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

onis artibus) he received. Tacitus revels in hypocrisy of this sort, and
here stresses this with the simple and scathing contrast between ore and
animum: a wonderfully concise and acid description of a hypocrite.
quasi aeger nervis cubiculum non egressus. tradidere quidam venenum
aqua vitam tolerat.
To his account of Nero’s sacrilege, Tacitus appends an anecdote about the
Stoic philosopher Seneca, Nero’s boyhood tutor and chief adviser in the early
years of his reign. He last made an appearance in the Annals at 15.23, when
he congratulated Nero on his reconciliation with Thrasea Paetus. At Annals
14.56, Tacitus reported that Seneca put in a request for early retirement and,
after Nero refused to grant it, withdrew himself from the centre of power
as much as possible. Now he again tries to put suitable distance between
himself and Nero, yet again without success. The incident here prefigures
his death in the wake of the conspiracy of Piso, which is given pride of place
in Tacitus’ account of AD 65, at Annals 15.48–74. Tacitus makes it clear that
he does not wish to vouch for the veracity of the anecdote: with ferebatur
and tradidere quidam he references anonymous sources without endorsing
them. But at 15.60.2 Tacitus recounts the attempt to poison Seneca as fact:
... ut ferro grassaretur (sc. Nero) quando venenum non processerat (’... as poison
had not worked, he was anxious to proceed by the sword’).
A purpose clause (hence the
subjunctive). Tacitus makes Nero’s sacrilege explicit, to the point of saying
that his close adviser wanted to avoid being tainted by association. The
noun invidiam is strong, implying real hatred, whilst the emphasised
pronoun semet (himself) conveys Seneca’s fear that he himself might be
held in some way responsible.
The emphatically positioned longinqui
suggests Seneca’s desperate wish to be far from the firing line, as does the
verb oravisse.