A bust of Emperor Nerva (r. 96-98) from the Villa Adriana, in the National Roman Museum at Palazzo Massimo alle Terme in Rome. Nerva’s is the face in the foreground. His short reign was welcome after the police state maintained by Domitian, but overshadowed by his refusal to let the Pretorian Guard take retributive action against Domitian’s network of informers. It was no doubt the indulgent favour shown to Veiento, one of Domitian’s circle, that stung Mauricus into his outspoken reply. Nevertheless, Nerva might have taken it as a compliment. After all, a witch hunt was more Domitian’s style.
Part 1 of 2
I RECENTLY attended our excellent Emperor* [Nerva] as one of his assessors, in a cause wherein he himself presided. A certain person left by his will a fund for the establishment of gymnastic games* at Vienne. These my worthy friend Trebonius Rufinus, when he exercised the office of Duumvir, had ordered to be totally abolished;* and it was now alleged that he had no official power to do so. He pleaded his own cause as successfully as he pleaded it eloquently; and what particularly recommended his speech was, that he delivered it with the deliberate gravity proper to a true Roman and a good citizen in dealing with a personal matter.
When the sentiments of the assessors were taken, Junius Mauricus* (who in resolution and integrity has no superior) pronounced that these games should not be restored to the people of Vienne; “and I wish,” added he, “they could be abolished at Rome too!”*
* Marcus Cocceius Nerva, Roman Emperor from 96 to 98. Tacitus too regarded the reign of Nerva as a golden age in Roman Empire. See also Thank Heaven for Free Speech, where John Trenchard and Thomas Gibson (writing as ‘Cato’) recall Tacitus’s words of praise for Nerva and for Nerva’s chosen successor, Trajan.
* At this point Pliny transliterated the Greek term γυμνικός ἀγών (as gymnicus agon) meaning an athletic contest. Athletic training was closely linked with the Greeks’ view of art, music and medicine. The pentathlon challenged competitors to a foot race, long jump, javelin throw, discus throw, and wrestling; boxing was a separate discipline. The average Roman, more practical than his Greek neighbour, thought the quest for the male body beautiful was an affectation, and the idea of parading about in the nude revolted him. “These games had greatly infected the manners of the people of Vienne” complained Pliny; “as they have universally had the same effect among us”.
* Rufinus had served as one of two joint magistrates (duumviri) chosen out of the body of decuriones, or local senators, at Vienna in Gallia Lugdunensis, modern-day Vienne in the Isère department south of Lyons.
* Junius Mauricus had long enjoyed a reputation as a critic of corrupt and heavy-handed government. He spoke out about public lawlessness under Galba (r. 68-69) and led efforts under Vespasian (r. 69-79) to bring Nero’s web of informers to justice. In 93, his brother Arulenus Rusticus was executed under Domitian (r. 81-96) and Mauricus was banished, returning under Nerva (r. 96-98). Pliny was engaged by Mauricus to find a husband for his niece, and a tutor for his nephews.
* Both Nero and Nerva’s predecessor Domitian had established athletic games on the Olympian model at Rome. Thanks to the two Emperors’ reputation for deranged cruelty, these precedents did nothing to change the minds of doubters.
Précis
Pliny the Younger recalled joining his friend Julius Mauricus on a committee which had to decide whether to let the town of Vienne in Roman Gaul establish an athletics festival, following a wealthy citizen’s bequest. Pliny was impressed with Mauricus’s principle in openly opposing not only this new festival in Vienne, but also those founded by recent Emperors in Rome. (60 / 60 words)
Part Two
A view over Vienne in Isère, France, formerly Vienna in Gallia Narbonensis, showing the first-century AD Roman amphitheatre. For the average Roman, ‘sport’ was the breakneck horse and chariot racing of the circus (Vienne had one of those as well), and at Rome, the varied ‘entertainments’ of the Coliseum: see Keep away from the Games!. All this they could enjoy because they were crowd-pleasing spectaculars. Only those who aspired to raise the tone of Roman society by the imitation of classical Greece left bequests for athletics; and in Pliny’s opinion, all they succeeded in doing was lowering it.
YOU will say that was uncompromising, and bold. So what? It was nothing new for Mauricus. He was no less bold towards the Emperor Nerva himself.
Being at dinner* one evening with Nerva and a few select friends, Veiento* was placed next to the Emperor, and actually reclined upon his bosom.* I need only name the man and it says it all!*
The conversation happened to turn to Catullus Messalinus,* who had a soul as dark as his body; for he was not only cursed with want of sight, but want of humanity. As he was uninfluenced either by fear, shame, or compassion, Domitian all the more frequently used him to fling against every man of worth, precisely as a dart, that flies sightless and senseless to its mark. The company were talking of the bloody counsels and infamous practices of this creature.
“And what,” said the Emperor, “would have been his fate had he lived till now?”
“He would be dining with us,” replied Mauricus.*
* The cena or dinner was the chief meal of the day, and for the wealthier classes a lavish affair beginning in the late afternoon and extending far into the evening. The gustatio began proceedings, eggs perhaps, with shellfish, salad and honeyed wine. The fercula followed, with three to seven courses of flesh, fish and fowl. After that the Roman rubbed his hands in anticipation of the mensae secundae, of patries, sweetmeats, fruits and wine.
* Aulus Didius Gallus Fabricius Veiento, who in AD 62 enjoyed the compliment of being banished from Rome by Nero, and learning that his writings had all been burnt — an action which, Tacitus tells us, led to a spike in their sale price, followed by their complete literary oblivion as soon as the ban was lifted. He was related to Aulus Didius Gallus, suffect consul for AD 39 and governor of Roman Britain. Veiento returned to Rome under Vespasian and continued in favour under Domitian. He was a suffect consul three times.
* Romans in the triclinium (dining room) lay stretched out upon couches to eat, each diner raising himself up on one elbow and using his free arm to lean over and fetch dainty morsels from the common table. Because recumbent diners shared their couches, typically in groups of two or three, one man’s head would be in front of another’s chest, and the man in front was said to recline in the bosom of the man behind. It was a position of great honour if the man behind was the Emperor, or one of even loftier majesty: see John 13:23.
* This was not intended as praise. Veiento had prospered under Domitian, and Pliny had crossed swords with him in the courts too.
* Lucius Valerius Catullus Messalinus, twice a consul (a post for which disability such as blindness would normally be a disqualification), and a man deep in the counsels of Domitian, though almost entirely behind the scenes. He was a delator, an informer, whose job it was to identify and expose anyone thought to be unsympathetic to the State. Evidently, he had died sometime before this dinner conversation took place in 97.
* A remark apparently aimed at Veiento, another of Domitian’s ‘creatures’, and at Nerva’s failure to root out others like him.
Précis
Pliny then recalled what happened when Fabricius Veiento, one of Emperor Domitian’s favourites, dined with Domitian’s successor Nerva in 97. The name of Domitian’s hated lieutenant, Catullus Messalinus, arose in conversation, and Nerva asked the company what Messalinus’s fate would have been were he still alive. Mauricus, with an eye on Veiento, replied that he would be dining with them. (59 / 60 words)
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