·
“Germanicus,
too, that he might be the better known, took his helmet off his head and begged
his men to follow up the slaughter, as they wanted no prisoners, and the utter
destruction of the nation would be the only conclusion of the war.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book II, 17-23 [A.D. 16-19])
This is extermination, nothing else…the obliteration of a
nation. A nation erased from beneath the heavens. This is pretty much the same thing mentioned by Caesar in his "Gallic wars". Book VII.28 speaks about demonically-possessed Roman soldiers slaughtering around 400,000 Gauls (52 B.C.). They had no mercy on the elder, on women, or on children.
In "The Histories" Tacitus shares a somber incident that took place in Cremona during the Flavian-Vitellian conflict. It resembles a Biblical extermination of Amalek:
- "40,000 armed men burst into Cremona, and with them a body of sutlers and camp-followers, yet more numerous and yet more abandoned to lust and cruelty. Neither age nor rank were any protection from indiscriminate slaughter and violation. Aged men and women past their time, worthless as booty, were dragged out in wanton insult. Did a grown up maiden or youth of marked beauty fall in their way, they were torn in pieces by the violent hands of ravishers; and in the end the destroyers themselves were provoked into mutual slaughter."
(Tacitus, The Histories. Book III.33 [A.D. 69])
Here's another picture of absolute Roman insanity in the times of Vespasian:
- "The streets were choked with carnage, the squares and temples reeked with blood, for men were massacred everywhere as chance threw them in the way. Soon, as their license increased, they began to search for and drag forth hidden foes. Whenever they saw a man tall and young they cut him down, making no distinction between soldiers and civilians."
(Tacitus, The Histories. Book IV.1 [A.D. 70])
The blood-lust of the Romans was something beyond:
·
“Away they
hurried hither and thither, altered men, and dragged the chief mutineers in
chains to Caius Caetronius, commander of the first legion, who tried and
punished them one by one in the following fashion. In front of the throng stood
the legions with drawn swords. Each accused man was on a raised platform and
was pointed out by a tribune. If they shouted out that he was guilty, he was
thrown head-long and cut to pieces. The soldiers gloated over the bloodshed as
though it gave them absolution.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book I, 42-46 [A.D. 14-15])
[in The Annals III 34-39 Tacitus mentions a similar
situation. He says that in Thrace pillagers were cut to pieces under the
command of Publius Vellaeus].
In "The Histories" Tacitus relates the monumental fall of emperor Galba. Galba, who is described as "a weak old man" was not innocent; Book I.6 states that under his command thousands of unarmed Roman soldiers were killed (in Book I.37 [The Histories] Otho stated that all those soldiers were perfectly guiltless). It is said that his entry in the capital was therefore perceived as "ill-omened" and was terrible even to the executioners. But Galba ended up getting a taste of his own medicine:
- "The general account is, that he voluntarily offered his neck to the murderers, and bade them haste and strike, if it seemed to be for the good of the commonwealth. To those who slew him it mattered not what he said. About the actual murderer nothing is clearly known. Some have recorded the name of Terentius, an enrolled pensioner, others that of Lecanius; but it is the current report that one Camurius, a soldier of the 15th legion, completely severed his throat by treading his sword down upon it. The rest of the soldiers foully mutilated his arms and legs, for his breast was protected, and in their savage ferocity inflicted many wounds even on the headless trunk."
(Tacitus, The Histories. Book I.41 [A.D. 69])
Book I.49 (the Histories) says that Galba's mangled head was fixed upon a pole in front of the tomb of a certain Patrobius (a man he had previously executed).
Here’s what happened when Romans and Germans clashed:
·
“It was a
great victory and without bloodshed for us. From nine in the morning to
nightfall the enemy were slaughtered, and ten miles were covered with arms and
dead bodies, which there were found amid the plunder chains which the Germans
had brought with them from the Romans, as though the issue was certain. The
soldiers on the battlefield hailed Tiberius as imperator, and raised a mound on
which arms were piled in the style of a trophy, with the names of the conquered
tribes inscribed beneath them.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book II, 17-23 [A.D. 16-19])
A pile of arms! Hundreds if not thousands of bodies
dismembered in the name of national supremacy! Once again, it is easy to read
this but seeing hundreds if not thousands of dismembered bodies is a complete
different experience. Try to imagine the kind of bloodshed that we’re talking
about here….if the Romans were able to subdue the most powerful German males
imagine then what they did to the most vulnerable ones of the Germanic tribes…
Here’s another exhibition of limbs:
·
“Having
publicly praised his notorious troops, Caesar raised a pile of arms with the
proud inscription, “the army of Tiberius Caesar, after throroughly conquering
the tribes between the Rhine and the Elbe, has dedicated this monument to Mars,
Jupiter, and Augustus.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book II, 17-23 [A.D. 16-19])
Tacitus relates what Germanicus (a Roman of course) did to
the Germanic Chatti:
·
“But so
suddenly did he come on the Chatti that all the helpless from age or sex were
at once captured or slaughtered.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book I, 55-58 [A.D. 14-15])
The Germans also struck at expansionist Rome as it is
obvious, this is what the Germanic Frisii did to Rome:
·
“But the
Roman general did not attempt vengeance or even bury the dead, although many
tribunes, prefects, and first-rank centurions had fallen. Soon afterwards it
was ascertained from deserters that nine hundred Romans had been cut to pieces
in a wood called Braduhenna’s, after prolonging the fight to the next day, and
that another body of four hundred, which had taken possession of the house of
one Cruptorix, once a soldier in our day, fearing betrayal, had perished by
mutual slaughter.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book IV, 72-75 [A.D. 23-28])
The Romans found quite a surreal landscape when they
conquered the Celts of Britain (the Celts were Teutonics like the Germans).
