The Classical World Part 12

49.

The New Dynasty This statue fears no rainy winters nor the triple fire of Jupiter's lightning... it will stand while earth and sky endure, while there is still a Roman daylight. Here, in the silent night, when earthly affairs concern the G.o.ds on high, your kin will leave the heavens and glide down and mingle their kisses with you. Son and brother, father and sister will come down to your embrace: your neck alone will make s.p.a.ce for all the stars...

Statius, Silvae Silvae 1.1.918, on 1.1.918, on Domitian's bronze equestrian statue in Rome, c. c. AD 91 AD 91 It was our delight to dash those proud faces to the ground, to strike them with the sword and savage them with the axe as if blood and agony could follow every blow. n.o.body could refrain from joy, late though our rejoicing was, but everyone sought a form of revenge in seeing those statue-bodies torn in pieces, limbs hacked to bits and those dreadful portrait-images cast into the flames and roasted, so that from such terror and threats, they could be transformed for the use and pleasures of mankind. Pliny, Panegyric Panegyric 52.45, on the destruction 52.45, on the destruction of Domitian's statues in AD 93 When Vespasian finally reached Rome, n.o.body could dispute the need for a new style and a new grip on the realities. After Nero and a civil war, the finances were in a dreadful state. The grain-reserves had almost run out; the ranks of senators had been diminished by civil war; rivals had proclaimed 'freedom', but there had been looting by the troops, much as during Octavian's own rise to power. The city itself was a sorry sight. The Great Fire of 64 had been followed by yet more burning in the recent conflicts. In the middle of it all, Nero's Golden House was still standing, a gigantic affront.

Inevitably, taxes had to increase. Italy remained exempt from tribute, but existing taxes went up and new ones were soon added: there was even a new tax on the urine from public urinals (which was used for cleaning clothes, as it still was in the First World War). Vespasian, the down-to-earth Italian, had no particular fondness for Greek culture. The turbulent Alexandrians in Egypt found themselves forced to pay the poll tax for the first time and Nero's grant of tax-free 'freedom' to Greece was revoked. It was, then, particularly ingenious of the Arcadian Greeks of Tegea, down in the Peloponnese, to claim that they had uncovered ancient vessels in a sacred place, as predicted by prophets, and that the vessels were found to be carved with a face resembling Vespasian's own. So far from being 'new', they discovered, Vespasian was 'old': it was from Arcadia that the first kings of Rome were supposed to derive. No doubt these Greeks made the most of the discovery. More immediately, Vespasian could profit from the defeated Jews. As they no longer had a Temple to which they would pay regularly, they were obliged to pay a special tax in to Rome's temple of Jupiter instead. Unlike the Temple tax, it was extended to women and children and applied more widely to everyone between the ages of three and sixty. The new revenues here were significant.

Vespasian himself liked money, but disliked personal extravagance. He was a free gift, therefore, for anecdotes and amusing rumours. At his funeral, it was a neat joke when the mime-actor who was representing him in the procession (by now, a usual practice) called out to ask how much the funeral was costing. A huge sum was called out in answer, whereupon 'Vespasian' replied that he would rather be given a little bit of it and have his body thrown cheaply into the river Tiber. Exceptions comically upheld the general picture. A woman was said to have had a pa.s.sion for the old man and begged to go to bed with him (after Caenis' death?). In return, she was said to have received a huge sum, enough to qualify a man as a Roman knight. The joke, surely, was that she was being paid for having ridden the emperor so ably. Vespasian was then said to have told his steward to enter the sum in his account-book, but to put it down as 'To Making Pa.s.sionate Love to Vespasian'.1 Everything had to be accounted for, including good s.e.x after lunch. Everything had to be accounted for, including good s.e.x after lunch.

In the provinces, particular loyalties were wooed with cheap privileges and t.i.tles (the 'Latin right' was given to Spain): financial rewards were another matter. In Rome, however, an emperor could not be entirely unremunerative. The Praetorian guards had to be rewarded, but this time they were changed, rather than bribed excessively. Those of them who were retired gradually were surely the lucky settlers in a rare phenomenon, the few colonies which Vespasian dared to found in Italy itself. In Rome, too, despite the economic squeeze, the emperor had to spend, because he could not simply h.o.a.rd coins and starve society of cash in circulation. One outlet for spending was public building. Most of the city's plebs were men of all trades, whatever their particular speciality or social group: they did not depend on public building works for their dailybread, but these works gave them a very helpful extra beside the slave workers who were also engaged on them. In Rome, even during the drive for economy, Vespasian's new buildings were to be far larger than the schemes of Pericles' Athens. The building which we now call the Colosseum was put up on land from Nero's awful Golden House. Four storeys high, it was for the people, not just the emperor, as a real 'people's arena'. The expense, too, was manageable: Jews' a.s.sets helped to pay for it, the spoils taken from the victory in Judaea. Jews' a.s.sets also helped to pay for a programmatic new temple of Peace whose vast area was ten times bigger than the precinct around Augustus' famous altar to the G.o.ddess. The contents of the precinct enhanced the emperor's image.2 The river Nile was carved as a quartz statue with sixteen children. In Egypt, an Egyptian priestess had correctly prophesied a full flood of the Nile, sixteen cubits deep (whence the sixteen children) when Vespasian visited the country at the start of his coup in 69: Vespasian's monument was alluding to his role in bringing the prophecy about. The rest of 'Peace's' decorations were antique sculptures and works of art, some of which had been looted from the Jews, others from the Greek world byNero. There was a public message here for the people. What Nero had stolen for himself, Vespasian was now 'opening to the public' in a public temple. The river Nile was carved as a quartz statue with sixteen children. In Egypt, an Egyptian priestess had correctly prophesied a full flood of the Nile, sixteen cubits deep (whence the sixteen children) when Vespasian visited the country at the start of his coup in 69: Vespasian's monument was alluding to his role in bringing the prophecy about. The rest of 'Peace's' decorations were antique sculptures and works of art, some of which had been looted from the Jews, others from the Greek world byNero. There was a public message here for the people. What Nero had stolen for himself, Vespasian was now 'opening to the public' in a public temple.

Nevertheless, like Augustus, the new dynast did not go unopposed. Artfully, he sent two hated informers of the Neronian age abroad from Rome to take up governors.h.i.+ps. However, he was then criticized by the leading philosophic voice in the city, the senator Helvidius. One likely reason for the trouble was the resort to legalized autocracy which was embodied in the new 'law' on the emperor's powers. Another, connected to it, was Vespasian's ambition for his own family. Vespasian had two sons of whom the older, t.i.tus, had led the troops to victory in Judaea. Back in Rome, t.i.tus was even made Prefect of the Praetorian Guard. It was a new post for a member of the imperial house to hold, but an artful one, as it limited the guards' scope for electing an emperor of their own choosing. As the reign developed, Vespasian and his family then occupied the consuls.h.i.+p to a degree which not even Augustus had attempted. Speaking against this dynasty, the philosophic Helvidius was first exiled, then killed: it was probablyin response to him that Vespasian was said to have remarked 'either my sons succeed me, or n.o.body', apparently on leaving the Senate. Although Vespasian founded distinguished professors.h.i.+ps in Rome and Athens and favoured the teaching of oratory, grammar and medicine in major provincial cities, it is conspicuous that any such favour for philosophywas excluded. But versions of Helvidius' brave sayings continued to be circulated by philosophy teachers outside Rome.

