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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nero, by Jacob Abbott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Nero
+       Makers of History Series
+
+Author: Jacob Abbott
+
+Release Date: November 22, 2008 [EBook #27312]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NERO ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D. Alexander and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Makers of History
+
+ Nero
+
+ BY JACOB ABBOTT
+
+ WITH ENGRAVINGS
+
+ NEW YORK AND LONDON
+ HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
+ 1901
+
+
+
+
+ Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand
+ eight hundred and fifty-three, by
+
+ HARPER & BROTHERS,
+
+ in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District
+ of New York.
+
+ Copyright, 1881, by BENJAMIN VAUGHAN ABBOTT, AUSTIN ABBOTT, LYMAN
+ ABBOTT, and EDWARD ABBOTT.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: ENVIRONS OF ROME.]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In writing the series of historical narratives to which the present
+work pertains, it has been the object of the author to furnish to
+the reading community of this country an accurate and faithful
+account of the lives and actions of the several personages that are
+made successively the subjects of the volumes, following precisely
+the story which has come down to us from ancient times. The writer
+has spared no pains to gain access in all cases to the original
+sources of information, and has confined himself strictly to them.
+The reader may, therefore, feel assured in perusing any one of these
+works, that the interest of it is in no degree indebted to the
+invention of the author. No incident, however trivial, is ever added
+to the original account, nor are any words even, in any case,
+attributed to a speaker without express authority. Whatever of
+interest, therefore, these stories may possess, is due solely to the
+facts themselves which are recorded in them, and to their being
+brought together in a plain, simple, and connected narrative.
+
+
+
+
+ CONTENTS.
+
+
+ CHAPTER                                                    PAGE
+
+    I. NERO'S MOTHER                                          13
+
+   II. THE ASSASSINATION OF CALIGULA                          34
+
+  III. THE ACCESSION OF CLAUDIUS                              55
+
+   IV. THE FATE OF MESSALINA                                  77
+
+    V. THE CHILDHOOD OF NERO                                 105
+
+   VI. NERO AN EMPEROR                                       124
+
+  VII. BRITANNICUS                                           148
+
+ VIII. THE FATE OF AGRIPPINA                                 172
+
+   IX. EXTREME DEPRAVITY                                     208
+
+    X. PISO'S CONSPIRACY                                     228
+
+   XI. THE FATE OF THE CONSPIRATORS                          250
+
+  XII. THE EXPEDITION INTO GREECE                            272
+
+ XIII. NERO'S END                                            299
+
+
+
+
+ ENGRAVINGS.
+
+
+                                                            PAGE
+
+ MAP--ENVIRONS OF ROME                           _Frontispiece._
+
+ ENCAMPMENT OF A ROMAN LEGION                                 21
+
+ CĘSONIA                                                      53
+
+ DISCOVERY OF CLAUDIUS                                        64
+
+ MESSALINA IN THE GARDEN                                      89
+
+ THE POISONING OF CLAUDIUS                                   132
+
+ THE JEWELRY                                                 156
+
+ THE ATTEMPT OF ANICETUS                                     197
+
+ BURNING OF ROME                                             225
+
+ THE KNIFE                                                   244
+
+ BRINGING EPICHARIS TO THE TORTURE                           253
+
+ PHAON AT THE WALL                                           316
+
+
+
+
+NERO
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+NERO'S MOTHER.
+
+A.D. 37
+
+Roman country seats.--Antium.--Situation of the promontory of
+Antium.--Account of Nero's parentage.--Brazenbeard.--Nero's
+father.--Agrippina his mother.--Agrippina's brother Caligula.--Roman
+emperors.--Regulations in respect to the Roman armies.--Description
+of the Roman armies.--Encampments of the legions.--Their
+stations.--Useful functions of the Roman armies.--Effects
+produced.--Mode of producing them.--The civil authorities.--The
+progress of the military power.--Disposition of men to submit to
+established power.--Great capacity of the early emperors.--Roman
+armies.--Character of Caligula.--His desperate malignity.--Examples
+of his cruelty.--Feeding wild beasts with men.--Branding.--Agrippina
+is implicated in a conspiracy.--She is banished with her sister to
+Pontia.
+
+
+In ancient times, when the city of Rome was at the height of its
+power and splendor, it was the custom, as it is in fact now with the
+inhabitants of wealthy capitals, for the principal families to
+possess, in addition to their city residences, rural villas for
+summer retreats, which they built in picturesque situations, at a
+little distance from the city, sometimes in the interior of the
+country, and sometimes upon the sea-shore. There were many
+attractive places of resort of this nature in the neighborhood of
+Rome. Among them was Antium.
+
+Antium was situated on the sea-coast about thirty miles south of the
+Tiber. A bold promontory here projects into the sea, affording from
+its declivities the most extended and magnificent views on every
+side. On the north, looking from the promontory of Antium, the eye
+follows the line of the coast away to the mouth of the Tiber; while,
+on the south, the view is terminated, at about the same distance, by
+the promontory of Circe, which is the second cape, or promontory,
+that marks the shore of Italy in going southward from Rome. Toward
+the interior, from Antium, there extends a broad and beautiful
+plain, bounded by wooded hills toward the shore, and by ranges of
+mountains in the distance beyond. On the southern side of the cape,
+and sheltered by it, was a small harbor where vessels from all the
+neighboring seas had been accustomed to bring in their cargoes, or
+to seek shelter in storms, from time immemorial. In fact, Antium, in
+point of antiquity, takes precedence, probably, even of Rome.
+
+The beauty and the salubrity of Antium made it a very attractive
+place of summer resort for the people of Rome; and in process of
+time, when the city attained to an advanced stage of opulence and
+luxury, the Roman noblemen built villas there, choosing situations,
+in some instances, upon the natural terraces and esplanades of the
+promontory, which looked off over the sea, and in others cool and
+secluded retreats in the valleys, on the land. It was in one of
+these villas that Nero was born.
+
+Nero's father belonged to a family which had enjoyed for several
+generations a considerable degree of distinction among the Roman
+nobility, though known by a somewhat whimsical name. The family name
+was Brazenbeard, or, to speak more exactly, it was Ahenobarbus,
+which is the Latin equivalent for that word. It is a question
+somewhat difficult to decide, whether in speaking of Nero's father
+at the present time, and in the English tongue, we should make use
+of the actual Latin name, or translate the word and employ the
+English representative of it; that is, whether we shall call him
+Ahenobarbus or Brazenbeard. The former seems to be more in harmony
+with our ideas of the dignity of Roman history; while the latter,
+though less elegant, conveys probably to our minds a more exact idea
+of the import and expression of the name as it sounded in the ears
+of the Roman community. The name certainly was not an attractive
+one, though the family had contrived to dignify it some degree by
+assigning to it a preternatural origin. There was a tradition that
+in ancient times a prophet appeared to one of the ancestors of the
+line, and after foretelling certain extraordinary events which were
+to occur at some future period, stroked down the beard of his
+auditor with his hand, and changed it to the color of brass, in
+miraculous attestation of the divine authority of the message. The
+man received the name of Brazenbeard in consequence, and he and his
+descendants ever afterward retained it.
+
+The family of the Brazenbeards was one of high rank and distinction,
+though at the time of Nero's birth it was, like most of the other
+prominent Roman families, extremely profligate and corrupt. Nero's
+father, especially, was a very bad man. He was accused of the very
+worst of crimes, and he led a life of constant remorse and terror.
+His wife, Agrippina, Nero's mother, was as wicked as he; and it is
+said that when the messenger came to him to announce the birth of
+his child, the hero of this narrative, he uttered some exclamation
+of ill-humor and contempt, and said that whatever came from him and
+Agrippina could not but be fraught with ruin to Rome.
+
+The rank and station of Agrippina in Roman society was even higher
+than that of her husband. She was the sister of the emperor. The
+name of the emperor, her brother, was Caligula. He was the third in
+the series of Roman emperors, Augustus Cęsar, the successor of
+Julius Cęsar, having been the first. The term emperor, however, had
+a very different meaning in those days, from its present import. It
+seems to denote now a sovereign ruler, who exercises officially a
+general jurisdiction which extends over the whole government of the
+state. In the days of the Romans it included, in theory at least,
+only _military_ command. The word was _imperator_, which meant
+_commander_; and the station which it denoted was simply that of
+general-in-chief over the military forces of the republic.
+
+In the early periods of the Roman history, every possible precaution
+was taken to keep the military power in a condition of very strict
+subordination to the authority of the civil magistrate and of law.
+Very stringent regulations were adopted to secure this end. No
+portion of the army, except such small detachments as were required
+for preserving order within the walls, was allowed to approach the
+city. Great commanders, in returning from their victorious
+campaigns, were obliged to halt and encamp at some distance from the
+gates, and there await the orders of the Roman Senate. The _Senate_
+was, in theory, the great repository of political power. This Senate
+was not, however, as the word might seem in modern times to denote,
+a well-defined and compact body of legislators, designated
+individually to the office, but rather a class of hereditary nobles,
+very numerous, and deriving their power from immemorial usage, and
+from that strange and unaccountable feeling of deference and awe
+with which the mass of mankind always look up to an established, and
+especially an ancient, aristocracy. The Senate were accustomed to
+convene at stated times, in assemblages which were, sometimes,
+conducted with a proper degree of formality and order, and sometimes
+on the other hand, exhibited scenes of great tumult and confusion.
+Their power, however, whether regularly or irregularly exercised,
+was supreme. They issued edicts, they enacted laws, they allotted
+provinces, they made peace, and they declared war. The armies, and
+the generals who commanded them, were the _agents_ employed to do
+their bidding.
+
+The Roman armies consisted of vast bodies of men which, when not in
+actual service, were established in permanent encampments in various
+parts of the empire, wherever it was deemed necessary that troops
+should be stationed. These great bodies of troops were the
+celebrated Roman legions, and they were renowned throughout the
+world for their discipline, their admirable organization, the
+celerity of their movements, and for the indomitable courage and
+energy of the men. Each legion constituted, in fact, a separate and
+independent community. Its camp was its city. Its general was its
+king. In time of war it moved, of course, from place to place, as
+the exigencies of the service required; but in time of peace it
+established itself with great formality in a spacious and permanent
+encampment, which was laid out with great regularity, and fortified
+with ramparts and fosses. Within the confines of the camp the tents
+were arranged in rows, with broad spaces for streets between them;
+and in a central position, before a space which served the purpose
+of a public square, the rich and ornamented pavilions of the
+commander and chief, and of the other generals, rose above the rest,
+like the public edifices of a city. The encampment of a Roman legion
+was, in fact, an extended and populous city, only that the dwellings
+consisted of tents instead of being formed of solid and permanent
+structures of wood or stone.
+
+[Illustration: ENCAMPMENT OF A ROMAN LEGION.]
+
+Roman legions were encamped in this way in various places throughout
+the empire, wherever the Senate thought proper to station them.
