Dio’s Roman History
ἐχρημάτιζε καὶ ἐπιστολὰς καὶ δήμοις καὶ ἄρχουσι καὶ βασιλεῦσιν ἐπέστελλεν.1—Xiph. 147, 77–148, 18 R. St.
Ὅτι ὁ Πάλλας συνὼν τῇ Ἀγριππίνῃ πάντα φορτικὸς καὶ ἐπαχθὴς ἦν.—Exc. UG 37.
3Ὡς δὲ ἐπὶ πολὺ τοῦτ᾿ ἐγίνετο, ἐδυσχέρανεν ὅ τε Σενέκας καὶ ὁ Βοῦρρος, φρονιμώτατοί τε ἅμα καὶ δυνατώτατοι τῶν περὶ τὸν Νέρωνα ἀνδρῶν ὄντες (ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἔπαρχος τοῦ δορυφορικοῦ ἦν, ὁ δὲ διδάσκαλος αὐτοῦ), καὶ ἔπαυσαν τὸ γινόμενον τοιᾶσδε ἀφορμῆς λαβόμενοι. πρεσβείας Ἀρμενίων ἐλθούσης καὶ ἡ Ἀγριππῖνα ἐπὶ τὸ βῆμα, ἀφ᾿ οὗ σφίσιν ὁ Νέρων διελέγετο, ἀναβῆναι 4ἠθέλησεν. ἰδόντες οὖν αὐτὴν ἐκεῖνοι πλησιάζουσαν ἔπεισαν τὸν νεανίσκον προκαταβῆναι καὶ προαπαντῆσαι τῇ μητρὶ ὡς καὶ ἐπὶ δεξιώσει τινί. πραχθέντος τε τούτου οὔτε τότε ἐπανῆλθον, ἐμβαλόντες τινὰ αἰτίαν, ὥστε μὴ καὶ ἐς τοὺς βαρβάρους τὸ νόσημα τῆς ἀρχῆς ἐκφανῆναι,2 καὶ μετὰ τοῦτ᾿ ἔπραττον ὅπως μηδὲν ἔτ᾿ αὐτῇ τῶν κοινῶν ἐπιτρέπηται.
4Κατεργασάμενοι δὲ τοῦτο αὐτοὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἅπασαν παρέλαβον, καὶ διῴκησαν ἐφ᾿ ὅσον ἠδυνήθησαν ἄριστα καὶ δικαιότατα, ὥσθ᾿ ὑπὸ πάντων ἀνθρώπων ὁμοίως ἐπαινεθῆναι. ὅ τε γὰρ Νέρων οὔτ᾿ ἄλλως φιλοπραγματίας ἦν καὶ ἔχαιρεν ἐν ῥᾳστώνῃ διάγων, καὶ διὰ ταῦτα τῇ τε μητρὶ πρότερον ὑπεπεπτώκει,3 καὶ τότε ἠγάπα ὅτι
Epitome of Book LXI
received the various embassies and sent letters to a.d. 54 peoples and governors and kings.1
Pallas in his association with Agrippina was altogether vulgar and objectionable.
When this had been going on for a considerable time, it aroused the displeasure of Seneca and Burrus, who were at once the most sensible and the most influential of the men at Nero’s court (the former was his teacher and the latter was prefect of the Praetorian Guard), and they seized the following occasion to put a stop to it. An embassy of Armenians had arrived and Agrippina wished to mount the tribunal from which Nero was talking with them. The two men, seeing her approach, persuaded the young man to descend and meet his mother before she could get there, as if to extend some special greeting to her. Then, having brought this about, they did not re-ascend the tribunal, but made some excuse, so that the weakness in the empire should not become apparent to the foreigners; and thereafter they laboured to prevent any public business from being again committed to her hands.
When they had accomplished this, they took the rule entirely into their own hands and administered affairs in the very best and fairest manner they could, with the result that they won the approval of everybody alike. As for Nero, he was not fond of business in any case, and was glad to live in idleness; indeed, it was for this reason that he had previously yielded the upper hand to his mother, and was now quite content to be indulging in