ABSTRACT
Nero’s reign started out with great promise: the court pledged greater independence for the senate, and to eliminate some of the influences (such as wives and freedmen) which had driven delatio under Claudius.1 Good relations between the senate and emperor were to prevail, nor was the court’s pledge necessarily a hollow one: Calpurnius Siculus remarks that laws and suits were now returned to the Forum with consulars presiding over cases.2 In a show of the imperial court’s good faith, two accusations were refused in 54, the first an accusation lodged by a slave against Carrinas Celer, a senator, for an unspecified charge, and the second against Julius Densus, an equestrian, for supporting Claudius’ son Britannicus, who still remained as a threat to Nero.3 A similar case which illustrates the desire of the court to check delation early on arose in 55 when information was laid against Pallas, Claudius’ wealthy freedman, and Burrus, Nero’s praetorian praefect. The charge was that they had conspired with Cornelius Sulla (a man from a distinguished family and Claudius’ son-in-law) to procure the throne for him. The accuser was a certain Paetus, who was notorious for buying up confiscated estates at state auctions and selling them for a profit, and who was now apparently guilty of fabricating a charge against Pallas, Burrus, and Sulla.4 Although the charge was accepted, the three were acquitted and Paetus was condemned for making a false accusation; the records in the aerarium by which Paetus had attempted to resuscitate long forgotten charges were burned. Rudich (1993: 20-1) conjectures that Nero allowed the accusation to proceed in order to make a statement concerning just how he intended to treat delatores, an attractive suggestion in light of the two cases in 54 (and Suillius’ prosecution three years later), and in view of the dearth of prosecutions in the senate early in his reign.