+There were some in Syria and the East; some in Italy; some on the
+banks of the Rhine; and it was through the instrumentality of the
+vast force thus organized, that the Romans held the whole European
+world under their sway. The troops were satisfied to yield
+submission to the orders of their commanders, since they received
+through them in return, an abundant supply of food and clothing, and
+lived, ordinarily, lives of ease and indulgence. In consideration of
+this, they were willing to march from place to place wherever they
+were ordered, and to fight any enemy when brought into the field.
+The commanders obtained food and clothing for them by means of the
+tribute which they exacted from conquered provinces, and from the
+plunder of sacked cities, in times of actual war. These armies were
+naturally interested in preserving order and maintaining in general
+the authority of law, throughout the communities which they
+controlled; for without law and order the industrial pursuits of men
+could not go on, and of course they were well aware that if in any
+country production were to cease, tribute must soon cease too. In
+reading history we find, indeed, it must be confessed, that a
+fearful proportion of the narrative which describes the achievements
+of ancient armies, is occupied with detailing deeds of violence,
+rapine, and crime; but we must not infer from this that the
+influence of these vast organizations was wholly evil. Such extended
+and heterogeneous masses of population as those which were spread
+over Europe and Asia, in the days of the Romans, could be kept
+subject to the necessary restraints of social order only by some
+very powerful instrumentality. The legions organized by the Roman
+Senate, and stationed here and there throughout the extended
+territory, constituted this instrumentality. But still, during far
+the greater portion of the time the power which a legion wielded was
+power in repose. It accomplished its end by its simple presence, and
+by the sentiment of awe which its presence inspired; and the nations
+and tribes within the circle of its influence lived in peace, and
+pursued their industrial occupations without molestation, protected
+by the consciousness which everywhere pervaded the minds of men,
+that the Roman power was at hand. The legion hovered, as it were,
+like a dark cloud in their horizon, silent and in repose; but
+containing, as they well knew, the latent elements of thunder, which
+might at any time burst upon their heads. Thus, in its ordinary
+operation, its influence was good. Occasionally and incidentally
+periods of commotion would occur, when its action was violent,
+cruel, and mercilessly evil. Unfortunately, however, for the credit
+of the system in the opinion of mankind in subsequent ages, there
+was in the good which it effected nothing to narrate; while every
+deed of violence and crime which was perpetrated by its agency,
+furnished materials for an entertaining and exciting story. The
+good which was accomplished extended perhaps through a long, but
+monotonous period of quiescence and repose. The evil was brief, but
+was attended with a rapid succession of events, and varied by
+innumerable incidents; so that the historian was accustomed to pass
+lightly over the one, with a few indifferent words of cold
+description, while he employed all the force of his genius in
+amplifying and adorning the narratives which commemorated the other.
+Thus, violent and oppressive as the military rulers were, by whom in
+ancient times the world was governed, they were less essentially and
+continuously violent and oppressive than the general tenor of
+history makes them seem; and their crimes were, in some degree at
+least, compensated for and redeemed, by the really useful function
+which they generally fulfilled, of restraining and repressing all
+disorder and violence except their own.
+
+The Roman legions, in particular, were for many centuries kept in
+tolerable subjection to the civil authorities of the capitol; but
+they were growing stronger and stronger all the time, and becoming
+more and more conscious of their strength. Every new commander who
+acquired renown by his victories, added greatly to the importance
+and influence of the army in its political relations. The great
+Julius Cęsar, in the course of his foreign conquests, and of his
+protracted and terrible wars with Pompey, and with his other rivals,
+made enormous strides in this direction. Every time that he returned
+to Rome at the head of his victorious legions, he overawed the
+capitol more and more. Octavius Cęsar, the successor of Julius,
+known generally in history by the name of Augustus, completed what
+his uncle had begun. He made the military authority, though still
+nominally and in form subordinate, in reality paramount and supreme.
+The Senate, indeed, continued to assemble, and to exercise its usual
+functions. Consuls and other civil magistrates were chosen, and
+invested with the insignia of supreme command; and the customary
+forms and usages of civil administration, in which the subordination
+of the military to the civil power was fully recognized, were all
+continued. Still, the actual authority of the civil government was
+wholly overawed and overpowered; and the haughty _imperator_
+dictated to the Senate, and directed the administration, just as he
+pleased.
+
+It required great genius in the commanders to bring up the army to
+this position of ascendency and power; but once up, it sustained
+itself there, without the necessity of ability of any kind, or of
+any lofty qualities whatever, in those subsequently placed at the
+head. In fact, the reader of history has often occasion to be
+perfectly amazed at the lengths to which human endurance will go,
+when a governmental power of any kind is once established, in
+tolerating imbecility and folly in the individual representatives of
+it. It seems to be immaterial whether the dominant power assumes the
+form of a dynasty of kings, a class of hereditary nobles, or a line
+of military generals. It requires genius and statesmanship to
+instate it, but, once instated, no degree of stupidity, folly or
+crime in those who wield it, seems sufficient to exhaust the spirit
+of submission with which man always bows to established power--a
+spirit of submission which is so universal, and so patient and
+enduring, and which so transcends all the bounds of expediency and
+of reason, as to seem like a blind instinct implanted in the very
+soul of man by the Author of his being--a constituent and essential
+part of his nature as a gregarious animal. In fact, without some
+such instinct, it would seem impossible that those extended
+communities could be formed and sustained, without which man, if he
+could exist at all, could certainly never fully develop his
+capacities and powers.
+
+However this may be in theory, it is certain in fact, that the work
+of bringing up the military power of ancient Rome to its condition
+of supremacy over all the civil functions of government, was the
+work of men of the most exalted capacities and powers. Marius and
+Sylla, Pompey and Cęsar, Antony and Augustus, evinced, in all their
+deeds, a high degree of sagacity, energy, and greatness of soul.
+Mankind, though they may condemn their vices and crimes, will never
+cease to admire the grandeur of their ambition, and the
+magnificence, comprehensiveness, and efficiency of their plans of
+action. The whole known world was the theater of their contests, and
+the armies which they organized and disciplined, and which they
+succeeded at length in bringing under the control of one central and
+consolidated command, formed the most extended and imposing
+military power that the world had ever seen. It was not only vast in
+extent, but permanent and self-sustaining in character. A wide and
+complicated, but most effectual system was adopted for maintaining
+it. Its discipline was perfect. Its organization was complete. It
+was equally trained to remain quietly at home in its city-like
+encampments, in time of peace, or to march, or bivouac, or fight, in
+time of war. Such a system could be formed only by men possessed of
+mental powers of the highest character; but, once formed, it could
+afterward sustain itself; and not only so, but it was found capable
+of holding up, by its own inherent power, the most imbecile and
+incompetent men, as the nominal rulers of it.
+
+Caligula, for example, the brother of Agrippina, and the reigning
+emperor at the time of Nero's birth, was a man wholly unfit to
+exercise any high command. He was elevated to the post by the
+influence of the army, simply because he was the most prominent man
+among those who had hereditary claims to the succession, and was
+thus the man whom the army could most easily place in the office of
+chieftain, and retain most securely there. His life, however, in the
+lofty station to which accident thus raised him, was one of
+continual folly, vice and crime. He lived generally at Rome, where
+he expended the immense revenues that were at his command in the
+most wanton and senseless extravagance. In the earlier part of his
+career the object of much of his extravagance was the gratification
+of the people; but after a time he began to seek only gratifications
+for himself, and at length he evinced the most wanton spirit of
+malignity and cruelty toward others. He seemed at last actually to
+hate the whole human species, and to take pleasure in teasing and
+tormenting men, whenever an occasion of any kind occurred to afford
+him the opportunity. They were accustomed in those days to have
+spectacles and shows in vast amphitheaters which were covered, when
+the sun was hot, with awnings. Sometimes when an amphitheater was
+crowded with spectators, and the heat of the sun was unusually
+powerful, Caligula would order the awnings to be removed and the
+doors to be kept closed so as to prevent the egress of the people;
+and then he would amuse himself with the indications of discomfort
+and suffering which so crowded a concourse in such an exposure would
+necessarily exhibit. He kept wild animals for the combats which took
+place in these amphitheaters, and when it was difficult to procure
+the flesh of sheep and oxen for them, he would feed them with men,
+throwing into their dens for this purpose criminals and captives.
+Some persons who offended him, he ordered to be branded in the face
+with hot irons, by which means they were not only subjected to cruel
+torture at the time, but were frightfully disfigured for life.
+Sometimes when the sons of noble or distinguished men displeased
+him, or when under the influence of his caprice or malignity he
+conceived some feeling of hatred toward them, he would order them to
+be publicly executed, and he would require their parents to be
+present and witness the scene. At one time after such an execution
+he required the wretched father of his victim to come and sup with
+him at his palace; and while at supper he talked with his guest all
+the time, in a light, and jocular, and mirthful manner, in order to
+trifle with and insult the mental anguish of the sufferer. At
+another time when he had commanded a distinguished senator to be
+present at the execution of his son, the senator said that he would
+go, in obedience to the emperor's orders, but humbly asked
+permission to shut his eyes at the moment of the execution, that he
+might be spared the dreadful anguish of witnessing the dying
+struggles of his son. The emperor in reply immediately condemned the
+father to death for daring to make so audacious a proposal.
+
+Of course the connection of Agrippina, the mother of Nero, with such
+a sovereign as this, while it gave her a very high social position
+in the Roman community, could not contribute much to her happiness.
+In fact all who were connected with Caligula in any way lived in
+continual terror, for so wanton and capricious was his cruelty, that
+all who were liable to come under his notice at all were in constant
+danger. Agrippina herself at one time incurred her brother's
+displeasure, though she was fortunate enough to escape with her
+life. Caligula discovered, or pretended to discover, a conspiracy
+against him, and he accused Agrippina and another of his sisters
+named Livilla of being implicated in it. Caligula sent a soldier to
+the leader of the conspiracy to cut off his head, and then he
+banished his sisters from Rome and shut them up in the island of
+Pontia, telling them when they went away, to beware, for he had
+swords for them as well as islands, in case of need.
+
+At length Caligula's terrible tyranny was brought to a sudden end by
+his assassination; and Agrippina, in consequence of this event was
+not only released from her thraldom but raised to a still higher
+eminence than she had enjoyed before. The circumstances connected
+with these events will be related in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE ASSASSINATION OF CALIGULA.
+
+A.D. 40-41
+
+Plots against Caligula.--Cassius Chęrea.--Chęrea's bravery.--His legion
+mutinies.--Chęrea escapes the mutineers.--His appearance.--His just
+dealings displease the emperor.--Passwords given by Caligula to
+Chęrea.--Accusation of Propedius.--Quintilia's testimony.--Chęrea
+alarmed.--Quintilia's private signal.--Quintilia is put to the
+torture in vain.--Anger of Chęrea.--His determination to destroy
+Caligula.--Conspiracy formed.--The confederates.--Various
+opinions.--Various plans proposed for destroying Caligula.--Final
+determination.--The three days festival.--Brief conversation.--The
+recess.--Chęrea's duty.--The plan seems likely to fail.--Chęrea's
+ambuscade.--Minucianus.--Adroit management of the conspirators.--The
+Asiatic boys.--Chęrea strikes Caligula down.--End of a despot.--General
+joy in the palace.--Savage exultation of the conspirators.--Cęsonia and
+her child.--They are murdered.--Supposed necessity for destroying the
+child.
