in his own litter not only to
every Greek assize and fair, but actually through the Street of Images
at Rome, kissing him amorously now and then. A rather amusing joke is
still going the rounds: the world would have been aa happier place had
Nero's father Domitius married that sort of wife.
The
passion he felt for his mother, Agrippina, was notorious, but her
enemies would not let him consummate it, fearing that, if he did, she
would become even more powerful and ruthless than hitherto. So he found a
new mistress who was said to be her spit and image: some say that he
did, in fact, commit incet with Agrippina every time they rode in the
same litter—the state of his clothes when he emerged proved it.
Nero
practised every kind of obscenity, and at last invented a novel game:
he was released from a den dressed in the skins of wild animals, and
attacked the private parts of men and women who stood bound to stakes.
After working up sufficient excitement by this means, he was
despatched—shall we say?—by his freedman Doryphorus. Doryphorus now
married him—just as he himself had married Sporus—and on the wedding
night he imitated the screams and moans of a girl being deflowered.
According to my informants he was convinced that nobody could remain
sexually chaste, but that most people concealed their secret vices;
hence, if anyone confessed to obscene practices, Nero forgave him all
his other crimes.