This is what Tacitus relates about the religious practices of the Druids:
·
“A force
was next set over the conquered, and their groves, devoted to human
superstitions, were destroyed. They deemed it indeed a duty to cover their
altars with the blood of captives and to consult their deities through human
entrails.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XIV, 30-33 [A.D 59-62])
The Druids sacrificed Romans in their “greenish” altars.
They dismembered these Romans and used their blood as a gateway to the
spiritual world (as we saw before, the Romans offered millions of human
sacrifices in the Colosseum).
Beheadings were not rare in the times of Rome, there was not
one thing that Rome did not do. A Roman named Publius Dolabella beheaded
certain elements in North Africa:
·
“He then
fortified suitable positions, and at the same time beheaded some chiefs of the
Musulamii, who were on the verge of rebellion.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book IV, 20-25 [A.D. 23-28])
Tacitus relates how after the death of Seneca a brave Roman
soldier named Subrius Flavus was decapitated. This soldier dared to tell Nero
what he deserved to hear. The sick monster known as Nero beheaded him:
·
The
punishment of Flavus was instructed to Veianus Niger, a tribune. At his
direction, a pit was dug in a neighboring field. Flavus, on seeing it, censured
it as too shallow and confined, saying to the soldiers around him, “even this
is not according to military rule.” When bidden to offer his neck resolutely,
“I wish”, said he, “that your stroke might be as resolute”. The tribune
trembled greatly, and having only just severed his head at two blows, vaunted
his brutality to Nero, saying that he had slain him with a blow and a half.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XV, 64-68 [A.D. 62-65])
After Otho had Galba blasted other atrocities followed. Piso and Vinius were not too lucky during this time of upheaval:
- "The heads were fixed upon poles and carried about among the standards of the cohorts, close to the eagle of the legion, while those who had struck the blow, those who had been present, those who whether truly or falsely boasted of the act, as of some great and memorable achievement, vied in displaying their blood stained hands."
(Tacitus, The Histories. Book I.44 [A.D. 69])
Book I.47 (the Histories) says that the relatives of these unfortunate men purchased the heads from the murderers in order to honor them.
The Romans were notorious for the insane things that they
did in dungeons. Here is what Tacitus relates about a certain Roman knight:
·
“At Rome,
meanwhile, without any motive then known or subsequently ascertained, Cneius
Nonius, a Roman knight, was found wearing a sword amid a crowd who were paying
their respects to the emperor. The man confessed his own guilt when he was
being torn in pieces by torture, but gave up no accomplices, perhaps having
none to hide.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XI, 21-24 [A.D. 47-48])
It says here that Nonius was “torn to pieces” by torture. If
Tacitus, a Roman, says that the man was “torn to pieces by torture”, then that
means that they blasted him “Hostel style”.
Here's some more:
- "About the same time Fabius Valens was put to death while in confinement at Urbinum. His head was displayed to the Vitellianist cohorts, that they might not cherish any further hope,..."
(Tacitus, The Histories. Book III.62 [A.D. 69])
After the defeat of the 56 years old Vitellius the body of Sabinus was pierced, mutilated, and its head was severed from it. It was dragged to Gemoniae.
(Tacitus, The Histories. Book III.74 [A.D. 69])
The Romans were usually victorious in their expansionist
endeavors but, as we saw in Book IV/ 72-75 (the Annals), they were sometimes
defeated by the Germans. This is what Germanicus and his soldiers discovered:
·
“In the centre
of the field were the whitening bones of men, as they had fled, or stood their
ground, strewn everywhere or piled in heaps. Near, lay fragments of weapons and
limbs of horses, and also human heads, prominently nailed to trunk trees. In
the adjacent groves were the barbarous altars, on which they immolated tribunes
and first-rank centurions.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book I, 58-61 [A.D. 14-15])
What we have here is basically a “Hellraiser scenario” of
ritualistic dementia. In “Germania.9” Tacitus says that sometimes the Germans
offer a human sacrifice to Mercury and in “Germania.39” he speaks of a German tribe
called the Suevi who offered a human sacrifice in public. The Germans were
definitely a challenge to the Romans (in Book IV.16 of "The Histories", Tacitus describes the Germans as "a people that delight in war").
