Celebrations and Omens

Translation

However, public prayers were decreed at all the sacred couches of the gods to the accompaniment of remarkable rivalry among the nobles, and (it was decreed) that the Quinquatrus, at which the plot was revealed, should be celebrated with annual games; a golden statue of Minerva and an image of the emperor nearby were to be set up in the Senate House; the birthday of Agrippina was (included) among the unlucky days. Thrasea Paetus, who had been accustomed to let through former acts of flattery in silence or with brief assent, went out of the Senate at that point and created for himself a reason for danger, without showing the beginning of liberty to others. Numerous omens also intervened which proved ineffectual: a woman gave birth to a snake and another was killed by a thunderbolt in the act of intercourse with her husband; shortly afterwards, the sun was suddenly obscured, and fourteen regions of the city were struck from the sky. These things happened without any concern of the gods to such an extent that Nero continued his reign and crimes for many years afterwards. But in order to increase hatred of his mother and demonstrate that his leniency had been increased now that she was out of the way, he restored to their ancestral homes two famous women, Junia and Calpurnia, (together with) Valerius Capito and Licinius Gabolus, who had completed their praetorships and been banished some time before by Agrippina. He even allowed the ashes of Lollia Paulina to be brought back and a tomb to be erected; and he released from punishment Iturius and Calvisius, whom he himself had recently banished. For Silana had completed her destiny, when she returned to Tarentum from a distant exile, since Agrippina, by whose enmity she had fallen, was now declining in influence or appeased.