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Handout #19 |
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How they were treated
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| Shortly afterwards (Ad 61) the city prefect, Pedantis Sectindtis was murdered by one of his own slaves; either because he had been refused emancipation after Pedantis had agreed to the price, or because he had contracted a passion for a catamite, and declined to tolerate the rivalry of his owner. Be that as it may, when the whole of the domestics who had been resident under the same roof ought, in accordance with the old custom, to have been led to execution, the rapid assembly of the populace, bent on protecting so many innocent lives, brought matters to the point of sedition, and the senate house was besieged. Even within its walls there was a party which protested against excessive harshness, though most members held that no change was advisable...The party advocating execution prevailed; but the decision could not be implemented, because a threatening crowd gathered, having taken up stones and firebrands. The Caesar then reprimanded the populace by edict, and lined the whole length of the road, by which the condemned were being marched to punishment, with detachments of soldiers. Tacitus, Annals XIV, 42-45. |
