Part 3

_CHORUS_: Mortals are ruled by fate, and no one can depend upon the certainty of human life. A single portentous day brings forth varying fortunes. May the many misfortunes which thy home has endured strengthen thy mind. What is more cruel to thee than destiny, Octavia? Thou, a mother worthy of many sons, daughter of Agrippa, daughter-in-law of Augustus, and wife of Caesar[96] whose royal name is illustrious in the entire world, soon a barren wife, thou wilt endure exile, the scourge, cruel fetters, gloomy sights, sorrows, long continued torture, and finally death itself. Livia, blessed in the couch and sons of Drusus, committed a great sin and received punishment.[97] Julia followed her mother’s fortunes.[98] Yet after a time, although innocent, she falls by the sword. Why was not thy former mother victorious who dear to her husband and rich in children ruled the palace of the emperor? She was submissive to her own servant and fell by the sword of a rough soldier.[99] Why was such a mother of Nero permitted to hope for divinity? Injured by the blows of the oarsmen but not fatally, mangled by the sword, she perished, the victim of her cruel son.

_OCTAVIA_: Alas, the cruel tyrant sends me to the sorrowing shades in the lower world. Why do I in my misery vainly hesitate? Hasten to the death which fate has bestowed upon thee. I call to witness the immortal gods--What art thy doing in thy madness? Cease to supplicate the gods who hate thee--I call to witness Tartarus, the avenging goddesses of Erebus, and thee, father, who art worthy of such a death and punishment. This dreadful death was not unforeseen by me. Equip and launch the ship. Let the pilot set sail for the shores of Pandataria.[100]

_CHORUS_: Gentle breezes and light zephyrs which bore away Iphigenia from the cruel altars of the Virgin and covered her with a heavenly cloud, we beseech thee, waft this maiden far away from bitter punishment to the temples of Trivia.[101] The harbor of Aulis[102] and the barbarian land of the Tauri are more merciful than our city. The gods above are propitiated by the sacrifice of a stranger, but Rome rejoices in the murder of her own citizen.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] Goddess of the dawn.

[2] The sun.

[3] Messalina, third wife of Claudius and mother of Octavia and Britannicus. She acquired the most infamous celebrity of all the Roman matrons.

[4] Alcyone threw herself into the sea when Ceyx, her husband, was shipwrecked, and the gods in compassion changed the two into kingfishers. Ovid Book XI l. 583-748.

[5] The spinner among the Parcae.

[6] Murder of Messalina.

[7] Agrippina.

[8] One of the Furies.

[9] Styx, river in the lower world.

[10] Claudius, fifth Caesar, reigned 41-54 A.D. He was distinguished among the Roman emperors by his politic munificence in founding empires.

[11] Claudius determined to carry into effect the plan which Augustus had prematurely announced of an invasion of the great island of Britain. He conquered magnificently and was accorded a triumph at Rome.

[12] Referring probably to the construction of Portus Romanus and the extension of maritime power.

[13] Claudius was the first emperor who really conquered the Britains.

[14] Tiberius Claudius Drusus who succeeded Caligula obtained with his infant son the name of Britannicus in honor of his British victories. After the death of his third wife Messalina, he married his own niece Agrippina 49 A.D. She influenced him to set aside his own son Britannicus and to adopt her son Domitius Ahenobarbus giving him the name of Nero. Having afterward shown a disposition to return the succession to Britannicus, Claudius was poisoned by Agrippina 54. Britannicus was poisoned in 55 and Agrippina murdered in 59 by order of Nero.

[15] To Octavia her marriage was a funeral in a house where her father and soon afterward her brother had been poisoned, where a maid had become more powerful than her mistress, where a paramour had supplanted the lawful wife, and where she had been branded with a crime more hateful to her than the worst of deaths.

[16] Electra, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra and sister of Orestes. Her sad story has formed the basis of three extant plays, the Choephori of Aeschylus and the Electra of Sophocles and Euripides.

[17] Orestes.

[18] Lucan Bk I. 135.

[19] Sarcasm.

[20] Evidently the fear of suicide.

[21] Nero.

[22] Britannicus.

[23] Nero.

[24] Agrippina.

[25] The attempt by Nero to dispose of his mother by shipwreck.

[26] Murder of Agrippina.

[27] Poppaea.

[28] Claudius.

[29] The adoption of Nero and Octavia’s forced betrothal to him.

[30] Agrippina was the niece of Claudius and their marriage was contrary to law. The senate gave permission.

[31] Appius Silanus to whom Octavia was affianced. Agrippina by a pretended charge of immorality caused him to be disgraced and the betrothal to be rescinded. At the marriage of Agrippina and Claudius, Silanus put an end to his own life.

[32] Nero.

[33] Agrippina was innocent of the death of Britannicus. The simple pyre had been prepared before and the corpse was consumed that very night in the midst of a sudden tempest.

[34] The sympathy of the people was with Britannicus. The superiority of natural over legal descent seems to have been generally acknowledged.

[35] Poppaea who became Nero’s wife in 62 A.D.

