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

Tacitus goes on to explain why the
things Nero said pleased the people, linking, with et, an ablative of
cause (voluptatum cupidine) and a participle with causal force (metuenti:
it is in the dative since it modifies plebi). angustias is the accusative object
of metuenti and the antecedent of the relative pronoun quae. Authors
steeped in aristocratic ideology like Tacitus routinely mis-represent
the people as motivated by base instincts and desires – a condition that
Juvenal captures for ancient Rome in the pithy phrase panem et circenses
(‘bread and circuses’). See Satire 10.78–81: 134
nam qui dabat olim
imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se
continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat, 80
panem et circenses.
[The people that once used to bestow military commands, high office,
legions, everything, now limits itself. It has an obsessive desire for two
things only – bread and circuses.]
Tacitus, too, puts the emphasis on entertainment and food supply.
The latter concern is expressed in much longer and more complex
syntax, compared to the two words (voluptatum cupidine) dedicated to
entertainment. The variatio lends more weight to the latter, not least
because of the emphatic final position of metuenti, which renders it
apparent that fear of corn shortage was greater than desire for games.
We should note that these real reasons for the people’s anxiety about
Nero’s absence bear no relation to Nero’s speech: there’s nothing here
about Nero the father-figure or the consolation he gives in adversity;
according to Tacitus, the people just care about being entertained and
their bellies.
Tacitus here voices his (elitist) despair at the
(perceived) pleasure-loving populace and the ease with which they are
won over. The two words (desire for pleasures) are very negative words in
Roman morality: cupido represents a strong lust or desire; and the plural
of voluptas is a loaded word for moralising Roman historians – rather
134 We cite the text and translation of S. Morton Braund in the Loeb Classical Library
(Cambridge, Mass. and London, 2004).