Seneca, it was said, to avert from himself the obloquy of sacrilege, begged for the seclusion of a remote rural retreat, and, when it was refused, feigning ill health, as though he had a nervous ailment, would not quit his chamber.According to some writers, poison was prepared for him at Nero's command by his own freedman, whose name was Cleonicus.This Seneca avoided through the freedman's disclosure, or his own apprehension, while he used to support life on the very simple diet of wild fruits, with water from a running stream when thirst prompted.
During the same time some gladiators in the town of Praeneste, who attempted to break loose, were put down by a military guard stationed on the spot to watch them, and the people, ever desirous and yet fearful of change, began at once to talk of Spartacus, and of bygone calamities.Soon afterwards, tidings of a naval disaster was received, but not from war, for never had there been so profound a peace.Nero, however, had ordered the fleet to return to Campania on a fixed day, without making any allowance for the dangers of the sea.
Consequently the pilots, in spite of the fury of the waves, started from Formiae, and while they were struggling to double the promontory of Misenum, they were dashed by a violent south-west wind on the shores of Cumae, and lost, in all directions, a number of their triremes with some smaller vessels.
At the close of the year people talked much about prodigies, presaging impending evils.Never were lightning flashes more frequent, and a comet too appeared, for which Nero always made propitiation with noble blood.Human and other births with two heads were exposed to public view, or were discovered in those sacrifices in which it is usual to immolate victims in a pregnant condition.And in the district of Placentia, close to the road, a calf was born with its head attached to its leg.Then followed an explanation of the diviners, that another head was preparing for the world, which however would be neither mighty nor hidden, as its growth had been checked in the womb, and it had been born by the wayside.
Silius Nerva and Atticus Vestinus then entered on the consulship, and now a conspiracy was planned, and at once became formidable, for which senators, knights, soldiers, even women, had given their names with eager rivalry, out of hatred of Nero as well as a liking for Caius Piso.A descendant of the Calpurnian house, and embracing in his connections through his father's noble rank many illustrious families, Piso had a splendid reputation with the people from his virtue or semblance of virtue.His eloquence he exercised in the defence of fellow-citizens, his generosity towards friends, while even for strangers he had a courteous address and demeanour.He had, too, the fortuitous advantages of tall stature and a handsome face.But solidity of character and moderation in pleasure were wholly alien to him.He indulged in laxity, in display, and occasionally in excess.
This suited the taste of that numerous class who, when the attractions of vice are so powerful, do not wish for strictness or special severity on the throne.
The origin of the conspiracy was not in Piso's personal ambition.
But I could not easily narrate who first planned it, or whose prompting inspired a scheme into which so many entered.That the leading spirits were Subrius Flavus, tribune of a praetorian cohort, and Sulpicius Asper, a centurion, was proved by the fearlessness of their death.Lucanus Annaeus, too, and Plautius Lateranus, imported into it an intensely keen resentment.Lucanus had the stimulus of personal motives, for Nero tried to disparage the fame of his poems and, with the foolish vanity of a rival, had forbidden him to publish them.As for Lateranus, a consul-elect, it was no wrong, but love of the State which linked him with the others.Flavius Scaevinus and Afranius Quintianus, on the other hand, both of senatorian rank, contrary to what was expected of them, undertook the beginning of this daring crime.Scaevinus, indeed, had enfeebled his mind by excess, and his life, accordingly, was one of sleepy languor.Quintianus, infamous for his effeminate vice, had been satirised by Nero in a lampoon, and was bent on avenging the insult.
So, while they dropped hints among themselves or among their friends about the emperor's crimes, the approaching end of empire, and the importance of choosing some one to rescue the State in its distress, they associated with them Tullius Senecio, Cervarius Proculus, Vulcatius Araricus, Julius Augurinus, Munatius Gratus, Antonius Natalis, and Marcius Festus, all Roman knights.Of these Senecio, one of those who was specially intimate with Nero, still kept up a show of friendship, and had consequently to struggle with all the more dangers.Natalis shared with Piso all his secret plans.The rest built their hopes on revolution.Besides Subrius and Sulpicius, whom Ihave already mentioned, they invited the aid of military strength, of Gavius Silvanus and Statius Proximus, tribunes of praetorian cohorts, and of two centurions, Maximus Scaurus and Venetus Paulus.