[36] Acte, the favorite concubine of Nero. Originally a slave from Asia Minor, after Nero’s infatuation she was claimed to be a descendant of King Attalus and at one time he even thought of marrying her. See Quo Vadis.

[37] Leda bore by Jupiter, who visited her in the form of a swan, two eggs from one of which came Pollux and Helen and from the other Castor and Clytemnestra.

[38] Europa was carried off to Crete by Jupiter in the form of a bull.

[39] Danae was mother of Perseus by Jupiter who visited her in the form of a shower of gold.

[40] Bacchus, god of wine, son of Jupiter and Semele.

[41] Hercules, son of Jupiter and Alcmena, was pursued by Juno’s hatred.

[42] Hebe was daughter of Juno, cupbearer to the gods, and wife of Hercules after his deification.

[43] After Nero’s adoption by Claudius, he became Octavia’s brother.

[44] Whole passage similar to Vergil.

[45] The Great Bear Constellation.

[46] The appearance of a comet was considered a herald of misfortune. A comet appeared at this time and was generally supposed to portend the fall of the reigning prince.

[47] In 63, a comet, great tempests, pestilence, the partial destruction of Pompei by an earthquake, and the news of the evacuation of Armenia by the Roman legions seemed to confirm the belief that the blessing of the gods was no longer with the emperor.

[48] Typhon was the youngest son of Tartarus and Tellus who was angry at Jupiter’s giving birth to Minerva. Typhon was a monster with one hundred heads, fearful eyes, and terrible voices, who wished to obtain dominion over gods and men but was subdued by Jupiter.

[49] Life of Nero by Suetonius.

[50] The Domitian gens was noted for its cruelty.

[51] Tacitus affirms that Messalina was actually married with the most formal ceremonies to her lover, Caius Silius, during the lifetime of Claudius, her lawful husband.

[52] Britannicus.

[53] Sextus, son of Tarquinius committed an outrage upon Lucretia who, after informing her husband Collatinus and father Lucretius, stabbed herself. The people then arose and drove out the Tarquins.

[54] Tullia, wife of Tarquinius, urged her husband to the murder of her father. She drove her chariot over the mangled body and her father’s blood spurted over her and her carriage.

[55] Nero attempted to shipwreck his mother on her return from Baiae to Bauli, but the empress was picked up by boats from the shore and carried to Lucrine villa. Nero immediately sent Amicetus with a band of soldiers to complete the crime. As she lay dying from her many wounds, she exclaimed, “Strike the womb which bore a monster.”

[56] L. Annaeus Seneca was a senator and philosopher in the reign of Caligula. Incurring the displeasure of Messalina, the wife of Claudius, he was banished in 41 A.D. to Corsica. He was recalled in 48 by Agrippina to be the tutor of Nero. After the accession of his pupil to the throne, Seneca was for a long time the ruling power, but being implicated in the Pisonian conspiracy, he was driven to suicide 65 A.D.

[57] Eight weary years of waiting were relieved by study and authorship. He is said to have written his extant tragedies during his exile.

[58] When Jupiter ordered the flood to come, Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha alone found refuge on Mt. Parnassus. They were ordered by the oracle to cast behind them the bones of their mother which they interpreted to be the stones of the earth. As they threw the stones, those thrown by Deucalion became men and those by Pyrrha became women.

[59] Saturn was the father of all the gods. His reign was the Golden age, the age of innocence and happiness.

[60] Second was the Silver Age when good Saturn was banished from above and Jove reigned.

“To this came next in course the Brazen Age; A warlike offering prompt to bloody rage; Not impious yet! Hard steel succeeded then; And stubborn as the metal were the men.”

Ovid’s Metam--Book I Dryden’s Translation.

[61] Evidently something omitted.

[62] Astraea was goddess of purity and innocence and daughter of Justice. After she was driven from earth, she was placed among the stars where she became the constellation Virgo.

[63] Nero Claudius Caesar, the sixth of the Roman emperors, born 37 A.D. was the son of Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus. He was originally named Lucius Domitius. After the death of Ahenobarbus and a second husband, Crispus Passienus, Agrippina married Claudius who gave his daughter Octavia to Nero in marriage and subsequently adopted him with the formal sanction of the senate.

[64] Cornelius Sulla who had been banished to Massilia in 58 was put to death on the grounds that his residence in Gaul was likely to arouse disaffection in that province, and a similar charge proved fatal to Rubellius Plautus who had for two years been living in retirement in Asia.

[65] Formal title of the emperor.

[66] Augustus Caesar, the first Roman emperor, originally Gaius Octavius. After his adoption by his great uncle, C. Julius Caesar, he was called Augustus by the senate. He defeated Brutus and Cassius, his adopted father’s murderers, at Philippi B.C. 42.

[67] In Nero’s first speech, he placed the authority of the senate on the same footing with the consent of the soldiers.

[68] Brutus murdered Caesar, his patron.

[69] Augustus, Antony, and Lepidus formed a triumvirate and made a proscription of all their enemies. More than two thousand knights and three hundred senators were thus put to death and their property confiscated.