Arguably, Helvidius was proved right. Vespasian's son t.i.tus had charm, a gift for speaking and a military record, but he antagonized public opinion in the mid-70s by bringing his controversial mistress into Rome. She was a Jewish princess, Berenice, the daughter of Claudius' friend King Agrippa. When she appeared in Rome she was mocked bycrowds in the theatre. It was not all a xenophobic protest: Berenice sat among the emperor's advisers, an ill-judged move which half-deserved her reputation as the 'new Cleopatra'.3 She was then judiciously sent abroad, after a supposed conspiracy in which two very senior senators were implicated: t.i.tus, on one view, framed the pair of them in order to get them out of the way before his own accession. He could use the charge of their involvement with Berenice to get her out of Rome too. She was then judiciously sent abroad, after a supposed conspiracy in which two very senior senators were implicated: t.i.tus, on one view, framed the pair of them in order to get them out of the way before his own accession. He could use the charge of their involvement with Berenice to get her out of Rome too.

On 24 June 79 Vespasian died, allegedly saying 'Oh dear, I think I am becoming a G.o.d', a plain man's comment on his imminent cult. t.i.tus took over and, most remarkably, Hadrian later stated that t.i.tus had actually poisoned Vespasian. On the surface, t.i.tus performed well enough for two years. He had the hated 'informers' paraded in the amphitheatre before exiling them: the next emperors repeated the spectcale. Admittedly, his brother Domitian claimed that t.i.tus had forged his father's will. t.i.tus had remarked that he had the talent to have been a practised forger and he may have deployed it against the two senators, the 'one crime', perhaps, which he used to say that he regretted.4 Perhaps it was fortunate for t.i.tus' reputation that he died so quickly, before the usual honeymoon years were over. It was less fortunate for Rome: his younger brother Domitian took over. Perhaps it was fortunate for t.i.tus' reputation that he died so quickly, before the usual honeymoon years were over. It was less fortunate for Rome: his younger brother Domitian took over.

The change of dynasty had not supplanted the old pattern. Domitian was no better than his weaknesses before becoming emperor. In 69/70 he had been the one family member inside Rome but he had been denied any genuine military distinction. He resented his brother and his father and his nature was anyway suspicious and insecure. Aptly, he was looked back on as the 'bald Nero', not just because he lacked his predecessor's looks and showy hairstyle. In 83 a degree of military success in Germany gave Domitian more confidence, but what emerged was all too familiar. He began by patronizing Greek cultural pursuits and even promoted members of the philosophic clique at Rome; one reason why he favoured these things was because his father had disliked both of them. Like Nero, he promoted Greek drama, music and athletics and in 86 gave them their first full festival in the city: he founded a second festival, at his huge country villa, and included them in the programme too. There were still Roman traditionalists who disapproved of Greek athletics and gymnastics because of their links with nudity and 'disgraceful' s.e.x between free men. Domitian's patronage, in the heart of the city, was an important counter-statement in years when the young Hadrian's tastes were forming, the great 'philh.e.l.lene' of the future. But Domitian was not being idiosyncratic: Greek literature and Greek language were now the normal education, we are told, of young Romans, so much so that many 'young boys speak and learn nothing but Greek for a long while'.5 The contrary voices were now a 'moral minority'. The contrary voices were now a 'moral minority'.

Domitian then fell out with his former proteges, the philosophers, and during an insecure phase, in late 93, permitted accusations that they were fostering opposition, not least because they were writing biographies of their ancestors, 'opposition martyrs' under Nero. It was a grim time, when senators had to compromise in order to survive. There were also attacks on Christian sympathizers in high society at Rome and on those accused of the 'adoption of Jewish ways'. Modern attempts to rehabilitate Domitian are as one-sided as the wilder rumours from antiquity. On better evidence, we learn that Domitian would retire to his vast country palace (one of two) outside Rome in the Alban hills where he used to like relaxing on the lake. He was so irritable that he had to be towed in a separate boat behind an oared vessel so that he would not hear the noise of its oars in the water.6 We can understand whyhis wife, a descendant of Ca.s.sius the 'Liberator', was soon found to prefer the charms of an actor. Back in Rome, Domitian was remembered for the ultimate in black humour. Senators and knights were said to have been invited at night to a dinner in a black-painted room with a black stone shaped like a tombstone behind each couch. Black-painted boys served black-painted food and the silence was only broken by Domitian who 'talked only about death and killing'. We can understand whyhis wife, a descendant of Ca.s.sius the 'Liberator', was soon found to prefer the charms of an actor. Back in Rome, Domitian was remembered for the ultimate in black humour. Senators and knights were said to have been invited at night to a dinner in a black-painted room with a black stone shaped like a tombstone behind each couch. Black-painted boys served black-painted food and the silence was only broken by Domitian who 'talked only about death and killing'.7 Like Nero, this bald successor kept a favourite eunuch for s.e.x; the verses which celebrate the cutting of this eunuch's golden hair and its dedication to the G.o.ds are not the most distinguished in Latin poetry. As under Nero, the gainer was Roman architecture. In Alexandria and the East, including the desert cityof Petra, there had already been a bold baroque splendour to architecture which was quite at odds with the repet.i.tive cla.s.sicism of Augustan good taste. It now had a renewed chance in Rome. The list of buildings which were restored or initiated in the city in Domitian's reign is conspicuous, but the boldest was his own great palace on the Palatine hill. Ever accessible and 'civil', Vespasian had avoided living on the hill, but Domitian's new palace was completed on it in 92 by the architectural genius, Rabirius. There were two separate parts and the rooms made a remarkable use of polygonal shapes, coloured marbles from distant quarries, light-effects, exceptional height and pa.s.sages. Its nearby hippodrome was apparently more a feature of the gardens than a real racecourse. Appropriately, the vast palace-complex was sited on top of Nero's earlier building and, when a thousand senators and knights sat down to dinner in the Banqueting Hall, the spectacle was not so much black, as amazing. Under a high gilded roof, 'the tired eye scarcely reached the summit', wrote the poet Statius, 'and you would think it was the golden ceiling of the sky'.8 The approach to the area was through a temple of ancient Jupiter. Comparisons between Domitian and Jupiter and their two palaces were favoured, but the emperor himself claimed the closest kins.h.i.+p with the G.o.ddess Minerva, mistress of the arts and war. There were mirrors, however, in the palace so that Domitian could always watch his own back. The approach to the area was through a temple of ancient Jupiter. Comparisons between Domitian and Jupiter and their two palaces were favoured, but the emperor himself claimed the closest kins.h.i.+p with the G.o.ddess Minerva, mistress of the arts and war. There were mirrors, however, in the palace so that Domitian could always watch his own back.

