The Great Fire of Rome: The Fall of the Emperor Nero and His City (36 page)
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Authors: Stephen Dando-Collins
Tags: #History, #Ancient, #Rome
In addition to footraces and other physical events held at the sanctuary of Apollo’s stadium, the Pythian Games included competitions for singers, poets, and heralds, in the sanctuary’s theater. There were also horse and chariot races, held in a hippodrome down on the Plain of Crissa. Even today, it is possible to sit on the upper terraces of the Theater at Delphi, which is built into the mountainside, and enjoy a commanding view out over the plain where the equestrian events were held. At Delphi, Nero won the victor’s bay laurel wreath, time and again.
Nero was at last living the artistic life to which he had aspired. Meanwhile, his empire was crumbling around him.
XXIV
THE FALL OF NERO
I
n the spring of AD 67, new provincial governors appointed by Nero took up their postings. One such appointee was Cluvius Rufus, who up to this point had been introducing Nero’s stage performances in Greece; he became governor of Baetica, or Farther Gaul. Gaius Julius Vindex had also left the imperial party in Greece to become Nero’s governor of the province of Gallia Lugdunensis. Born in Gaul and the descendant of the onetime kings of Aquitania, Vindex was, according to Cassius Dio, ambitious, shrewd, and passionate.
1
Vindex, like so many other Roman senators, not only had shuddered at the purges of the past three years, but also had been horrified by the news that in Greece, Nero had recently gone through a “wedding” ceremony with a castrated youth named Sporus, a beautiful boy who resembled the late Poppaea Sabina, with Tigellinus giving away the “bride.”
n the spring of AD 67, new provincial governors appointed by Nero took up their postings. One such appointee was Cluvius Rufus, who up to this point had been introducing Nero’s stage performances in Greece; he became governor of Baetica, or Farther Gaul. Gaius Julius Vindex had also left the imperial party in Greece to become Nero’s governor of the province of Gallia Lugdunensis. Born in Gaul and the descendant of the onetime kings of Aquitania, Vindex was, according to Cassius Dio, ambitious, shrewd, and passionate.
1
Vindex, like so many other Roman senators, not only had shuddered at the purges of the past three years, but also had been horrified by the news that in Greece, Nero had recently gone through a “wedding” ceremony with a castrated youth named Sporus, a beautiful boy who resembled the late Poppaea Sabina, with Tigellinus giving away the “bride.”
By late AD 67, in the Middle East, Vespasian’s army had stormed one Jewish city after another in Galilee; the Jewish general and former rabbi Joseph was one of a handful of prisoners taken in the brutal siege of Jotopata. But Jerusalem was still in rebel hands. In Greece, Nero was competing at various games, as he had been for more than a year. In Gaul, Vindex made a decision. Summoning Gallic leaders to a conference, he made a speech about Nero, whom he disparagingly called Domitius Ahenobarbus, the name Nero bore before becoming emperor.
Vindex told his countrymen with disgust: “I have often heard him sing, play the herald, and act in tragedies,” (all of which Nero had only done during his current Greek tour, meaning Vindex must have accompanied him on that tour). “Will anyone, then, call such a person Caesar, and imperator, and Augustus? Never!” Vindex saw just one solution. “Rise now against him everywhere. Help yourselves, and help the Romans. Liberate the entire world!”
2
2
As the Gallic leaders went away to enthuse their own people and raise and equip a Gallic army, Vindex took control of the 1,500-man 18th Cohort of Rome’s City Cohorts, which was stationed at his provincial capital, Lugdunum, modern-day Lyon, guarding the imperial mint. Vindex now turned that mint from producing coins that depicted Nero playing the lyre to coins bearing images of Liberty and the motto “Salvation of Mankind.” At the same time, he wrote to the governors of other Roman provinces, urging them to support him in overthrowing Nero.
