The Great Fire of Rome: The Fall of the Emperor Nero and His City by Stephen Dando-Collins

made munus staging mandatory for Celtic priests at the Temple of Claudius at Camulodunum, modern Colchester, capital of the province of Britannia. Prior to the AD 43 Roman conquest of much of southern Britain, the sons of British chiefs had been educated by the Druids, with many young men going on themselves to become Druid priests. Under Roman rule, Druidism was banned, and the sons of British chiefs had to serve in the Claudian Order at the Temple of Claudius. It came to be said that the staging of the muneri had so impoverished the British priests that they had conspired with rebel queen Boudicca to throw off Rome’s then seventeen-year-old rule in Britain. It appears that in Boudicca’s uprising of AD 60, these priests had given rebels access to the Temple of Claudius when thousands of Roman settlers took refuge there during the assault on Camulodunum and, in so doing, had brought about the refugees’ capture and brutal deaths and the fall of the city.
     
    Beneventum’s benefactor was the “deformed” Vatinius, who had been born and raised in the cobbler’s shop of his freedman father. Vatinius suffered from dwarfism. During the reign of Nero’s uncle Caligula, Vatinius had been brought into the imperial court, as a joke, to amuse the emperor. Vatinius had subsequently been a member of Caligula’s entourage at the time of the short-lived emperor’s assassination. Witty, sarcastic, and knowledgeable about the peccadilloes of courtiers, the “fool” Vatinius had become a permanent fixture of the court, on call to amuse the emperor and his guests with his “vulgar wit.” In the opinion of historian Tacitus, little Vatinius, dressed garishly and frequently seen at Nero’s side making fun of the Roman elite, was “one of the most conspicuously infamous sights in the imperial court.” 1
     
    Vatinius’ imperial patron had rewarded him with money and property, so that he was now an immensely rich man, even though only a freedman. And still he amused the emperor. Only recently, he had said to Nero, “I hate you Caesar, because you are a member of the Senatorial order.” 2 Vatinius had, in keeping his ear close to the ground to glean tidbits about the unguarded and impolitic words and actions of leading men and women of Rome, become a valuable source of information for the emperor. “He grew so powerful by accusing all the best men,” said Tacitus, “that in influence, wealth, and ability to cause injury, he was preeminent.” 3
     
    For all the Roman public’s enjoyment of blood sports, there had been little outcry when, for the previous years’ Great Games, Nero had ended the practice of allowing victorious gladiators to take the lives of their defeated opponents. He had not even allowed criminals to be put to death in the arena. Nero did not take away the main attraction of gladiatorial contests: gambling. Under Roman law, it was legal to bet on contests of physical skill. Vast amounts would be wagered on every gladiatorial contest.
     
    Vatinius’ munus at Beneventum would have followed the usual pattern. Each day’s show began at dawn and ended at dusk. Free tickets had been distributed to people in his favor by the man paying for the games, called its editor. Remaining spectators had to pay for admission. Well before sunrise, the crowd, consisting of both men and women, excitedly surged up the amphitheater’s stone stairways to secure seats denoted by their numbered, clay tickets. Many had purchased the handwritten programs that had been on sale in Beneventum streets for days beforehand.
     
    Once in their seats, the audience members excitedly perused the program, discussed the merits of this fighter and that, and laid their bets, every now and then glancing toward the enclosed tribunal, the official box, hoping to catch sight of the emperor. The most senior members of the emperor’s sycophantic entourage, former consuls such as Titus Vespasian, Petronius Arbiter, and Cluvius Rufus, were seated