Metrum 6:
A famous example of wickedness unimproved by attaining supreme power. Meter: Sapphic hendecasyllable (- u - x - u u - u - -).The great fire at Rome of A.D. 64; rumors of an imperial arsonist were spread by well-placed citizens. quantas dederit ruinas: indirect question; the subject is the relative clause (lines 3-7).
urbe . . . caesis: ablative absolute. patribus: "senators."
fratre interempto: Tiberius Claudius Caesar, son of Claudius, murdered by his adoptive brother in A.D. 55.
matris effuso . . . cruore: ablative of means with maduit. Refers to the murder of Agrippina in 59 A.D.: the rumor that the murderous son cast a coolly appraising eye over his mother's corpse is repeated by Tacitus ( Ann. 14.3ff), but neither endorsed nor scotched by him.
visu: < visus , "sight, vision."
censor: here, "evaluator, judge."
Rome's sway reaches from west to east and from north to south.
septem . . . triones: literally, "the seven plough-oxen," i.e., the seven stars constituting the constellation known variously as the Wain, Ursa Maior, the Big Dipper),
Notus: south wind.
vertere: last syllable is closed (thus long) before pr- . Neronis: the name is postponed as long as possible; the identity was clear to B.'s readers as early as line 3.
gravem sortem: accusative of exclamation.