Chapter 1 Flashcards
Gaio Vips[t]ano [C.] Fonteio consulibus diu meditatum scelus non ultra Nero distulit, vetustate imperii coalita audacia et flagrantior in dies amore Poppaeae, quae sibi matrimonium et discidium Octaviae incolumi Agrippina haud sperans crebris criminationibus, aliquando per facetias incusare principem et pupillum vocare, qui iussis alienis obnoxius non modo imperii, sed libertatis etiam indigeret.
With Gaius Vipsanius and Caius Fonteius as consuls, Nero did not put off any longer the wickedness he had contemplated for a long time, his audacity taking root with the increasing length of his power and burning more day by day with his love for Poppaea, who was not hoping for a marriage to him and the divorce from Octavius while Agrippina was still safe and she was accusing him with frequent accusation sometimes through cutting remarks and called him an emperor and an orphan who was at the mercy of someone else’s orders and had not even his own power, but also lacked freedom of action.
cur enim differri nuptias suas? formam scilicet displicere et triumphales avos, an fecunditatem et verum animum? timeri ne uxor saltem iniurias patrum, iram populi adversus superbiam avaritiamque matris aperiat.
For why was her marriage deferred? No doubt her beauty and the triumphs of her ancestors that failed to please, or her fertility or true spirit. No, it was feared that as a wife she should reveal at least the outrageous behaviour of the senate, the anger of the people at the pride and greed of his mother.
quod si nurum Agrippina non nisi filio infestam ferre posset, redde[re]tur ipsa Othonis coniugio: ituram quoque terrarum, ubi audiret potius contumelias imperatoris quam viseret periculis eius immixta.
But if the only daughter-in-law that Agrippina could put up with was one who was hostile to her son, let her be restored to her marriage to Otho, she would go to wherever in the world where she would hear of the rough treatment piled on the emperor rather than observing it and be mixed up in his perils.
haec atque talia lacrimis et arte adulterae penetrantia nemo prohibebat, cupientibus cunctis infringi potentiam matris et credente nullo usque ad caedem eius duratura filii odia.
These and many other complaints, made possible by tears and the skill of an adulteress, no-one stopped, since all desired the mother’s power to be broken and no-one believed that the son’s hatred would endure right up to her murder.
