In one a bull mounted Pasiphae, who was concealed in a wooden image of a heifer at least many of the spectators thought so. 2The pyrrhic dances represented various scenes.
He also exhibited a naval battle in salt water with sea monsters swimming about in it besides pyrrhic dances by some Greek youths, handing each of them certificates of Roman citizenship at the close of his performance. Even those who fought with the wild beasts and performed the various services in the arena were of the same orders. But he compelled four hundred senators and six hundred Roman knights, some of whom were well to do and of unblemished reputation, to fight in the arena. At the gladiatorial show, which he gave in a wooden amphitheatre, erected in the district of the Campus Martius within the space of a single year, he had no one put to death, not even criminals. Every day all kinds of presents were thrown to the people these included a thousand birds of every kind each day, various kinds of food, tickets for grain, clothing, gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, paintings, slaves, beasts of burden, and even trained wild animals finally, ships, blocks of houses, and farms.ġ2These plays he viewed from the top of the proscenium. 2At the plays which he gave for the “Eternity of the Empire,” which by his order were called the Ludi Maximi, parts were taken by several men and women of both the orders a well known Roman knight mounted an elephant and rode down a rope a Roman play of Afranius, too, was staged, entitled “The Fire,” and the actors were allowed to carry off the furniture of the burning house and keep it. For the games in the Circus he assigned places to the knights apart from the rest, and even matched chariots drawn by four camels. At the first mentioned he had even old men of consular rank and aged matrons take part. He read his poems too, not only at home but in the theatre as well, so greatly to the delight of all that a thanksgiving was voted because of his recital, while that part of his poems was inscribed in letters of gold and dedicated to Jupiter of the Capitol.ġ1He gave many entertainments of different kinds: the Juvenales, chariot races in the Circus, stage-plays, and a gladiatorial show. When the senate returned thanks to him, he replied, “When I shall have deserved them.” He admitted even the commons to witness his exercises in the Campus, and often declaimed in public. 2When he was asked according to custom to sign the warrant for the execution of a man who had been condemned to death, he said: “How I wish I had never learned to write!” He greeted men of all orders off-hand and from memory.
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He distributed four hundred sesterces to each man of the people, and granted to the most distinguished of the senators who were without means an annual salary, to some as much as five hundred thousand sesterces and to the praetorian cohorts he gave a monthly allowance of grain free of cost. He reduced the rewards paid to informers against violators of the Papian law to one fourth of the former amount.
The more oppressive sources of revenue he either abolished or moderated. He established a colony at Antium, enrolling the veterans of the praetorian guard and joining with them the wealthiest of the chief centurions, whom he compelled to change their residence and he also made a harbour there at great expense.ġ0To make his good intentions still more evident, he declared that he would rule according to the principles of Augustus, and he let slip no opportunity for acts of generosity and mercy, or even for displaying his affability. Indeed, on the first day of his rule he gave to the tribune on guard the watchword “The Best of Mothers,” and afterwards he often rode with her through the streets in her litter. He left to his mother the management of all public and private business. He paid the highest honours to the memory of his father Domitius. Nero 18–25 | About This Work »ĩThen beginning with a display of filial piety, he gave Claudius a magnificent funeral, spoke his eulogy, and deified him.
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