Domitian's insecurity and love of 'luxury' were intolerable and like Nero he was murdered by his own palace-attendants. As he had no sons, there was scope for those in the plot to choose their own candidate. Revealingly, they chose the elderly Nerva, sixty years old, a n.o.ble patrician by birth, a respected senator and also without sons. The full Senate then approved their choice, someone who was, at last, a mature insider. It was not just that he had written admired Latin elegies in his youth. Rather, three times in the last thirty years, Nerva had been honoured highly after crises in the emperors' management of affairs. His ancestors had been lawyers and he himself probably had a knowledge of law. In 71 he had been honoured most remarkably with a consuls.h.i.+p: perhaps it was a reward for co-ordinating work on the 'law' for Vespasian's powers in the previous year.

It is Nerva, not t.i.tus or Vespasian, who reallyis the 'good' emperor. At last, senatorial contemporaries could proclaim the reconciliation of 'freedom' and the Princ.i.p.ate. Nerva's coins publicized 'Public Freedom' and an inscription set in the 'Hall of Liberty' at Rome read, 'Liberty Restored'. Of course the system was not undone, but the popular a.s.semblies at Rome did meet and exercise 'liberty' by pa.s.sing laws. The hateful Domitian's statues were melted down and his name 'abolished' on monuments. But Domitian's appointments and rulings did have to be confirmed: too many people, including senators, had gained from them.

Besides promoting freedom, Nerva understood the importance of standing out against injustice and luxury. He corrected the harsh effects of the inheritance tax on new citizens and extreme applications of the Jewish tax on Jews and sympathizers. The accusers in tax cases in his provinces could no longer be the judges too; there were no longer to be prosecutions for slandering the emperor, and philosophy was granted public support. Spectacularly, Nerva sold off land, even clothing, in imperial owners.h.i.+p. He forswore 'luxury', and also directed 'liberality' towards poor people in Italy: money was set aside to buy them plots of land. It was all good policy, but the imperial system did not rest only on goodness. There were the all-important soldiers and the guards in Rome.

Optimistically, Nerva's coins proclaimed 'Concord of the Armies'. However, the troops still liked Domitian, who had raised their pay, and in autumn 97 the Praetorian guards forced Nerva to approve a brutal execution of Domitian's murderers. Someone more robust and military was manifestly needed. There was talk later of an outright coup but it was probably with Nerva's own agreement that he announced a soldier as his adopted heir. The choice was Trajan, a man from a colonial settlement in Spain with a distinguished military father and experience with the armies in Germany. Behind the adoption plan we can detect two senators, one of whom was Frontinus, a former governor of Britain, distinguished for his efforts in Wales, and the acknowledged authority on Rome's aqueducts.

The new pair of Nerva and 'son' might have worked very well for some years, each complementing the other. However, after three months Nerva unexpectedly died. In the footsteps of Vespasian's Flavian dynasty, he bequeathed to his successor a governing cla.s.s at Rome which, inevitably, was much changed in tone and composition. Not only had prominent Greek-speakers from the East entered the Senate (Domitian's patronage had been important here, in keeping with his cultural tastes). Vespasian, from 'little Italy', had helped to replenish the Senate with yet more members from 'little Italy' too. The legal statement of his powers had been acceptable to these new men, but then Domitian had elevated himself too far above them. By defying their moral values and standards, Domitian had shown up both the strengths and limitations of what such people stood for. After his death senators were quick to dare to condemn him, but they were equallyquick to justify themselves and their recent compromises. For there was so much which was best left unsaid. As a principled dinner-guest once aptly remarked to Nerva, if the worst of Domitian's informers had still been alive, they would doubtless have been dining in their company with Nerva too.9

50.

The Last Days of Pompeii If you felt the fires of love, mule-driver, You would make more haste to see Venus.

I love a charming boy, so I beg you, goad on the mules; let's go.

You have had a drink, so let's go. Take up the reins and shake them.

Take me to Pompeii where love is sweet.

Inscribed in the peristyle courtyard of House IX.V.ii, Pompeii The new men promoted from the towns of Italy in the 70s were credited with a new frugality and restraint. For a glimpse of their values in action, we can turn to archaeology's great survivors, the remains of Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum. On 24 August 79 Mount Vesuvius erupted in Italy, near Naples. A thick shower of dust and pumice ascended over the surrounding territory, accompanied by earthquakes, flames and a cloud shaped like a tree (said the eyewitness Pliny), with a crown of branches like an umbrella pine, a variety which is still so familiar around the ruins. This cloud rose up to a height of some twenty miles above the mountain, and, if we compare the similar recent explosions of Mount St Helens in north-west America, we have to reckon that the explosions in Vesuvius had had a force five hundred times greater than the atom bomb at Hiros.h.i.+ma. At Pompeii we can trace the effects in three awful stages. First of all, a shower of white pumice, some three yards deep, blocked the daylight, then greypumice blackened streets and buildings. On the following morning, 25 August, by about 7.30 a. m., a great 'burning cloud' of hot gas rolled into the streets, suffocating and burning those who had stayed or been trapped. This very powerful ground surge was [image]

followed by the pyroclastic flow of hot liquified rock and pumice which destroyed buildings and rolled on far past the town; then 'surge' and 'flow' came in four waves of increasing ferocity until 8 a. m. They caused the death of the spectacle's most learned observer, Pliny the Elder: as his nephew's letters recall, Pliny had boated across the Bay of Naples to have a closer look. Inside the town, bodies of the dead continue to be found. They range from mules, trapped by their mangers near the millstones which they used to turn, to the young lady, dressed in jewels, whose b.r.e.a.s.t.s had left their imprints in the mud where she died. At Herculaneum, the surge and flow struck earlier in the morning and hit the town in six waves, running out into the sea. The town was buried even more deeply than Pompeii and not, it now seems, from the secondary effects of rain and floods. The entire disaster was ma.s.sive, and we can well understand why it was a strain and expense on the Emperor t.i.tus' first year in power.