+
+
+The emperor Caligula came to his death in the following manner:
+
+Of course his wanton and remorseless tyranny often awakened very
+deep feelings of resentment, and very earnest desires for revenge in
+the hearts of those who suffered by it; but yet so absolute and
+terrible was his power, that none dared to murmur or complain. The
+resentment, however, which the cruelty of the emperor awakened,
+burned the more fiercely for being thus restrained and suppressed,
+and many covert threats were made, and many secret plots were
+formed, from time to time, against the tyrant's life.
+
+Among others who cherished such designs, there was a man named
+Cassius Chęrea, an officer of the army, who, though not of high
+rank, was nevertheless a man of considerable distinction. He was a
+captain, or, as it was styled in those days, a centurion. His
+command, therefore, was small, but it was in the prętorian cohort,
+as it was called, a sort of body-guard of the commander-in-chief,
+and consequently a very honorable corps. Chęrea was thus a man of
+considerable distinction on account of the post which he occupied,
+and his duties, as captain in the life-guards, brought him very
+frequently into communication with the emperor. He was a man of
+great personal bravery, too, and was on this account held in high
+consideration by the army. He had performed an exploit at one time,
+some years before, in Germany, which had gained him great fame. It
+was at the time of the death of Augustus, the first emperor. Some of
+the German legions, and among them one in which Chęrea was serving,
+had seized upon the occasion to revolt. They alledged many and
+grievous acts of oppression as the grounds of their revolt, and
+demanded redress for what they had suffered, and security for the
+future. One of the first measures which they resorted to in the
+frenzy of the first outbreak of the rebellion, was to seize all the
+centurions in the camp, and to beat them almost to death. They gave
+them sixty blows each, one for each of their number, and then turned
+them, bruised, wounded, and dying, out of the camp. Some they threw
+into the Rhine. They revenged themselves thus on all the centurions
+but one. That one was Chęrea. Chęrea would not suffer himself to be
+taken by them, but seizing his sword he fought his way through the
+midst of them, slaying some and driving others before him, and thus
+made his escape from the camp. This feat gained him great renown.
+
+One might imagine from this account that Chęrea was a man of great
+personal superiority in respect to size and strength, inasmuch as
+extraordinary muscular power, as well as undaunted courage, would
+seem to be required to enable a man to make his way against so many
+enemies. But this was not the fact. Chęrea was of small stature and
+of a slender and delicate form. He was modest and unassuming in his
+manners, too, and of a very kind and gentle spirit. He was thus not
+only honored and admired for his courage, but he was generally
+beloved for the amiable and excellent qualities of his heart.
+
+The possession of such qualities, however, could not be expected to
+recommend him particularly to the favor of the emperor. In fact, in
+one instance it had the contrary effect. Caligula assigned to the
+centurions of his guard, at one period, some duties connected with
+the collection of taxes. Chęrea, instead of practicing the extortion
+and cruelty common on such occasions, was merciful and considerate,
+and governed himself strictly by the rules of law and of justice in
+his collections. The consequence necessarily was that the amount of
+money received was somewhat diminished, and the emperor was
+displeased. The occasion was, however, not one of sufficient
+importance to awaken in the monarch's mind any very serious anger,
+and so, instead of inflicting any heavy punishment upon the
+offender, he contented himself with attempting to tease and torment
+him with sundry vexatious indignities and annoyances.
+
+It is the custom sometimes, in camps, and at other military
+stations, for the commander to give every evening, what is called
+the _parole_ or password, which consists usually of some word or
+phrase that is to be communicated to all the officers, and as
+occasion may require to all the soldiers, whom for any reason it may
+be necessary to send to and fro about the precincts of the camp
+during the night. The sentinels, also, all have the password, and
+accordingly, whenever any man approaches the post of a sentinel, he
+is stopped and the parole is demanded. If the stranger gives it
+correctly, it is presumed that all is right, and he is allowed to
+pass on,--since an enemy or a spy would have no means of knowing it.
+
+Now, whenever it came to Chęrea's turn to communicate the parole,
+the emperor was accustomed to give him some ridiculous or indecent
+phrase, intended not only to be offensive to the purity of Chęrea's
+mind, but designed, also, to exhibit him in a ridiculous light to
+the subordinate officers and soldiers to whom he would have to
+communicate it. Sometimes the password thus given was some word or
+phrase wholly unfit to be spoken, and sometimes it was the name of
+some notorious and infamous woman; but whatever it was, Chęrea was
+compelled by his duty as a soldier to deliver it to all the corps,
+and patiently to submit to the laughter and derision which his
+communication awakened among the vile and wicked soldiery.
+
+If there was any dreadful punishment to be inflicted, or cruel deed
+of any kind to be performed, Caligula took great pleasure in
+assigning the duty to Chęrea, knowing how abhorrent to his nature it
+must be. At one time a senator of great distinction named Propedius,
+was accused of treason by one of his enemies. His treason consisted,
+as the accuser alledged, of having spoken injurious words against
+the emperor. Propedius denied that he had ever spoken such words.
+The accuser, whose name was Timidius, cited a certain Quintilia, an
+actress, as his witness. Propedius was accordingly brought to trial,
+and Quintilia was called upon before the judges to give her
+testimony. She denied that she had ever heard Propedius utter any
+such sentiment as Timidius attributed to him. Timidius then said
+that Quintilia was testifying falsely: he declared that she had
+heard Propedius utter such words, and demanded that she should be
+put to the torture to compel her to acknowledge it. The emperor
+acceded to this demand, and commanded Chęrea to put the actress to
+the torture.
+
+It is, of course, always difficult to ascertain the precise truth in
+respect to such transactions as those that are connected with plots
+and conspiracies against tyrants, since every possible precaution
+is, of course, taken by all concerned to conceal what is done. It is
+probable, however, in this case, that Propedius had cherished some
+hostile designs against Caligula, if he had not uttered injurious
+words, and that Quintilia was in some measure in his confidence. It
+is even possible that Chęrea may have been connected with them in
+some secret design, for it is said that when he received the orders
+of Caligula to put Quintilia to the torture he was greatly agitated
+and alarmed. If he should apply the torture severely, he feared that
+the unhappy sufferer might be induced to make confessions or
+statements at least, which would bring destruction on the men whom
+he most relied upon for the overthrow of Caligula. On the other
+hand, if he should attempt to spare her, the effect would be only to
+provoke the anger of Caligula against himself, without at all
+shielding or saving her. As, however, he was proceeding to the place
+of torture, in charge of his victim, with his mind in this state of
+anxiety and indecision, his fears were somewhat relieved by a
+private signal given to him by Quintilia, by which she intimated to
+him that he need feel no concern,--that she would be faithful and
+true, and would reveal nothing, whatever might be done to her.
+
+This assurance, while it allayed in some degree Chęrea's anxieties
+and fears, must have greatly increased the mental distress which he
+endured at the idea of leading such a woman to the awful suffering
+which awaited her. He could not, however, do otherwise than to
+proceed. Having arrived at the place of execution, the wretched
+Quintilia was put to the rack. She bore the agony which she endured
+while her limbs were stretched on the torturing engine, and her
+bones broken, with patient submission, to the end. She was then
+carried, fainting, helpless, and almost dead, to Caligula, who
+seemed now satisfied. He ordered the unhappy victim of the torture
+to be taken away, and directed that Propedius should be acquitted
+and discharged.
+
+Of course while passing through this scene the mind of Chęrea was in
+a tumult of agitation and excitement,--the anguish of mind which he
+must have felt in his compassion for the sufferer, mingling and
+contending with the desperate indignation which burned in his bosom
+against the author of all these miseries. He was wrought up, in
+fact, to such a state of frenzy by this transaction, that as soon as
+it was over he determined immediately to take measures to put
+Caligula to death. This was a very bold and desperate resolution.
+Caligula was the greatest and most powerful potentate on earth.
+Chęrea was only a captain of his guard, without any political
+influence or power, and with no means whatever of screening himself
+from the terrible consequences which might be expected to follow
+from his attempt, whether it should succeed or fail.
+
+So thoroughly, however, was he now aroused, that he determined to
+brave every danger in the attainment of his end. He immediately
+began to seek out among the officers of the army such men as he
+supposed would be most likely to join him,--men of courage,
+resolution, and faithfulness, and those who, from their general
+character or from the wrongs which they had individually endured
+from the government, were to be supposed specially hostile to
+Caligula's dominion. From among these men he selected a few, and to
+them he cautiously unfolded his designs. All approved of them. Some,
+it is true, declined taking any active part in the conspiracy, but
+they assured Chęrea of their good wishes, and promised solemnly not
+to betray him.
+
+The number of the conspirators daily increased. There was, however,
+at their meetings for consultation, some difference of opinion in
+respect to the course to be pursued. Some were in favor of acting
+promptly and at once. The greatest danger which was to be
+apprehended, they thought, was in delay. As the conspiracy became
+extended, some one would at length come to the knowledge of it, they
+said, who would betray them. Others, on the other hand, were for
+proceeding cautiously and slowly. What they most feared was rash and
+inconsiderate action. It would be ruinous to the enterprise, as they
+maintained, for them to attempt to act before their plans were fully
+matured.
+
+Chęrea was of the former opinion. He was very impatient to have the
+deed performed. He was ready himself, he said, to perform it, at any
+time; his personal duties as an officer of the guard, gave him
+frequent occasions of access to the emperor, and he was ready to
+avail himself of any of them to kill the monster. The emperor went
+often, he said, to the capitol, to offer sacrifices, and he could
+easily kill him there. Or, if they thought that that was too public
+an occasion, he could have an opportunity in the palace, at certain
+religious ceremonies which the emperor was accustomed to perform
+there, and at which Chęrea himself was usually present. Or, he was
+ready to throw him down from a tower where he was accustomed to go
+sometimes for the purpose of scattering money among the populace
+below. Chęrea said that he could easily come up behind him on such
+an occasion, and hurl him suddenly over the parapet down to the
+pavement below. All these plans, however, seemed to the conspirators
+too uncertain and dangerous, and Chęrea's proposals were accordingly
+not agreed to.
+
+At length, the time drew near when Caligula was to leave Rome to
+proceed to Alexandria in Egypt, and the conspirators perceived that
+they must prepare to act, or else abandon their design altogether.
+It had been arranged that there was to be a grand celebration at
+Rome previous to the emperor's departure. This celebration, which
+was to consist of games, and sports, and dramatic performances of
+various kinds, was to continue for three days, and the conspirators
+determined, after much consultation and debate, that Caligula should
+be assassinated on one of those days.
