Pompeii: The Living City by Alex Butterworth & Ray Laurence

Author:Alex Butterworth & Ray Laurence [Butterworth, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2013-12-17T00:00:00+00:00

VIII

With the humours of the city thrown dangerously out of kilter, the Emperor alone was seen as possessing the power to set matters right. Now was the moment when the people of Pompeii looked to their city’s patrons to deliver on their promise of influence in Rome and persuade Nero to assist them in their time of need. Previously, only one imperial visit to Pompeii is recorded: most likely by Claudius on 24 May AD 50. But could the Emperor really now ignore the personal pleadings of an embassy from the stricken home town of his beloved Poppaea?

As always when a Roman city wished to send an embassy, it was up to the magistrates to present the suggestion to the town council, who would then give it careful consideration, before voting. Once the proposal had been accepted, Decimus Satrius Lucretius Valens probably volunteered, eager to celebrate the tenth anniversary of his appointment as flamen of Nero with a trip to the court in Rome. But there were others who had an equal claim. In such matters there was a protocol to follow: Pompeii must choose its representative by lot. When Julius Phillipus drew the winning pebble from the jar, there would have been general relief: who better to represent their case to Nero than a descendant of an imperial freedman with Greek manners?

Phillipus would have set off to seek an audience with the Emperor confident that he carried with him the hopes of his fellow townspeople and goodwill of Pompeii’s most prominent citizens. In his absence, one freedman of the Cornelius family and a slave of the Cuspii Pansae would even visit Phillipus’s house and inscribe a graffito, close to the small lares shrine, that expressed the feelings of the community: ‘For the health, return, and victory of Gaius Julius Phillipus, here, to his lares, Publius Cornelius Felix and Vitalis Cuspius make an offering.’ Was this perhaps an official delegation?

Whatever authority might have been invested in them, the combination of names is resonant: Phillipus with his imperial connections; Cornelius, a descendant of the original colonists of Sulla; and Cuspius Pansa, who served as a Prefect during the state of emergency that followed the quake. It appears that the city was, in this initiative at least, united. But whilst Phillipus could be sure of the support he enjoyed, he would have been less certain of what he would encounter when he arrived in Rome.

In the face of a constant stream of ill tidings in recent years, Nero’s news managers were still proving to be remarkably effective in pulling the wool over the eyes of the masses. The war with Parthia had reached stalemate, with a peace settlement that satisfied neither side and Corbulo ordered to withdraw his army to the near bank of the Euphrates, in present-day Iraq. The spinmeisters’ response? To declare the war won, and shamelessly set up triumphal arches in celebration of Rome’s victory over her greatest enemy. Then the entire grain fleet sank at anchor in the supposedly invulnerable harbour of Portus.

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