“An Extraneous Interlude”? How Tacitus Begins Annals 16

Salvador Bartera (University of Virginia; University of Tennessee)

Tacitus’ last surviving book of the Annals opens with a rather peculiar story: a deranged dream-driven Carthaginian, Caesellius Bassus, convinces Nero that in his estate lies hidden the treasure that Dido had brought with her to Africa. Nero, who is in desperate need of money, without even checking his informer’s credibility, organizes a useless expedition. The outcome will be waste of money and the death of the ‘dreamer.’

In this paper I shall analyze these first three chapters of Annals 16 from different angles, and show how, even in this seemingly entertaining digression, Tacitus deploys all of the devices he is best known for. Indeed, I shall demonstrate how, far from being an “extraneous interlude” (Syme 263), this story well integrates with what precedes and suitably introduces what follows. Furthermore, I shall discuss some of the possible sources which lie behind the historian’s motives for choosing such an episode.

The story of gold finds is a common theme in Latin literature. Already in Plautus (Stichus 666) the expression quis somniavit aurum? had attained a proverbial status. Gold-digging results in heavy moral judgments in, among the others, Horace, Ovid, Seneca and Pliny N.H. What these authors share is a moral condemnation of gold, a renowned symptom of avaritia and luxuria. Pliny had dedicated the whole Book 33 of his encyclopedia to metalla, and to aurum in particular. Book 33, as I shall show, plays a relevant role in these first three chapters of Annals 16.

On one side Tacitus employs familiar literary sources; on the other, there seems to be an historical reason that justifies the inclusion of this story in the Annals. Nero may have changed the treasure hunt legislation at the beginning of his principate. Two other writers may allude to this: Calpurnius Siculus and Petronius. Unfortunately, neither author is unanimously considered as belonging to the Neronian age. Furthermore, while most scholars who accept a Neronian date for Calpurnius do not dispute his allusion to the new legislation, for Petronius there seems to be no certainty. I shall try to demonstrate that Tacitus is probably using the story of Bassus’ gold as an exemplum, a fitting example by which the moralizing historian can at the same time attack Nero’s luxuria, his ridiculous pretenses of bringing a new Golden Age, the court poets who celebrated the new era and, perhaps, can also subtlety allude to one of the major protagonists of Book 16: Petronius.