Pompeii and Herculaneum were close to the Bay of Naples, where so many of the grandest Romans had built spectacular villas. Even at the height of the Bay's luxury (in the first century BC BC), neither place had been a city of the first rank; by the 70s the Bay had lost a little of its predominance. Pompeii, the better known, would have covered about 350 acres and contained a population of perhaps 8,00012,000 in its last days. The town was laid out on a plateau of volcanic lava, the relic of a former eruption, and various types of volcanic rock had helped to build it. But the inhabitants did not know the risk they ran: Vesuvius' last eruption was more than a thousand years in the past, and the stone probably seemed harmless. Pompeii itself had grown up in layers, through clear phases of history since the sixth century BC BC: Etruscan (with Greeks), Samnite, colonial Roman (from 80 BC BC onwards) when Cicero had had one of his houses there. By onwards) when Cicero had had one of his houses there. By AD AD 79 its roots, like modern London's, were at least two centuries old, and the residents continued to build and rebuild over them right until the end. 79 its roots, like modern London's, were at least two centuries old, and the residents continued to build and rebuild over them right until the end.

One result is that the best-preserved ancient town is in many ways still hard to understand. It never stood still, and after the fatal eruption the looting began promptly. It has been continuing ever since excavation began again in the 1740s. Fortunately, one-third of Pompeii has been reserved for future archaeology, although so much has been destroyed, sold or dispersed meanwhile.

One side of Pompeian life seems appealingly modern. There was a planned street-system to exclude wheeled traffic from areas in the town centre. There are well-preserved wine-bars with 'pub signs' of a phoenix or a peac.o.c.k. There are theatres and a so-called 'sports complex' and a special market-building for fish, meat and delicacies for people doing the shopping. Many of the houses have big paintings or frescos on their walls, and there was a definite cult of 'house and garden'.Trompe l'il paintings seem to enlarge the gardens' s.p.a.ce and even show exotic birds and the flowers which grew in pots and borders, whether roses or bushes of myrtle. Owners would eat out around a shaded table in their 'room outside': 118 pieces of silver were found stored in one big house's bas.e.m.e.nt, including a set for dinner parties of eight people. paintings seem to enlarge the gardens' s.p.a.ce and even show exotic birds and the flowers which grew in pots and borders, whether roses or bushes of myrtle. Owners would eat out around a shaded table in their 'room outside': 118 pieces of silver were found stored in one big house's bas.e.m.e.nt, including a set for dinner parties of eight people.1 There were also graffiti and well-written inscriptions. Forty-eight graffiti of Virgil's poetry have been found (including some in a brothel). On the street-fronts of the bars, houses and public buildings, election-posters some 2,800 in all advertised support for particular candidates for civic office. About forty of these posters name women's support, although women themselves could not vote. There were also graffiti and well-written inscriptions. Forty-eight graffiti of Virgil's poetry have been found (including some in a brothel). On the street-fronts of the bars, houses and public buildings, election-posters some 2,800 in all advertised support for particular candidates for civic office. About forty of these posters name women's support, although women themselves could not vote.2 Through painted portraits we feel we know these people, the young ladies with a pen to their lips and blond, cla.s.sicizing features, or the men beside them with dark eyes and a s.h.i.+fty sort of look. But so much of this time warp is not our idea of a cosy town at all. Images and shrines of the G.o.ds were all over the place, quite apart from the big formal temples on the main forum. Slaves were essential to the households and crafts, although the loss of the buildings' upper storeys makes it hard to visualize where many of them lived. Ex-slaves, freed-men, were also essential to the economyand the social structure. After being freed, most of them still worked for their former owners (as they did in Rome) who could thus profit 'from' business without being tied down 'to' it. There were no high-street banks (money lending was a personal transaction) and there were no hospitals or public surgeries. There were brothels, but no moral 'zoning' into red-light districts. There were no street-signs, either. There are well-preserved lavatories behind discreet part.i.tions, but two, even six, people would be accommodated on them side by side, wiping their backsides with communally provided sponges.

Despite the theatres, the main sports complex was an amphitheatre for blood sports, both human and animal: it is the earliest one to survive, dating back to the 70s BC BC when Pompeii's population had been changed by the arrival of Roman veteran-colonists. Gladiatorial shows are announced and applauded in many of the town's surviving graffiti: 'the girls' idol, Celadus the Thracian gladiator!' when Pompeii's population had been changed by the arrival of Roman veteran-colonists. Gladiatorial shows are announced and applauded in many of the town's surviving graffiti: 'the girls' idol, Celadus the Thracian gladiator!'3 Nor were the town's big houses the inward-looking centres of privacy which we now cherish. Like a Roman's, a Pompeian's home was not his castle and 'home life' was not a concept which men prized for its own sake. It is not that the Roman family was an extended family by definition, somehow sprawling in one house across generations and between siblings. It was nuclear, like ours, but it was embedded in a different set of relations.h.i.+ps. If the head of the household, or Nor were the town's big houses the inward-looking centres of privacy which we now cherish. Like a Roman's, a Pompeian's home was not his castle and 'home life' was not a concept which men prized for its own sake. It is not that the Roman family was an extended family by definition, somehow sprawling in one house across generations and between siblings. It was nuclear, like ours, but it was embedded in a different set of relations.h.i.+ps. If the head of the household, or paterfamilias paterfamilias, was an important person, he was also a patron to many dependants and 'friends' who both gave and expected favours. Every morning, a string of visitors went in and out of the house, which was itself a sort of reception centre. Many of the older, bigger houses thus gave visitors an impressive view through them from the entrance, as they looked down the straight main axis of their central rooms: this axis was supported on huge timber cross-beams, some thirty feet long.

In the last decades of the city, this type of plan was far from universal. Big houses now included workshops for craftsmen, shops or even bars adjoining the street, obscuring the 'view through'. The Latin word familia familia included household slaves, and in these works.p.a.ces they and their owner's freedmen would be put to profitable use. Inside, in the household proper, we would be struck by the relative absence of furniture, the multi-purpose use of many of the rooms and the consequent absence of our ideas of privacy. Even the plants in the bigger gardens were often there for their economic value, not for useless gardening. In the southern sector, houses with quite large vineyards inside their plots have now been excavated, while even roses might be grown for the important industry of scent. included household slaves, and in these works.p.a.ces they and their owner's freedmen would be put to profitable use. Inside, in the household proper, we would be struck by the relative absence of furniture, the multi-purpose use of many of the rooms and the consequent absence of our ideas of privacy. Even the plants in the bigger gardens were often there for their economic value, not for useless gardening. In the southern sector, houses with quite large vineyards inside their plots have now been excavated, while even roses might be grown for the important industry of scent.

