Escaped gladiators led by Spartacus raise an army of slaves and beat several Roman armies before Crassus crushes them. Plutarch says the young Cato served in the war as a volunteer.
When the servile war was in progress, which was called the war of Spartacus, Gellius was commander, while Cato took part in his campaign as a volunteer, for the sake of his brother; for his brother Caepio was a military tribune.
What was going on: 49 BCE: civil war has begun between Caesar and Pompey's side. Go-betweens such as the praetor Roscius bring Caesar Pompey's proposals, and Caesar asks them to carry his reply back. This is Caesar's own account.
Why it matters: The crossing set off a civil war that eventually made Caesar dictator for life. It also gave us the idiom crossing the Rubicon, meaning passing the point of no return.
I have always put the honour of the state first, above my own life. I was angry that my enemies were snatching back what the people had granted me.
As for myself, he said, I have always reckoned the dignity of the republic of first importance and preferable to life. I was indignant that a benefit conferred on me by the Roman people was being insolently wrested from me by my enemies, and that, robbed of my six months’ command, I was being dragged back to the city, when the people had directed that I should be allowed to be a candidate in absence at the next election.
His own words, giving his own message to Pompeius. Caesar, The Civil War 1.9, translated by A. G. Peskett (1914)
What was going on: 44 BCE, the year Caesar was killed. Writing to his son Marcus, Cicero compares his own leisure with Scipio Africanus' chosen rest, and says his is forced on him: the senate, he writes, is abolished and the courts closed.
Why it matters: The killing failed to restore the Republic. Instead it led to Caesar's deification and a civil war between his supporters and his killers, which became a stage in the Republic's collapse.
Armed treason keeps me out of politics and the courts, so I have time on my hands. I have left the city and wander the country, often alone.
…for as I am kept by force of armed treason away from practical politics and from my practice at the bar, I am now leading a life of leisure. For that reason I have left the city and, wandering in the country from place to place, I am often alone.
His own words. Cicero, On Duties 3.1, translated by Walter Miller (1913)
43–28 BCE: Antony, Cleopatra and Octavian
, Italy
Cicero is killed on Antony's orders
Put on the list of the proscribed by Antony, Cicero is caught by soldiers on the coast. His head and hands are cut off and shown in Rome.
Herennius cut off his head, by Antony’s command, and his hands—the hands with which he wrote the Philippics.
What was going on: As Plutarch tells it, over a century later: in 43 BCE Cicero, put on the list of the proscribed by Antony, was being carried in a litter toward the sea when his killers caught up. One of them, Popillius, he had once defended in court. Cicero told his servants to set the litter down.
Why it matters: After the killing, Cicero's head and hands were displayed on the Rostra; he was the only victim of the proscriptions displayed that way.
Holding his chin in his left hand as he always did, worn out and unkempt, he stared at his killers. Most of those watching covered their faces.
Then he himself, clasping his chin with his left hand, as was his wont, looked steadfastly at his slayers, his head all squalid and unkempt, and his face wasted with anxiety, so that most of those that stood by covered their faces while Herennius was slaying him.
Plutarch, describing him, over a century later. Plutarch, Life of Cicero 48.3, translated by Bernadotte Perrin (1919)
54–69 CE: Nero, fire and revolt
, Italy
Nero kills himself as the Senate declares him an enemy
With the armies in revolt and the Senate against him, Nero flees Rome and takes his own life at a freedman's villa outside the city.
What was going on: 68 CE. With the armies in revolt and the Senate against him, Nero has fled Rome and crawled through a hole in the wall into a freedman's villa. The people with him urge him to save himself from the shame that awaits. Suetonius tells it over a century later.
Why it matters: Nero was the last emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and his death set off the brief civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors.
He had his own grave dug in front of him, crying at every step and saying again and again: what an artist is about to die!
…he ordered a pit to be sunk before his eyes, of the size of his body, and the bottom to be covered with pieces of marble put together, if any could be found about the house; and water and wood, to be got ready for immediate use about his corpse; weeping at every thing that was done, and frequently saying, “What an artist is now about to perish!”
As Suetonius tells it, over a century later. Suetonius, Life of Nero 49, translated by Alexander Thomson, revised by T. Forester (1889)
What was going on: 68 CE, the day Nero died, as Suetonius tells it. With the Senate against him, Nero had fled Rome to a freedman's villa. As horsemen sent to bring him back alive came near, he drove a dagger into his throat, helped by his secretary Epaphroditus.
Why it matters: Nero was the last emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and his death set off the brief civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors.
Half dead, as a soldier pressed a cloak to his wound pretending to help, he said only: too late. Is this your loyalty?
A centurion bursting in just as he was half-dead, and applying his cloak to the wound, pretending that he was come to his assistance, he made no other reply but this, “‘Tis too late;” and “Is this your loyalty?”
As Suetonius tells it, over a century later. Suetonius, Life of Nero 49, translated by Alexander Thomson, revised by T. Forester (1889)
