In the consulship of Quintus Volusius and Publius Scipio, there was peace
abroad, but a disgusting licentiousness at home on the part of Nero, who in
a slave's disguise, so as to be unrecognized, would wander through the
streets of
Rome, to brothels and taverns, with
comrades, who seized on goods exposed for sale and inflicted wounds on any
whom they encountered, some of these last knowing him so little that he even
received blows himself, and showed the marks of them in his face. When it
was notorious that the emperor was the assailant, and the insults on men and
women of distinction were multiplied, other persons too on the strength
of a licence once granted under
Nero's name, ventured with impunity on the same practices, and had gangs of
their own till night presented the scenes of a captured city. Julius
Montanus, a senator, but one who had not yet held any office, happened to
encounter the prince in the darkness and because he fiercely repulsed his
attack and then on recognizing him begged for mercy, as though this was a
reproach, was forced to destroy himself. Nero was for the future more timid,
and surrounded himself with soldiers and a number of gladiators, who, when a
fray began on a small scale and seemed a private affair, were to let it
alone, but, if the injured persons resisted stoutly, they rushed in with
their swords. He also turned the licence of the games and the enthusiasm for
the actors into something like a battle by the impunity he allowed, and the
rewards he offered, and especially by looking on himself, sometimes
concealed, but often in public view, till, with the people at strife and the
fear of a worse commotion, the only remedy which could be devised was the
expulsion of the offending actors from
Italy, and
the presence once more of the soldiery in the theatre.