Several governors forwarded these letters to Rome for Nero’s attention; one such governor would have been Cluvius Rufus in Farther Spain. Helius, Nero’s loyal deputy at the Palatium, immediately wrote to the emperor to inform him of the problem and to urge him to return to Rome at once and take charge. But Nero was too absorbed in the business of theatrical competition and was looking forward to the Nemean Games over the winter. He ignored Helius’ urgent requests, instead writing to ask the Senate to declare Vindex an outlaw, which they did, ordering Verginius Rufus to lead the army of Upper Germany against him and putting a price of ten million sesterces on Vindex’s head.
When Vindex heard of this, he countered, “To the one who brings me the head of Domitius (Nero), I offer my own in exchange.”
3
3
One governor who received a letter from Vindex was sixty-nine-year-old Lucius Servius Galba, who had for the past eight years been Nero’s propraetor of Hispania Tarraconensis, or Nearer Spain, which was centered on the city of Tarraco, modern Tarragona in eastern Spain. On receiving Vindex’s letter, Galba had written back, offering moral support. Galba also spoke against Nero at a large gathering in his province. His troops hailed him
imperator
, in the style of old, but he refused to accept the honor. Controlling a single legion based in his province (the 10th Gemina) plus just three cohorts of auxiliaries and two squadrons of cavalry, Galba did not acquiesce to Vindex’s call for military support. Meanwhile, Verginius Rufus, governor of Upper Germany, responding to orders from Nero, ordered the mobilization of his four legions, which were in winter camp, for an advance into Gaul.
imperator
, in the style of old, but he refused to accept the honor. Controlling a single legion based in his province (the 10th Gemina) plus just three cohorts of auxiliaries and two squadrons of cavalry, Galba did not acquiesce to Vindex’s call for military support. Meanwhile, Verginius Rufus, governor of Upper Germany, responding to orders from Nero, ordered the mobilization of his four legions, which were in winter camp, for an advance into Gaul.
On January 1, when a crowd assembled at the Capitol gates in Rome to swear the usual vow of allegiance to Nero and offer prayers for his health and safety, the priests declared that the keys to the Capitoline complex had been lost, so that the ceremony and the prayers could not go ahead. Helius, Nero’s deputy, concerned by this display of defiance from the priests and worried by news that the Gauls were raising a massive army, gave up writing to Nero. Instead, Helius set off for Greece by warship, ignoring the winter weather, to confront the emperor in person with the threats at home and abroad. Seven days later, Helius arrived at the astonished Nero’s quarters and again put his case for his master’s immediate return to Rome.
“Yes, you have made yourself quite plain,” Nero irritably responded, according to Suetonius. “I am aware that you want me to go home. You will fare far better, however, if you encourage me to stay until I have proved myself worthy of Nero.”
4
4
Helius persisted, making it painfully clear to Nero that his throne was in danger if he was not seen to return to the capital and personally take charge. Unhappy though he was, Nero agreed. His staff and the members of the imperial entourage began preparations for a return to Italy by sea aboard warships of the Tyrrhenian Fleet.
Nero landed on the west coast of Italy in early March AD 68, then entered Neapolis celebrating his Greek theatrical victories like a triumphant general. Word had been sent ahead to demolish a section of the town wall, and now Nero entered the city through the gap, driving a chariot along streets lined with cheering Neapolitans and with a famous lyre-player beside him, and followed by hundreds of senators chanting his praises. This was how Panhellenic Games victors of ancient times had arrived home to their Greek cities.
Nero lingered there in Neapolis, reluctant to venture further north to Rome, even though, by all reports, the situation in Gaul was worsening. Writing to the Senate, he urged the House “to avenge himself and Rome” for Vindex’s insurrection, claiming that an infected throat prevented him from coming to the capital and addressing the Senate in person.
5
5
An army of one hundred thousand Gauls came together behind the rebel leader. “At last,” said Plutarch, “Vindex, plainly declaring war, wrote to Galba” again. This time, knowing that Verginius Rufus planned to march into Gaul with his legions, Vindex suggested that Galba “take the government for himself ” with the support of the Gauls and overthrow Nero.
