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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Ancient writers tell conflicting stories of the last hours of Agrippina, the mother of Nero. Modern commentators have been equally at variance in their attempts to harmonize them. A consideration, however, of all the evidence makes a reasonable account of the tragedy seem even yet possible. Naturally, most confidence has been put in the more circumstantial narrative of Tacitus.
page 96 note 1 The reading of almost every editor for the Baulos of the MSS.; Tacitus states clearly that Nero was at Baiae. So, too, Suetonius, Ner. 34, ‘iucundissimis litteris Baias euocauit ad sollemnia Quinquatruum simul celebranda.’ Dio's obviously careless narrative fails to tell us where Agrippina lodged—we have only his indefinite ofraSe (LXI. 13. 2)—but states (LXI. 13. 1) that when they reached Bauli, he gave for several days most costly dinners; i.e., at that place, it would seem, unless we assume a lacuna in the Greek text in which some mention of Baiae once stood. As a matter of fact, Dio says nothing of Baiae anywhere in his account. The Pseudo-Senecan Octavia, 314–315: ‘properant placidos linquere portusiussi nautae,’ point, perhaps, to the PortusBaiarum as the place of departure, and to Baiae, therefore, as the scene of the banquet. In spite of all these passages, Nissen (Italische Landeskunde, II. p. 736) will have it that Nero's palace was nowhere near Baiae at all, but to the east of Punta Caruso, near Puteoli. His archaeological evidence from ‘die Glasgefasse ’ (p. 736 note 2) is not acceptable, because the one on which he depends, with little doubt represents the Baian coast.See Beloch, Campanien, pp. 184, 185.
page 96 note 2 The words of Suetonius {Ner. 34) are: ‘repe-tentique Baulos.’ Since the mater Caerellia in Martial, IV. 63 was no doubt a real person, we cannot even for the sake of an exact parallelism make her perish from a boat that was going in precisely the same direction as the solutilis nauishad taken; it suffices that the aquae (vs. 4) were the same: Dum petit a Baulis mater Caerellia Baias, occidit insani crimine mersa freti.gloria quanta perit uobis!haec monstra Neroni nee iussae quondam praestiteratis, aquae.
page 97 note 1 Furneaux, note on Tacitus, Annals, XIV. 4. 4 (Second Edition, II. p. 237).
page 97 note 2 If Günther's identification of the Stagnum Baiarum Earth-Movements in the Bay of Naples, p. 37) be correct as a lagoon bordering the Harbour of Baiae, it might be called Baianus Lacus.
page 98 note 1 Beloch, p. 185. Günther's theory that the Via Miseni may have been one that has since been submerged (op. cit. p. 38) seems improbable because of Tacitus’ words quae...prospectat.
page 98 note 2 Furneaux, note on Tacitus, Annals, XIV. 5. 7 (II2– P– 239)–
page 98 note 3 LIX. 17.
page 98 note 4 If accurate, it must be admitted that they favour the identification of Bauli with Bacoli. See Nissen, II. p. 733 note 9.
page 99 note 1 Cf. Cassiodorus, Variar. IX. 6, for a description of these shores in his day.
page 99 note 2 See Furneaux on Tac. Ann. XIV. 5. 7 (II2. p. 239). Henderson, The Life and Principate of Nero, p. 120, evidently takes it to be a different villa from that at Bauli.
page 99 note 3 See Mommsen in Hermes, XIII. pp. 245–365, esp. p. 255.
page 99 note 4 LXI. 13.
page 99 note 5 The accounts suggest that she had been floating or swimming for some time: Tac. Ann. XIV. 5, 7; Suet. Ner. 34; Pseudo-Seneca, Octav. 346–356. How cold the water may have been at the beginning of the Baian season in the Bay of Baiae it might be hard to say. Pliny, N.H. XXXI. 5, speaks of hot springs beneath its waters.
page 100 note 1 Dio LXI. 13, Pseudo-Seneca, Octav. 955.
page 100 note 2 Tacitus, Ann. XIV. 5. 6; Dio LXI. 13.
page 100 note 3 After arriving at the villa, Agrippina, according to Tacitus, Ann. XIV. 6, 2, ‘medicamina uulneri et fomenta corpori adhibet.’
page 100 note 4 N. H. III. 61.
page 100 note 5 On account of Pliny's notorious carelessness as a geographer, some would hesitate to use as evidence any statement of his as to the order of places. Thus Nissen, II. p. 733 note 3, in speaking of the theory that locates Bauli north of Baiae, says, ‘Der einzige Grund der sich dafür anführen lässt, ist die Reihenfolge Pliny III. 61: jedoch scheint es bedenklich ihr ein entschei-dendes Gewicht beizulegen.’
page 100 note 6 Writers of the Augustan age jnention the moles: Anthol. Pal. VII. 379; IX. 708.
page 100 note 7 Beloch, p. 132. I note that Baedeker's Southern Italy disagrees.
page 101 note 1 V. 4. 6 (p. 245)
page 101 note 2 Punic. XII. 155, 156.
page 101 note 3 This argument was suggested to me by Beloch, p. 177.
page 101 note 4 Cf. Tac. Ann. VI. 50; Dio LVIII. 28; Suet. Tib. 72 and 73; Plut. Marius 34; Pliny, N. H. XVIII. 32.
page 101 note 5 I say ‘perhaps’; for the passage in Cic. ad Fam. VIII. 1. 5 which Beloch, p. 179, and Hülsen, Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyc. s.v. Bauli, both use refers to Q. Pompeius Rufus, who need not necessarily be lodged in a namesake's villa, On his great poverty at this time cf. Val. Max. IV. 2. 7.
page 101 note 6 Epist. I. 1: ‘BaulosLucrinasedemutauimus: non quod eius deuersorii satias ceperit nos, quod cum diutius uisitur, plus amatur: sed quod metus fuit, ne, si Baulorum mihi inoleuisset affectio, cetera, quae uisenda sunt, displicerent.’
page 102 note 1 P. 179; he quotes Varro if. if. III. 17. 5, and Pliny N. H. IX. 112.
page 102 note 2 II. 47. 105.
page 102 note 3 II. 25. 81; II. 33. 105.
page 102 note 4 II. 25. 80: ‘ut enim uera uideamus quam longe uidemus? ego Catuli Cumanum ex hoc loco cerno, Pompeianum non cerno, neque quicquam interiectum est quod obstet sed intendi acies longius non potest. O praeclarum prospectum! Puteolos uidemus, at familiarem nostrum C. Auianium fortasse in porticu Neptuni ambulantem non uidemus.’
page 102 note 5 II. 31. 100.
page 102 note 6 II. 40. 125.
page 102 note 7 II. 48. 147.
page 102 note 8 II. 48. 148: ‘ita sermone confecto, Catulus remansit, nos ad nauiculas nostras descendimus.’
page 102 note 9 II. 3. 9.
page 102 note 10 R. T. Günther in his valuable Contributions to the study of Earth-Movements in the Bay of Naples, pp. 52, 53, gives interesting pictures of partially submerged ancient constructions at Bauli.
page 102 note 11 Cf. the distich in Symmachus, Epist. I. 1: ‘hanc celebrauit opum felix Hortensius aulam: contra Arpinatem qui stetit eloquio.’
page 102 note 12 Ibid.
page 102 note 13 IV. 30. 4.
page 102 note 14 Pliny, N. H. IX. 112.
page 102 note 15 C. I. L. 1746.
page 102 note 16 C. I. L. 1747.