Four Tragedies and Octavia (32 page)

1
. A doubtful line; perhaps ‘Heirs bolster up a king's proud confidence.'

1
. This question, in some texts, is asked by Oedipus.

1
. This line, in some texts, given to Old Man.

1
.
Fatis agimur; cedite fatis
. The line is quoted in Marston's
The
Fawn
(1605).

1
. Birds mythologically symbolic of lamentation: halcyon, the metamorphosed Alcyone, wife of Ceyx king of Trachis (Ovid,
Met
.,
XI
. 410 ff.); Procne and Philomela (swallow and nightingale, or vice versa), victims of Tereus (see note on
Thyestes
, 57).

1
. This speech might well be an alternative prologue, since it repeats some of the points introduced by Octavia. In any case, we are to imagine Octavia in an inner room and not yet visible to the Nurse.

2
. Britannicus, brother-in-law.

1
. Nero, made emperor over the head of Britannicus.

2
. Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus, being already the mother of Nero.

3
. L. Silanus Torquatus, betrothed to Octavia, committed suicide when Claudius married Agrippina and Octavia was given to Nero (Tacitus,
Annals
,
XII
. 8).

1
. Acte, a Greek freedwoman (Tacitus,
Annals
,
XIII
. 12,
XIV
. 2). According to Suetonius (
Nero
, 50) she assisted at the burial of Nero.

1
. Thus Juno forgives Jove's infidelities: Leda he courted as a swan; Bacchus was his son by Semele; Alcides (Hercules) his son by Alcmena. These instances do not, of course, correspond exactly with the ‘disguises' of Jupiter just mentioned.

1
. Messalina went through a form of marriage with Gaius Silius while still the wife of Claudius.

1
. The story of the centurion who killed his daughter Virginia, to save her from being claimed as a slave and concubine by Appius Claudius, is told by Livy (
III
. 44 ff.) – and also in Chaucer's
Physician's
Tale
.

2
. There is some confusion in the facts and the moral of this instance. Tullia was the wife of Tarquinius Superbus and instigated him to his revolt against the old king Servius Tullius, her father, whom she desecrated as described. This was before the outrage upon Lucretia, which was committed by Sextus the son of Superbus, and which led to the final expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome (
Livy
, 1. 46 ff.).

1
. The narrative that follows may be compared with the account in Tacitus,
Annals
,
XIV
. 1–9, with which it substantially agrees.

1
. This thought appears in very similar words in
Thyestes
, 753.

1
. Compare this speech with the passage in
Appendix II
, 2.

1
. Cf.
Phaedra
, 525 ff.

1
. Rubellius Plautus, a great-grandson of Tiberius, and Faustus Cornelius Sulla Felix, son-in-law of Claudius, had both been suspected of seditious aims and had been ‘advised' to go into retirement, Plautus to Asia and Sulla to the south of France. They were duly executed. By Tacitus's account (
Annals
,
XIV
. 57 ff.) the prefect (Tigel-linus) instigated Nero to this decision; and it is to be remarked that the incident, in Tacitus, immediately follows a touching scene in which Seneca's retirement from office is offered and accepted with mutual compliments.

1
. The first, Pompey the Great; the second, Mark Antony.

1
. Cf. a. similar thought in
Phaedra
, 195.

1
. The visit of the Ghost may be supposed to have marked the passage of a night, and it is now the morning of the wedding-day. The lapse of time between the episodes which will follow is unconsidered.

1
. Helen and Paris.

2
. The events here reported actually occupied several days (cf. Tacitus,
Annals
,
XIV
. 60–5). According to Suetonius (
Nero
, 35) Nero married Poppaea twelve days after the divorce of Octavia.

1
. ‘Whom neither the fasces nor the roof of his own house protected.' Livius Drusus the younger, tribune in 91
B.C.
, assassinated by opponents of his project to extend Roman franchise to all Italians. Velleius Paterculus (
II
. 14) confirms that he was stabbed in the hall of bis house on returning home, amid a throng, from the forum.

1
. Now under arrest.

1
. Agrippina (mother of Nero's mother), grand-daughter of Augustus, wife of Tiberius's nephew Germanicus (called Caesar on his adoption by Tiberius). She enjoyed the prestige of her husband's brilliant career, but after his death became antagonistic to Tiberius and suffered banishment and death by hunger-strike.

1
. Also known as Livilla – sister of Claudius, wife of her cousin Drusus (Tiberius's son); was induced by Sejanus, in his intrigues for the succession, to poison her husband; punished in
A.D.
23.

2
. Married first to Nero Caesar, Germanicus's eldest son and so first heir to Tiberius, she probably aided Sejanus to procure his banishment (Tacitus,
Annals
,
IV
. 60). By her second marriage she was the mother of Rubellius Plautus. The manner of her death is not known, but Tacitus (
XIII
. 32) says it was ‘by the intrigues of Messa-lina', so it must have been before
A.D.
48, the date of Messalina's death.

1
. The sense of this petition is obscure, and the text possibly corrupt. An interpolation proposed by Leo amends it to: ‘Father, I pray you to destroy the tyrant who deserves such a death and penalty.'

1
. An error, for ‘Pyrrhus'.

1
. or
peise
, weight.

1
. Cf.
17
,
18
,
24
, above; with the difference that here it is the emperor's adviser who is urging ruthlessness.