6
6
When, shortly after, Rufus came down from the Rhine with his four legions and their twenty thousand supporting auxiliaries, the Gallic city of Vesontio, modern Besancon in central France, closed its gates to him. Rufus surrounded the city and lay siege to it. On hearing this, Vindex marched his army of Gauls to relieve Vesontio. The opposing forces camped near the city while their generals engaged in negotiations. Rufus, it turned out, was not averse to Nero’s removal. After an agreement was apparently reached between the two whereby Vindex would control Gaul and Spain and Galba would be given the remainder of the empire, Vindex marched his army up, as if to enter the city.
Rufus’ legionaries were chafing for a fight and for booty, and before Rufus could stop them, his legions attacked Vindex’s men, taking them entirely by surprise. In the battle that followed, Rufus’ forty thousand well-trained and well-equipped professional soldiers crushed the Gauls’ hundred thousand raw conscripts, killing twenty thousand of them, for minimal losses of their own. Vindex, trapped inside Vesontio, took his own life. Rufus’ men hailed their general
imperator
, tore the images of Nero from their standards, throwing them to the ground, and offered Rufus the throne. But he declined and led his troops back to their Rhine bases.
imperator
, tore the images of Nero from their standards, throwing them to the ground, and offered Rufus the throne. But he declined and led his troops back to their Rhine bases.
When Galba, in Spain, learned of Vindex’s defeat and Rufus’ withdrawal, he was “in great alarm” and wrote to Rufus, “exhorting him to join with him for the preservation of the empire and the liberty of the Romans.” Even the cavalrymen attached to the 10th Gemina Legion began talking of returning their allegiance to Nero. Taking a few friends with him, Galba hurriedly retired to the Spanish town of Clunia, “regretting his former rashness,” said Plutarch.
7
For now, Galba seemingly stood alone against Nero. Suetonius wrote that news of Vindex’s death so unnerved Galba that it “almost turned him to despair and suicide.”
8
Anxiously, Galba waited for events to take their course elsewhere.
7
For now, Galba seemingly stood alone against Nero. Suetonius wrote that news of Vindex’s death so unnerved Galba that it “almost turned him to despair and suicide.”
8
Anxiously, Galba waited for events to take their course elsewhere.
By the third week of March, Nero was still at Neapolis. It was the week of the Festival of Minerva, the ninth anniversary of the murder of his mother. In the morning, word arrived that Gallus’ army had defeated Vindex’s Gauls at Vesontio and that Vindex himself had committed suicide. Nero seemed unmoved by the news and in the afternoon attended wrestling contests at the city’s gymnasium. At one point, he jumped down from his tribunal and vied with one of the athletes.
That evening, a far more serious dispatch reached Nero while he was at dinner. In this message, Helius apparently informed the emperor that Verginius Rufus’ troops had offered their general the throne. Even this seemed not to bother the emperor. He merely threatened to punish the troops involved, then returned to his meal. For eight days, “apparently trying to ignore the whole affair,” in Suetonius’ opinion, Nero issued not a single order in relation to the upheaval in the west and made no special announcements.
9
At Rome, the Senate, concerned about the security of the state mint at Lugdunum, Vindex’s former capital, ordered Nero’s new legion, the 1st Italica, to march from Ravenna to Gaul to secure the city. The senator Rubrius Gallus hurried to Ravenna from Rome to take command of the unit and supporting auxiliary cavalry, and then lead them across the Alps.
9
At Rome, the Senate, concerned about the security of the state mint at Lugdunum, Vindex’s former capital, ordered Nero’s new legion, the 1st Italica, to march from Ravenna to Gaul to secure the city. The senator Rubrius Gallus hurried to Ravenna from Rome to take command of the unit and supporting auxiliary cavalry, and then lead them across the Alps.
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