Miseno

It is worth your while to attend.

Tiberius Caesar, when on his way to Naples, came to his country seat at Misenum, which, placed by the hand of Lucullus on the summit of the heights, beholds the Sicilian Sea in the distance, and that of Etruria close at hand.

One of the highly-girt chamberlains, whose tunic of Pelusian linen was nicely smoothed from his shoulders downwards, with hanging fringes, while his master was walking through the pleasant shrubberies, began with bustling officiousness to sprinkle the parched ground with a wooden watering pot, but only got laughed at.

Thence, by shortcuts to him well known, he runs before into another walk, laying the dust.

It is worth your while to attend.

Tiberius Caesar, when on his way to Naples, came to his country seat at Misenum, which, placed by the hand of Lucullus on the summit of the heights, beholds the Sicilian sea in the distance, and that of Etruria close at hand.

One of the highly-gird chamberlains, whose tunic of Pelusian linen was nicely smoothed from his shoulders downwards, with hanging fringes, while his master was walking through the pleasant shrubberies, began with bustling officiousness to sprinkle the parched ground with a wooden watering pot, but only got laughed at.

Thence, by short cuts to him well known, he runs before into another walk, laying the dust.

To avoid the attack of the spoiler, the sow stirs not abroad.

why make a long story they perished through hunger with their young ones and afforded the cat and her kittens an ample repast silly credulity may take this as a proof how much evil a double-tongued man may often contrive fable v caesar to the chamberlain there is a certain set of busybodies at rome hurriedly running to and fro busily engaged in idleness out of breath about nothing at all with much ado doing nothing trouble to themselves and most annoying to others it is my object by a true story to reform this race if indeed i can it is worth your while to attend Tiberius Caesar, when on his way to Naples, came to his country seat at Misenum, which, placed by the hand of Lucullus on the summit of the heights, beholds the Sicilian sea in the distance, and that of Etruria close at hand.

one of the highly-girt chamberlains, whose tunic of pelusian linen was nicely smoothed from his shoulders downwards, with hanging fringes, while his master was walking through the pleasant shrubberies, began, with bustling officiousness, to sprinkle the parched ground with a wooden watering-pot, but only got left at.

Thence, by shortcuts to him well known, he runs before into another walk, laying the dust.

Every one of these things was an alarm bell, and every one of them was just completely incomprehensible that there was some other type of threat looming because the people hearing them had no framework that turned, like, "Hey, the ground is shaking again," into, "This is a mountain that's literally gonna kill all of us." We have one man to thank for the fact that we know any of this, and his name is Pliny, specifically Pliny the Younger.

He is a well-connected young Roman who happened to be staying across the bay at a naval base called Misenum, and he was there basically when all of this happened.

Years later, he wrote two letters describing what he saw, and they are the only detailed eyewitness accounts of the eruption that survive from anyone who was actually there.

But we have to use Pliny very carefully because he wasn't in Pompeii.

So what did Agrippa do? He got back with, uh, about 30,000, uh, demobbed legionaries, and, uh, he set them to work building the aqueduct around the Bay of Naples, the 60-mile aqueduct, the longest in the world, which is at the heart of my first Roman book, Pompeii.

Uh, it took him 18 months using 30,000 men to build a 60-mile aqueduct, which fed Pompeii and Nola and all these other various towns and, and k- ended up in, uh, Misenum, the, the naval port.

Imagine the organization that this, that this requires, the qualities of leadership.

It's staggering.

Happy I esteem those to be to whom by provision of the gods has been granted the ability either to do such actions as are worthy of being related or to relate them in a manner worthy of being read.

My uncle was at that time with the fleet under his command at Misenum in the Bay of Naples.

On the 24th of August, about one in the afternoon, my mother desired him to observe a cloud which appeared of very unusual size and shape.

He had just taken a turn in the sun and after bathing himself in cold water and making a light luncheon had gone back to his books.

He raised himself up with the assistance of two of his servants, and instantly fell down dead, suffocated as I conjecture by the noxious vapor, having always had a weak throat, which was often inflamed.

As soon as it was light again, which was not till the third day after this melancholy accident, his body was found untouched and without any marks of violence upon it, in the dress in which he fell, and looking more like a man asleep than dead.

During all this time, my mother and I were at Misenum.

After my uncle had left us, I spent a time in my studies until it was the hour for my bath, after which I went to supper, and then fell into a short and uneasy sleep.

There were, however, obstacles to his ambition in the imperial house with its many princes, a son in youthful manhood, and grown-up grandsons.

