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FEMALE AND DWARFGLADIATORS I55
Tacitus believed that 62 marked the point when Nero went from good
to bad. so that he manipulated his account of Nero's obsession with performing
in public to match this date. 31 One hint that Tacitus' account is
not to be trusted is that Ville had difficulties in identifying the specific
games at which Tacitus claimed Nero made women performY In addition.
Tacitus' manipulation becomes apparent if we compare his account
of Nero's actions in 59 regarding the games (14.14) with his account of
Nero's actions in 63 (15.32). In 14.14 Tacitus discusses how Nero first
considered performing publicly and therefore forced men of noble
birth to perform in public as a way of masking his own infamy. This is
clearly the same incident mentioned by Dio in his account of Nero's activities
in 59 (61.17). Both authors attribute the same motive to Nero,
and both also mention that the group required to perform included the
scions of famous families. 33 In 15.32 Tacitus returns to the topic of
Nero's public performances. and to pick up the thread of his previous
theme he repeats the claim that Nero forced people of noble birth to
perform as gladiators. However. to make it appear that Nero's infatuation
with the games was now out of control. he noted that the number
of people disgraced was greater than in the past and included noblewomen.
Because of the way in which he tried to tailor his account to fit
his conception of how Nero's reign took a turn for the worse in 62. Tacitus
ended up duplicating the occasions on which Nero forced people of
noble birth to perform publicly and in the process moved the report
about women being forced to be gladiators from 59 to 63. Therefore. we
should trust Dio's testimony that Nero forced noblewomen to perform
in the arena on only one occasion during his reign. that is, at the massive
festival held after Agrippina's death in 59.
Both authors. however. did agree on one thing: it was the status of
3 1 On the debate among ancient historians whether 59 or 62 marked the
turning-point in Nero's reign. see M. Griffin. Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics
(Oxford 1976) Appendix C3. Ville (above. n. 7) 263 n. 73 follows Tacitus in believing
that Nero forced women to fight in the arena in 63. But since he rejects
the evidence of Dio he comes to essentially the same conclusion as presented
here. namely that there was only one occasion when Nero made upper-class
women become gladiators.
32 Ville (above. n. 7) 140. 163 n. 51. Another sign that Tacitus was manipulating
the evidence is that he seems to have moved the detail that noblewomen
were forced to take on the role of actors. along with men of the same social
class. from 14.14. where it belongs. to 14.15 in order to play up the debauchery
promoted by Nero's interest in the theater.
33 Each author. of course. follows his own style. For example. Tacitus highlights
the extent of Nero's misdeed by pointedly refusing to mention the scions
by name: Dio lists their names.