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

The failure of the plan is
stressed by the balanced phrases here: ‘prepared by Nero’s orders, avoided
by Seneca.’ The hand of the emperor behind this crime is explicit.
Again Tacitus gives two possible
explanations, linked by the alliteration and paronomasia proditione ~ propria
and with emphasis on the second. The crime could have been revealed to
Seneca by the crumbling of Cleonicus (proditione liberti), with the word
proditio (‘treachery’, ‘betrayal’) used with immense irony – his ‘betrayal’
was to save the life of Seneca, a cutting comment on the perversity of
Nero’s reign. Or the crime could have been foiled by Seneca’s own fear
(propria formidine): this is the more incriminating explanation because it
implies that Seneca was already expecting an assassination attempt from
his one-time supervisee. There is variatio in constructions (noun + subjective
genitive (proditione liberti) followed by attribute + noun), which generates
a chiasmus that helps to stress the second option, as does the following
dum-clause.
dum persimplici victu et agrestibus pomis ac, si sitis admoneret,
Seneca managed to prolong his life by
only consuming non-processed food and running water, which preempted
any possibility of adding poison – though the anecdote brings to
mind Livia’s murder of Augustus by poisoning figs still on the tree. See
Cassius Dio 56.30: ‘So Augustus fell sick and died. Livia incurred some
suspicion in connexion with his death... she smeared with poison some
figs that were still on trees from which Augustus was wont to gather the
fruit with his own hands; then she ate those that had not been smeared,
offering the poisoned ones to him.’ (Tacitus, at Annals 1.5, mentions
the rumour that Livia tried to poison Augustus, but without going into
details.) et agrestibus pomis explicates persimplici victu. Koestermann
points out that the indicative tolerat within indirect speech is designed
to convey Tacitus’ admiration for the Spartan simplicity of Seneca’s
chosen way of life, 201 but it may just as well cash out as sage precaution
against the risk of poison at court (cf. 15.60.3). The subjunctive admoneret
in the si-clause expresses repeated action (and thus has affinity with the
generic use of the subjunctive). 202
201 Koestermann (1968) 262.
202 Miller (1973) 99.