As the ident.i.ty of so many houses' owners is still uncertain, their connections with outlying farmhouses and country villas are still uncertain too. Was Pompeii a town based on consumer-spending, where property-owners simply spent their rents and other income and consumed goods, including crops, which were only produced locally? It seems most unlikely, not just because of casual long-range imports found in the city (a pack of fine pottery from Gaul or a superb ivory statuette of a nude Indian G.o.ddess), but also because Pompeian produce is discovered so far abroad in Gaul or Spain. The town's wine was not high cla.s.s, but it was widely known and widely drunk as a result: its good millstones were famous too, as was its salty fish sauce whose use is also widely attested outside the town. In the years before 79, the king of fish sauce was the freedman Umbricius Scaurus whose product was exported out into Campania: he even commemorated it in prominent mosaics in his house. Continuing excavations of the villa-farmhouses nearby confirm their role as centres of storage and production, often on an impressive scale: it was presumably not all produced for local consumption. Nor was such production 'undignified' for the town's ruling cla.s.s. A big vineyard, surely a commercial one, has been found down near the amphitheatre with holes for more than 2,000 vines: the production was surely sold in the street shops and perhaps even sent outside. Prominent families in Pompeii's civic life were even remembered for giving their names to particular types of grape (the 'Holconian'). Profits from wine-growing surely mattered to them, though the workforce were their slaves and freedmen: perhaps those villa-houses with the most florid paintings of vines and grapes really were owned by keen profit-making wine-growers.4 There must have been frequent connections between the place in town, the big house for social and political obligations, and another place in the country, a landed centre of produce. Unfortunately, the inter-connections are seldom attested by what survives. But Pompeii was excellently sited above the navigable river Sarno, with fine access to the sea. It was important to the town's outward-looking economy. There must have been frequent connections between the place in town, the big house for social and political obligations, and another place in the country, a landed centre of produce. Unfortunately, the inter-connections are seldom attested by what survives. But Pompeii was excellently sited above the navigable river Sarno, with fine access to the sea. It was important to the town's outward-looking economy.

Profit did not exclude a pa.s.sion for display. Hence the impressive tombs of Pompeian families extend outside the town gates along the main roads: they are most visible outside the south wall, where they are now known to run for more than a mile along the road towards Nuceria. These tomb-monuments were introduced to the locals by the Roman settlers. Some of the smarter ones commemorate whole families, even including a few of their slaves. As the tombs' public siting reminds us, life was an open-air existence, where important people wished to be seen to be important: the boasting and social compet.i.tion would surprise even New Yorkers.

Culturally, the theatres in the town did matter, although mimes and pantomimes would be important in the programme. As for literary taste, the inscriptions may mislead us. The Virgil graffiti are not all evidence for bookishness or a deeply literate society. Many of them come from the opening lines of a book or poem (known through writing exercises?) and able inscribers were commissioned to write them elegantly (had the customer only heard them from others or in a theatrical recitation?). Lines from Virgil's h.o.m.os.e.xual eclogue (a pastoral poem) are particularly favoured, no doubt because of their s.e.xual reference. One painting even parodies Aeneas and his family as dog-headed figures with huge p.e.n.i.ses.

Among the electoral posters, some, too, are rather contrived. They give ostentatious praise of a candidate who has already been elected, rather than support for a bid for electoral power. The town was headed by two magistrates (duumviri), with two lesser ones (the aediles), and their election was annual in March. In the last days of the town, the jobs of lesser magistrates are the ones which appear to be the most contested. The few posters which cite women's names proclaim them as supporters, or cheerleaders, but naturally not as candidates: they may sometimes even be satirical, implying that a candidate is 'fit onlyfor women'. Candidates had to be male, free-born and elected members already of the town council (a life appointment). As the councillors had had to pay for their election (sometimes offering gladiatorial games) they, and therefore the magistrates, would be the richer citizens. But the aediles' elections, at least, were still lively: about a hundred electoral posters have been recovered from the election-campaign for one Helvius Sabinus as an aedile in what was probably the last, fateful year of 79. They have been found on most of the main streets and they allude to the usual wide range of supporters: trademen's groups, households, a woman or two and even the 'dicethrowers'. 'Are you asleep?' one poster for him says. 'Vote for Helvius Sabinus as aedile'.5 These posters are all in Latin, but not in our cla.s.sical Latin. The Bay of Naples was still multi-cultural in 79, a place where Greek was widely spoken along with Latin and the south Italian language, Oscan. All three would be heard in Pompeii, where the Oscan, which our Latin literature conceals, was still being inscribed in the first century These posters are all in Latin, but not in our cla.s.sical Latin. The Bay of Naples was still multi-cultural in 79, a place where Greek was widely spoken along with Latin and the south Italian language, Oscan. All three would be heard in Pompeii, where the Oscan, which our Latin literature conceals, was still being inscribed in the first century AD AD.

The town was so very close to the luxurious villa life on the Bay: were Pompeii's 'last days' nonetheless indicative of steadier 'Italian values'? The last days had in fact been quite long. In 62 the town had already been badly damaged by an earthquake whose aftershocks continued into the 70s. A final phase, from 62 to 79, has been isolated by excavators, allowing us to see 'little Italy' in action during Vespasian's rise to power. In this phase, the need to repair and restore certainly did not kill off the urge to decorate, paint and fresco; houses were enlarged, and sometimes took over new plots: shops, apartments and work-s.p.a.ces sometimes turned basic house-plans at an angle to their main entrance. Among all this activity, were the previous owners moving out of town and selling or developing their former urban homes for new purposes? The earthquake has been widely blamed for their departure, but so far as there was a change, it was probably longer-term, and social. Even without an earthquake, no governing cla.s.s of a town remained stable in this age of early death and uncertainty. Up and down Italy, 'new blood' always had to be exploited for money, after a time in which its 'newness' could tone down. Part of the story may be that a new cla.s.s of parvenus, freedmen by origin, were taking over old houses in Pompeii and showing off by over-doing them up. In several properties, there is evidence of this change, and there are also signs in this period of that designer-disaster, the 'small town garden'. Like the gardens of the Chelsea Flower Show, it crams in a jumble of scaled-down grandeur, including painted trompe l'il trompe l'il on the walls, pergolas and third-rate sculpture. The style is not so much that of a 'villa in miniature' (big villa gardens were an agglomeration of features, anyway) as a distinctive town-garden fantasy, which often evoked quite other landscapes (woodlands, waterfalls and even Egypt and the Nile). A similar taste is visible indoors: after 62 new paintings proliferated in houses such as the 'House of the Tragic Poet', where they smothered the walls with episodes from Greek myths. Only some of the paintings evoke theatrical scenes which might be known from nights out in the town. Like prints and wallpapers from a modern pattern book or a newspaper special offer, most of these big panels evoke a world of culture which the owners themselves did not have to comprehend. Outside and inside, there was a taste for pretty, decorating style for its own sake. on the walls, pergolas and third-rate sculpture. The style is not so much that of a 'villa in miniature' (big villa gardens were an agglomeration of features, anyway) as a distinctive town-garden fantasy, which often evoked quite other landscapes (woodlands, waterfalls and even Egypt and the Nile). A similar taste is visible indoors: after 62 new paintings proliferated in houses such as the 'House of the Tragic Poet', where they smothered the walls with episodes from Greek myths. Only some of the paintings evoke theatrical scenes which might be known from nights out in the town. Like prints and wallpapers from a modern pattern book or a newspaper special offer, most of these big panels evoke a world of culture which the owners themselves did not have to comprehend. Outside and inside, there was a taste for pretty, decorating style for its own sake.