Sometimes the voracious Roman beast made no distinctions at
all (as we saw in Book I, 51-55 [the Annals]). Here is what Tacitus tells us
about a poor woman named Vitia (a good mother):
·
“Even
women were not excempt from danger. Where they could not be accused of grasping
at political power, their tears made a crime. Vitia, an aged woman, mother of
Fufius Geminus, was executed for bewailing the death of her son. Such were the
proceedings in the senate.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book VI, 9-12 [A.D. 32-37])
Think about how dark and vicious the Roman Senate was
sometimes, they would go as far as killing a grieving mother that had committed
no crime. An old woman was shedding tears for her doomed son and on top that
she would be punished with the sword!
The saddest case mentioned by Tacitus is the one of Zenobia,
the wife of the Iberian devil called Rhadamistus (ancient Iberia located in the
Caucasus). The Annals XII 45-48 states that during his sudden rise in Armenia
he murdered his uncle (Mithridates) plus he slaughtered his sons (the offspring
of Mithridates) for having shed tears. When Rhadamistus son of Pharasmanes
found himself in trouble, he ran away with his pregnant wife Zenobia. This is
what Tacitus tells us:
·
“Rhadamistus
had no means of escape but in the swiftness of the horses which bore him and
his wife away. Pregnant as she was, she endured, somehow or other, out of fear
of the enemy and love of her husband, the first part of the flight, but after a
while, when she felt herself shaken by its continuous speed, she implored to be
rescued by an honorable death from the shame of captivity. He at first
embraced, cheered, and encouraged her, now admiring her heroism, now filled
with a sickening apprehension at the idea of her being left to any man’s mercy.
Finally, urged by the intensity of his love and familiarity with dreadful
deeds, he unsheathed his scimitar, and having stabbed her, dragged her to the
bank of the Araxes and committed her to the stream, so that her body might be
swept away.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XII, 48-53 [A.D, 48-54])
Zenobia survived and was taken to Artaxata. I believe that
after having killed his own pregnant wife the least that Rhadamistus could have
done was to kill himself but he didn’t. In “The Annals” XIII 35-39 [A.D 54-58])
Tacitus tells us that Rhadamistus died by the hand of his father Pharasmanes.
Pharasmanes called him a traitor in order to be in good terms with Rome!
Rhadamistus knew what would happen to a pregnant woman (a
woman of royalty) if she would be captured by those who hated him. Still,
somehow he had the nerve to stab the woman who was carrying his child! Then on
top of that he took her to a river so that the stream would take her away…the
least he could have done after committing such an ugly deed was to commit
suicide, yet he chose to live. Rhadamistus was not the only monster that was
stabbing pregnant women in those days, Tacitus tells us about a certain
Gotarzes who was absolutely merciless. When Claudius was marrying Agrippina, a
Parthian embassy came to Italy and spoke about the deeds of Gotarzes:
·
“Already
brothers, relatives, and distant kin had been swept off by murder after murder;
wives actually pregnant, and tender children were added to Gotarzes’ victims,
while, slothful at home and unsuccessful in war, he made cruelty a screen for
his feebleness.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XII, 7-12 [A.D. 48-54])
This Gotarzes is recorded in The Annals XII 12-16 as cutting
off the ears of a man named Meherdates. How could this politician sleep at
night after having killed women and children? How could he find the glitter of
gold precious after such unspeakable atrocities? Yet the fact is that folks
like Rhadamistus and Gotarzes did exist.
Then we have the case of the monstrosity known as Agrippina,
the mother of Nero. I personally believe that she was beyond anything
imaginable in terms of pathology, she was a fallen spiritual entity incarnate
(something like the Biblical Jezebel who knew no boundaries). Agrippina was an
ambitious woman who committed incest with her uncle and with her own son for
the sake of power. Tacitus says that after her incestuous performance (or
performances) with her son, Nero tried to get her drowned by the sea but she
survived somehow. She ended up in the following way:
·
The
assassins closed in round her couch, and the captain of the trireme first
stroke her head violently with a club. Then, as the centurion beared his sword
for the fatal deed, presenting her person, she exclaimed, “smite my womb”, and
with many wounds she was slain.
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XIV, 8-12 [A.D, 59-62])
[it is impressive that in her final moments she was 100%
defiant]
Tacitus also tells the story of a certain woman named Atilla
who was completely betrayed by her son Lucanus. She was tortured in relation to
some conspiracy. It is said that she suffered so much that her limbs became
dislocated, she could not even stand (Tacitus, The Annals. Book XV 56-60 [A.D, 62-65]).Try to imagine the kind of “things”
that she underwent in the dungeons of Rome! Book II.13 of "The Histories" mentions a brave Ligurian woman who was tortured by pro-Otho soldiers.
