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It is obvious, however, that, as the affair had been arranged, all would depend upon the resolution and fidelity of those who had been designated to stab the emperor with their daggers, when Lateranus should have grasped his feet. The slightest faltering or fear at this point, would be fatal to the whole scheme.
Plautius Lateranus was not even allowed the poor privilege of choosing his own death, but, without time even to embrace his children, was hurried off to a place set apart for the punishment of slaves, and there died, without a word, by the sword of a tribune whom he knew to be one his own accomplices.
Most editors adopt, according to fancy, the rendering of Lipsius or Gronovius, on account of Vectius Valens and Plautius Lateranus being two distinguished Romans in the days of Claudius who intrigued with Messalina.
Piso paid for the conspiracy with his head; after him followed Seneca, and Lucan, Fenius Rufus, and Plautius Lateranus, and Flavius Scevinus, and Afranius Quinetianus, and the dissolute companion of Cæsar's madnesses, Tullius Senecio, and Proculus, and Araricus, and Tugurinus, and Gratus, and Silanus, and Proximus, once devoted with his whole soul to Nero, and Sulpicius Asper.
"Cæsar is childless," said he, "and all see his successor in Piso. Doubtless, too, every man would help him with whole soul to gain power. Fenius Rufus loves him; the relatives of Annæus are devoted to him altogether. Plautius Lateranus and Tullius Senecio would spring into fire for him; as would Natalis, and Subrius Flavius, and Sulpicius Asper, and Afranius Quinetianus, and even Vestinius."
Accordingly it was determined that Lateranus should approach Nero at a certain time during the celebration of the games, as if to offer a petition, the other conspirators being close at hand, and ready to act at a moment's warning.
Origin and nature of Piso's conspiracy. Lucan, the Latin poet. His quarrel with Nero. Lateranus. Celebrity of his name. The church of St. John Lateran. Fenius Rufus. A woman in the secret. Plans and arrangements of the conspirators. Bold proposals of Flavius. The palace to be set on fire. Epicharis impatient. She goes to the fleet. She communicates with Proculus at Misenum.
When Lateranus was put to death at the detection of the conspiracy, in the manner to be presently described, his estate was confiscated. The palace and grounds thus became the property of the Roman emperors. In process of time, the emperor Constantine gave the place to the pope, and from that period it continued to be the residence of the successive pontiffs for a thousand years.
It might have been supposed that gratitude for these favors would have prevented Lateranus from joining such a conspiracy as this against his benefactor, but gratitude has very little place in the hearts of those who dwell in the courts and palaces of such tyrants as Nero.
Freedmen and upstarts could read their original in Sejanus. Frivolous noblemen could feel their follies rebuked in the persons of Lateranus and Damasippus. Even an emperor might find his lesson in the gloomy pictures of Hannibal and Alexander. So constant is this reference to past events that Juvenal's writings may be called historic satire, as those of Tacitus satiric history.
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