§48sed reuocato rursus impetu aliquid secretioris latebrae ad colligendum animum desiderauit, et offerente Phaonte liberto suburbanum suum inter Salariam et Nomentanam uiam circa quartum miliarium, ut erat nudo pede atque tunicatus, paenulam obsoleti coloris superinduit adopertoque capite et ante faciem optento sudario equum inscendit, quattuor solis comitantibus, inter quos et Sporus erat. statimque tremore terrae et fulgure aduerso pauefactus audiit e proximis castris clamorem militum et sibi aduersa et Galbae prospera ominantium, etiam ex obuiis uiatoribus quendam dicentem: 'hi Neronem persequuntur,' alium sciscitantem: 'ecquid in urbe noui de Nerone?' equo autem ex odore abiecti in uia cadaueris consternato, detecta facie agnitus est a quodam missicio praetoriano et salutatus. ut ad deuerticulum uentum est, dimissis equis inter fruticeta ac uepres per harundineti semitam aegre nec nisi strata sub pedibus ueste ad auersum uillae parietem euasit.
But having again checked his impulse, he desired some more secret hiding place to collect his mind; and when his freedman Phaon offered his suburban villa situated between the Salarian and Nomentan roads, near the fourth milestone, just as he was, barefoot and wearing only his tunic, he threw over himself a cloak of a faded colour, and with his head covered and a handkerchief held before his face, he mounted a horse, with only four companions, among whom was Sporus. And immediately, terrified by an earthquake and a flash of lightning directly in front of him, he heard from the nearby camp the shouting of the soldiers predicting disaster for himself and success for Galba, and also heard one of the passing travelers saying, 'These men are pursuing Nero,' and another asking, 'Is there any news from the city about Nero?' Moreover, when his horse shied at the scent of a corpse left in the road, his face was uncovered, and he was recognized and saluted by a retired praetorian soldier. When they came to the bypass, having dismissed the horses, through bushes and briars along a path through a reed-bed, with difficulty and only by laying garments under his feet, he made his way to the back wall of the villa.
ibi hortante eodem Phaonte, ut interim in specum egestae harenae concederet, negauit se uiuum sub terram iturum, ac parumper commoratus, dum clandestinus ad uillam introitus pararetur, aquam ex subiecta lacuna poturus manu hausit et: 'haec est,' inquit, 'Neronis decocta. ' dein diuolsa sentibus paenula traiectos surculos rasit, atque ita quadripes per angustias effossae cauernae receptus in proximam cellam decubuit super lectum modica culcita, uetere pallio strato, instructum; fameque et iterum siti interpellante panem quidem sordidum oblatum aspernatus est, aquae autem tepidae aliquantum bibit.
There, when the same Phaon urged him to withdraw for a while into a pit from which sand had been dug, he declared he would not go underground alive, and having waited a short time while a secret entrance to the villa was being prepared, he scooped up some water with his hand from a pool below to drink, and said, 'This is Nero's decoction.' Then, after his cloak was torn by the thorns, he scraped off the twigs that had run through it, and so on all fours, admitted through the narrow space of a dug-out hole, he lay down in the nearest small room upon a bed furnished with a mean mattress, over which an old cloak was spread; and when hunger and then thirst troubled him again, he refused indeed the coarse bread offered to him, but drank a little lukewarm water.
§49tunc uno quoque hinc inde instante ut quam primum se impendentibus contumeliis eriperet, scrobem coram fieri imperauit dimensus ad corporis sui modulum, componique simul, si qua inuenirentur, frusta marmoris et aquam simul ac ligna conferri curando mox cadaueri, flens ad singula atque identidem dictitans: 'qualis artifex pereo!'
