§35Vxores praeter Octauiam duas postea duxit, Poppaeam Sabinam quaestorio patre natam et equiti R. antea nuptam, deinde Statiliam Messalinam Tauri bis consulis ac triumphalis abneptem.
He afterwards married two wives besides Octavia: Poppaea Sabina, daughter of a father of quaestorian rank and previously married to a Roman knight, and then Statilia Messalina, great-great-granddaughter of Taurus, who was twice consul and celebrated a triumph.
qua ut poteretur, uirum eius Atticum Vestinum consulem in honore ipso trucidauit.
In order to possess her, he murdered her husband Atticus Vestinus, the consul, during his very term of office.
Octauiae consuetudinem cito aspernatus, corripientibus amicis
"sufficere illi debere"
respondit
"uxoria ornamenta. "
eandem mox saepe frustra strangulare meditatus dimisit ut sterilem, sed improbante diuortium populo nec parcente conuiciis, etiam relegauit, denique occidit sub crimine adulteriorum adeo inpudenti falsoque, ut in quaestione pernegantibus cunctis Anicetum paedagogum suum indicem subiecerit, qui fingeret† dolo stupratam a se fateretur.
Quickly conceiving a dislike for Octavia's company, when his friends reproached him, he replied that "the bridal ornaments ought to be sufficient for her." Soon, after often attempting in vain to strangle her, he divorced her on the ground of sterility; but since the people disapproved of the divorce and did not spare their reproaches, he even banished her, and finally put her to death under a charge of adultery so impudent and false that, when everyone denied it under examination, he set up his own tutor Anicetus as a false accuser, who was to pretend and confess that she had been violated by him through trickery.
Poppaeam duodecimo die post diuortium Octauiae in matrimonium acceptam dilexit unice; et tamen ipsam quoque ictu calcis occidit, quod se ex aurigatione sero reuersum grauida et aegra conuiciis incesserat.
He loved Poppaea uniquely, whom he married twelve days after his divorce from Octavia; and yet he killed her too with a kick, because, when she was pregnant and ill, she had assailed him with reproaches when he returned late from chariot racing.
ex hac filiam tulit Claudiam Augustam amisitque admodum infantem.
By her he had a daughter, Claudia Augusta, but lost her while she was still an infant.
Nullum adeo necessitudinis genus est, quod non scelere perculerit.
There was no kind of relationship indeed which he did not shatter with crime.
Antoniam Claudi filiam, recusantem post Poppaeae mortem nuptias suas, quasi molitricem nouarum rerum interemit; similiter ceteros aut affinitate aliqua sibi aut propinquitate coniunctos;
Antonia, the daughter of Claudius, who refused to marry him after the death of Poppaea, he put to death on the pretense that she was plotting a revolution; and in like manner, all others who were connected to him by any marriage alliance or blood relationship.
in quibus Aulum Plautium iuuenem, quem cum ante mortem per uim conspurcasset: 'eat nunc,' inquit, 'mater mea et successorem meum osculetur,' iactans dilectum ab ea et ad spem imperii impulsum.
Among these was the young Aulus Plautius, whom, after having forcibly defiled him before his death, he said: "Let my mother go now and kiss my successor," boasting that he had been loved by her and urged on to hope for the empire.
priuignum Rufrium Crispinum Poppaea natum, impuberem adhuc, quia ferebatur ducatus et imperia ludere, mergendum mari, dum piscaretur, seruis ipsius demandauit.
His stepson Rufrius Crispinus, Poppaea's son, while still a boy, because he was reported to play at being a general and emperor, he ordered his own slaves to drown in the sea while he was fishing.
Tuscum nutricis filium relegauit, quod in procuratione Aegypti balineis in aduentum suum extructis lauisset.
He banished Tuscus, the son of his nurse, because during his procuratorship of Egypt he had bathed in the baths constructed for his own arrival.
Senecam praeceptorem ad necem compulit, quamuis saepe commeatum petenti bonisque cedenti persancte iurasset suspectum se frustra periturumque potius quam nociturum ei.
He drove Seneca, his tutor, to suicide, although he had solemnly sworn to him, when Seneca often begged for retirement and gave up his possessions, that he was suspected in vain and that he would rather die than do him any harm.
Burro praefecto remedium ad fauces pollicitus toxicum misit.
To Burrus, the prefect, having promised a remedy for his throat, he sent poison.
libertos diuites et senes, olim adoptionis mox dominationis suae fautores atque rectores, ueneno partim cibis partim potionibus indito intercepit.
Wealthy and elderly freedmen, who had once been the promoters and guides first of his adoption and soon of his rule, he cut off by poison, administered partly in their food and partly in their drink.