The demon known as Nero murdered his wife Octavia in a very
cruel fashion:
·
“And now
the girl, in her twentieth year, with centurions and soldiers around her,
already removed from among the living by the forecast of doom, still could not
reconcile herself to death. After an interval of a few days she received an
order that she was to die, although she protested that she was now a widow and
only a sister, and appealed to her common ancestors, the Germanici, and finally
to the name of Agrippina, during whose life she had endured a marriage, which
was miserable enough indeed, but not fatal. She was then tightly bound with
cords, and the veins of every limb were opened; but as her blood was congealed
by terror and flowed too slowly, she was killed outright by the steam of an
intensily hot bath. To this was added the yet more appaling horror of Poppaea
beholding the severed head which was conveyed to Rome.”
(Tacitus, The Annals, Book XIV, 60-64 [A.D, [59-62])
Once again, it is easy to read this but as I have said
before, it is a completely different experience to undergo such horrors. The
pain & torment that Octavia underwent is simply unimaginable. Tacitus
relates how the ultra-depraved Nero kicked Poppaea (his pregnant wife) in the
stomach. She died:
·
“After the
conclusion of the games Poppaea died from a casual outburst of rage in her
husband, who felled her with a kick when she was pregnant.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XVI, 2-7 [A.D, 65-66])
Tacitus tells us very clearly how in the time of the Caesars
women were perceived as war trophies:
·
“But Varus
fell by fate and by the sword of Arminius, with whom Segestes, though dragged
into war by the unanimous voice of the nation, continued to be at feud, his
resentment being heightened by personal motives, as Arminius had carried off
his daughter who was bethroned to another.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book I, 55-58 [A.D. 14-15])
Segestes refers to Arminius as “the ravisher of his
daughter.” In The Annals II 4-9 a lieutenant general of Caesar named Silius is
recorded as having abducted the wife and daughter of Arpus, leader of the
Chatti. This was sort of common in those days. Every time a tribal war would
break out, the victor would always take women as captives. Tacitus relates why
a German tribe living beyond the Rhine known as the Frisii revolted against
Roman domination. The Romans had taken everything from them in their absolute
rapacity:
·
“First it
was their herds, next their lands, last, the persons of their wives and
children, which they gave up to bandage.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book IV, 68-72 [A.D. 23-28])
On one hand there were the Romans, taking their wives and
children and on the other hand the Germans gave them away!...horribly sad! Yet,
out of all the information found in “the Annals”, this is probably the most
depressing thing related by Tacitus:
·
“it was
next decided to punish the remaining children of Sejanus, though the fury of
the populace was subsiding, and people generally had been appeased by the
previous executions. Accordingly they were carried off to prison, the boy aware
of his impending doom, and the little girl, who was so unconscious that she
continually asked what was her offence, and wither she was being dragged,
saying that she would do so no more, and a childish chastisement was enough for
her correction. Historians of the time tell us that, as there was no precedent
for the capital punishment of a virgin, she was violated by the executioner,
with the rope on her neck. Then they were strangled and their bodies, mere
children as they were, were flung down the Gemoniae.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book V, 4-10 [A.D. 29-31])
This is nothing but absolute evil, total mercilessness. This
“malevolent” spark was embodied in what I personally call “the monster of the
Ahenobarbus bloodline: Nero, son of the ultra-depraved Agrippina.
“For what will it
profit a man if he gains the whole word, and loses his own soul?”
(Mark 8:36)
Nero (37-68 A.D) was an indescribably sick beast that knew
no boundaries. He was the emperor of the most powerful nation in the world but
he was in reality a beyond disgusting creature. He murdered many and he forced
others to commit suicide. Yet, he did a few things that are just beyond words
(unnatural filth). Here’s one of them:
·
“Nero, who
polluted himself by every lawful or lawless indulgence, had not omitted a
single abomination which could heighten his depravity, till a few days
afterwards he stooped to marry himself to one of that filthy herd, by name
Pythagoras, with all the forms of regular wedlock. The bridal veil was put over
the emperor; people saw the witnesses of the ceremony, the wedding dower, the
couch and the nuptial torches; everything in a word was plainly visible, which,
even when a woman weds darkness hides.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XV, 33-37 [A.D. 62-65])
The Annals XIV 49-53 tells us that one of the folks that
Nero put in charge of the Praetorian cohorts was a certain Sofonius Tigellinus.