[70] Marcus Antonius, the triumvir, received Asia as his share and there met Cleopatra. He followed her to Egypt, a victim of her charms. At the battle of Actium, her flight and Antony’s subsequent pursuit changed the destiny of the Roman empire.

[71] Pompeius had fallen victim to the charms of the beautiful Egyptian.

[72] Agrippina embraced the cause of the wretched Octavia and declared herself to be the protectress of her injured innocence.

[73] Poppaea Sabina, a very beautiful but licentious woman. She was the daughter of T. Ollius but assumed the name of her maternal grandfather, Poppaeus Sabinus. She was first married to Rufrius Crispinus and afterward to Otho from whom she was divorced in order to marry Nero. She persuaded Nero to murder his mother who was opposed to the marriage. She was killed by a kick from Nero.

[74] Similar to Catullus and Vergil.

[75] The Romans were very indignant at this marriage.

[76] Noblesse oblige.

[77] Tantalus was admitted to the feasts of the gods, but having disclosed their secrets he was sent for punishment to the lower world where he stood up to his chin in water under an overhanging fruit tree, both of which retreated whenever he attempted to satisfy the hunger and thirst which tormented him.

[78] Sisyphus’ task in the lower world was to roll up hill a huge stone which constantly rolled back again.

[79] A vulture was constantly feeding upon Tityos’ liver which as constantly grew again.

[80] Ixion was bound to an ever-revolving wheel.

[81] Life of Nero by Suetonius.

[82] In 66 occurred the visit of the Parthian prince, Tiridates to Italy to receive his crown from the hands of the Roman emperor.

[83] Compare with curse of Dido in Vergil when Aeneas went below.

[84] Wedding day of Poppaea and Nero.

[85] Poppaea’s head appeared on the coins side by side with Nero, and her statues were erected in the public places of Rome.

[86] Sejanus. Juvenal’s Satires.

[87] Seneca and Burrhus were both opposed to the marriage.

[88] Similar to Catullus.

[89] The wedding of Peleus and Thetis was honored by the presence of all the gods with the exception of Discord who was not invited and who took revenge by throwing among the assembled gods the golden apple which was the source of so much misery.

[90] Poppaea’s dream.

[91] Poppaea’s first husband was Rufrius Crispinus.

[92] Attempt of the nurse to explain the dream.

[93] Twelve days after Nero divorced Octavia, he married Poppaea who brought a false accusation against the former wife, and Octavia was imprisoned in Campania. When the citizens murmured against such an unjust decree and Nero recalled her, they rushed tumultuously to the capital to offer sacrifice. They overthrew all the statues of Poppaea within reach and crowned Octavia’s. They surged around the palace until the emperor dispersed them with an armed force.

[94] Rebellion against Nero.

[95] Octavia was banished to the island of Pandataria where she was murdered by order of Nero. Her head was severed from her body and carried to the cruel Poppaea. Vows and sacrifices were offered to the gods by order of the senate.

[96] Nero.

[97] Livilla, the wife of the younger Drusus son of the emperor Tiberius, was persuaded by her lover, Sejanus, to poison her husband.

[98] Julia, daughter of Caligula and Milonia Caesaria, suffered death with her mother after the assassination of her father.

[99] Messalina.

[100] Now Ventotene; a small island off the coast of Campania to which political offenders were sometimes banished.

[101] Iphigenia was daughter of Agamemnon who offered her up to appease the gods. She was rescued by Diana and carried off in a cloud to the land of the Tauri where it fell to her lot to offer up as victims all strangers who were shipwrecked on the coast.

[102] Aulis, a harbor in Beotia where Iphigenia was offered in sacrifice.

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Transcriber’s Notes:

The original text is typewritten with hand corrections by the author.

Some text on the certification page following the title page in the original text is handwritten, and this text is shown in italics.

Character names are underlined in the original script, and these are shown in italics.

Footnotes, which appear on the page where they are anchored in the original text, have been moved to the end of the text and relabeled consecutively through the document.

Punctuation has been made consistent.

Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in the original text, except that obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

The following changes were made:

p. 3: Materneus changed to Maternus (Curiatius Maternus. There)

p. 11: A footnote anchor is missing on this page in the original text. The anchor for the footnote 17 in the original text was reassigned to footnote 18, and an anchor for footnote 17 was inserted based on context.

p. 11: to added (go to the)

p. 14: The last footnote on this page in the original text has no anchor. It is a duplicate of footnote 29 on the next page, and it was deleted.

p. 19: Footnotes 40 and 41 were reversed to agree with hand corrections made by the author on this page.

p. 23: Tarquinus changed to Tarquinius on this page and also in footnotes 53 and 54.

p. 50: Footnote 96 does not have a label or anchor in the original text, and an anchor was inserted based on context.

p. 51: Footnotes 99, 100, and 101 are mislabeled in the original text, and the labels were changed.

p. 51: Aulus changed to Aulis on this page and also in footnote 102.

p. 51, footnote 100: Vendutene changed to Ventotene (Now Ventotene; a)