§33Parricidia et caedes a Claudio exorsus est; cuius necis etsi non auctor, at conscius fuit, neque dissimulanter, ut qui boletos, in quo cibi genere uenenum is acceperat, quasi deorum cibum posthac prouerbio Graeco conlaudare sit solitus. certe omnibus rerum uerborumque contumeliis mortuum insectatus est, modo stultitiae modo saeuitiae arguens; nam et morari eum desisse inter homines producta prima syllaba iocabatur multaque decreta et constituta, ut insipientis atque deliri, pro irritis habuit; denique bustum eius consaepiri nisi humili leuique maceria neglexit.
He began his parricides and murders with Claudius; of whose death, even if he was not the instigator, he was at least aware, and that not secretly, since he was afterwards accustomed to praise mushrooms—the kind of food in which Claudius had received the poison—with a Greek proverb as "the food of the gods." Certainly, he pursued the deceased with every kind of insult in both deeds and words, accusing him now of folly, now of cruelty; for he would joke, by lengthening the first syllable, that he had ceased to linger among men, and he annulled many of his decrees and enactments as those of a foolish and doting man; finally, he neglected to enclose his funeral pyre with anything but a low and cheap stone wall.
Britannicum non minus aemulatione uocis, quae illi iucundior suppetebat, quam metu ne quandoque apud hominum gratiam paterna memoria praeualeret, ueneno adgressus est.
He attacked Britannicus with poison, no less from emulation of his voice, which was more agreeable than his own, than from fear lest he might one day prevail in popular favor through the memory of his father.
quod acceptum a quadam Lucusta, uenenariorum indice, cum opinione tardius cederet uentre modo Britannici moto, accersitam mulierem sua manu uerberauit arguens pro ueneno remedium dedisse;
Having received the poison from a certain Locusta, an informer on poisoners, when it worked more slowly than expected, only disturbing Britannicus' stomach, he summoned the woman and beat her with his own hand, accusing her of having given a remedy instead of poison.
excusantique minus datum ad occultandam facinoris inuidiam: 'sane,' inquit, 'legem Iuliam timeo,' coegitque se coram in cubiculo quam posset uelocissimum ac praesentaneum coquere.
When she excused herself by saying that she had given less in order to conceal the odium of the deed, he said, "To be sure, I suppose I fear the Julian law," and forced her to boil in his presence, in his own bedchamber, a poison as rapid and immediate as possible.
deinde in haedo expertus, postquam is quinque horas protraxit, iterum ac saepius recoctum porcello obiecit; quo statim exanimato inferri in triclinium darique cenanti secum Britannico imperauit.
Then, having tested it on a kid, after it survived for five hours, he boiled it down again and again and threw it to a pig; and when the animal died instantly, he ordered it to be brought into the dining room and given to Britannicus as he was dining with him.
et cum ille ad primum gustum concidisset, comitiali morbo ex consuetudine correptum apud conuiuas ementitus postero die raptim inter maximos imbres tralaticio extulit funere.
When he collapsed at the first taste, Nero lied to the guests that he had been seized by his usual epilepsy, and on the following day, hastily, in a heavy downpour of rain, he buried him with an ordinary funeral.
Lucustae pro nauata opera impunitatem praediaque ampla, sed et discipulos dedit.
To Locusta, for her active service, he granted impunity and ample estates, and even gave her pupils.
§34Matrem facta dictaque sua exquirentem acerbius et corrigentem hactenus primo grauabatur, ut inuidia identidem oneraret quasi cessurus imperio Rhodumque abiturus, mox et honore omni et potestate priuauit abductaque militum et Germanorum statione contubernio quoque ac Palatio expulit; neque in diuexanda quicquam pensi habuit, summissis qui et Romae morantem litibus et in secessu quiescentem per conuicia et iocos terra marique praeteruehentes inquietarent.
At first, he felt burdened by his mother, who inquired into and corrected his deeds and words too severely, to such an extent that he repeatedly burdened her with the odium of pretending that he would abdicate the empire and retire to Rhodes; soon he deprived her of all honor and power, and having withdrawn her guard of soldiers and Germans, expelled her also from companionship and from the Palatine; nor did he hold back from harassing her by any means, sending people to disturb her with lawsuits while she stayed in Rome, and to vex her with abuse and mockery as they passed by her on land and sea while she was resting in her retirement.
uerum minis eius ac uiolentia territus perdere statuit; et cum ter ueneno temptasset sentiretque antidotis praemunitam, lacunaria, quae noctu super dormientem laxata machina deciderent, parauit.