As it would be unsafe to sweep off such a number at once by violence While craft would necessitate successive intervals in crime he chose on the whole the stealthier way and to begin with Drusus against whom he had the stimulus of a recent resentment Drusus who could not brook a rival and was somewhat irascible had in a casual dispute raised his fist at Sejanus and when he defended himself had struck him in the face on considering every plan Sejanus thought his easiest revenge was to turn his attention to Livia Drusus's wife she was a sister of Germanicus and though she was not handsome as a girl she became a woman of surpassing beauty pretending an ardent passion for her he seduced her and having won his first infamous triumph and assured that a woman after having parted with her virtue will hesitate at nothing he lured her on to thoughts of marriage of a share in sovereignty and of her husband's destruction and she the niece of Augustus the daughter-in-law of Tiberius the mother of children by Drusus for a provincial paramour foully disgraced herself her ancestors and her descendants giving up honor and a sure position for prospects as base as they were uncertain they took into their confidence Eudæmus Livia's friend and physician whose profession was a pretext for frequent secret interviews Sejanus to avert his mistress's jealousy divorced his wife Epicata by whom he had had three children still the magnitude of the crime caused fear and delay and sometimes a conflict of plans meanwhile at the beginning of this year Drusus one of the children of Germanicus assumed the dress of manhood with a repetition of the honors decreed by the senate to his brother Nero the emperor added a speech with warm praise of his son for sharing a father's affection to his brother's children Drusus indeed difficult as it is for power and mutual harmony to exist side by side had the character of being kindly disposed or at least not unfriendly towards the lads and now the old plan so often insincerely broached of a progress through the provinces was again discussed the emperor's pretext was the number of veterans on the eve of discharge and the necessity of fresh levies for the army volunteers were not forthcoming and even if they were sufficiently numerous they had not the same bravery and discipline as it is chiefly the needy and the homeless who adopt by their own choice a soldier's life Tiberius also rapidly enumerated the legions and the provinces which they had to garrison I too ought I think to go through these details and thus show what forces Rome then had under arms what kings were our allies and how much narrower then were the limits of our empire Italy on both seas was guarded by fleets at Misenum and at Ravenna and the contiguous coast of Gaul by ships of war captured in the victory of Actium and sent by Augustus powerfully manned to the town of Foro Julium but chief strength was on the Rhine as a defence alike against Germans and Gauls and numbered eight legions Spain lately subjugated was held by three Mauretania was King Juba's who had received it as a gift from the Roman people the rest of Africa was garrisoned by two legions and Egypt by the same number next beginning with Syria all within the entire tract of country stretching as far as the Euphrates was kept in restraint by four legions and on this frontier were Iberian Albanian and other kings to whom our greatness was a protection against any foreign power Thrace was held by Rematalses and the children of Cotys the bank of the Danube by two legions in Pannonia two in Moesia and two also were stationed in Dalmatia which from the situation of the country were in the rear of the other four and should Italy suddenly require aid not too distant to be summoned but the capital was garrisoned by its own special soldiery three city nine praetorian cohorts levied for the most part in Etruria and Umbria or ancient Latium and the old Roman colonies there were besides in commanding positions in the provinces allied fleets cavalry and light infantry of but little inferior strength but any detailed account of them would be misleading since they moved from place to place as circumstances required and had their numbers increased and sometimes diminished it is however I think a convenient opportunity for me to review the hitherto prevailing methods of administration in the other departments of the state inasmuch as that year brought with it the beginning of a change for the worse in Tiberius's policy in the first place public business and the most important private matters were managed by the senate the leading men were allowed freedom of discussion and when they stooped to flattery the emperor himself checked them He bestowed honours with regard to noble ancestry, military renown, or brilliant accomplishments as a civilian, letting it be clearly seen that there were no better men to choose.

The consul and the praetor retained their prestige, inferior magistrates exercised their authority, the laws too, with the single exception of cases of treason, were properly enforced.

As to the duties on corn, the indirect taxes and other branches of the public revenue, they were in the hands of companies of Roman knights.

Happy I esteem those to be to whom by provision of the gods has been granted the ability either to do such actions as are worthy of being related or to relate them in a manner worthy of being read.

My uncle was at that time with the fleet under his command at Misenum in the Bay of Naples.

On the twenty-fourth of August, about one in the afternoon, my mother desired him to observe a cloud which appeared of very unusual size and shape.

He had just taken a turn in the sun, and after bathing himself in cold water and making a light luncheon, had gone back to his books.

He raised himself up with the assistance of two of his servants and instantly fell down dead, suffocated as a conjecture by the noxious vapor, having always had a weak throat, which was often inflamed.

As soon as it was light again, which was not till the third day after this melancholy accident, his body was found untouched and without any marks of violence upon it, in the dress in which he fell, and looking more like a man asleep than dead.

During all this time, my mother and I were at Misenum.

After my uncle had left us, I spent the time in my studies until it was the hour for my bath, after which I went to supper, and then fell into a short and uneasy sleep.

He was made to abdicate in legal form in 476 and the Roman Senate at the dictation of Odoacer officially signified to the eastern emperor Zeno their resolution that the separate western empire should cease and their recognition of the one emperor at Constantinople who should be supreme over west and east.

Amid the ruin of the empire and the state, the dethroned emperor passed his days in such luxurious ease as the times allowed at the villa of Lucullus at Misenum and Odoacer taking the Teutonic title of king sent to the emperor at Constantinople the imperial crown and robe which were to be worn no more at Rome or Ravenna for more than three hundred years.

Thus in the year 476 ended the Roman empire or rather the line of Roman emperors in the west.

Thus it had become clear that the foundations of human life and society which had seemed under the first emperors eternal had given way.