+
+After coming to this conclusion, however, in general, their hearts
+seemed to fail them in fixing the precise time for the perpetration
+of the deed, and two of the three days passed away accordingly
+without any attempt being made. At length, on the morning of the
+third day, Chęrea called the chief conspirators together, and urged
+them very earnestly not to let the present opportunity pass away. He
+represented to them how greatly they increased the danger of their
+attempts by such delays, and he seemed himself so full of
+determination and courage, and addressed them with so much eloquence
+and power, that he inspired them with his own resolution, and they
+decided unanimously to proceed.
+
+The emperor came to the theater that day at an unusually early hour,
+and seemed to be in excellent spirits and in an excellent humor. He
+was very complaisant to all around him, and very lively, affable,
+and gay. After performing certain ceremonies, by which it devolved
+upon him to open the festivities of the day, he proceeded to his
+place, with his friends and favorites about him, and Chęrea, with
+the other officers that day on guard, at a little distance behind
+him.
+
+The performances were commenced, and every thing went on as usual
+until toward noon. The conspirators kept their plans profoundly
+secret, except that one of them, when he had taken his seat by the
+side of a distinguished senator, asked him whether he had heard any
+thing new. The senator replied that he had not. "I can then tell you
+something," said he, "which perhaps you have not heard, and that is,
+that in the piece which is to be acted to-day, there is to be
+represented the death of a tyrant." "Hush!" said the senator, and he
+quoted a verse from Homer, which meant, "Be silent, lest some Greek
+should overhear."
+
+It had been the usual custom of the emperor, at such entertainments,
+to take a little recess about noon, for rest and refreshments. It
+devolved upon Chęrea to wait upon him at this time, and to conduct
+him from his place in the theater to an adjoining apartment in his
+palace which was connected with the theater, where there was
+provided a bath and various refreshments. When the time arrived,
+and Chęrea perceived, as he thought, that the emperor was about to
+go, he himself went out, and stationed himself in a passage-way
+leading to the bath, intending to intercept and assassinate the
+emperor when he should come along. The emperor, however, delayed his
+departure, having fallen into conversation with his courtiers and
+friends, and finally he said that, on the whole, as it was the last
+day of the festival, he would not go out to the bath, but would
+remain in the theater; and then ordering refreshments to be brought
+to him there, he proceeded to distribute them with great urbanity to
+the officers around him.
+
+In the mean time, Chęrea was patiently waiting in the passage-way,
+with his sword by his side, all ready for striking the blow the
+moment that his victim should appear. Of course the conspirators who
+remained behind were in a state of great suspense and anxiety, and
+one of them, named Minucianus, determined to go out and inform
+Chęrea of the change in Caligula's plans. He accordingly attempted
+to rise, but Caligula put his hand upon his robe, saying, "Sit
+still, my friend. You shall go with me presently." Minucianus
+accordingly dissembled his anxiety and agitation of mind still a
+little longer, but presently, watching an opportunity when the
+emperor's attention was otherwise engaged, he rose, and, assuming an
+unconcerned and careless air, he walked out of the theater.
+
+He found Chęrea in his ambuscade in the passage-way, and he
+immediately informed him that the emperor had concluded not to come
+out. Chęrea and Minucianus were then greatly at a loss what to do.
+Some of the other conspirators, who had followed Minucianus out, now
+joined them, and a brief but very earnest and solemn consultation
+ensued. After a moment's hesitation, Chęrea declared that they must
+now go through with their work at all hazards, and he professed
+himself ready, if his comrades would sustain him in it, to go back
+to the theater, and stab the tyrant there in his seat, in the midst
+of his friends. Minucianus and the others concurred in this design,
+and it was resolved immediately to execute it.
+
+The execution of the plan, however, in the precise form in which it
+had been resolved upon was prevented by a new turn which affairs
+had taken in the theater. For while Minucianus and the two or three
+conspirators who had accompanied him were debating in the
+passage-way, the others who remained, knowing that Chęrea was
+expecting Caligula to go out, conceived the idea of attempting to
+persuade him to go, and thus to lead him into the snare which had
+been set for him. They accordingly gathered around, and without any
+appearance of concert or of eagerness, began to recommend him to go
+and take his bath as usual. He seemed at length disposed to yield to
+these persuasions, and rose from his seat; and then, the whole
+company attending and following him, he proceeded toward the doors
+which conducted to the palace. The conspirators went before him, and
+under pretense of clearing the way for him they contrived to remove
+to a little distance all whom they thought would be most disposed to
+render him any assistance. The consultations of Chęrea and those who
+were with him in the inner passage-way were interrupted by the
+coming of this company.
+
+Among those who walked with the emperor at this time were his uncle
+Claudius and other distinguished relatives. Caligula advanced along
+the passage, walking in company with these friends, and wholly
+unconscious of the fate that awaited him, but instead of going
+immediately toward the bath he turned aside first into a gallery or
+corridor which led into another apartment, where there were
+assembled a company of boys and girls, that had been sent to him
+from Asia to act and dance upon the stage, and who had just arrived.
+The emperor took great interest in looking at these performers, and
+seemed desirous of having them go immediately into the theater and
+let him see them perform. While talking on this subject Chęrea and
+the other conspirators came into the apartment, determined now to
+strike the blow.
+
+Chęrea advanced to the emperor, and asked him in the usual manner
+what should be the parole for that night. The emperor gave him in
+reply such an one as he had often chosen before, to insult and
+degrade him. Chęrea instead of receiving the insult meekly and
+patiently in his usual manner, uttered words of anger and defiance
+in reply; and drawing his sword at the same instant he struck the
+emperor across the neck and felled him to the floor. Caligula filled
+the apartment with his cries of pain and terror; the other
+conspirators rushed in and attacked him on all sides; his
+friends,--so far as the adherents of such a man can be called
+friends,--fled in dismay. As for Caligula's uncle Claudius, it was
+not to have been expected that he would have rendered his nephew any
+aid, for he was a man of such extraordinary mental imbecility that
+he was usually considered as not possessed even of common sense; and
+all the others who might have been expected to defend him, either
+fled from the scene, or stood by in consternation and amazement,
+leaving the conspirators to wreak their vengeance on their wretched
+victim, to the full.
+
+In fact though while a despot lives and retains his power, thousands
+are ready to defend him and to execute his will, however much in
+heart they may hate and detest him, yet when he is dead, or when it
+is once certain that he is about to die, an instantaneous change
+takes place and every one turns against him. The multitudes in and
+around the theater and the palace who had an hour before trembled
+before this mighty potentate, and seemed to live only to do his
+bidding, were filled with joy to see him brought to the dust. The
+conspirators, when the success of their plans and the death of their
+oppressor was once certain, abandoned themselves to the most
+extravagant joy. They cut and stabbed the fallen body again and
+again, as if they could never enough wreak their vengeance upon it.
+They cut off pieces of the body and bit them with their teeth in
+their savage exultation and triumph. At length they left the body
+where it lay, and went forth into the city where all was now of
+course tumult and confusion.
+
+The body remained where it had fallen until late at night. Then some
+attendants of the palace came and conveyed it away. They were sent,
+it was said, by Cęsonia, the wife of the murdered man. Cęsonia had
+an infant daughter at this time, and she remained herself with the
+child, in a retired apartment of the palace while these things were
+transpiring. Distracted with grief and terror at the tidings that
+she heard, she clung to her babe, and made the arrangements for the
+interment of the body of her husband without leaving its cradle. She
+imagined perhaps that there was no reason for supposing that she or
+the child were in any immediate danger, and accordingly she took no
+measures toward effecting an escape. If so, she did not understand
+the terrible frenzy to which the conspirators had been aroused, and
+for which the long series of cruelties and indignities which they
+had endured from her husband had prepared them. For at midnight one
+of them broke into her apartment, stabbed the mother in her chair,
+and taking the innocent infant from its cradle, killed it by beating
+its head against the wall.
+
+[Illustration: CĘSONIA.]
+
+Atrocious as this deed may seem, it was not altogether wanton and
+malignant cruelty which prompted it. The conspirators intended by
+the assassination of Caligula not merely to wreak their vengeance on
+a single man, but to bring to an end a hated race of tyrants; and
+they justified the murder of the wife and child by the plea that
+stern political necessity required them to exterminate the line, in
+order that no successor might subsequently arise to re-establish the
+power and renew the tyranny which they had brought to an end. The
+history of monarchies is continually presenting us with instances of
+innocent and helpless children sacrificed to such a supposed
+necessity as this.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE ACCESSION OF CLAUDIUS.
+
+A.D. 41-47
+
+Ultimate design of the conspirators.--Effect produced by the tidings of
+Caligula's death.--Chęrea and the conspirators secrete themselves.--The
+senate is convened.--Two parties formed.--Account of Claudius.--His
+apparent imbecility.--Every one against him.--Mode of teasing him.--His
+situation and position at court.--The wives of Claudius.--His son
+strangled by a pear.--Claudius terrified.--His hiding place.--He
+is discovered by a soldier.--Claudius proclaimed emperor.--His
+surprise.--He is borne to the camp and proclaimed emperor.--Agrippina
+recalled.--Messalina.--Messalina's intrigues.--Her hatred of
+Silanus.--Plan for destroying Silanus.--Narcissus's pretended
+dream.--Messalina's confirmation of it.--Claudius alarmed.--Silanus
+is executed.--Unbounded influence of Messalina.--Caius
+Silius.--Messalina's attachment to him.--Hesitation of Silius.--His
+decision.--Claudius.--Public works at Ostia.--The obelisk.--Immense
+ship.--Messalina continues her wicked career.--Silius intoxicated
+with his elevation.
+
+
+In the assassination of Caligula, the conspirators who combined to
+perpetrate the deed, had a much deeper design than that of merely
+gratifying their personal resentment and rage against an individual
+tyrant. They wished to effect a permanent change in the government,
+by putting down the army from the position of supreme and despotic
+authority which it had assumed, and restoring the dominion to the
+Roman Senate, and to the other civil authorities of the city, as it
+had been exercised by them in former years. Of course, the death of
+Caligula was the commencement, not the end, of the great struggle.
+The whole country was immediately divided into two parties. There
+was the party of the Senate, and the party of the army; and a long
+and bitter conflict ensued. It was for some time doubtful which
+would win the day.
