I Think Tacitus' Sympathies Here Are Complicated, Right?

Tacitus describes the executions as a primitive custom. The punishment for this sort of thing was crucifixion, which is a pretty nasty way to go. It's not immediately clear to me if this comes from nero himself. But i do think it is worth picturing the sort of violent backwardness of this as a sort of sly, back handed comment on the violence that is under girding everyone's relationship with nero at the moment.

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