This is what Tacitus says about the chosen one of Nero:
“whose inveterate shamelessness and infamy
were an attraction to him. As might have been expected from their known
characters, Tigellinus had the greater influence with the prince, and was the
associate of his most secret profligacy,…”
(in Book I.72 of "The Histories" Tacitus says that this depraved mentor of Nero had to cut his own throat with a razor)
Nero had no limits at all, he had sex with his own mother as
we already know:
·
“Cluvius
relates that Agrippina in her eagerness to retain her influence went so far
that more than once midday, when Nero, even at that hour, was flushed with wine
and feasting, she presented herself attractively attired to her half
intoxicated son and offered him her person, and that when kinsfolk observed
wanton kisses and caresess, portending infamy, it was Seneca who sought a
female’s aid against a woman’s fascinations, and hurried in Acte, the freed
girl, who alarmed at her own peril and at Nero’s disgrace, told him that the
incest was notorious, as his mother boasted of it, and that the soldiers would
never endure the rule of an impious sovereign. Fabius Rusticus tells us that it
was not Agrippina, but Nero, who lusted for the crime, and that it was
frustrated by the adroitness of that same freedgirl. Cluvius’ account, however,
is also that of all other authors, and popular belief inclines to it, whether
it was that Agrippina really conceived such a monstrous wickedness in her
heart, or perhaps the thought of a strange passion seemed comparatively
credible in a woman, who in her girlish years had allowed herself to be seduced
by Lepidus in the hope of winning power, had stooped with a like ambition to
the lust of Pallas, and had trained herself for every infamy by her marriage
with her uncle.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XIV, 2-5 [A.D. 59-62])
As I have already mentioned, Nero murdered the woman who
brought him into the world and she didn’t seem to have any regrets. (Agrippina:
15-59 A.D). Nero killed many, many people. He murdered Burrus and Seneca who
had tutored him earlier in life (Roman culture in general was “enamoured” of
suicide). This is what Tacitus says about Burrus’ demise:
·
Burrus
died, whether from illness or from poison was a question. It was supposed to be
illness from the fact that from the gradual swelling of his throat inwardly and
the closing up to the passage he ceased to breathe. Many positively asserted
that by Nero’s order his throat was smeared with some poisonous drug under the
pretence under the application of a remedy, and that Burrus, who saw through
the crime, when the emperor paid him a visit, recoiled with horror from his
gaze, and merely replied to his question, “I indeed am well.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XIV, 49-53 [A.D. 59-62])
The Annals XIV. 64-XV.1 says that Nero poisoned two
freedmen: Doryphorus and Pallas and, The Annals XIV 57-60 says that the heads
of Sulla and Plautus were delivered to Nero. Here’s another of Nero’s deeds:
·
“In quick
succession Nero added the murder of Plautius Lateranus, consul-elect, so
promptly that he did not allow him to embrace his children or to have the brief
choice of his own death. He was dragged off to a place set apart for the
execution of slaves, and butchered by the hand of the tribune Statius,
maintaining a resolute silence, and not reproaching the tribune with complicity
in the plot.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XV, 56-60 [A.D. 62-65])
Nero forced Seneca, his mentor for many years, to kill
himself. In fact, the most dramatic of all the suicides described by Tacitus is
the one of Annaeus Seneca. His wife Paulina tried to join him in the mission as
well. These are the exact words of Tacitus:
·
“Then by
one and the same stroke they sundered with a dagger the arteries of their arms.
Seneca, as his aged frame, attenuated by frugal diet, allowed the blood to
escape but slowly, severed also the veins of his legs and knees. Worn out by
cruel anguish, afraid too that his suffering might his wife’s spirit, and that,
as he looked on her tortures, he might himself sink into resolution, he
persuaded her to retire into another chamber.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XV, 60-64 [A.D. 62-65])
Somehow Nero ordered that Paulina be saved but Seneca’s
ordeal endured until he was no longer able to breath:
·
Seneca
meantime, as the tedious process of death still lingered on, begged Statius
Annaeus, whom he had long esteemed for his faithful friendship and medical
skill, to produce a poison with which he had some time before provided himself,
the same drug which extinguished the life of those who were condemned by a
public sentence of the people of Athens. It was brought to him and he drank it
in vain, chilled as he was throughout his limbs, and his frame closed against
the efficacy of the poison. At last he entered a pool of heated water, from
which he sprinkled the nearest of his slaves, adding the exclamation, “I offer
this liquid as a libation to Jupiter the deliverer.” He was then carried into a
bath, with the steam of which he was suffocated, and he was burnt without any
of the usual funeral rites.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XV, 64-68 [A.D. 62-65])
The suicide of Thrasea was certainly dramatic like the one
of Seneca, he even used the same phrase when he was expiring:
·
When he
heard the senate’s decision, he led Helvidius and Demetrius into a chamber, and
having laid bare the arteries of each arm, he let the blood flow freely, and,
as he sprinkled it on the ground, he called the quaestor to his side and said
“We pour out a libation to Jupiter the deliverer. Behold, young man, and may
the gods avert the omen, but you have been born into times in which it is well
to fortify the spirit with examples of courage.” Then as the slowness of his
end brought with it grievous anguish, turning his eyes on Demetrius…
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XVI, 34-35 [A.D. 65-66])
A consul named Vestinus was entertaining his guests when all
of the sudden Nero’s soldiers showed up. Vestinus knew exactly what was
happening:
·
“He rose
without a moment’s delay, and every preparation was at once made. He shut
himself in his chamber; a physician was at his side; his veins were opened;
with life still strong in him, he was carried into a bath, and plugged into
warm water, without uttering a word of pity for himself.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XV, 69-73 [A.D. 62-65])
Here’s another folk who was pretty much forced into suicide
by Nero:
·
“Anteius
had been previously advised by him not, to delay this final document. Then he
drank the poison, but disgusted at its slowness, he hastened death by severing
his veins.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XVI, 11-15 [A.D. 65-66])
Another victim of the demented emperor:
·
“That
fortitude which he had often shown in fighting the enemy Ostorius now turned
against himself. And as his veins, though severed, allowed but a scanty flow of
blood, he used the help of a slave, simply to hold up a dagger firmly, and then
pressing the man’s hand towards him, he met the point with his throat.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XVI, 11-15 [A.D. 65-66])
Nero’s lust for suicide-blood was
insatiable. A Roman knight named Rufius Crispinus, commander of praetorians
once rewarded by the consulate; he was banished to Sardinia under charges of
conspiracy. He was told that he was doomed to die and he destroyed himself.
