Romans and Barbarians: Four Views From the Empire's Edge by Derek Williams

Author:Derek Williams [Williams, Derek]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Non-Fiction, Ancient, Roman Empire
ISBN: 9780312199586
Goodreads: 1224167
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 1999-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

EPISODE 3

The Soldiers

THE RECITAL SEEMED INTERMINABLE, ITS prolongation assured by an enraptured audience and Nero’s eagerness to bask in its rapture. Nor was there likelihood of escape from the cycle of applause and encore till the emperor tired; and being scarcely beyond his teens and endlessly hungry for adulation, that was unlikely to be soon. Of all places which appreciated artistry, recognition in Greece, the land of artists, was doubly sweet. So it was that, as Nero struck the lyre yet again, a pin could have been heard to drop; while he sang they sat spellbound; and when he stopped they exploded, with shouts of ‘Blessed are they that hear thee!’, ‘Apollo, thou art with us!’ and ‘Surely it is Phoebus himself who sings!’ And yet in truth the playing was plain, the voice thin, the theatricality forced and the whole occasion acutely embarrassing.

Irksome as this was for the audience of Greek notables, it was doubly so for the emperor’s Italian entourage, who had no choice but to endure these unendurably boring exhibitions at each stop on the long itinerary. Performances had been known to last from early morning till late evening and some Greeks had hit on the idea of swooning with ecstasy, so they could be carried out as if dead: the only way of escape. For those in the imperial suite, on the other hand, endurance was perhaps a price worth paying for an otherwise pleasant and leisurely progress around the hospitable cities of Hellas, a country regarded by Romans with an affection similar to the Englishman’s view of Italy in the age of the Grand Tour. Besides, Greece flattered the emperor and moderated his moods, which made things easier as well as safer for his travelling companions. The catastrophe was for the host country, owing to the endless attainders and confiscations which Nero was currently devising to pay for his Corinth Canal project. It was said that the roads were busy with messengers carrying news of condemnations or confirmation of murders performed.1

Among the Italians present on that fateful evening, quite distinct from the usual run of officials and hangers-on, was a senator, already in his forties, on whom the mantle of pretended pleasure sat uneasily. T. Flavius Vespasianus was not only a soldier among senators, he was even a rough diamond among soldiers, being of bourgeois rather than aristocratic background and rustic rather than metropolitan origin. Not that social handicaps mattered greatly. The awkwardness was in the man, here emphasized by the extreme contrast between caesar and soldier: Nero, last of the lines of Augustus and Livia, rouged, ringed and ringleted; and Vespasian, inelegant, gruff and practical. A portrait bust in Naples2 shows him as bald, with vestiges of coarse and crinkly hair, the features clenched and determined, the expression searching, the mouth stingy but redeemed by an ironic smile. Though the eyes are blank marble, the sculptor has contrived to suggest a twinkle. Homely in looks and rough of tongue, short on social graces and long on common sense: such was the man designated by a jest of fortune to be Nero’s successor.

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