Chapter 22 Flashcards
Inter quae sidus cometes effulsit, de quo vulgi opinio est, tamquam mutationem regis portendat. igitur, quasi iam depulso Nerone, quisnam deligeretur anquirebant. et omnium ore Rubellius Plautus celebra[ba]tur, cui nobilitas per matrem ex Iulia familia.
Meanwhile comets shone out, from which common opinion, it was as if it indicated a revolution of the ruler. Therefore, as Nero had already been deposed, they were asking who was elected, and Rubellius Plautas was celebrated on everyone’s lips, who had nobility of the Julian family, through his mother.
ipse placita maiorum colebat, habitu severo, casta et secreta domo, quantoque metu occultior, tanto plus famae adeptus.
He himself cultivated the beliefs of our ancestors, with a serious character, a chaste and secluded home, the more he was hidden through fear, the more fame he attained.
auxit rumorem pari vanitate orta interpretatio fulguris. nam quia discumbentis Neronis apud Simbruina stagna [in villa], cui Sublaqueum nomen est, ictae dapes mensaque disiecta erat,
An interpretation of a lightning flash increased the rumour with equal foolishness had arisen. For since, while Nero was lying down, at the Lake of Simbrivium in his villa which was named the Villa under the Lakes, the sacrificial meal had been struck and the table had been thrown apart.
idque finibus Tiburtum acciderat, unde paterna Plauto origo, hunc illum numine deum destinari credebant,
And this has happened at the borders of the inhabitants of Tibur, from whence Plautas’ ancestors originated, it was believed that this was he who was marked out by the power of the Gods.
fovebantque multi, quibus nova et ancipitia praecolere avida et plerumque fallax ambitio est.
Many were cherishing him who were greedy and many deceitful with desire for ambition cultivated beforehand, new and anticipated things.
ergo permotus his Nero componit ad Plautum litteras, consuleret quieti urbis seque prava diffamantibus subtraheret: esse illi per Asiam avitos agros, in quibus tuta et inturbida iuventa frueretur. ita illuc cum coniuge Antistia et paucis familiarium concessit.]
Therefore Nero unsettled by these things wrote a letter to Plautas, in which he advised him to consider the peaceful conditions of the city, and withdraw himself from those spreading impure things, that he had ancestral land through Asia that he might enjoy safe and undisturbed youth. In this way he withdrew with his wife Antistia and a few close friends.
Isdem diebus nimia luxus cupido infamiam et periculum Neroni tulit, quia fontem aquae Marciae ad urbem deductae nando incesserat; videbaturque potus sacros et caerimoniam loci corpore loto polluisse. secutaque anceps valitudo iram deum adfirmavit.
In the same days, an excessive lust for luxury carried scandal and danger for Nero, because he had swaggered into the source of the Marcian aqueduct in order to swim which was diverted to the city, and it seemed that he had defiled the sacred drinking waters and the purity of the place because he washed his body. And the severe illness which followed confirmed the anger of the Gods.
