§23nam et quae diuersissimorum temporum sunt, cogi in unum annum, quibusdam etiam iteratis, iussit et Olympiae quoque praeter consuetudinem musicum agona commisit.
For he even ordered those contests which belong to very different times to be brought together into a single year, some indeed being repeated, and also at Olympia, contrary to custom, he introduced a musical contest.
ac ne quid circa haec occupatum auocaret detineretue, cum praesentia eius urbicas res egere a liberto Helio admoneretur, rescripsit his uerbis:
"quamuis nunc tuum consilium sit et uotum celeriter reuerti me, tamen suadere et optare potius debes, ut Nerone dignus reuertar. "
Cantante eo ne necessaria quidem causa excedere theatro licitum est.
And lest anything should distract or detain him while occupied with these matters, when he was warned by his freedman Helius that city affairs required his presence, he wrote back in these words: "Although it is now your advice and wish that I return quickly, nevertheless you ought rather to persuade me and pray that I return worthy of Nero." While he was singing, it was not allowed to leave the theater even for a necessary cause.
itaque et enixae quaedam in spectaculis dicuntur et multi taedio audiendi laudandique clausis oppidorum portis aut furtim desiluisse de muro aut morte simulata funere elati.
And so, some women are said to have given birth during the spectacles, and many, out of weariness of listening and praising, since the gates of the towns were closed, either leaped down secretly from the wall or, having feigned death, were carried out for burial.
quam autem trepide anxieque certauerit, quanta aduersariorum aemulatione, quo metu iudicum, uix credi potest.
How anxiously and fearfully indeed he competed, with how much rivalry from his opponents, and with what fear of the judges, can scarcely be believed.
aduersarios, quasi plane condicionis eiusdem, obseruare, captare, infamare secreto, nonnumquam ex occursu maledictis incessere ac, si qui arte praecellerent, conrumpere etiam solebat.
He was accustomed to watch his opponents as if they were clearly of the same social standing, to court them, to defame them secretly, sometimes to attack them with insults when they met, and even to bribe any who excelled in art.
iudices autem prius quam inciperet reuerentissime adloquebatur,
"omnia se facienda fecisse, sed euentum in manu esse Fortunae; illos ut sapientis et doctos uiros fortuita debere excludere"
; atque, ut auderet hortantibus, aequiore animo recedebat, ac ne sic quidem sine sollicitudine, taciturnitatem pudoremque quorundam pro tristitia et malignitate arguens suspectosque sibi dicens in certando uero ita legi oboediebat, ut numquam excreare ausus sudorem quoque frontis brachio detergeret; §24atque etiam in tragico quodam actu, cum elapsum baculum cito resumpsisset, pauidus et metuens ne ob delictum certamine summoueretur, non aliter confirmatus est quam adiurante hypocrita non animaduersum id inter exultationes succlamationesque populi.
The judges, however, before he began, he would address most respectfully, saying that "he had done everything that ought to be done, but the outcome was in the hand of Fortune; they, as wise and learned men, ought to exclude accidental factors"; and when they encouraged him to be of good courage, he would withdraw with a calmer mind, and yet not even so without anxiety, interpreting the silence and modesty of some as sullenness and ill-will, and saying that they were suspect to him; during the competition indeed he obeyed the law of the contest so strictly that he never dared to clear his throat, and even wiped the sweat from his forehead with his arm; and even in a certain tragic performance, when he had quickly picked up a dropped staff, terrified and fearing lest he should be disqualified from the contest because of the slip, he was reassured only by the fellow-actor swearing that it had not been noticed among the cheers and shouts of the people.
uictorem autem se ipse pronuntiabat; qua de causa et praeconio ubique contendit.
He moreover used to declare himself the victor; for which reason he also competed everywhere in the herald's contest.
ac ne cuius alterius hieronicarum memoria aut uestigium extaret usquam, subuerti et unco trahi abicique in latrinas omnium statuas et imagines imperauit.