Such redecoration was bright and, in its way, luxurious. This 'luxury' was not morally problematic. It was not that it was somehow distanced safely from its spectators by its faraway fantasy, nor was it 'acceptable' because it could be perceived as a celebration of 'abundance'.6 The point was that, by Roman or Julio-Claudian standards, it was relatively minor luxury, and what we see at Pompeii was not a dangerous, enervating sort of luxury, one for moralists to deplore. To our eyes, the representations of 's.e.x' are the licentious element. However, no local protest is known about them, and not all of them belong to the town's last days, either. On doorbells, lamps or door-posts there had long been images of erect p.e.n.i.ses: there had also been s.e.xual scenes, very explicit, on the surrounds of personal hand-mirrors and so forth. Some of them may be coa.r.s.e jokes, like modern souvenirs, while others maybe unfussed images of 'fertility' or apt erotica suitable for the walls of a specialized brothel. But when we find paintings of a naked woman on top of a man in the colonnade round a central peristyle garden or numbered paintings of oral s.e.x between men and women, including foursomes, in the changing-room of a set of public baths, we cannot explain them somehow as paintings to avert the 'evil eye' and a.s.sure good fortune. The point was that, by Roman or Julio-Claudian standards, it was relatively minor luxury, and what we see at Pompeii was not a dangerous, enervating sort of luxury, one for moralists to deplore. To our eyes, the representations of 's.e.x' are the licentious element. However, no local protest is known about them, and not all of them belong to the town's last days, either. On doorbells, lamps or door-posts there had long been images of erect p.e.n.i.ses: there had also been s.e.xual scenes, very explicit, on the surrounds of personal hand-mirrors and so forth. Some of them may be coa.r.s.e jokes, like modern souvenirs, while others maybe unfussed images of 'fertility' or apt erotica suitable for the walls of a specialized brothel. But when we find paintings of a naked woman on top of a man in the colonnade round a central peristyle garden or numbered paintings of oral s.e.x between men and women, including foursomes, in the changing-room of a set of public baths, we cannot explain them somehow as paintings to avert the 'evil eye' and a.s.sure good fortune.7 They are simply s.e.xy. The changing-room scenes, above the clothes-lockers, might even (like the mirrors) have been seen by women. They are simply s.e.xy. The changing-room scenes, above the clothes-lockers, might even (like the mirrors) have been seen by women.

Pompeian values, then, were not 'Victorian values'. But was the most blatantly coa.r.s.e or erotic art in the 60s and 70s mostly displayed by a particular social cla.s.s? In this era, the big House of the Vettii is famous for its painting of a man weighing an enormous p.e.n.i.s on scales against gold coins: the Vettii were evidently freedmen. The painting of a woman having s.e.x on top of a man in the garden colonnade was installed by the son of a moneylender who was himself the son of a freeman. Perhaps these newly rich patrons liked to show off this sort of thing, like modern bankers who buy female nudes. The vulgarity of freedmen in the Naples area is immortalized in the most remarkable prose work of this era, the Satyricon Satyricon, written by Nero's witty and elegant courtier, Petronius. Only a fragment survives, but it tells of the adventures of three Greek companions, self-styled h.o.m.os.e.xual 'brothers' in their various s.e.xual interrelations.h.i.+ps. The most remarkable adventure is their dinner with the flamboyant Trimalchio and his freedmen-guests in his vulgar villa in a town which is surely the harbour-town Puteoli, also on the Bay of Naples. Petronius characterizes the freedmen-speakers by a distinctive Latin style, rich in proverbs (the mark of the uneducated) and cultural howlers. They are exaggerated characters and are only seen through his fict.i.tious narrator, but Trimalchio's dinner artfully conjures up a showy vulgarity, a coa.r.s.e love of money and extremely bad taste. The episode is a highly civilized man's satire on preposterous freedmen at large. The excruciating music, the theatricality and stage effects, the hilariously common wives (who compete over the weight of their gold bracelets) are easily imagined in embryo at an evening with Pompeii's Vettii or with fellow freedmen in the town, people like Fabius Eupor or Cornelius Tages. Some of Trimalchio's instructions for the decoration of his tomb actually match details of a known tomb which was built at Pompeii by a wife, Naevoleia Tycho, for her dead husband.

In the 60s and 70s then, freedmen were among those who were active in redecorating big houses in Pompeii. Yet they were still socially excluded from civic office (as freedmen) and the older, more restrained families at Pompeii had certainly not all vanished from the town just because the ground had started to quake. In this period, we also find the well-planned trompe l'il trompe l'il painting of a nude 'marine Venus' in the so-called House of Venus: it was installed for the Lucretii Valentes, important citizens under Nero. The 'House of the Tragic Poet' was also redecorated for the colony's 'first citizen' (although he did then rent it out). It was not, then, that Venus and profit were attractive only to freedmen. But perhaps (a guess) it took men on the make to flaunt s.e.x-scenes more openly on their house walls. For people in the earlier Pompeii had echoed the steadier patriotic values of Augustus' new age. The east side of its central forum had been transformed in the age of emperors: temples to their cult had been built, while the statues outside one big civic building, paid for by the prominent priestess Eumachia, showed heroes like Romulus and father Aeneas. They evoked the moral sculptures in Augustus' new programmatic Forum in Rome. painting of a nude 'marine Venus' in the so-called House of Venus: it was installed for the Lucretii Valentes, important citizens under Nero. The 'House of the Tragic Poet' was also redecorated for the colony's 'first citizen' (although he did then rent it out). It was not, then, that Venus and profit were attractive only to freedmen. But perhaps (a guess) it took men on the make to flaunt s.e.x-scenes more openly on their house walls. For people in the earlier Pompeii had echoed the steadier patriotic values of Augustus' new age. The east side of its central forum had been transformed in the age of emperors: temples to their cult had been built, while the statues outside one big civic building, paid for by the prominent priestess Eumachia, showed heroes like Romulus and father Aeneas. They evoked the moral sculptures in Augustus' new programmatic Forum in Rome.

