Tacitus’ Annals XIV 3-5 full translation
2025-2027 Latin CIE IGCSE syllabus
1 (XIV, 3) Original Latin
Igitur Nero vitare secretos eius congressus, abscedentem in hortos aut
Tusculanum vel Antiatem in agrum laudare, quod otium capesseret.
postremo, ubicumque haberetur, praegravem ratus interficere constituit,
hactenus consultans, veneno an ferro vel qua alia vi. placuitque primo
venenum. sed inter epulas principis si daretur, referri ad casum non
poterat tali iam Britannici exitio; et ministros temptarearduum videbatur
mulieris usu scelerum adversus insidias intentae; atque ipsa praesumendo
remedia munierat corpus. ferrum et caedes quonam modo occultaretur,
nemo reperiebat; et ne quis illi tanto facinori delectus iussa sperneret
metuebat. obtulit ingenium Anicetus libertus, classi apud Misenum
praefectus et pueritiae Neronis educator ac mutuis odiis Agrippinae
invisus. ergo navem posse componidocet, cuius pars ipso in mari per
artem soluta effunderet ignaram: nihil tam capax fortuitorum quam mare;
et si naufragio intercepta sit, quem adeo iniquum, ut sceleri adsignet,
quod venti et fluctus deliquerint? additurum principem defunctae
templum et aras et cetera ostentandae pietati.
I (XIV, 3), translation
And so Nero avoided meeting her in private; whenever she withdrew to
her gardens, or to the Tusculan estate, or to the district of Antium, he
praised her for seeking rest. At last—wherever she might be—he decided
she must be killed, considering only in what way: by poison, by the sword,
or by some other force. Poison was the first plan. But if it were
administered during the emperor’s banquet, it could not be reported as an
accident, after the death of Britannicus such as it was; and it seemed
difficult to test the loyalty of agents against a woman practiced in crime
and on her guard against plots. Besides, she had strengthened her body
by taking antidotes in advance.
As for the sword and open murder—no one could find a way to conceal it;
and he feared that any man chosen for so great a deed might refuse the
orders. A freedman, Anicetus, offered his ingenuity—commander of the
fleet at Misenum, Nero’s former tutor in childhood, and hated by Agrippina
with a hatred returned. He explained that a ship could be constructed so
that part of it, by contrivance, would come apart on the open sea and
throw its unsuspecting passenger into the water. Nothing, he said, is so
full of accidents as the sea; and if she were cut off by shipwreck, who
would be so unfair as to charge it to crime, when wind and waves had
2025-2027 Latin CIE IGCSE syllabus
1 (XIV, 3) Original Latin
Igitur Nero vitare secretos eius congressus, abscedentem in hortos aut
Tusculanum vel Antiatem in agrum laudare, quod otium capesseret.
postremo, ubicumque haberetur, praegravem ratus interficere constituit,
hactenus consultans, veneno an ferro vel qua alia vi. placuitque primo
venenum. sed inter epulas principis si daretur, referri ad casum non
poterat tali iam Britannici exitio; et ministros temptarearduum videbatur
mulieris usu scelerum adversus insidias intentae; atque ipsa praesumendo
remedia munierat corpus. ferrum et caedes quonam modo occultaretur,
nemo reperiebat; et ne quis illi tanto facinori delectus iussa sperneret
metuebat. obtulit ingenium Anicetus libertus, classi apud Misenum
praefectus et pueritiae Neronis educator ac mutuis odiis Agrippinae
invisus. ergo navem posse componidocet, cuius pars ipso in mari per
artem soluta effunderet ignaram: nihil tam capax fortuitorum quam mare;
et si naufragio intercepta sit, quem adeo iniquum, ut sceleri adsignet,
quod venti et fluctus deliquerint? additurum principem defunctae
templum et aras et cetera ostentandae pietati.
I (XIV, 3), translation
And so Nero avoided meeting her in private; whenever she withdrew to
her gardens, or to the Tusculan estate, or to the district of Antium, he
praised her for seeking rest. At last—wherever she might be—he decided
she must be killed, considering only in what way: by poison, by the sword,
or by some other force. Poison was the first plan. But if it were
administered during the emperor’s banquet, it could not be reported as an
accident, after the death of Britannicus such as it was; and it seemed
difficult to test the loyalty of agents against a woman practiced in crime
and on her guard against plots. Besides, she had strengthened her body
by taking antidotes in advance.
As for the sword and open murder—no one could find a way to conceal it;
and he feared that any man chosen for so great a deed might refuse the
orders. A freedman, Anicetus, offered his ingenuity—commander of the
fleet at Misenum, Nero’s former tutor in childhood, and hated by Agrippina
with a hatred returned. He explained that a ship could be constructed so
that part of it, by contrivance, would come apart on the open sea and
throw its unsuspecting passenger into the water. Nothing, he said, is so
full of accidents as the sea; and if she were cut off by shipwreck, who
would be so unfair as to charge it to crime, when wind and waves had