And so that no memory or trace of any other victor of the sacred games should remain anywhere, he ordered all their statues and busts to be thrown down, dragged with a hook, and cast into the latrines.
aurigauit quoque plurifariam, Olympiis uero etiam decemiugem, quamuis id ipsum in rege Mithradate carmine quodam suo reprehendisset; sed excussus curru ac rursus repositus, cum perdurare non posset, destitit ante decursum; neque eo setius coronatus est.
He also drove chariots in many places, and at Olympia indeed even a ten-horse chariot, although he had censured this very thing in king Mithridates in a certain poem of his; but having been thrown from the chariot and put back in again, since he could not hold out, he stopped before the end of the race; nevertheless, he was crowned.
decedens deinde prouinciam uniuersam libertate donauit simulque iudices ciuitate Romana et pecunia grandi.
On his departure, he then gifted the entire province with freedom, and at the same time the judges with Roman citizenship and a large sum of money.
quae beneficia e medio stadio Isthmiorum die sua ipse uoce pronuntiauit.
These favors he himself announced with his own voice from the middle of the stadium on the day of the Isthmian games.
§25Reuersus e Graecia Neapolim, quod in ea primum artem protulerat, albis equis introiit disiecta parte muri, ut mos hieronicarum est; simili modo Antium, inde Albanum, inde Romam; sed et Romam eo curru, quo Augustus olim triumphauerat, et in ueste purpurea distinctaque stellis aureis chlamyde coronamque capite gerens Olympiacam, dextra manu Pythiam, praeeunte pompa ceterarum cum titulis, ubi et quos quo cantionum quoue fabularum argumento uicisset; sequentibus currum ouantium ritu plausoribus, Augustianos militesque se triumphi eius clamitantibus.
Having returned from Greece to Neapolis, because he had first displayed his art there, he entered with white horses through a breached part of the wall, as is the custom of victors in the sacred games; in like manner Antium, thence Albanum, thence Rome; but to Rome indeed in that chariot in which Augustus had once triumphed, and in a purple robe and a Greek cloak adorned with golden stars, wearing the Olympic crown on his head, and carrying the Pythian one in his right hand, with a procession of the other crowns going before him with inscriptions, showing where, whom, and in what song or in what dramatic plot he had defeated; with applauders following the chariot in the manner of those celebrating an ovation, shouting out that they were the Augustiani and the soldiers of his triumph.
dehinc diruto circi maximi arcu per Velabrum forumque Palatium et Apollinem petit.
Thereupon, having demolished an arch of the Circus Maximus, he made his way through the Velabrum and the Forum to the Palatine and the temple of Apollo.
incedenti passim uictimae caesae sparso per uias identidem croco ingestaeque aues ac lemnisci et bellaria.
As he advanced, victims were slain everywhere, saffron was repeatedly scattered along the streets, and birds, ribbons, and sweetmeats were showered upon him.
sacras coronas in cubiculis circum lectos posuit, item statuas suas citharoedico habitu, qua nota etiam nummum percussit ac post haec tantum afuit a remittendo laxandoque studio, ut conseruandae uocis gratia neque milites umquam, nisi absens aut alio uerba pronuntiante, appellaret neque quicquam serio iocoue egerit, nisi astante phonasco, qui moneret
"parceret arteriis ac sudarium ad os applicaret"
; multisque uel amicitiam suam optulerit uel simultatem indixerit, prout quisque se magis parciusue laudasset.
He placed the sacred crowns in his bedrooms around his beds, and likewise his own statues in the attire of a citharode, with which image he also struck a coin. And after this, he was so far from relaxing or slackening his practice, that for the sake of preserving his voice he never addressed the soldiers except when absent or with someone else pronouncing the words, nor did he do anything in earnest or in jest unless a voice-trainer was standing by to warn him "to spare his windpipe and apply a handkerchief to his mouth"; and to many he either offered his friendship or declared hostility, according as each had praised him more or more sparingly.