§42Nec minore cura Graeca studia secutus est, amorem praestantiamque linguae occasione omni professus.
Nor did he pursue Greek studies with any less care, declaring his love for and the excellence of the language on every occasion.
cuidam barbaro Graece ac Latine disserenti: 'cum utroque,' inquit, 'sermone nostro sis paratus'; et in commendanda patribus conscriptis Achaia, gratam sibi prouinciam ait communium studiorum commercio; ac saepe in senatu legatis perpetua oratione respondit.
To a certain barbarian who was speaking in Greek and Latin, he said: "Since you are prepared with both of our languages"; and in recommending Achaia to the conscript fathers, he said that this province was dear to him because of the exchange of common studies; and he often replied to ambassadors in the senate in a continuous speech.
multum uero pro tribunali etiam Homericis locutus est uersibus.
Indeed, he also spoke much on the tribunal using Homeric verses.
quotiens quidem hostem uel insidiatorem ultus esset, excubitori tribuno signum de more poscenti non temere aliud dedit quam:
ἄνδρ' ἀπαμύνασθαι, ὅτε τισ πρότερος χαλεπήνῃ. Denique et Graecas scripsit historias, Tyrrhenicon uiginti, Carchedoniacon octo. quarum causa ueteri Alexandriae Musio additum ex ipsius nomine nouum; institutumque ut quotannis in altero Tyrrhenicon libri, in altero Carchedoniacon diebus statutis uelut in auditorio recitarentur toti a singulis per uices.
Whenever he had avenged himself on an enemy or a conspirator, he rarely gave any other password to the tribune of the guard when asking for it in the customary manner than: "To ward off a man when he is the first to do you harm." Finally, he even wrote histories in Greek, twenty books of "Tyrrhenica" and eight of "Carchedoniaca." For the sake of these, a new Museum was added to the old one at Alexandria, named after him; and it was established that every year, on appointed days, the books of the "Tyrrhenica" in one, and those of the "Carchedoniaca" in the other, should be read in their entirety by single readers in turn, as if in a lecture hall.
§43Sub exitu uitae signa quaedam nec obscura paenitentis de matrimonio Agrippinae deque Neronis adoptione dederat, siquidem commemorantibus libertis ac laudantibus cognitionem, qua pridie quandam adulterii ream condemnarat, sibi quoque in fatis esse iactauit omnia impudica, sed non impunita matrimonia; et subinde obuium sibi Britannicum artius complexus hortatus est, ut cresceret rationemque a se omnium factorum acciperet; Graeca insuper uoce prosecutus: ὁ τρώσασ ἰάσεται. cumque impubi teneroque adhuc, quando statura permitteret, togam dare destinasset, adiecit: 'ut tandem populus R. uerum Caesarem habeat. ' §44non multoque post testamentum etiam conscripsit ac signis omnium magistratuum obsignauit.
Near the end of his life, he had given certain and by no means obscure signs of repenting of his marriage to Agrippina and his adoption of Nero, since when his freedmen were mentioning and praising the trial in which he had condemned a certain woman accused of adultery the day before, he boasted that it was also his destiny to have marriages that were all unchaste, yet not unpunished; and soon after, embracing Britannicus, whom he happened to meet, very closely, he exhorted him to grow up and receive from him an account of all his deeds; adding besides in Greek: "He who wounded shall heal." And when he had determined to give the toga to him, who was still under age and tender, as soon as his stature would permit, he added: "So that at last the Roman people may have a true Caesar." And not long after he also wrote his testament and sealed it with the seals of all the magistrates.
prius igitur quam ultra progrederetur, praeuentus est ab Agrippina, quam praeter haec conscientia quoque nec minus delatores multorum criminum arguebant.
Therefore, before he could proceed any further, he was prevented by Agrippina, whom besides these things her own conscience and no less the informers of many crimes were accusing.
Et ueneno quidem occisum conuenit; ubi autem et per quem dato, discrepat.
And indeed it is agreed that he was killed by poison; but where and by whom it was given, there is disagreement.
quidam tradunt epulanti in arce cum sacerdotibus per Halotum spadonem praegustatorem; alii domestico conuiuio per ipsam Agrippinam, quae boletum medicatum auidissimo ciborum talium optulerat.
Some report that it was while he was feasting in the citadel with the priests, by Halotus the eunuch, his taster; others, at a family banquet, by Agrippina herself, who had offered a poisoned mushroom to him, who was exceedingly fond of such food.
etiam de subsequentibus diuersa fama est.
There is also diverse rumor about what followed.
multi statim hausto ueneno obmutuisse aiunt excruciatumque doloribus nocte tota defecisse prope lucem.
Many say that immediately upon swallowing the poison he became speechless, and being racked with pains, died during the whole night near dawn.
nonnulli inter initia consopitum, deinde cibo affluente euomuisse omnia, repetitumque toxico, incertum pultine addito, cum uelut exhaustum refici cibo oporteret, an immisso per clystera, ut quasi abundantia laboranti etiam hoc genere egestionis subueniretur.
Some say that at the beginning he fell asleep, then as the food overflowed he vomited everything, and was attacked again with poison, though it is uncertain whether it was added to his gruel, when he had to be refreshed with food as if exhausted, or administered by an enema, so that as if laboring under fullness he might be helped by this kind of evacuation as well.
§45mors eius celata est, donec circa successorem omnia ordinarentur.
His death was concealed until everything could be arranged regarding his successor.
itaque et quasi pro aegro adhuc uota suscepta sunt et inducti per simulationem comoedi, qui uelut desiderantem oblectarent.
And so vows were undertaken as if he were still sick, and comic actors were brought in under pretense of entertaining him as if he desired it.
excessit III. Id. Octob. Asinio Marcello Acilio Auiola coss. sexagesimo quarto aetatis, imperii quarto decimo anno, funeratusque est sollemni principum pompa et in numerum deorum relatus; quem honorem a Nerone destitutum abolitumque recepit mox per Vespasianum.
He passed away on the third day before the Ides of October in the consulship of Asinius Marcellus and Acilius Aviola, in the sixty-fourth year of his age and the fourteenth of his reign, and was buried with the solemn funeral procession of emperors and enrolled among the number of the gods; which honor, neglected and abolished by Nero, he soon recovered through Vespasian.
§46praesagia mortis eius praecipua fuerunt: exortus crinitae stellae, quam cometen uocant, tactumque de caelo monumentum Drusi patris, et quod eodem anno ex omnium magistratuum genere plerique mortem obierant.
The principal omens of his death were: the rising of a hairy star, which they call a comet, the striking by lightning of the monument of his father Drusus, and the fact that in the same year most of the magistrates of every kind had died.
sed nec ipse ignorasse aut dissimulasse ultima uitae suae tempora uidetur, aliquot quidem argumentis.
But he himself also seems not to have been ignorant of or to have concealed the final period of his life, indeed by several proofs.
nam et cum consules designaret, neminem ultra mensem quo obiit designauit, et in senatu, cui nouissime interfuit, multum ad concordiam liberos suos cohortatus, utriusque aetatem suppliciter patribus commendauit, et in ultima cognitione pro tribunali accessisse ad finem mortalitatis, quanquam abominantibus qui audiebant, semel atque iterum pronuntiauit.
For when he was designating consuls, he designated no one beyond the month in which he died, and in the senate, which he attended for the very last time, having strongly exhorted his children to harmony, he suppliantly commended the youth of both to the fathers, and in his last trial on the tribunal, he declared once and again that he had reached the end of mortal life, although those who heard it deprecated the omen.