Tacitus, Annals, 15.20­-23, 33­-45. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary, 2013a

for almost everyone else the mind and disposition of the emperor is the
yardstick for their own thoughts and actions. The historian knows that
traditional forms of good governance always hand officials tools to block
unwelcome reform; in the Caesars’ Rome, at any rate, Tacitus shows, the
public pageant of government was pure rigmarole.
In this case there is no hint that Nero felt slighted
by Thrasea’s proposal; instead, he himself put forward such a motion soon
afterwards. The temporal adverb mox presumably refers to a point in time
in the same year (AD 62). Rudich even argues that Thrasea’s proposal
played into Nero’s hands and interprets the reluctance of the consuls to
have the motion passed differently: ‘It is no accident that the consuls were
reluctant to promulgate Thrasea Paetus’ motion to abolish provincial
thanksgivings..., while Nero, on the other hand, approved it. Though it
was intended to oppose imperial adulatio, the emperor was exploiting
Thrasea Paetus’ move for the opposite purpose, that is, of depriving the
Senate of another fraction of its political prestige.’ 88 We have suggested a
somewhat different explanation for the consuls’ hesitation. And Rudich’s
reading leaves open the question as to why Thrasea’s proposal received
the enthusiastic support of the senate. What do you think is going on?
And does your Tacitus want us to fathom, to wonder, or to flounder?
(= sanxerunt, i.e. the senators). In AD 11, Augustus had passed a
law that stipulated an interval of 60 days between the end of a governor’s
tenure and the proposal of a vote of thanks. See Cassius Dio 56.25.6: ‘He
also issued a proclamation to the subject nations forbidding them to bestow
any honours upon a person assigned to govern them either during his term
of office or within sixty days after his departure; this was because some
governors by arranging beforehand for testimonials and eulogies from
their subjects were causing much mischief.’ Now Nero’s proposal aimed
to ban the practice altogether. It is not entirely clear whether his measure
was effective, ineffectual to begin with, or fell into abeyance after a while.
After votes of thanks were made in the council, a delegation
was sent to Rome to report it to the senate. The law aimed to end both
aspects of this practice (i.e. the voting of thanks and the dispatch of a
88 Rudich (1993) 77.