Nero and Anicetus design an apparent accident
Annals 14.3: read the assigned Latin, work through language and interpretation, then practise with explained responses.
Exam scope and assessment notes
Original teaching foundations for the 2026–2028 syllabus. Six prescribed texts have passage-specific sequences; all 693 printed vocabulary rows have been reconciled into 692 distinct records, with additional number, comparison and compound-verb practice. Linked teaching and lexical self-checks do not certify mastery. Complete line-by-line annotation, further translation and scansion practice, qualified Latin-teacher review, full timed papers and human marking remain outstanding. Open the assigned edition alongside these lessons: public ancient texts can differ in spelling, punctuation or editorial readings from the prescribed prose anthology. Practice explanations are formative, not Cambridge questions, marks or predicted grades. Cambridge has announced withdrawal; the last assessment is June 2028, in administrative zones 3, 4, 5 and 6 only. Confirm entry with your centre.
Before you begin
- Read the assigned Latin alongside this guide
- Use case, verb and clause evidence before literary interpretation
Work on paper. Try each question before revealing help, and explain why your method works.
Quick readiness check
What should distinguish passage evidence from wider context?
What you will learn
- Trace rejected methods and the proposed ship mechanism
- Read indirect statement and the difference between scheme and genuine accident
Read this assigned passage
Annals 14.3. Keep your assigned edition open. These original guides use the underlying ancient text; check differences against the prescribed anthology and your teacher's reading.
Reconstruct the decision
Nero avoids private meetings with Agrippina and eventually decides to kill her. Poison is considered but would arouse suspicion after Britannicus and confront her precautions; an open weapon attack creates concealment and obedience problems. These are the narrative's reasons for searching for another method, not proof that the acts were lawful.
Anicetus, a freedman and naval commander with a past connection to Nero and mutual hostility with Agrippina, proposes a ship whose constructed section can break up at sea. The scheme is to exploit the sea's association with accidents and then display apparent filial devotion through honours. Keep the designer and decision-maker distinct.
Read the embedded plan
Navem ... posse componi is an indirect statement after the explanatory verb: the ship is the accusative subject and the infinitives express what can be constructed. The construction is a proposal, not a statement that the later shipwreck is naturally caused.
The reasoning about wind and waves is part of an intended cover story. Its rhetorical question anticipates observers attributing death to nature rather than crime. The promised memorial honours sharpen the contrast between public piety and secret intent.
Sources for this lesson
Pause and explain
Who proposes the constructed ship scheme?
Worked example
Why should the proposed shipwreck not be summarised as an ordinary accident?
Show the worked solution
- The mechanism is deliberately designed.
- An apparent accident is the intended disguise.
- The memorial plan serves public presentation.
Answer The narrative describes a deliberate killing scheme disguised as misfortune at sea. The accident explanation is what the planners want others to believe, not the narrator's account of the actual cause.
Try a topic test
Choose Easy, Normal or Difficult. Save your answers and open worked review after finishing.
Test this topic →From guided practice to a new situation
Write your answer and reasoning first. Use a hint only if you are stuck. The model solution is for self-checking; your written work is not automatically marked.
Guided: Identify one difficulty with poison and one with an open attack.
Give me a hint
Use concealment and the target's precautions.
Compare my reasoning
- Prior poisoning makes suspicion relevant.
- Agrippina has taken precautions.
- Open violence raises concealment/obedience problems.
The narrative makes poison suspicious and difficult against Agrippina's precautions, while open violence is hard to conceal and could meet refusal. Those obstacles motivate the alternative scheme rather than excuse it.
Look for these in your work
- Uses poison difficulty
- Uses open-attack difficulty
- Connects decision
Independent: Explain the ship's role in the indirect statement.
Give me a hint
Accusative subject and infinitives belong together.
Compare my reasoning
- Locate navem as embedded subject.
- Read can-be-constructed infinitives.
- Keep the statement under Anicetus's proposal.
The embedded statement says that a ship can be constructed in the required way. Navem is its subject, not necessarily the object of a simple direct action meaning Nero sails it; the grammar presents the proposed mechanism.
Look for these in your work
- Uses subject
- Uses infinitives
- Uses proposal context
Application: Evaluate the planned public honours alongside secret intent.
Give me a hint
Compare display and cause.
Compare my reasoning
- The secret scheme aims at killing.
- Honours would display filial devotion.
- Explain the contradiction.
The planned honours create a display of piety after a deliberately engineered death. Their contrast with intent supports criticism of hypocrisy or manipulated appearance, rather than prove genuine innocence from ceremonial generosity.
Look for these in your work
- Uses intent
- Uses display
- Explains contradiction
Common mistakes
- Calling the design natural misfortune
- Making Agrippina the designer
- Treating public honours as proof of innocence
What can you explain now?
Who proposes the constructed ship scheme?
Compare with the explanation
Anicetus
Anicetus supplies the design after the difficulties with other methods.
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Make it stick
Who proposes the constructed ship scheme?
If you needed the solution, close it and solve the problem again from a blank page. A correct answer is stronger when you can explain the reason for each step.