Matheson Collection > Cornelli Taciti annalium

TACITUS ANNALS: NOTES
acerba : a metaphor fiom unripe fruit, apjilied also by Vergil,
Acn. vi 429, to premature deaths.
§ 5. familia : the 'gens Claudia,' to which Nero belonged by-
adoption. (Nero could however trace his descent to Augustus,
through his mother, who was grand-daughter of Augustus' daughter
Julia.)
Ch. 18, § I. potissimos : Nero's most intimate associates. Ac-
cording to Suetonius, Locusta as well received rich presents, and
pardon for previous offences.
gravitatem adseverantes, ' who made profession of austerity.'
The allusion fits the case of Seneca, In connexion with 'necessi-
tatem adhibitam,' Seneca's own dictum 'nemo in id accipiendo
obligatur quod illi repudiare non licuit' {de Ben. 2. 18. 7) is signifi-
cant.
§ 3. amplecti, * made much of.'
avaritiam, ' rapacity.' Cf. A/m. xii 7, 7, ' cupido auri immensa
obtentum habebat quasi subsidium regno pararetur ' (her avarice
claimed the excuse of political forethought).
etiam tum : Tacitus writes after the almost total extinction by
Domitian of the old Republican nobility.
§ 4. excubias : sentinels of praetorians at her doors, distinct
from her body-guard ('custodes') when she went out.
nuper eundeni in honorem : a correction of Med. 'super eun-
dem,' which is unsatisfactory, though by some explained as ' besides
that mark of honour.'
§ 5. ne coetu: i.e. so that she should not receive attention from
the crowd of courtiers who came to pay their respects to Jiiin.
Antonia: the maternal great-grandmother of Nero, see Intr. VI b.
She was better known than Nero's paternal grandmother, who
also bore this name, and who has been taken by some to be the
person named here.
quotiens : followed by subjunctive denoting action frequently
repeated (Intr. II 41).
Ch. 19, § I. nihil, (S:c., 'Nothing in human affairs is so pre-
carious and transient as the prestige of an authority that depends
on another for enfoi'cement.'
§ 2. supra : the story is told in the closing chapters of Ann. xi.
Messalina conceived a violent passion for Silius, whom she positively
married, thus repudiating her own marriage with the Emperor
Claudius. The imperial freedmen persuaded Claudius to have
Silius executed as a conspirator, and then Narcissus sent soldiers
to kill Messalina too, though the emperor was half inclined to
pardon her (48 A. D.).
Sextium Africanum : mentioned again in Ann. xiv 46, as one
of the officials taking the census in Gaul. He was descended from
T. Sextius, legatus of Julius Caesar in Gaul, and subsequently
proconsul in Numidia.
vergentem : this verb is applied to the lapse of time and to
mental tendency by writers of this age only.