SENECA: This procedure may breed conspiracies.
NERO: That the sword may destroy this object of contempt?
SENECA: May this crime never happen!
NERO: Shall I suffer my life, besides, to be sought so that, unavenged and despised, I may suddenly be overwhelmed. Even far distant exile did not subdue Plautus or Sulla whose persistent wrath arms the servants of crime for my death, since there exists in our city great partiality for these absent men and many foster the hopes of the exiles. May all my possible enemies be put to the sword! May my hated wife perish and follow her beloved brother! May whatever is noble cease to be!
SENECA: It is glorious for a man to be eminent among illustrious men, to plan for the fatherland, to spare affliction, to refrain from fierce carnage, to control wrath, to give quiet to the world and peace to his own generation. This is the greatest virtue; by this path Heaven is gained. Augustus, the first father of the fatherland, thus attained the stars and is worshiped as a god in the temples.[66] Yet Fortune long tossed him about on land and sea, through all the vicissitudes of war until he crushed the enemy of his father. He bequeathed to thee his own divinity without bloodshed; he held the reins of empire with skillful hand; he made submissive to thy will the land and sea. Bitter envy disappears conquered by blessed harmony. The applause of the equestrian order and of the senate is aroused. Thou, the author of peace and the arbiter of the human race, chosen by the plebeians’ entreaties and the judgment of the senate,[67] now by a sacred resemblance art ruling the world as father of the fatherland.
Rome implores thee to guard this appellation and entrusts to thee her own citizens.
NERO: It is the gift of the gods since Rome herself and the senate are devoted to me and since fear of me has wrested prayers and submissive words from reluctant citizens. For a ruler to save men hostile to him and to the fatherland and proud of their royal race is madness, when with a word he can command his enemies to die. Brutus armed his bands to kill a leader from whom he had received prosperity.[68] Unconquerable in battle, father of nations and equal to Jove, Caesar crowned with honors fell by the wicked crime of the citizens. How many murders of her own citizens has Rome seen? How many noble men have been killed by divine Augustus who deserved Heaven by his sacred virtue? How many youths and old men has he scattered over the world and destined to bitter death when from fear of death they fled from their own homes and the sword of the triumvirate?[69] Sorrowing fathers saw their sons’ heads exposed on the Rostra, but they could neither weep nor groan for their own children, even when the forum was defiled by dreadful corruption and the thick blood dripped over the putrid countenances. There was no end to bloodshed and murder.
Gloomy Philippi long frightened the birds and savage wild beasts. The Sicilian Sea engulfed the fleets and men often abandoning their fellow countrymen, and the world was shaken by the mighty power of the triumvirate. Conquered, with his ships prepared for flight, and soon to die, Antony sought the Nile.[70] The Egyptian Cleopatra a second time drained the blood of a Roman leader.[71] Now he has reached the lower world. Yonder is buried civil war which long and wickedly has been carried on. Finally the wearied victor sheathed his sword dulled by fierce wounds, and fear held the empire. By the arms and fidelity of the soldiery he was safe; he was pronounced a god by the noble piety of the son, deified after death, and worshipped in the temples. Stars will be destined for me, too, if I shall be the first to attack with a cruel sword whatever is hostile to me and shall establish a home for a noble offspring.