'Thrift' and 'restraint' are relative terms. To the new intake of Italians into the Roman Senate of the 70s, they meant that they were not extravagant Julio-Claudians or those senators (often provincials) who had the very biggest fortunes. By 70 there had certainly been families in Pompeii who would have adapted well to the prodigal theatricalityof Nero's court. But n.o.bodygave them the chance: none of the excavated houses belonged to someone who rose anywhere near as high as the Roman Senate. The only possible exception is Nero's beautiful Poppaea, who probably did own the huge villa at nearby Oplontis, though perhaps not the Pompeian houses which have sometimes been ascribed to her too.8 When given scope, Pompeii's Poppaea was as luxurious as the best of them. But the trophy-wife of an emperor was exceptional. In the 60s and 70s there were plenty of others in Pompeii, perhaps the majority, who still saw themselves upholding 'traditional' values. The freedmen were only part of the story. In the colonnade of one garden-s.p.a.ce for dining outside, verses told guests to 'divert your lascivious looks and sweet little eyes from somebody else's wife'. When given scope, Pompeii's Poppaea was as luxurious as the best of them. But the trophy-wife of an emperor was exceptional. In the 60s and 70s there were plenty of others in Pompeii, perhaps the majority, who still saw themselves upholding 'traditional' values. The freedmen were only part of the story. In the colonnade of one garden-s.p.a.ce for dining outside, verses told guests to 'divert your lascivious looks and sweet little eyes from somebody else's wife'.9 On the Street of Abundance, the big letters of one inscription do proclaim 'Sodom and Gomorrah', perhaps as a biblical warning to Pompeians of the perils of s.e.xual misbehaviour. But Pompeii did not collapse in a final torrent of orgies. On the Street of Abundance, the big letters of one inscription do proclaim 'Sodom and Gomorrah', perhaps as a biblical warning to Pompeians of the perils of s.e.xual misbehaviour. But Pompeii did not collapse in a final torrent of orgies.

51.

A New Man in Action It is extraordinary how an account can be given (or seem to be given) of single days spent at Rome, but none of several days put together... It all seems essential on the actual day on which you did it, but if you reflect that you have done the same things every day, it seems pointless, much more so when you retreat from it all. This always happens to me when I am down at my Laurentum and I'm reading or writing something... The sea, the sh.o.r.e, they're a true and private 'seat of the Muses'; how much they inspire, how much they dictate to me...

Pliny, Letters Letters 1.9 1.9 Pompeii and the Bay of Naples were by no means all of Italy. For an insight into the values of the Roman Senate's 'new intake' from much further north, we are lucky to have a priceless survival. From the 90s until 112, from Domitian to the reign of Hadrian's predecessor Trajan, we have texts which present the values of just such a new man in the Senate, the younger Pliny.

Pliny was the adopted son of the elder Pliny, his uncle, whom he admired as a famous polymath (the elder is best known to us for his long work on natural history, part of which is concerned to list 'corrupting' luxuries). The younger Pliny published nine books of his own letters, but they are not private letters like those nowadays 'made available' to modern biographers. Most of them uphold particular ways of behaving or showing discrimination. They are intended to be both examples to others and artful proofs of Pliny's own 'modesty' in action. The literary letter, like satire, is a special distinction of Latin literature, but no letters (not even Cicero's) are more elegant and more artful than those which Pliny released. They are the nearest we have to a Roman's autobiography.

A tenth book of letters was published after Pliny's death, containing letters which he had written in 111/2 during his governors.h.i.+p of Bithynia, a province in north-western Asia. One of his subjects there, unknown to him, was the young Antinous, Hadrian's future lover. This tenth book is uniquely valuable because it survives with replies written by or for the Emperor Trajan. They are cla.s.sics of Roman government in action. Some fifty years earlier the governor of this province had been Petronius, the master of elegant wit and luxury. His letters home to Nero would have been so very different.

Justice, freedom and the perils of excessive luxury are important themes for Pliny because he was a Roman barrister, a senator, a governor and also a moralist. He presents the lifestyle of his friends, members of 'our age' whom he confesses, artfully, to favouring almost too much. Many of them come from 'Plinycountry', wayup in northern Italy, beyond the river Po.1 Places like modern Brescia or Verona or Milan had not even had Roman citizens.h.i.+p by right in the 70s Places like modern Brescia or Verona or Milan had not even had Roman citizens.h.i.+p by right in the 70s BC BC. Pliny presents this 'little Italy' from a priceless angle, although some of it is so undistinguished on the bigger stage. But he has a sharp eye for people worth cultivating and a happywayof picking future winners. If Hadrian had ever read the letters in his own villa, he would have found some of his own current appointees described by Pliny in an earlier, pleasant setting in their lives.

Pliny was born in 61/2, some fourteen years before Hadrian. He was too young for the worst of the Julio-Claudians and his family were not living close to Rome. His home town was Comum (modern Como), on the very frontiers of north Italy beside the dazzling beauty of its lake. In the 50s BC BC Julius Caesar had first put it on the Roman citizen-map. Pliny's father had already been prominent in the town, but he himself was the first in the family to rise up the ladder of a senatorial career. He was acutely aware of this honour, even noting that the great Virgil had not attained it. It relied on a verybig fortune, partly his family's, partly acquired by marriage and inheritance. Like other senators, his income came mostly from land, most of which was let to tenants (a return of 6 per cent per year on capital has been inferred, not bad in decades of low inflation). Pliny also went in for money lending, which was riskier but much more lucrative. Unlike old Cato in the 180s Julius Caesar had first put it on the Roman citizen-map. Pliny's father had already been prominent in the town, but he himself was the first in the family to rise up the ladder of a senatorial career. He was acutely aware of this honour, even noting that the great Virgil had not attained it. It relied on a verybig fortune, partly his family's, partly acquired by marriage and inheritance. Like other senators, his income came mostly from land, most of which was let to tenants (a return of 6 per cent per year on capital has been inferred, not bad in decades of low inflation). Pliny also went in for money lending, which was riskier but much more lucrative. Unlike old Cato in the 180s BC BC, Roman senators could now write quite openly about their involvement in usury. Any minority prejudice was long gone: this openness is one aspect of the Roman majority's frankness about money.

Pliny's career was extremely successful. In the year 100, before the age of forty, he had become a consul and in thanks, as was usual, he delivered a panegyric of the Emperor Trajan in Rome. Pliny then expanded his speech and delivered it again in three separate sessions, two hours long, before selected friends. The over-long lecture is a Roman invention: why, Pliny asks, should hearers not suffer just because they are friends? Roman reciters, like too many modern lecturers, hoped for 'feedback'. Pliny then published his enlarged Panegyric Panegyric with a final tribute to himself. with a final tribute to himself.