+
+In fact, immediately after Caligula was killed, and the tidings of
+his death began to spread about the palace and into the streets of
+the city, a considerable tumult arose, the precursor and earnest of
+the dissensions that were to follow. Upon the first alarm, a body of
+the emperor's guards that had been accustomed to attend upon his
+person, and whom he had strongly attached to himself by his lavish
+generosity in bestowing presents and rewards upon them, rushed
+forward to defend him, or if it should prove too late to defend him,
+to avenge his death. These soldiers ran toward the palace, and when
+they found that the emperor had been killed, they were furious with
+rage, and fell upon all whom they met, and actually slew several
+men. Tidings came to the theater, and the word was spread from rank
+to rank among the people that the emperor was slain. The people did
+not, however, at first, believe the story. They supposed that the
+report was a cunning contrivance of the emperor himself, intended to
+entrap them into some expression of pleasure and gratification, on
+their part, at his death, in order to give him an excuse for
+inflicting some cruel punishment upon them. The noise and tumult in
+the streets soon convinced them, however, that something
+extraordinary had occurred; they learned that the news of the
+emperor's death was really true, and almost immediately afterward
+they found, to their consternation, that the furious guards were
+thundering at the gates of the theater, and endeavoring to force
+their way in, in order to wreak their vengeance on the assembly, as
+if the spectators at the show were accomplices of the crime.
+
+In the mean time Chęrea and the other chief conspirators had fled to
+a secret place of retreat, where they now lay concealed. As soon as
+they had found that the object of their vengeance was really dead,
+and when they had satisfied themselves with the pleasure of cutting
+and stabbing the lifeless body, they stole away to the house of one
+of their friends in the neighborhood, where they could lie for a
+time secreted in safety. The life-guards sought for them everywhere,
+but could not find them. The streets were filled with tumult and
+confusion. Rumors of every kind, false and true, spread in all
+directions, and increased the excitement. At length, however, the
+consuls, who were the chief magistrates of the republic, succeeded
+in organizing a force and in restoring order. They took possession
+of the forum and of the capitol and posted sentinels and guards
+along the streets. They compelled the emperor's guards to desist
+from their violence, and retire. They sent a herald clothed in
+mourning into the theater, to announce officially to the people the
+event which had occurred, and to direct them to repair quietly to
+their homes. Having taken these preliminary measures they
+immediately called the Senate together, to deliberate on the
+emergency which had occurred, and to decide what should next be
+done. In the mean time the emperor's guards, having withdrawn from
+the streets of the city, retired to their camp and joined their
+comrades. Thus there were two vast powers organized--that of the
+army in the camp, and that of the Senate in the city--each jealous
+of the other, and resolute in its determination not to yield, in the
+approaching conflict.
+
+In times of sudden and violent revolution like that which attended
+the death of Caligula, the course which public affairs are to take,
+and the question who is to rise and who is to fall, seem often to be
+decided by utter accident. It was strikingly so in this instance, in
+respect to the selection, on the part of the army, of the man who
+was to take the post of supreme command in the place of the murdered
+emperor. The choice fell on Claudius, Agrippina's uncle. It fell
+upon him, too, as it would seem, by the merest chance, in the
+following very extraordinary manner.
+
+Claudius, as has already been said, was Caligula's uncle; and as
+Caligula and Agrippina were brother and sister, he was, of course,
+Agrippina's uncle too. He was at this time about fifty years of age,
+and he was universally ridiculed and contemned on account of his
+great mental and personal inferiority. He was weak and ill-formed at
+his birth, so that even his mother despised him. She called him "an
+unfinished little monster," and whenever she wished to express her
+contempt for any one in respect to his understanding, she used to
+say, "You are as stupid as my son Claudius." In a word, Claudius was
+extremely unfortunate in every respect, so far as natural endowments
+are concerned. His countenance was very repulsive, his figure was
+ungainly, his manners were awkward, his voice was disagreeable, and
+he had an impediment in his speech. In fact, he was considered in
+his youth as almost an idiot. He was not allowed to associate with
+the other Roman boys of his age, but was kept apart, in some
+secluded portion of the palace, with women and slaves, where he was
+treated with so much cruelty and neglect that what little spirit
+nature had given him was crushed and destroyed. In fact, by common
+consent all seemed to take pleasure in teasing and tormenting him.
+Sometimes, when he was coming to the table at an entertainment, the
+other guests would combine to exclude him from the seats, in order
+to enjoy his distress as he ran about from one part of the table to
+another, endeavoring to find a place. If they found him asleep they
+would pelt him with olives and dates, or awaken him with the blow of
+a rod or a whip; and sometimes they would stealthily put his sandals
+upon his hands while he was asleep, in order that when he awoke
+suddenly they might amuse themselves with seeing him rub his face
+and eyes with them.
+
+After all, however, the inferiority of Claudius was not really so
+great as it seemed. He was awkward and ungainly, no doubt, to the
+last degree; but he possessed some considerable capacity for
+intellectual pursuits and attainments, and as he was pretty
+effectually driven away from society by the jests and ridicule to
+which he was subjected, he devoted a great deal of time in his
+retirement to study, and to other useful pursuits. He made
+considerable progress in the efforts which he thus made to cultivate
+his mind. He, however, failed to acquire the respect of those around
+him; and as he grew up he seemed to be considered utterly incapable
+of performing any useful function; and during the time when his
+nephew Caligula was emperor, he remained at court, among the other
+nobles, but still neglected and despised by all of them. It is said
+that he probably owed the preservation of his life to his
+insignificance, as Caligula would probably have found some pretext
+for destroying him, if he had not thought him too spiritless and
+imbecile to form any ambitious plans. In fact, Claudius said himself
+afterward, when he became emperor, that a great part of his apparent
+simplicity was feigned, as a measure of prudence, to protect himself
+from injury. When Claudius grew up he was married several times. The
+wife who was living with him at the time of Caligula's death was his
+third wife; her name was Valeria Messalina. She was his cousin.
+Claudius and Messalina had one child--a daughter, named Octavia.
+Claudius had been extremely unhappy in his connection with the wives
+preceding Messalina. He had quarreled with them and been divorced
+from them both. He had had a daughter by one of these wives and a
+son by the other. The son was suddenly killed by getting choked with
+a small pear. He had been throwing it into the air and attempting to
+catch it in his mouth as it came down, when at last it slipped down
+into his throat and strangled him. As for the daughter, Claudius was
+so exasperated with her mother at the time of his divorce from her,
+that he determined to disown and reject the child; so he ordered the
+terrified girl to be stripped naked, and to be sent and laid down in
+that condition at her wretched mother's door.
+
+Claudius, as has already been stated, was present with Caligula at
+the theater, on the last day of the spectacle, and followed him into
+the palace when he went to look at the Asiatic captives; so that he
+was present, or at least very near, at the time of his nephew's
+assassination. As might have been expected from what has been said
+of his character, he was overwhelmed with consternation and terror
+at the scene, and was utterly incapacitated from taking any part,
+either for or against the conspirators. He stole away in great
+fright and hid himself behind the hangings in a dark recess in the
+palace. Here he remained for some time, listening in an agony of
+anxiety and suspense to the sounds which he heard around him. He
+could hear the cries and the tumult in the streets, and in the
+passages of the palace. Parties of the guards, in going to and fro,
+passed by the place of his retreat from time to time, alarming him
+with the clangor of their weapons, and their furious exclamations
+and outcries. At one time peeping stealthily out, he saw a group of
+soldiers hurrying along with a bleeding head on the point of a pike.
+It was the head of a prominent citizen of Rome whom the guards had
+intercepted and killed, supposing him to be one of the conspirators.
+This spectacle greatly increased Claudius's terror. He was wholly in
+the dark in respect to the motives and the designs of the men who
+had thus revolted against his nephew, and it was of course
+impossible for him to know how he himself would be regarded by
+either party. He did not dare, therefore, to surrender himself to
+either, but remained in his concealment, suffering great anxiety,
+and utterly unable to decide what to do.
+
+[Illustration: DISCOVERY OF CLAUDIUS.]
+
+At length, while he was in this situation of uncertainty and terror,
+a common soldier of the guards, named Epirius, who happened to pass
+that way, accidentally saw his feet beneath the hangings, and
+immediately, pulling the hangings aside, dragged him out to view.
+Claudius supposed now, of course, that his hour was come. He fell on
+his knees in an agony of terror, and begged the soldier to spare his
+life. The soldier, when he found that his prisoner was Claudius, the
+uncle of Caligula, raised him from the ground and saluted him
+emperor. As Caligula left no son, Epirius considered Claudius as his
+nearest relative, and consequently as the heir. Epirius immediately
+summoned others of the guard to the place, saying that he had found
+the new emperor, and calling upon them to assist in conveying him to
+the camp. The soldiers thus summoned procured a chair, and having
+placed the astonished Claudius in it, they raised the chair upon
+their shoulders, and began to convey it away. As they bore him thus
+along the streets, the people who saw them supposed that they were
+taking him to execution, and they lamented his unhappy fate.
+Claudius himself knew not what to believe. He could not but hope
+that his life was to be saved, but then he could not wholly dispel
+his fears.
+
+In the mean time, the soldiers went steadily forward with their
+burden. When one set of bearers became fatigued, they set down the
+chair, and others relieved them. No one molested them, or attempted
+to intercept them in their progress, and at length they reached the
+camp. Claudius was well received by the whole body of the army. The
+officers held a consultation that night, and determined to make him
+emperor. At first he was extremely unwilling to accept the proffered
+honor, but they urged it upon him, and he was at length induced to
+accept it. Thus the army was once more provided with a head, and
+prepared to engage anew in its conflict with the civil authorities
+of the city.
+
+The particulars of the conflict that ensued we can not here
+describe. It is sufficient to say that the army prevailed, and that
+Claudius soon found himself in full possession of the power from
+which his nephew had been so suddenly deposed.
+
+One of the first measures which the new emperor adopted, was to
+recall Agrippina from her banishment at Pontia, where Caligula had
+confined her, and restore her to her former position in Rome. Her
+husband, Brazenbeard, died about this time, and young Brazenbeard,
+her son, afterward called Nero, the subject of this history, was
+three years old. Octavia, the daughter of Claudius and Messalina,
+was a little younger.
+
+Messalina, the wife of Claudius, hated Agrippina, considering her,
+as she did, her rival and enemy. The favor which Claudius showed to
+Agrippina, in recalling her from her banishment, and treating her
+with consideration and favor at Rome, only inflamed still more
+Messalina's hatred. She could not, however, succeed in inducing
+Claudius to withdraw his protection from his niece; for Claudius,
+though almost entirely subject to the influence and control of his
+wife in most things, seemed fully determined not to yield to her
+wishes in this. Agrippina continued, therefore, to live at Rome, in
+high favor with the court, for several years,--her little son
+advancing all the time in age and in maturity, until at length he
+became twelve years old. At this time, another great change took
+place in his own and his mother's condition. Messalina became
+herself, by her wickedness and infatuation, the means of raising her
+rival into her own place as wife of the emperor. The result was
+accomplished in the following manner.
