Nero, Emperor of Rome, 37-68; Rome -- History -- Nero, 54-68
It seems that Piso possessed at this time a villa and country-seat
at Baiæ, on the coast south of Rome, and near to Misenum, and that
Nero was accustomed sometimes to visit Piso here. It was now
proposed by some of the conspirators that Piso should invite Nero to
visit him at this villa, as if to witness some spectacles or shows
which should be arranged for his entertainment there, and that then
persons employed for the purpose should suddenly assassinate him,
when off his guard, in the midst of some scene of convivial
pleasure. Piso, however, objected to this plan. He conceived, he
said, that it would be dishonorable in him to commit an act of
violence upon a guest whom he had invited under his roof, as his
friend. He was willing to take his full share of the responsibility
of destroying the tyrant in any fair and manly way, but he would not
violate the sacred rites of hospitality to accomplish the end.
So this plan was abandoned. It was supposed, however, that Piso had
another and a deeper reason for his unwillingness that Nero should
be assassinated at Baiæ than his regard for his honor as a host. He
thought, it was said, that it would not be safe for him to be away
from Rome when the death of Nero should be proclaimed in the
capitol, lest some other Roman nobleman or great officer of state
should suddenly arise in the emergency and assume the empire. There
were, in fact, one or two men in Rome of great power and influence,
of whom Piso was specially jealous and he was naturally very much
disposed to be on his guard against opening any door of opportunity
for them to rise to power. To commit a great crime in order to
secure his own aggrandizement, and yet to manage the commission of
it in such a way as not only to shut himself off from the expected
benefit, but to secure that benefit to a hated rival, would have
been a very fatal misstep. So the plan of destroying Nero at Baiæ
was overruled.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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