Panegyrics were to have a lively future, typifying court-life in the later Empire, but Pliny looked backwards for his literary hero. As a new man, an orator and a public figure, he felt a special affinity with Cicero. From his teacher, the great Quintilian, he learned to imitate Cicero's style and to admire his moral example. These qualities were still socially relevant. At Rome, Pliny's rivals in the courts included amoral 'informers', people who would prosecute men of their own cla.s.s on slight pretexts. They favoured blunt language and an un-educated style, whereas Pliny, the Ciceronian, was proud to present such a very different image, while not being above an opportunist prosecution himself.2 From the age of eighteen onwards, much of Pliny's public activity concerned cases of inheritance under Roman law. As an advocate, he was restrained by law from taking large fees. Instead, he expected 'favours' as part of the network of 'duties' which made up the mutual obligations of an important Roman's life. As in so much modern business, one good turn was expected to deserve another: Romans are closer to modern life in this respect, to the ethos of social exchanges in modern Manhattan or to 'exhibition loans' between museums, than their critics sometimes realize. Cicero was the apt model for 'duties', for 'dignity' and for law-court speeches, as he also was for Pliny's polished letters. Pliny also wrote short poems and recited them, in long batches, to his long-suffering friends. To our surprise, Cicero was helpful here also. Some of Pliny's short poems were on rather risque subjects, but he discovered a lascivious little poem in which Cicero referred to kissing his male secretary, Tiro. The discovery of this poem helped Pliny, he claims, to overcome his own hesitations. Why, he then wrote in verse, should I not tell of my Tiro too? Some people (Pliny tells us) criticized him for writing naughty poems, but by citing Cicero, he could counter their complaint. To judge from surviving specimens, the literary level of his verses was a greater reason for concern. Pliny presents them as light amus.e.m.e.nts of his spare time, but he also claims that Greeks were learning Latin in order to enjoy them. They can only have been disappointed.

As an adult in the Senate, Pliny was more in his element. Like Cicero, he spoke out against corrupt provincial governors, but his audience was more patient than in the old days. Since Augustus, cases of extortion would be heard in the Senate and advocates might speak on one case for five hours or more. Pliny took part in several long cases, including twisted ones brought by Bithynians, and this was one reason why Trajan later sent him to sort out this province. Yet a senator's horizons had changed so much since Cicero, as Pliny, his admirer, exemplifies. There was none of Cicero's free political struggle, played out before senators and the people. Young senators still became tribunes of the people, but the emperors held the enhanced tribunician power. A main concern for holders of the job was simply whether to continue practising as a barrister while holding it, the modern Member of Parliament's dilemma. As for elections, the thrilling manipulations of Cicero's times had vanished. Elections to high office were largely prearranged before being put before the Senate. Pliny, the new member, was particularly distressed by the other members' habit of writing obscenities on the ballot papers which were distributed for their a.s.sent.3 It was one of their few liberties in the matter. The prearranged choices were then read out to the people in the Campus Martius. It was one of their few liberties in the matter. The prearranged choices were then read out to the people in the Campus Martius.

At best, senators could publicize the values by which an emperor would be publicly a.s.sessed. In this light, Pliny's Panegyric Panegyric on Trajan is not just tedious flattery. It sets up 'modesty' and 'moderation' as values for Trajan, the 'most excellent'; it even dwells on 'liberty'. Significantly, it is not the 'liberty' of Cicero's early years. Pliny acclaims Trajan for being a consul 'as if he was onlya consul' and for showing care for equity and the law. on Trajan is not just tedious flattery. It sets up 'modesty' and 'moderation' as values for Trajan, the 'most excellent'; it even dwells on 'liberty'. Significantly, it is not the 'liberty' of Cicero's early years. Pliny acclaims Trajan for being a consul 'as if he was onlya consul' and for showing care for equity and the law.4 But as Trajan himself is the 'maker of consuls', it is equitable that he should stand out above them and 'teach' them. This 'liberty' depends on another's grace and whim, exactly what Cicero had detested about Julius Caesar. As Pliny's own letters observe, everything now is 'under the decision of one man': he has undertaken the 'cares and labours of all' on behalf of 'the common good'. A few things flow down to us from that 'most benevolent fountain' but they come in a 'salubrious blend'. But as Trajan himself is the 'maker of consuls', it is equitable that he should stand out above them and 'teach' them. This 'liberty' depends on another's grace and whim, exactly what Cicero had detested about Julius Caesar. As Pliny's own letters observe, everything now is 'under the decision of one man': he has undertaken the 'cares and labours of all' on behalf of 'the common good'. A few things flow down to us from that 'most benevolent fountain' but they come in a 'salubrious blend'.5 Or so a senator could simplyhope. In this age of monarchy senators were expected to acclaim their First Citizen in fine phrases, like the backing to a singer. 'Trust us, trust yourself,' they chanted, or 'Oh, how fortunate we are... ' In reply, said Pliny, Trajan shed tears. Or so a senator could simplyhope. In this age of monarchy senators were expected to acclaim their First Citizen in fine phrases, like the backing to a singer. 'Trust us, trust yourself,' they chanted, or 'Oh, how fortunate we are... ' In reply, said Pliny, Trajan shed tears.6 Under Augustus, eulogies of members of the imperial family had been circulated 'for posterity' through the provinces, where we still rediscover them. Under Trajan, for the first time, acclamations of the Senate were inscribed and circulated likewise for posterity's benefit. Perhaps they will turn up too, for our moral good. Under Augustus, eulogies of members of the imperial family had been circulated 'for posterity' through the provinces, where we still rediscover them. Under Trajan, for the first time, acclamations of the Senate were inscribed and circulated likewise for posterity's benefit. Perhaps they will turn up too, for our moral good.

In a slave-society, where senators owned thousands of disposable human beings, this loss of liberty may seem rather marginal. It was also a loss for males only, the only political s.e.x. But it affected what the articulate male cla.s.s wrote and what they spoke: the political distance since Cicero (let alone Pericles) affects the culture which Romans left behind for posterity, the turgid epic poems (though some now over-estimate them) and the verbose, evasive rhetoric. Despite the cult, among some Romans, of a 'Stoic' inner freedom from pa.s.sion and emotion, an educated Roman could no longer truly be his 'own man'. Romans had liberties, but they did not have libertyconstrained only by their free consent. This change affected their feelings and self-respect, and it put them in moral predicaments which we still recognize, not least in our modern 'People's Republics' and our memories of the 'Iron Curtain' years. Since 96 both Nerva and Trajan, Pliny said, had brought back 'freedom'. But it was a relative concept: the point was that under Domitian the despotism had been so much worse.

Here, Pliny's published letters parade a particularly interesting alternative. They stress a particular set of friends.h.i.+ps which he cultivated with the families of a philosophically minded coterie in Rome. They were direct descendants of the 'Stoic' opposition to Nero and the brave Helvidius who had spoken out under Vespasian. 'Thunderbolts', Pliny tells us, had been falling all around him during the time of Domitian's worst tyranny, but he himself had risked protecting a philosopher in the city. However, Pliny was a praetor-magistrate under Domitian, and his year of office was almost certainly 93. At that time members of this philosophical group had been arrested and executed and their biographies of former brave martyrs under Nero were ordered to be burned. As praetor, Pliny may well have helped to carry out the burning. a.s.siduously, he presents himself later as a friend of the families, but he discreetly fails to emphasize that after his praetors.h.i.+p he went on to another distinguished office during Domitian's reign.

Of all our surviving Latin authors, it is the poet Ovid who lived longest under Augustus, but eighty years later it is Pliny, not Ovid, who best conforms to Augustus' 'vision' of Roman society. Like Augustus himself, Plinywas profoundly unmilitary: he makes no mention of the military prowess of