Nero

Lives of the Twelve Caesars: vol
6, Nero, The

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Title: The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Volume 6. [NERO]
Author: C. Suetonius Tranquillus
Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6391] [Yes, we are more than

one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on December 3,
2003]
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Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIVES OF
THE CAESARS, SUETONIUS, V6 ***

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THE LIVES OF THE TWELVE CAESARS
By C. Suetonius Tranquillus;
To which are added,
HIS LIVES OF THE GRAMMARIANS, RHETORICIANS, AND
POETS.
The Translation of Alexander Thomson, M.D.
revised and corrected by T.Forester, Esq., A.M.

(337)

NERO CLAUDIUS CAESAR.

I. Two celebrated families, the Calvini and Aenobarbi, sprung from the
race of the Domitii. The Aenobarbi derive both their extraction and
their cognomen from one Lucius Domitius, of whom we have this
tradition: --As he was returning out of the country to Rome, he was met
by two young men of a most august appearance, who desired him to
announce to the senate and people a victory, of which no certain
intelligence had yet reached the city. To prove that they were more than
mortals, they stroked his cheeks, and thus changed his hair, which was
black, to a bright colour, resembling that of brass; which mark of
distinction descended to his posterity, for they had generally red beards.
This family had the honour of seven consulships [548], one triumph
[549], and two censorships [550]; and being admitted into the patrician
order, they continued the use of the same cognomen, with no other
praenomina [551] than those of Cneius and Lucius. These, however,
they assumed with singular irregularity; three persons in succession
sometimes adhering to one of them, and then they were changed
alternately. For the first, second, and third of the Aenobarbi had the
praenomen of Lucius, and again the three following, successively, that
of Cneius, while those who came after were called, by turns, one,
Lucius, and the other, Cneius. It appears to me proper to give a short
account of several of the family, to show that Nero so far degenerated
from the noble qualities of his ancestors, that he retained only their
vices; as if those alone had been transmitted to him by his descent.
II. To begin, therefore, at a remote period, his great-grandfather's
grandfather, Cneius Domitius, when he was tribune of the people,
being offended with the high priests for electing another than himself in
the room of his father, obtained the (338) transfer of the right of
election from the colleges of the priests to the people. In his consulship
[552], having conquered the Allobroges and the Arverni [553], he made
a progress through the province, mounted upon an elephant, with a
body of soldiers attending him, in a sort of triumphal pomp. Of this
person the orator Licinius Crassus said, "It was no wonder he had a
brazen beard, who had a face of iron, and a heart of lead." His son,
during his praetorship [554], proposed that Cneius Caesar, upon the
expiration of his consulship, should be called to account before the
senate for his administration of that office, which was supposed to be

contrary both to the omens and the laws. Afterwards, when he was
consul himself [555], he tried to deprive Cneius of the command of the
army, and having been, by intrigue and cabal, appointed his successor,
he was made prisoner at Corsinium, in the beginning of the civil war.
Being set at liberty, he went to Marseilles, which was then besieged;
where having, by his presence, animated the people to hold out, he
suddenly deserted them, and at last was slain in the battle of Pharsalia.
He was a man