3. VATINIUS, of Beneventum, was one of the vilest aud most hateful
creatures of Nero's court, equally deformed in body and in mind. He was originally a
shoemaker's apprentice, next earned his living as one of the lowest kinds of scurrae or buffoons, and finally obtained great power and wealth by accusing the most
distinguished men in the state. Dio Cassius relates a saying of his which pleased Nero
exceedingly. Well knowing the emperor's detestation of the senate, he said to him on one
occasion, " I hate you, Caesar, because you are a senator." (Dial. de Orat. 11, Hist. 1.37; nasi or
nozzles, bore the name of Vatinius, probably because he brought them into fashion. Juvenal
alludes to a cup of this kind in the lines (5.46, foil.) : --
" Tu Beneventani sutoris nomen habentem
Siccabis calicem nasorum quatuor," &c.,
and Martial also in the Epigram (14.96) : --
" Vilia sutoris calicem monumenta Vatini
Accipe; sed nasus longior ille fuit."