A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

7. L.AntistiusVetus, probably also a son of No. 5, was consul with the emperor Nero in the first year of his reign, A. D. 55. Three years afterwards, A. D. 58, Vetus commanded a Roman army in Germany, and as he had no war to carry on, he formed the project, in order that his soldiers might not remain idle, of connecting the Mosella(Moselle) and the Arar (Saone) by a canal, by which means a water communication would be established between the Mediterranean and the Northern Ocean, as troops could be conveyed down the Rhone and the Saone into the Moselle through the canal, and down the Moselle into the Rhine, and so into the Ocean. The daughter of Vetus was married to Rubellius Plautus; and when Nero resolved upon the death of the latter in A. D. 62, his father-in-law pressed him to take up arms against the emperor. [PLAUTUS, p. 411b.] Plautus was put to death, but Vetus escaped for a time. Three years later, A. D. 65, the tyrant resolved upon his death, and Vetus accordingly anticipated his sentence by opening his veins in the bath. His mother-in-law Sextia and his daughter Pollutia likewise opened their veins and perished along with him. (Tac. Ann. 13.11, 53, 14.57, 58, 16.10, 11.)