§36Nec minore saeuitia foris et in exteros grassatus est.
Nor did he rage with less cruelty against those abroad and strangers.
stella crinita, quae summis potestatibus exitium portendere uulgo putatur, per continuas noctes oriri coeperat.
A comet, which is commonly believed to portend destruction to supreme rulers, had begun to rise for several consecutive nights.
anxius ea re, ut ex Balbillo astrologo didicit, solere reges talia ostenta caede aliqua illustri expiare atque a semet in capita procerum depellere, nobilissimo cuique exitium destinauit; enimuero multo magis et quasi per iustam causam duabus coniurationibus prouulgatis, quarum prior maiorque Pisoniana Romae, posterior Viniciana Beneuenti conflata atque detecta est.
Anxious about this matter, when he learned from the astrologer Balbillus that kings were accustomed to expiate such portents with some illustrious slaughter and turn them from themselves onto the heads of the nobility, he destined all the most noble to destruction; and indeed much more so, and as if with a just cause, when two conspiracies were made public, of which the first and larger, the Pisonian, was hatched and detected at Rome, and the later, the Vinician, at Beneventum.
coniurati e uinculis triplicium catenarum dixere causam, cum quidam ultro crimen faterentur, nonnulli etiam imputarent, tamquam
"aliter illi non possent nisi morte succurrere dedecorato flagitiis omnibus. "
damnatorum liberi urbe pulsi enecti que ueneno aut fame; constat quosdam cum paedagogis et capsaris uno prandio pariter necatos, alios diurnum uictum prohibitos quaerere.
The conspirators pleaded their cause from bonds of triple chains, while some voluntarily confessed their crime, and some even claimed merit for it, on the ground that "they could not help him, who was disgraced by every kind of infamy, otherwise than by death." The children of the condemned were banished from the city and killed by poison or hunger; it is well known that some, together with their tutors and book-bearers, were killed at a single meal, while others were forbidden to seek their daily food.
§37Nullus posthac adhibitus dilectus aut modus interimendi quoscumque libuisset quacumque de causa.
After this, no selection or limit was observed in putting to death whomever he pleased, for whatever cause.
sed ne de pluribus referam, Saluidieno Orfito obiectum est quod tabernas tres de domo sua circa forum ciuitatibus ad stationem locasset, Cassio Longino iuris consulto ac luminibus orbato, quod in uetere gentili stemmate C. Cassi percussoris Caesaris imagines retinuisset, Paeto Thraseae tristior et paedagogi uultus.
But not to report concerning too many, Salvidienus Orfitus was accused because he had rented three shops belonging to his house near the Forum to foreign cities for their delegations; Cassius Longinus, a jurist and deprived of his sight, because he had retained among his ancient family ancestral busts the images of Gaius Cassius, the assassin of Caesar; Paetus Thrasea, because his face was too somber and like that of a pedagogue.
mori iussis non amplius quam horarum spatium dabat; ac ne quid morae interueniret, medicos admouebat qui cunctantes continuo curarent: ita enim uocabatur uenas mortis gratia incidere.
To those ordered to die, he granted no more than the space of an hour; and that no delay might intervene, he applied physicians who were to immediately "cure" those who hesitated: for that was the term used for cutting veins for the sake of death.
creditur etiam polyphago cuidam Aegypti generis crudam carnem et quidquid daretur mandere assueto, concupisse uiuos homines laniandos absumendosque obicere.
It is also believed that he desired to throw living men to a certain glutton of Egyptian origin, who was accustomed to devour raw flesh and whatever was given to him, to be torn to pieces and consumed.
elatus inflatusque tantis uelut successibus negauit
"quemquam principum scisse quid sibi liceret"
, multasque nec dubias significationes saepe iecit, ne reliquis quidem se parsurum senatoribus, eumque ordinem sublaturum quandoque e re p. ac prouincias et exercitus equiti R. ac libertis permissurum.
Elated and puffed up by such great successes, as it were, he declared that "no prince had ever known what was permitted to him," and he often threw out many and unmistakable hints that he would not spare even the remaining senators, and that he would one day remove that order from the state and entrust the provinces and armies to Roman knights and freedmen.
certe neque adueniens neque proficiscens quemquam osculo impertiit ac ne resalutatione quidem; et in auspicando opere Isthmi magna frequentia clare ut sibi ac populo R. bene res uerteret optauit dissimulata senatus mentione.
Certainly, neither upon arriving nor departing did he bestow a kiss upon anyone, nor even return a greeting; and in inaugurating the work on the Isthmus, in the presence of a great crowd, he prayed aloud that the undertaking might turn out well for himself and the Roman people, suppressing any mention of the senate.