Inter moras perlatos a cursore Phaonti codicillos praeripuit legitque se hostem a senatu iudicatum et quaeri, ut puniatur more maiorum, interrogauitque quale id genus esset poenae;
Then, as everyone on all sides was urging him to escape as soon as possible from the impending insults, he ordered a trench to be made in his presence, measured to the size of his own body, and at the same time pieces of marble, if any could be found, to be laid down, and water and wood to be brought together for the care of his corpse soon to be, weeping at each preparation and repeatedly saying, 'What an artist dies in me!' During these delays, he snatched from a courier the letters delivered to Phaon and read that he had been declared a public enemy by the senate and was being sought so that he might be punished in the ancient manner.
et cum comperisset nudi hominis ceruicem inseri furcae, corpus uirgis ad necem caedi, conterritus duos pugiones, quos secum extulerat, arripuit temptataque utriusque acie rursus condidit, causatus
"nondum adesse fatalem horam. "
ac modo Sporum hortabatur ut lamentari ac plangere inciperet, modo orabat ut se aliquis ad mortem capessendam exemplo iuuaret; interdum segnitiem suam his uerbis increpabat: 'uiuo deformiter, turpiter—οὐ πρέπει Νέρωνι, οὐ πρέπει—νήφειν δεῖ ἐν τοῖσ τοιούτοισ— ἄγε ἔγειρε σεαυτόν. ' iamque equites appropinquabant, quibus praeceptum erat ut uiuum eum adtraherent.
He asked what kind of punishment that was; and when he learned that a naked man's neck was fastened in a wooden fork, and his body beaten with rods to death, terrified, he snatched up two daggers which he had brought with him, and having tried the edge of both, sheathed them again, making the excuse, 'The fatal hour is not yet come.' And at one moment he urged Sporus to begin to wail and weep, and at another he begged that someone would help him by his example to undergo death; sometimes he reproached his own hesitation with these words: 'I live shamefully, disgracefully—it is not fitting for Nero, it is not fitting—one must be sober-minded in such circumstances—come, rouse yourself.' And now the horsemen were approaching, who had been ordered to bring him back alive.
quod ut sensit, trepidanter effatus:
"
ἵππων μ' ὠκυπόδων ἀμφὶ κτύποσ οὔατα βάλλει
"
ferrum iugulo adegit iuuante Epaphrodito a libellis. semianimisque adhuc irrumpenti centurioni et paenula ad uulnus adposita in auxilium se uenisse simulanti non aliud respondit quam: 'sero' et: 'haec est fides. ' atque in ea uoce defecit, extantibus rigentibusque oculis usque ad horrorem formidinemque uisentium.
When he perceived this, trembling he uttered: 'The thud of swift-footed horses strikes my ears,' and drove the blade into his throat, aided by Epaphroditus, his secretary. While he was still half-alive, to a centurion who burst in and held his cloak to the wound, pretending that he had come to help, he made no other answer than: 'Too late' and: 'This is loyalty.' And with that word he expired, with his eyes starting out and rigid, to the horror and terror of those who saw him.
nihil prius aut magis a comitibus exegerat quam ne potestas cuiquam capitis sui fieret, sed ut quoquo modo totus cremaretur.
He had demanded nothing sooner or more earnestly from his companions than that no one should have power over his head, but that by all means he should be cremated whole.
permisit hoc Icelus, Galbae libertus, non multo ante uinculis exolutus, in quae primo tumultu coniectus fuerat.
Icelus, Galba's freedman, permitted this; he had been released not long before from the chains into which he had been thrown at the beginning of the uprising.
§50Funeratus est impensa ducentorum milium, stragulis albis auro intextis, quibus usus Kal. Ian. fuerat.
He was buried at an expense of two hundred thousand sesterces, wrapped in the white blankets woven with gold which he had used on the Kalends of January.
reliquias Egloge et Alexandria nutrices cum Acte concubina gentili Domitiorum monimento condiderunt, quod prospicitur e campo Martio impositum colli Hortulorum.
His nurses, Egloge and Alexandria, together with his concubine Acte, laid his remains in the family tomb of the Domitii, which is visible from the Campus Martius, built upon the Hill of Gardens.
in eo monimento solium porphyretici marmoris, superstante Lunensi ara, circumsaeptum est lapide Thasio.
In that monument, a sarcophagus of porphyry marble, with an altar of Luna marble standing over it, was enclosed by Thasian stone.