After that, the military’s huge role in the plot was unmasked. This led to some remarkable exchanges, as Nero questioned Praetorians who, with nothing left to fear, were blunt in their replies. Subrius Flavus explained to the emperor the origins of his disaffection. “No one in the army was more loyal to you than I—when you deserved our love,” Flavus said. “But I began to hate you, after you became the murderer of your mother and wife, a chariot driver, an actor, and an arsonist.” Tacitus remarks that nothing Nero heard during the crisis wounded him more than this terse catalogue of crimes.