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XVI, 16-19 [A.D. 65-66])
Here’s the case of Annaeus Mela, a Roman knight like
Crispinus:
·
“This Nero
examined, and ordered it to be conveyed to Mela, whose wealth he ravenously
desired. Mela meanwhile, adopting the easiest mode of death then in fashion,
opened his veins,…”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XVI, 16-19 [A.D. 65-66])
After Nero's death (he sliced his own throat) we have a very famous suicide: the suicide of Otho. This was Otho's fate after he had blasted Galba:
- "Two daggers were brought to him; he tried the edge of each, and then put one under his head. After satisfying himself that his friends had set out, he passed a tranquil night, and it is even said that he slept. At dawn he fell with his breast upon the steel. Hearing a groan from the dying man, his freedmen and slaves, and Plotius Firmus, prefect of the praetorian guard, came in. They found but one wound."
(Tacitus, The Histories. Book II.49 [A.D. 69])
Some Roman soldiers followed the example of Otho:
- "Some of the soldiers killed themselves near the funeral pile, not moved by remorse or by fear, but by the desire to emulate his glory, and by love of their prince."
(Tacitus, The Histories. Book II.49 [A.D. 69])
(in Book II.16 of "The Histories" we can see that "human heads" were delivered to Otho [A.D. 69])
Then "The Annals" describes the case of Cerialis:
·
“Soon
afterwards Cerialis laid violent hands on himself, and received less pity than the
others, because men remembered that he had betrayed a conspiracy to Caius
Caesar.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XVI, 16-19 [A.D. 65-66])
A certain Petronius is said to have made an incision in his
veins:
·
“He dined,
indulged himself in sleep, that death, though forced on him, might have a
natural appearance.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XVI, 16-19 [A.D. 65-66])
Here’s the suicide of Fabius Maximus:
·
“All was
known to Caesar, and when Maximus soon afterwards died, by a death some thought
to be self-inflicted, there were heard at his funeral wailings from Marcia, in
which she reproached herself for having been the cause of her husband’s
destruction.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book I, 5-8 [A.D. 14-15])
A man named Grachus was sentenced to death by Lucius
Asprenas under the authority of Tiberius:
·
“Then the
soldiers who were sent to slay him, found him on a promontory, expecting no
good. On their arrival, he begged a brief interval in which to give by letter
his last instructions to his wife Alliaria, and then offered his neck to the
executioners, dying with a courage not unworthy of the Sempronian name, which
his degenerate life had dishonoured.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book I, 51-55 [A.D. 14-15])
This is what happened when some Romans under the leadership
of Varus were defeated by the Germans:
·
“Some
survivors of the disaster who had escaped from the battle or from captivity,
described how this was the spot where the officers fell, how yonder eagles were
captured, where Varus was pierced by his first wound, where too by the stroke
of his own ill-starred hand he found for himself death.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book I, 58-61 [A.D. 14-15])
On Book II (the Annals) Tacitus speaks of the suicide of a
certain Libo on September 13th:
·
“Meanwhile
his house was surrounded with soldiers; they crowded noisily even about the
entrance, so that they could be heard and seen, when Libo, whose anguish drove
him from the very banquet he had prepared as his last gratification, called for
a minister of death, grasped the hands of his slaves, and thrust a sword into
them. In their confusion, as they shrank back, they overturned the lamp on the
table at his side, and in the darkness, now to him the gloom of death, he aimed
two blows at a vital part. At the groans of the falling man his freedmen
hurried up, and the soldiers, seeing the bloody deed, stood aloof. Yet the
prosecution was continued in the senate with the same persistency, and Tiberius
declared an oath that he would have interceded for his life, guilty though he
was, but for his hasty suicide.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book II, 27-32 [A.D. 16-19])
A certain Cornelius Merula who was associated with Roman
religious affairs is said to have followed the steps of the previously
mentioned Libo.
