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

Nero imagines that his feats on stage will hit the
spot, coax enthusiasm from the citizens.
33.3 ergo contractum oppidanorum vulgus, et quos e proximis coloniis
complent.
The sentence features a series of subjects: (i) vulgus, which governs the
perfect participle contractum; (ii) the implied antecedent of quos, i.e. ei; (iii)
the implied antecedent of qui, i.e. ei; (iv) manipuli. They all go with the main
verb at the end: complent. The et links vulgus and the first implied ei; the
-que after qui links the two implied ei; Tacitus then continues, climactically,
with etiam (‘even’). The pronounced polysyndeton magnifies the list of
those co-opted to swell the emperor’s enormous retinue. Tacitus revels in
the idea of so many men from so many different groups flooding into the
theatre of Neapolis.
The oppidani are the townsfolk of Neapolis, in
contrast to the Roman citizens (cives) mentioned in the previous sentence.
The word vulgus (‘crowd’, ‘mob’) suggests that Nero’s local audience is
made up of the lowest elements of society.
Although originally distinct forms of settlement (a
colonia being a settlement of Roman citizens, a municipium an independent
Italian town), by this period the distinction had lost some of its significance.
Tacitus uses both to exaggerate Nero’s recruitment to his fan-club, drawing
from anywhere he could all over the country. 121
Here we meet that wonderfully ambiguous word fama again.
Once again Tacitus uses it to imply (without explicitly saying) that these
men were attracted by the infamy of what Nero was up to: in other words,
he not only blackens Nero’s character, but also suggests that the men who
flocked to him were lowlifes, attracted to Nero’s outrageous designs like
flies round the proverbial canine ordure.
121 For the varying status of the cities in the Roman Empire see Edmundson (2006) 256–58.