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

who had made vows for his health when he was sick kept them after his
return to health (27):
Votum exegit ab eo, qui pro salute sua gladiatoriam operam promiserat,
spectavitque ferro dimicantem nec dimisit nisi victorem et post multas
preces. alterum, qui se periturum ea de causa voverat, cunctantem pueris
tradidit, verbenatum infulatumque votum reposcentes per vicos agerent,
quoad praecipitaretur ex aggere.
[A man who had made a vow to fight in the arena, if the emperor recovered,
he compelled to keep his word, watched him as he fought sword in hand,
and would not let him go until he was victorious, and then only after many
entreaties. Another who had offered his life for the same reason, but delayed
to kill himself, he turned over to his slaves, with orders to drive him decked
with sacred boughs and fillets through the streets, calling for the fulfilment
of his vow, and finally hurl him from the embankment.]
Nevertheless, the practice remained a standard element in the peculiar
social dynamic that unfolded between the emperor and other members
of Rome’s ruling élite in imperial times. We (and Tacitus) tend to see the
proposed honours as manifestations of corporate servility. It is therefore
useful to recall that there is another cultural logic in play. Thus Ittai Gradel
argues that this was a technique for the senators to get some purchase on
the behaviour of the princeps: ‘Honours were a way to define the status or
social position of the person or god honoured, but it was also a way to tie
him down. The bestowal of honours to someone socially superior, whether
man or god, obliged him to return them with benefactions. Or, we might
say, to rule well. It could indeed be honourable to reject excessive honours,
and for example, the elder Scipio had excelled in this gloria recusandi. On the
other hand, refusing honours also entailed rejecting the moral obligations
that went with them, even to the point of recognizing no bonds whatsoever.
So it would be socially irresponsible to reject all such proposals.’ 109
iam senatus uterum Poppaeae commendaverat dis votaque publice
susceperat, quae multiplicata exsolutaque [sc. sunt]As with his account of
Nero’s reaction, Tacitus manages to convey his distaste in how he represents
the senate. The front position of the adverb iam helps to generate the
impression of escalation: already during Poppaea’s pregnancy, the senate
had decided to turn the wellbeing of her unborn child into an affair of state.
109 Gradel (2002) 59.