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book III, 56-61 [A.D. 20-22])
A praetor named Plautius Silvanus murdered his wife yet
claimed that she killed herself. Urgulania, Silvanus’ grandmother, she sent him
a dagger as a hint from the emperor that his deed had been uncovered and that
there was only one way out for him:
·
“The
accused tried the steel in vain, and then allowed his veins to be opened.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book IV, 20-25 [A.D. 23-28])
In the year of consulship of Cornelius Cossus and Assinius
Agrippa, a certain Cremutius Cordus was accused by Satrius Secundus and
Pinarius Natta, he was brought before the emperor:
·
“He then
left the senate and ended his life by starvation.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book IV, 34-37 [A.D. 23-28])
In the area of Spain a member of the Termestine tribe killed
a praetor named Lucius Piso. The Romans captured him and tortured him but
somehow he managed to relieve himself from his torment:
·
“Next day,
when he was dragged back to torture, he broke loose from his guards and dashed
his head against a stone with such violence that he instantly fell dead.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book IV, 44-48 [A.D. 23-28])
Here is another “blade” case:
·
“Rome
meanwhile being a scene of ceaseless bloodshed, Pomponius Labeo, who was, as I
have related, governor of Moesia, severed his veins and let his life ebb from
him. His wife, Paxaea, emulated her husband.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book VI, 25-29 [A.D. 32-37])
Tacitus mentions a certain Arruntius following the steps of
Pomponius:
·
“while he
thus spoke like a prophet, he opened his veins.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book VI, 46-50 [A.D. 32-37])
Here Tacitus mentions the case of a man named Valerius
Asiaticus:
·
“Some friends
urged on Asiaticus the quiet death of self-starvation, but he declined it with
thanks. He took his usual exercise, then bathed and dined cheerfully, and
saying that he had better have fallen by the craft of Tiberius or the fury of
Caius Caesar than by the treachery of a woman and the shameless mouth of
Vitellius, he opened his veins, but not till he had inspected his funeral pyre,
and directed its removal to another spot, lest the smoke should hurt the thick
foliage of the trees. So complete was his calmness even to the last.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XI [A.D. 47-48])
Some fell by poison…the examples are just endless:
·
“But there
was a panic when Vibulenus Agrippa, a Roman knight, as soon as his accusers had
finished their case, took from his robe, in the very senate house, a dose of
poison, drank it off, and, as he fell expiring, was hurried away to prison by
the prompt hands of lictors, where the neck of the now lifeless man was crushed
with the halter.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book VI, 39-43 [A.D. 32-37])
·
“Caius
Galba meanwhile and the Blaesi perished by a voluntary death; Galba, because a
harsh letter from the emperor forbade him to have a province allotted to him;
while, as for the Blaesi, the priesthoods intended for them during the
prosperity of their house, Tiberius had withheld, hwn that prosperity was
shaken, and now conferred, as vacant offices, on others. This they understood
as a signal of their doom, and acted on it.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book VI, 39-43 [A.D. 32-37])
·
“Unmoved
by these considerations, Piso showed himself a few moments in public, then
sought the retirement of his house, and there fortified his spirit against the
worst, till a troop of soldiers arrived, raw recruits, or men recently
enlisted, whom Nero had selected, because he was afraid of the veterans, imbued
, though they were, with a liking for him. Piso expired by having the veins in
his arms severed.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XV, 56-60 [A.D. 62-65])
·
“Aemilia
Lepida too, whose marriage with the younger Drusus I have already related, who,
though she had pursued her husband with ceaseless accusations, remained
unpunished, infamous as she was, as long as her father Lepidus lived,
subsequently fell a victim to the informers for adultery with a slave. There
was no question about her guilt, and so without an attempt at defense she put
an end to her life.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book VI, 39-43 [A.D. 32-37])
·
“About the
same time Sextus Papinius, who belonged to a family of consular rank, chose a
sudden and shocking death, by throwing himself from a height.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book VI, 46-50 [A.D. 32-37])
Here Tacitus talks about an event that took place when
Claudius married Agrippina:
·
“On the
day of the marriage Silanus committed suicide, having up to that time prolonged
his hope for life, or else choosing that day to heighten the popular
indignation.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XII, 7-12 [A.D. 48-54])
·
“Caninius
Rebilus, one of the first men in legal knowledge and vastness of wealth,
escaped the miseries of an old age of broken health by letting the blood
trickle from his veins, though men did not credit him with sufficient
resolution for a self-inflicted death, because of his infamous effeminacy.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XIII, 26-31 [A.D. 54-58])
After Agrippina was finally murdered by her son (Nero) the
following took place:
·
“As soon
as the funeral pyre was lighted, one of her freedmen, surnamed Mnester, ran
himself through with a sword, either from love of his mistress or from the fear
of destruction.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XIV, 8-12 [A.D. 59-62])
Boudicca, the courageous queen of the Iceni who refused to
submit to Roman domination ended up in the following fashion:
·
“Boudicea
put an end to her life by poison.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XIV, 33-38 [A.D. 59-62])
A Carthaginian named Caesellius Bassus took his own life
when he realized that his prophetic dreams of gold were nothing but fantasies
(Nero even counted on this phantom-gold):
·
“Bassus
indeed dug up his land and extensive plains in the neighborhood, while he
persisted that this or that was the place of the promised cave, and was
followed not only by our soldiers but by the rustic population who were engaged
to execute the work, till at last he threw off his infatuation, and expressing
that his dreams have never before been false, and that now for the first time
he had been deluded, he escaped disgrace and danger by a voluntary death.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XVI, 2-7 [A.D. 65-66])
In “Germania” Tacitus tells us the fate of those German
warriors who would lose their shield in combat:
·
“To have
abandoned ones shield is the height of disgrace; the man so shamed cannot be
present at religious rites, nor attend a council: many survivors of war have
ended their infamy with a noose.”
