A CRIMINAL HISTORY OF MANKIND

are told that Paulinus punished tribes who had remained neutral as well as rebels. He seems to have
seized stores and standing crops, creating a famine just as winter was coming on. And there can be
no doubt that Paulinus crucified and tortured on a massive scale - so much so that even the emperor
Nero was shocked; he replaced Paulinus with another governor and ordered that there should be a
new principle of reconciliation. It is not clear what became of Catus Decianus, the man who caused
the whole thing by ordering the flogging and rapes; no doubt he continued to rise in the Roman
civil service.
The story does no credit to anyone. But it is worth telling to show what Roman occupation actually
meant to hundreds of subject tribes from Syria to northern Britain. The school history books assure
us that, whatever their faults, the Romans carried civilisation over the world. But the story of
Boudica reminds us that millions of their subjects regarded the Romans as we now regard the Nazis
who burned the Warsaw ghetto and destroyed Lidice and Oradour-sur-Glane - with a hatred that
could only be satisfied with their total annihilation. Whatever the ‘benefits’ they conferred, there
can be no doubt that, from the point of view of human evolution, the Romans were a step in the
direction of the ape.
FROM NERO TO CONSTANTINE
In the emperor Nero we encounter the essence of the problem of human criminality. Marius was
paranoid; Tiberius an embittered sadist; Caligula insane. Nero was none of these things. When he
became emperor at the age of seventeen, in 54 A.D., he seems to have been a fairly ordinary young
man with artistic tastes and a strong desire to be liked and admired. He had spindly legs, a podgy
stomach and a rather self-indulgent face. (Since he was the son of Agrippina, one of Caligula’s
three sisters, it is just conceivable that he was actually Caligula’s son.) The only doubtful element
in the character of the new emperor was the sheer intensity of his naive egoism. He found himself
inexhaustibly interesting.
His taste for applause dated from childhood, when he had performed a part in a play about Troy in
the circus. And the rabble found that, as an emperor, he was just as anxious to be liked and
applauded. He began his reign by announcing that he intended to follow in the footsteps of his
great-great-grandfather Augustus and distributed largesse to the people; he followed this with some
of the most spectacular games they had ever seen. But since he hated the sight of blood, no one was
allowed to be killed in the contests - even criminals were spared. The emphasis was on drama,
athletics and horsemanship - Nero adored horses. He was also a passionate lover of music, and he
had no military ambitions whatever. Altogether, he seemed to have the makings of a very tolerable
emperor.
His vanity, while rather absurd, seemed quite harmless. He had taken lessons in singing and playing
the lyre. His voice was light, and he was told that if he wanted to make it stronger he would have to
lie on his back with heavy weights on his chest to strengthen the breathing muscles; he did this
conscientiously. Then he began singing to his dinner guests, and was so encouraged by their
enthusiasm that he decided to make a stage appearance. Perhaps out of caution he chose Naples
rather than Rome, and the theatre was shaken by an earthquake during his performance; but he sang
on to the end, obviously feeling that the show must go on. When the Roman crowds learned about
his performances, they clamoured to hear him; Nero announced that he would sing later in the
palace gardens; but when his guards begged him to sing immediately, he graciously complied. The
applause made him decide to enter a public competition for lyre-playing; when it came to Nero’s
turn, he proceeded to sing an immensely long opera that went on for hours. Soon Nero was