+
+Messalina had long been a very dissolute and wicked woman, having
+been accustomed to give herself up to criminal indulgences and
+pleasures of every kind, in company with favorites whom she selected
+from time to time among the courtiers around her. For a time she
+managed these intrigues with some degree of caution and secrecy, in
+order to conceal her conduct from her husband. She gradually,
+however, became more and more open and bold. She possessed a great
+ascendency over the mind of her husband, and could easily deceive
+him, or induce him to do whatever she pleased. She persuaded him to
+confer honors and rewards in a very liberal manner upon those whom
+she favored, and to degrade, and sometimes even to destroy, those
+who displeased her. She would occasionally resort to very cunning
+artifices to accomplish her ends. For example, she conceived at one
+time a violent hatred against the husband of her mother. His name
+was Silanus. He was not the father of Messalina, but a second
+husband of Messalina's mother; and, being young and attractive in
+person, Messalina at first loved him, and intended to make him one
+of her favorites and companions. Silanus, however, would not accede
+to her wishes, and her love for him was then changed into hatred and
+thirst for revenge. She accordingly determined on his destruction;
+but as she knew that it would be difficult to induce Claudius to
+proceed to extremities against him, on account of his intimate
+relationship to the family, she contrived a very artful plot to
+accomplish her ends. It was this:
+
+She sent word to Silanus, on a certain evening, that the emperor
+wished him to come to the palace, to his private apartment, the next
+morning, at a very early hour. The emperor wished to see him, the
+messenger said, on business of importance.
+
+Just before the time which had been appointed for Silanus to appear,
+a certain officer of the household, named Narcissus, whom Messalina
+had engaged to assist her in her plot, came into the emperor's
+apartment, with an anxious countenance, and in a very hurried
+manner, and said to Claudius, whom he waked out of sleep by his
+coming, that he had had a very frightful dream--one which he deemed
+it his duty to make known to his master without any delay. He
+dreamed, he said, that a plot had been formed for assassinating the
+emperor; that Silanus was the contriver of it, and that he was
+coming early that morning to carry his design into effect.
+Messalina, who was present with her husband at the time, listened to
+this story with well-feigned anxiety and agitation, and then
+declared, with a countenance of great mysteriousness and solemnity,
+that she had had precisely the same dream for two or three nights in
+succession, but that, not being willing to do Silanus an injury, or
+to raise any unjust suspicions against him, she had thus far
+forborne to speak of the subject to her husband. She was, however,
+now convinced, she said, that Silanus was really entertaining some
+treasonable designs, and that the dreams were tokens sent from
+heaven to warn the emperor of his danger.
+
+Claudius, who was of an extremely timid and nervous temperament, was
+very much alarmed by these communications; and his terrors were
+greatly increased by the appearance of a servant who announced to
+him at that moment that Silanus was then coming in. The coming of
+Silanus to the palace at that unseasonable hour was considered by
+the emperor as full confirmation of the dreams which had been
+related to him, and as proof of the guilt of the accused; and under
+the impulse of the sudden passion and fear which this conviction
+awakened in his mind, he ordered Silanus to be seized and led away
+to immediate execution. These commands were obeyed. Silanus was
+hurried away and dispatched by the swords of the soldiers, without
+ever knowing what the accusation was that had been made against him.
+
+Thus Messalina succeeded by artifice and cunning in accomplishing
+her ends, in cases where she could not rely on her direct influence
+upon the mind of the emperor. In one way or the other she almost
+always effected whatever she undertook, and gradually came to
+exercise almost supreme control. Whom she would she raised up, and
+whom she would she put down. In the mean time she lived herself, a
+life of the most guilty indulgence and pleasure. For a long time she
+concealed her wickedness from the emperor. He was very easily
+deceived, and though Messalina's character was perfectly well known
+to others, he himself continued blind to her guilt. At length,
+however, she began to grow more and more bold. She became satiated,
+as one of her historians says of her, with the common and ordinary
+forms of vice, and wished for something new and unusual to give
+piquancy and life to her sensations. At length, however, she went
+one step too far, and brought upon herself in consequence of it a
+terrible destruction.
+
+It was about seven years after the accession of Claudius that the
+event occurred. The favorite of Messalina at this time was a young
+Roman senator named Caius Silius. Silius was a very distinguished
+young nobleman, and a man of handsome person and of very graceful
+and accomplished manners and address. He was in fact a very general
+favorite, and Messalina, when she first saw him, conceived a very
+strong affection for him. He was, however, already married to a
+beautiful Roman lady named Junia Silana. Silana had been, and was
+still at this time, an intimate friend of Agrippina, Nero's mother;
+though in subsequent times they became bitter enemies. Messalina
+made no secret of her love for Silius. She visited him freely at his
+house, and received his visits in return; she accompanied him to
+public places, evincing everywhere her strong regard for him in the
+most undisguised and open manner. At length she proposed to him to
+divorce his wife, in order that she herself might enjoy his society
+without any limitation or restraint. Silius hesitated for a time
+about complying with these proposals. He was well aware that he must
+necessarily incur great danger, either by complying or by refusing
+to comply with them. To accede to the empress's proposals, would be
+of course to place himself in a position of extreme peril; and the
+fate of Silanus was a warning to him of what he had to fear from her
+wrath, in case of a refusal. He concluded that the former danger was
+on the whole the least to be apprehended, and he accordingly
+divorced his wife, and gave himself up wholly to Messalina's will.
+
+This arrangement being made, all things for a time went on smoothly
+and well. Claudius himself lived a very secluded life, and paid very
+little attention to his wife's pursuits or pleasures. He lived
+sometimes in retirement in his palace, devoting his time to his
+studies, or to the plans and measures of government. He seems to
+have honestly desired to promote the welfare and prosperity of the
+republic, and he made many useful regulations and laws which
+promised to be conducive to this end. Sometimes he was absent for a
+season from the city,--visiting fortresses and encampments, or
+inspecting the public works, such as aqueducts and canals, which
+were in progress of construction. He was particularly interested in
+certain operations which he planned and conducted at the mouths of
+the Tiber for forming a harbor there. The place was called Ostia,
+that word in the Latin tongue denoting _mouths_. To form a port
+there he built two long piers, extending them in a curvilinear form
+into the sea, so as to inclose a large area of water between them,
+where ships could lie at anchor in safety. Light-houses were built
+at the extremities of these piers. It is a curious circumstance that
+in forming the foundation of one of these piers, the engineers whom
+Claudius employed sunk an immense ship which Caligula had formerly
+caused to be built for the purpose of transporting an obelisk from
+Egypt to Rome,--the obelisk which now stands in front of St. Peter's
+Church, and is the admiration and wonder of all visitors to Rome. As
+the obelisk was formed of a single stone, a vessel of a very large
+size and of an unusual construction was necessary for the
+conveyance of it; and when this ship had once delivered its
+monstrous burden, it had no longer any useful function to perform on
+the surface of the sea, and the engineers accordingly filled it with
+stones and gravel, and sunk it at the mouth of the Tiber, to form
+part of the foundation of one of Claudius's piers. As it is found
+that there is no perceptible decay, even for centuries, in timber
+that is kept constantly submerged in the water of the sea, it is not
+impossible that the vast hulk, unless marine insects have devoured
+it and carried it away, lies imbedded where Claudius placed it,
+still.
+
+While the emperor was engaged in these and similar pursuits and
+occupations, Messalina went on in her career of dissipation and
+indulgence from bad to worse, growing more and more bold and open
+every day. She lived in a constant round of entertainments and of
+gayety--sometimes receiving companies of guests at her own palace,
+and sometimes making visits with a large retinue of attendants and
+friends, at the house of Silius. Of course, every one paid court to
+Silius, and assumed, in their intercourse with him, every appearance
+that they entertained for him the most friendly regard. It is
+always so with the favorites of the great. While in heart they are
+hated and despised, in form and appearance they are caressed and
+applauded. Silius was intoxicated with the emotions that the giddy
+elevation to which he had arrived so naturally inspired. He was not,
+however, wholly at his ease. He could not but be aware that lofty as
+his position was, it was the brink of a precipice that he stood
+upon. Still he shut his eyes in a great measure to his danger and
+went blindly on. The catastrophe, which came very suddenly at last,
+will form the subject of the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE FATE OF MESSALINA.
+
+A.D. 48
+
+Silius forms a scheme for making himself emperor.--He proposes
+his plan to Messalina.--Messalina's reply.--Her motives.--Her
+proposal.--Audacity of Messalina in this proposal.--The false marriage
+is celebrated.--Indignation of the emperor's friends.--Plot formed
+for Messalina's destruction.--Plans and arrangements of the
+conspirators.--Their hesitation.--Calpurnia.--Motives addressed to
+her.--Calpurnia and Cleopatra undertake their task.--Messalina's
+festival in the palace gardens.--Calpurnia's interview with Claudius
+at Ostia.--Claudius is exceedingly terrified.--The statement of
+Narcissus.--Council called.--Measures adopted by Claudius and the
+conspirators.--Messalina receives warning.--Scene in the
+garden.--Silius withdraws.--Messalina's anxiety.--Messalina's
+course of action.--Her two children.--She proceeds to meet the
+emperor.--Her entreaties.--Claudius will not hear her.--Vibidia
+repulsed.--Executions.--Claudius at supper.--Messalina's
+letter.--Claudius relents.--Alarm of Narcissus.--Narcissus orders
+Messalina to be slain.--Interview between Messalina and her mother
+in the garden.--Indifference of Claudius in respect to Messalina's
+fate.--Claudius marries Agrippina.--Adoption of her son.
+
+
+As might naturally have been expected, there were two very different
+emotions awakened in the mind of Silius by the situation in which he
+found himself placed with Messalina,--one was ambition, and the
+other was fear. Finding himself suddenly raised to the possession of
+so high a degree of consideration and influence, it was natural that
+he should look still higher, and begin to wish for actual and
+official power. And then, on the other hand, his uneasiness at the
+dangers that he was exposed to by remaining as he was, increased
+every day. At length a plan occurred to him which both these
+considerations urged him to adopt. The plan was to murder Claudius,
+and then to marry Messalina, and make himself emperor in Claudius's
+place. By the accomplishment of this design he would effect, he
+thought, a double object. He would at once raise himself to a post
+of real and substantial power, and also, at the same time place
+himself in a position of security. He resolved to propose this
+scheme to Messalina.
+
+Accordingly, on the first favorable opportunity, he addressed the
+empress on the subject, and cautiously made known his design. "I
+wish to have you wholly mine," said he "and although the emperor is
+growing old, we can not safely wait for his death. We are, in fact,
+continually exposed to danger. We have gone quite too far to be safe
+where we are, and by taking the remaining steps necessary to
+accomplish fully our ends we shall only be completing what we have
+begun, and by so doing, far from incurring any new penalties, we
+shall be taking the only effectual method to protect ourselves from
+the dangers which impend over us and threaten us now. Let us,
+therefore, devise some means to remove the emperor out of our way. I
+will then be proclaimed emperor in his place, and be married to you.
+The power which you now enjoy will then come back to you again,
+undiminished, and under such circumstances as will render it
+permanently secure to you. To accomplish this will be very easy; for
+the emperor, superannuated, infirm, and stupid as he is, can not
+protect himself against any well-planned and vigorous attempt which
+we may make to remove him; though, if we remain as we are, and any
+accidental cause should arouse him from his lethargy, we may expect
+to find him vindictive and furious against us to the last degree."