(Tacitus, Germania.9)
There were cases in which some individuals forced others to
commit suicide, a woman of status named Messalina is recorded as sending a
rival of hers to death:
·
“She
hastened herself to effect Poppaea’s destruction, and hired agents to drive her
to suicide by the terrors of a prison.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XI [A.D. 47-48])
Messalina ended up getting a taste of her own medicine:
·
“For the
first time she understood her fate and put her hand to a dagger. In her terror
she was applying it ineffectually to her throat and breast, when a blow from a
tribune drove it through her. Her body was given up to her mother.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XI, 37-XII.2)
Agrippina, the woman who poisoned Claudius, she ruined the
life of a wealthy man named Statilius Taurus:
·
“Taurus,
no longer able to endure a false accusation and an undeserved humiliation , put
a violent end to his life before the senate’s decision was pronounced.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XII, 57-63 [A.D. 48-54])
A man named Narcissus was forced into suicide just like
Poppaea:
·
“With no
less precipitation, Narcissus, Claudius’s freedmen, whose quarrels with
Agrippina I have mentioned, was driven to suicide by his cruel imprisonment and
hopeless plight, even against the wishes of Nero, with those yet concealed
vices he was wonderfully in sympathy from his rapacity and extravagance.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XIII [A.D. 54-58])
Here is another one of those cases:
·
Nero
disguised himself and would go to brothels and taverns in Rome. He would
inflict wounds on anyone he pleased. The following happened: “Julius Montanus,
a senator, but one who had not yet held any office, happened to encounter the
prince in the darkness, and because he fiercely repulsed his attack and then on
recognizing him begged for mercy, as though this was a reproach, was forced to
destroy himself.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XIII, 21-26 [A.D. 54-58])
And another one:
·
“While
Nero was frequently visiting the show, even amid his pleasures there was no
cessation to his crimes. For during this very same period Torquatus Silanus was
forced to die, because over and above his illustrious rank as one of the Junian
family he claimed to be the great-grandson of Augustus. Accusers were ordered
to charge him with prodigality in lavishing gifts, and with having no hope but
in revolution. They said further that he had nobles about him for his letters,
books, and accounts, titles all and rehearsals of supreme power. Then the most
intimate of his freedmen were put in chains and torn from him, till, knowing
the doom which impended, Torquatus divided the arteries in his arms.”
(Tacitus, The Annals. Book XV 33-37 [A.D. 62-65])
Roman culture was infected by the virus of suicide. As we
have already seen Roman politicians forced other Romans to commit suicide,
sometimes the Roman army sort of forced their adversaries into suicide. And
sometimes they, meaning the Romans, they chose suicide freely. Though ancient
Rome had many positive aspects and though Rome (and Italy in general) has
greatly contributed to Western civilization, ancient Rome was definitely a
Jezebel on an acid trip. Ancient Rome was the human animal unveiled, the same
animal that is described in the writings of Herodotus.
All we have to do is look into the Miami Herald and we will see that things haven't really changed much in some parts of the world:
As we can see here Muslim extremists are doing the same thing Romans did back in the days.
(Miami Herald. Wednesday, August 20th 2014. Article by Jonathan S. Landay: “Jihadist beheads U.S. man in grisly video”)
Humanity as a whole has
moved forward and many accomplishments have been made. Yet, we still have beheadings, massacres, oil
wars, genocide, predatory corporatism, etc. The cosmic principles seem to
somehow remain in a more silent state.
"For the tranquility of nations cannot be preserved without armies; armies cannot exist without pay; pay cannot be furnished without tribute; all else is common between us."
(the words of Cerialis recorded in Book IV.74 of "The Histories" [A.D.70])
Is transcendentalism possible? I personally believe it is.
The human is more than a physical body that needs food, shelter, and sex. The
human is a transmigrating soul who dwells temporarily in the physical world in
order to learn and in order to evolve. So yes, I believe transcendentalism is
definitely possible.
Then again, in order for us to make this transcendentalism
possible we must make a sincere attempt to look inside ourselves, meaning to
make an introspection-regression in our human history. Only then will be able
to understand where we are going. How can one know where he is going if he does
not know where he emanates from? Yes, transcendentalism is definitely possible
but it takes effort & courage.
