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

during pregnancy. That poison played its part I am unable to believe, though
the assertion is made by some writers less from conviction than from hatred;
for Nero was desirous of children, and love for his wife was a ruling passion.
The body was not cremated in the Roman style, but, in conformity with the
practice of foreign courts, was embalmed by stuffing with spices, then laid
to rest in the mausoleum of the Julian clan. Still, a public funeral was held;
and the emperor at the Rostra eulogized her beauty, the fact that she had
been the mother of an infant daughter now divine, and other favours of
fortune which did duty for virtues.]
While Nero’s delight at becoming a father
is a (mock-) sympathetic touch, Tacitus portrays him as emotionally
incontinent, unable to restrain himself in either joy (as here) or grief (see
below 23.3: atque ipse ut laetitiae ita maeroris immodicus egit). The phrase ultra
mortale is also a not particularly subtle reminder of the ever-crazier tyrant’s
delusions of divinity (apart from setting up the upcoming apotheosis of his
moribund daughter).
The
daughter’s nomen gentile was Claudia, to which Nero decided to add the
honorific title Augusta. Within the Annals, the passage is part of a sequence,
stretching back to the very beginning of the work: at Annals 1.8, Tacitus
records that Augustus, in his will, posthumously conferred this title on his
wife Livia: ... cuius testamentum inlatum per virgines Vestae Tiberium et Liviam
heredes habuit. Livia in familiam Iuliam nomenque Augustum adsumebatur
(‘His will, brought in by the Vestal Virgins, specified Tiberius and Livia
as heirs, Livia to be adopted into the Julian family and the Augustan
name’). At Annals 12.26, he mentions that Claudius bestowed the honour
on his wife Agrippina, in the context of his adoption of her son Nero:
rogataque lex, qua in familiam Claudiam et nomen Neronis transiret. augetur
et Agrippina cognomento Augustae (‘and the law was carried providing for
his adoption into the Claudian family and the name of Nero. Agrippina
herself was dignified by the title of Augusta’). Here the honorands are a
newborn baby – and a concubine-turned-wife. The absurd devaluation
of what in earlier times was a precious honour thus matches the degree
of Nero’s emotional excess. Tacitus expresses his disapproval obliquely
with a break in syntax after Augustam. Instead of simply stating that Nero
conferred the honour to his infant daughter and her mother, he provides
the information that Poppaea, ‘too’ (or ‘even’: see the et) received the
title Augusta in a lengthy ablative absolute (dato ... cognomento). ‘Poppaea’