+
+Messalina listened to this proposal with great attention and
+interest, but so far as related to the proposed assassination of the
+emperor she did not seem inclined to assent to it. Her historian
+says that she was not influenced in this decision by any remaining
+sentiments of conjugal affection, or by conscientious principle of
+any kind, but by her distrust of Silius, and her unwillingness to
+commit herself so entirely into his power. She preferred to keep him
+dependent upon her, rather than to make herself dependent upon him.
+She liked the plan, however, of being married to him, she said, and
+would consent to that, even while the emperor remained alive. And so
+if Silius would agree to it, she was ready, she added, the next time
+that the emperor went to Ostia, to have the ceremony performed.
+
+That a wife and a mother, however unprincipled and corrupt, should
+make, under such circumstances, a proposal like this of
+Messalina's, is certainly very extraordinary; and to those who do
+not know to what extremes of recklessness and infatuation, the
+irresponsible despots that have arisen from time to time to rule
+mankind, have often pushed their wickedness and crime, it must seem
+wholly incredible. The Roman historian who has recorded this
+narrative, assures us, that it was the very audacity of this guilt
+that constituted its charm in Messalina's eyes. She had become weary
+of, and satiated with, all the ordinary forms of criminal indulgence
+and pleasure. The work of deceiving and imposing upon her husband,
+in order to secure for herself the gratifications which she sought,
+was for a time sufficient to give zest and piquancy to her
+pleasures. But he was so easily deceived, and she had been
+accustomed to deceive him so long, that it now no longer afforded to
+her mind any stimulus or excitement to do it in any common way. But
+the idea of being actually married to another man while he was
+absent at a short distance from the city, would be something
+striking and new, which would vary, she thought, the dull monotony
+of the common course of sin.
+
+The proposed marriage was finally determined upon, and the mock
+ceremony, for such a ceremony could, of course, have no legal force,
+was duly performed at a time when Claudius was absent at Ostia,
+inspecting the works which were in progress there. How far the
+pretended marriage was open and public in the actual celebration of
+it, is not very certain; but the historians say that it was
+conducted with all the usual ceremonies, and was attended by the
+usual witnesses. The service was performed by the _augur_, a sort of
+sacerdotal officer, on whom the duty of conducting such solemnities
+properly devolved. Messalina and Silius, each in their turn,
+repeated the words pertaining respectively to the bridegroom and the
+bride. The usual sacrifice to the gods was then made, and a nuptial
+banquet followed, at which there passed between the new married pair
+the caresses and endearments usual on such occasions. All things in
+a word were conducted, from the beginning to the end, as in a real
+and honest wedding, and whether the scene thus enacted was performed
+in public as a serious transaction, or at some private entertainment
+as a species of sport, it created a strong sensation among all who
+witnessed it, and the news of it soon spread abroad and became very
+generally known.
+
+The more immediate friends of Claudius were very indignant at such a
+proceeding. They conferred together, uttering to each other many
+murmurings and complaints, and anticipating the worst results and
+consequences from what had occurred. Silius, they said, was an
+ambitious and dangerous man, and the audacious deed which he had
+performed was the prelude, they believed, to some deep ulterior
+design. They feared for the safety of Claudius; and as they knew
+very well that the downfall of the emperor would involve them too in
+ruin, they were naturally much alarmed. It was, however, very
+difficult for them to decide what to do.
+
+If they were to inform the emperor of Messalina's proceedings, they
+considered it wholly uncertain what effect the communication would
+have upon him. Like almost all weak-minded men, he was impulsive and
+capricious in the extreme; and whether, on a communication being
+made to him, he would receive it with indifference and unconcern,
+or, in case his anger should be aroused, whether it would expend
+itself upon Messalina or upon those who informed him against her, it
+was wholly impossible to foresee.
+
+At length, after various consultations and debates, a small number
+of the courtiers who were most determined in their detestation of
+Messalina and her practices, leagued themselves together, and
+resolved upon a course of procedure by which they hoped, if
+possible, to effect her destruction. The leader of this company was
+Callistus, one of the officers of Claudius's household. He was one
+of the men who had been engaged with Chęrea in the assassination of
+Caligula. Narcissus was another. This was the same Narcissus that is
+mentioned in the last chapter, as the artful contriver, with
+Messalina, of the death of Silanus. Pallas was the name of a third
+conspirator. He was a confidential friend and favorite of Claudius,
+and was very jealous, like the rest, of the influence which Silius,
+through Messalina, exercised over his master. These were the
+principal confederates, though there were some others joined with
+them.
+
+The great object of the hostility of these men, seems to have been
+Silius, rather than Messalina. This, in fact, would naturally be
+supposed to be the case, since it was Silius rather than Messalina
+who was their rival. Some of them appear to have hated Messalina on
+her own account, but with the others there was apparently no wish to
+harm the empress, if any other way could be found of reaching
+Silius. In fact, in the consultations which were held, one plan
+which was proposed was to go to Messalina, and without evincing any
+feelings of unkindness or hostility toward her, to endeavor to
+persuade her to break off her connection with her favorite. This
+plan was, however, soon overruled. The plotters thought that it
+would be extremely improbable that Messalina would listen to any
+such proposition, and in case of her rejection of it, if it were
+made, her anger would be aroused strongly against them for making
+it: and then, even if she should not attempt to take vengeance upon
+them for their presumption, she would at any rate put herself
+effectually upon her guard against any thing else which they should
+attempt to do. The plan of separating Messalina and Silius was,
+therefore, abandoned, and the determination resolved upon to take
+measures for destroying them both together.
+
+The course which the confederates decided to pursue in order to
+effect their object, was to proceed to Ostia, where Claudius still
+remained, and there make known to him what Messalina and Silius had
+done, and endeavor to convince him that this audacious conduct on
+their part was only the prelude to open violence against the life of
+the emperor. It would seem, however, that no one of them was quite
+willing to take upon himself the office of making such a
+communication as this, in the first instance, to such a man. They
+did not know how he would receive it,--or against whom the first
+weight of his resentment and rage would fall. Finally, after much
+hesitation and debate, they concluded to employ a certain female for
+the purpose,--a courtesan named Calpurnia. Calpurnia was a favorite
+and companion of Claudius, and as such they thought she might
+perhaps have an opportunity to approach him with the subject under
+such circumstances as to diminish the danger. At any rate, Calpurnia
+was easily led by such inducements as the conspirators laid before
+her, to undertake the commission. They not only promised her
+suitable rewards, but they appealed also to the jealousy and hatred
+which such a woman would naturally feel toward Messalina, who,
+being a wife, while Calpurnia was only a companion and favorite,
+would of course be regarded as a rival and enemy. They represented
+to Calpurnia how entirely changed for the better her situation would
+be, if Messalina could once be put out of the way. There would then,
+they said, be none to interfere with her; but her influence and
+ascendency over the emperor's mind would be established on a
+permanent and lasting footing.
+
+Calpurnia was very easily led by these inducements to undertake the
+commission. There was another courtesan named Cleopatra, who, it was
+arranged, should be at hand when Calpurnia made her communication,
+to confirm the truth of it, should any confirmation seem to be
+required. The other conspirators, also, were to be near, ready to be
+called in and to act as occasion might require, in case Calpurnia
+and Cleopatra should find that their statement was making the right
+impression. Things being all thus arranged the party proceeded to
+Ostia to carry their plans into execution.
+
+In the mean time Messalina and Silius, wholly unconscious of the
+danger, gave themselves up with greater and greater boldness and
+unconcern to their guilty pleasures. On the day when Callistus and
+his party went to Ostia she was celebrating a festival at her palace
+with great gayety and splendor. It was in the autumn of the year,
+and the festival was in honor of the season. In the countries on the
+Mediterranean the gathering of grapes and the pressing of the juice
+for wine, is the great subject of autumnal rejoicings; and Messalina
+had arranged a festival in accordance with the usual customs, in the
+gardens of the palace. A wine-press had been erected, and grapes
+were gathered and brought to it. The guests whom Messalina had
+invited were assembled around; some were dancing about the
+wine-press, some were walking in the alleys, and some were seated in
+the neighboring bowers. They were dressed in fancy costumes, and
+their heads were adorned with garlands of flowers. There was a group
+of dancing girls who were engaged as performers on the occasion, to
+dance for the amusement of the company, in honor of Bacchus, the god
+of wine. These girls were dressed, so far as they were clothed at
+all, in robes made of the skins of tigers, and their heads were
+crowned with flowers. Messalina herself, however, was the most
+conspicuous object among the gay throng. She was robed in a manner
+to display most fully the graces of her person; her long hair waving
+loosely in the wind. She had in her hand a symbol, or badge, called
+the _thyrsus_, which was an ornamented staff, or pole, surmounted
+with a carved representation of a bunch of grapes, and with other
+ornaments and emblems. The thyrsus was always used in the rites and
+festivities celebrated in honor of Bacchus. Silius himself, dressed
+like the rest in a fantastic and theatrical costume, danced by the
+side of Messalina, in the center of a ring of dancing girls which
+was formed around them.
+
+[Illustration: MESSALINA IN THE GARDEN.]
+
+In the mean time, while this gay party were thus enjoying themselves
+in the palace gardens at Rome, a very different scene was enacting
+at Ostia. Calpurnia, in her secret interview with Claudius, seizing
+upon a moment which seemed to her favorable for her purpose, kneeled
+down before him and made the communication with which she had been
+charged. She told him of Messalina's conduct, and informed him
+particularly how she had at last crowned the dishonor of her husband
+by openly marrying Silius, or at least pretending to do so. "Your
+friends believe," she added, "that she and Silius entertain still
+more criminal designs, and that your life will be sacrificed unless
+you immediately adopt vigorous and decided measures to avert the
+danger."
+
+Claudius was very much amazed, and was also exceedingly terrified at
+this communication. He trembled and turned pale, then looked wild
+and excited, and began to make inquiries in an incoherent and
+distracted manner. Calpurnia called in Cleopatra to confirm her
+story. Cleopatra did confirm it, of course, in the fullest and most
+unqualified manner. The effect which was produced upon the mind of
+the emperor seemed to be exactly what the conspirators had desired.
+He evinced no disposition to justify or to defend Messalina, or to
+be angry with Calpurnia and Cleopatra for making such charges
+against her. His mind seemed to be wholly absorbed with a sense of
+the dangers of his situation, and Narcissus was accordingly sent for
+to come in.