But being terrified by her threats and violence, he resolved to destroy her; and having three times tried poison and finding that she was fortified with antidotes, he prepared movable ceiling panels which, by a mechanism, might fall upon her as she slept at night.
hoc consilio per conscios parum celato solutilem nauem, cuius uel naufragio uel camarae ruina periret, commentus est atque ita reconciliatione simulata iucundissimis litteris Baias euocauit ad sollemnia Quinquatruum simul celebranda; datoque negotio trierarchis, qui liburnicam qua aduecta erat uelut fortuito concursu confringerent, protraxit conuiuium repetentique Baulos in locum corrupti nauigii machinosum illud optulit, hilare prosecutus atque in digressu papillas quoque exosculatus.
When this plan was poorly concealed by his accomplices, he devised a collapsible ship, by the shipwreck or the collapse of the cabin of which she might perish, and under the pretense of reconciliation, invited her by very sweet letters to Baiae to celebrate the festival of the Quinquatrus together; and having given orders to the captains of the triremes to break, as if by an accidental collision, the Liburnian vessel in which she had been brought, he prolonged the banquet, and as she was returning to Bauli, offered her that rigged ship in place of the damaged vessel, escorting her cheerfully and even kissing her breasts at her departure.
reliquum temporis cum magna trepidatione uigilauit opperiens coeptorum exitum.
The rest of the time he watched with great trepidation, awaiting the outcome of his enterprise.
sed ut diuersa omnia nandoque euasisse eam comperit, inops consilii L. Agermum libertum eius saluam et incolumem cum gaudio nuntiantem, abiecto clam iuxta pugione ut percussorem sibi subornatum arripi constringique iussit, matrem occidi, quasi deprehensum crimen uoluntaria morte uitasset.
But when he learned that everything had turned out otherwise, and that she had escaped by swimming and was safe and sound, and that her freedman Agermus was joyfully announcing this, being at his wits' end, he secretly dropped a dagger near him, and ordered him to be seized and bound as an assassin suborned against him, and his mother to be put to death, under the pretense that she had escaped the discovery of her crime by a voluntary death.
adduntur his atrociora nec incertis auctoribus: ad uisendum interfectae cadauer accurrisse, contrectasse membra, alia uituperasse, alia laudasse, sitique interim oborta bibisse.
To these acts, even more atrocious details are added on no uncertain authority: that he ran to view the corpse of the murdered woman, handled her limbs, criticized some and praised others, and in the meantime, being seized with thirst, took a drink.
neque tamen conscientiam sceleris, quanquam et militum et senatus populique gratulationibus confirmaretur, aut statim aut umquam postea ferre potuit, saepe confessus exagitari se materna specie uerberibusque Furiarum ac taedis ardentibus.
Yet he could not bear the consciousness of his crime, either immediately or ever after, although he was strengthened by the congratulations of the soldiers, the senate, and the people; and he often confessed that he was haunted by his mother's ghost, and by the whips and burning torches of the Furies.
quin et facto per Magos sacro euocare Manes et exorare temptauit.
Nay, he even attempted, by a sacrifice made through magicians, to evoke her spirit and placate it.
peregrinatione quidem Graeciae et Eleusinis sacris, quorum initiatione impii et scelerati uoce praeconis summouentur, interesse non ausus est.
Indeed, during his journey in Greece, he did not dare to attend the Eleusinian mysteries, at the initiation of which the impious and wicked are warned off by the voice of the herald.
Iunxit parricidio matris amitae necem.
To the murder of his mother he added that of his aunt.
quam cum ex duritie alui cubantem uisitaret, et illa tractans lanuginem eius, ut assolet, iam grandis natu per blanditias forte dixisset: 'simul hanc excepero, mori uolo,' conuersus ad proximos
"confestim se positurum"
uelut irridens ait, praecepitque medicis ut largius purgarent aegram; necdum defunctae bona inuasit suppresso testamento, ne quid abscederet.
When he visited her as she was confined to her bed by costiveness of the bowels, and she, stroking his downy beard as older people do, happened to say in a flattering manner: "As soon as I receive this, I am willing to die," he turned to his attendants and said as if in jest: "I will shave it off immediately," and ordered the physicians to purge the sick woman too violently; and before she was dead, he seized her property and suppressed her will, so that nothing should escape him.