+
+Narcissus, when appealed to, acknowledged, though with well-feigned
+reluctance and hesitation, the truth of what Calpurnia had
+declared, and he immediately began to apologize for his own
+remissness in not having before made the case known. He spoke with
+great moderation of Messalina, and also of Silius, as if his object
+were to appease rather than to inflame the anger of the emperor. He
+however admitted, he said, that it was absolutely necessary that
+something decisive should be done. "Your wife is taken from you,"
+said he, "and Silius is master of her. The next thing will be that
+he will be master of the republic. He may even already have gained
+the Prętorian guards over to his side, in which case all is lost. It
+is absolutely necessary that some immediate and decisive action
+should be taken."
+
+Claudius, in great trepidation, immediately called together such of
+his prominent councillors and friends as were at hand at Ostia, to
+consult on what was to be done. Of course, it was principally the
+conspirators themselves that appeared at this council. They crowded
+around the emperor and urged him immediately to take the most
+decisive measures to save himself from the impending danger, and
+they succeeded so well in working upon his fears that he stood
+before them in stupid amazement, wholly incapable of deciding what
+to say or do. The conspirators urged upon the emperor the necessity
+of first securing the guard. This body was commanded by an officer
+named Geta, on whom Narcissus said no reliance could be placed, and
+he begged that Claudius would immediately authorize him, Narcissus,
+to take the command. The object of the confederates in thus wishing
+to get command of the guard was, perhaps, to make sure of the prompt
+and immediate execution of any sentence which they might succeed in
+inducing the emperor to pronounce upon Silius or Messalina, before
+he should have the opportunity of changing his mind. The emperor
+turned from one adviser to another, listening to their various
+suggestions and plans, but he seemed bewildered and undecided, as if
+he knew not what to do. It was, however, at length, determined to
+proceed immediately to Rome. The whole party accordingly mounted
+into their carriages, Narcissus taking his seat by the side of the
+emperor in the imperial chariot, in order that he might keep up the
+excitement and agitation in his master's mind by his conversation on
+the way.
+
+In the mean time there were among those who witnessed these
+proceedings at Ostia, some who were disposed to take sides with
+Messalina and Silius, in the approaching struggle; and they
+immediately dispatched a special messenger to Rome to warn the
+empress of the impending danger. This messenger rode up along the
+banks of the Tiber with all speed, and in advance of the emperor's
+party. On his arrival in the city he immediately repaired to the
+palace gardens and communicated his errand to Messalina and her
+company in the midst of their festivities. Claudius had been
+informed, he said, against her and Silius, and was almost beside
+himself with resentment and anger. He was already on his way to
+Rome, the messenger added, coming to wreak vengeance upon them, and
+he warned them to escape for their lives. This communication was
+made, of course, in the first instance, somewhat privately to the
+parties principally concerned. It, however, put a sudden stop to all
+the hilarity and joy, and the tidings were rapidly circulated around
+the gardens. One man climbed into a tree and looked off in the
+direction of Ostia. The others asked him what he saw. "I see a
+great storm arising from the sea at Ostia," said he, "and coming
+hither, and it is time for us to save ourselves." In a word the
+bacchanalian games and sports were all soon broken up in confusion,
+and the company made their escape from the scene, each by a
+different way.
+
+Silius immediately resumed his ordinary dress, and went forth into
+the city, where, under an assumed appearance of indifference and
+unconcern, he walked about in the forum, as if nothing unusual had
+occurred. Messalina herself fled to the house of a friend, named
+Lucullus, and, passing immediately through the house, sought a
+hiding-place in the gardens. Here her mind began to be overwhelmed
+with anguish, remorse, and terror. Her sins, now that a terrible
+retribution for them seemed to be impending, rose before her in all
+their enormity, and she knew not what to do. She soon reflected that
+there could be no permanent safety for her where she was, for the
+advanced guards of Claudius, which were even then entering the city
+and commencing their arrests, would be sure soon to discover the
+place of her retreat, and bring her before her exasperated husband.
+She concluded that, rather than wait for this, it would be better
+for her to go before him herself voluntarily; and, by throwing
+herself upon his mercy, endeavor to soften and appease him. She
+accordingly, in her distraction, determined to pursue this course.
+She came forth from her hiding-place in Lucullus's gardens, and went
+to seek her children, intending to take them with her, that the
+sight of them might help to move the heart of their father. Her
+children were two in number. Octavia, who has already been
+mentioned, was the eldest, being now about ten or twelve years of
+age. The other was a boy several years younger; his name was
+Britannicus.
+
+In the mean time, the city was thrown quite into a state of
+commotion, by the approach of Claudius, and by the tidings which had
+spread rapidly through the streets, of what had occurred. The
+soldiers whom Claudius had sent forward, were making arrests in the
+streets, and searching the houses. In the midst of this excitement,
+Messalina, with her children, attended by one of the vestal virgins,
+named Vibidia, whom she had prevailed upon to accompany her and
+plead her cause, came forth from her palace on foot, and proceeded
+through the streets, her hair disheveled, her dress in disorder, and
+her whole appearance marked by every characteristic of humiliation,
+abasement, and woe. When she reached the gate of the city, she
+mounted into a common cart which she found there, and in that manner
+proceeded to meet her angry husband, leaving her children with
+Vibidia, the vestal, to follow behind.
+
+She had not proceeded very far, before she met the emperor's train
+approaching. As soon as she came near enough to the carriage of
+Claudius to be heard, she began to utter loud entreaties and
+lamentations, begging her husband to hear before he condemned her.
+"Hear your unhappy wife," said she, "hear the mother of Britannicus
+and Octavia." Narcissus and the others who were near, interposed to
+prevent her from being heard. They talked continually to the
+emperor, and produced a written memorial and other papers for him to
+read, which contained, they said, a full account of the whole
+transaction. Claudius, taking very little notice of his wife,
+pursued his way toward the city. She followed in his train. When
+they drew near to the gates, they met Vibidia and the children.
+Vibidia attempted to speak, but Claudius would not listen. She
+complained, in a mournful tone, that for him to condemn his wife
+unheard, would be unjust and cruel; but Claudius was unmoved. He
+told Vibidia that Messalina would in due time have a suitable
+opportunity to make her defense, and that, in the mean time, the
+proper duty of a vestal virgin was to confine herself to the
+functions of her sacred office. Thus he sent both her and the
+children away.
+
+As soon as the party arrived in the city Narcissus conducted the
+emperor to the house of Silius, and entering it he showed to the
+emperor there a great number of proofs of the guilty favoritism
+which the owner of it had enjoyed with Messalina. The house was
+filled with valuable presents, the tokens of Messalina's love,
+consisting, many of them, of costly household treasures which had
+descended to Claudius in the imperial line, and which were of such a
+character that the alienation of them by Messalina, in such a way,
+was calculated to fill the heart of Claudius with indignation and
+anger. The emperor then proceeded to the camp. Silius and several of
+his leading friends were arrested and brought together before a
+sort of military tribunal summoned on the spot to try them. The
+trial was of course very brief and very summary. They were all
+condemned to death and were led out to instant execution.
+
+This being done the emperor returned with his friends to the city
+and repaired to his palace. His mind seemed greatly relieved. He
+felt that the crisis of danger was past. He ordered supper to be
+prepared, and when it was ready he seated himself at table. He
+congratulated himself and his friends on the escape from the perils
+that had surrounded them, which they had so happily accomplished.
+Narcissus and the others began to tremble lest after all Messalina
+should be spared; and they knew full well that if she should be
+allowed to live, she would soon, by her artful management, regain
+her ascendency over the emperor's mind, and that in that case she
+would give herself no rest until she had destroyed all those who had
+taken any part in effecting the destruction of Silius. They began to
+be greatly alarmed therefore for their own safety. In the mean time
+messages came in from Messalina, who, when the emperor entered the
+city, had returned to her former place of refuge in the gardens of
+Lucullus. At length a letter, or memorial, came. On reading what was
+written it was found that Messalina was assuming a bolder tone. Her
+letter was a remonstrance rather than a petition, as if she were
+designing to try the effect of bravery and assurance, and to see if
+she could not openly reassume the ascendency and control which she
+had long exercised over the mind of her husband. Claudius seemed
+inclined to hesitate and waver. His anger appeared to be subsiding
+with his fears, and the wine which he drank freely at the table
+seemed to conspire with the other influences of the occasion to
+restore his wonted good-humor. He ordered that in reply to
+Messalina's letter a messenger should go and inform her that she
+should be admitted the next day to see him and to make her defense.
+
+Narcissus and his confederates were greatly alarmed, and determined
+immediately that this must not be. Narcissus had been placed, it
+would seem, according to the wish of the conspirators at the outset,
+in command of the guard; and he accordingly had power to prevent the
+emperor's determination from being carried into effect, provided
+that he should dare to take the responsibility of acting. It was a
+moment of great anxiety and suspense. He soon, however, came
+strongly to the conclusion that though it would be very dangerous
+for him to act, yet that not to act would be certain destruction;
+since if Messalina were allowed to live it would be absolutely
+certain that they all must die. Accordingly, summoning all his
+resolution he hurried out of the banqueting room, and gave orders to
+the officers on duty there, in the emperor's name, to proceed to the
+gardens of Lucullus and execute sentence of death on Messalina
+without any delay.
+
+Messalina was with her mother Lepida, in the gardens, awaiting her
+answer from the emperor, when the band of soldiers came. Messalina
+and her mother had never been agreed, and now for a long time had
+had no intercourse with each other. The daughter's danger had,
+however, reawakened the instinct of maternal love in the mother's
+heart, and Lepida had come to see her child in this the hour of her
+extremity. She came, however, not to console or comfort her child,
+or to aid her in her efforts to save her life, but to provide her
+with the means of putting an end to her own existence as the only
+way now left to her, of escape from the greater disgrace of public
+execution.
+
+She accordingly offered a poniard to Messalina in the gardens, and
+urged her to take it. "Death by your own hand," said she, "is now
+your only refuge. You _must_ die; it is impossible that this tragedy
+can have any other termination; and to wait quietly here for the
+stroke of the executioner is base and ignoble. You _must die_;--and
+all that now remains to you is the power to close the scene with
+dignity and with becoming spirit."
+
+Messalina manifested the greatest agitation and distress, but she
+could not summon resolution to receive the poniard. In the midst of
+this scene the band of soldiers appeared, entering the garden. The
+mother pressed the poniard upon her daughter, saying, "Now is the
+time." Messalina took the weapon, and pointed it toward her breast,
+but had not firmness enough to strike it home. The officer
+approached her at the head of his men, with his sword drawn in his
+hand. Messalina, still irresolute, made a feeble and ineffectual
+effort to give herself a wound, but failed of inflicting it; and
+then the officer who had by this time advanced to the spot where
+she was standing, put an end to her dreadful mental struggles by
+cutting her down and killing her at a single blow.
+
+When tidings were brought back to Narcissus that his commands had
+been obeyed, he went again to the presence of Claudius, and reported
+to him simply that Messalina was no more. He made no explanations,
+and the emperor asked for none; but went on with his supper as if
+nothing had occurred, and never afterward expressed any curiosity or
+interest in respect to Messalina's fate.
+
+As soon as the excitement produced by these transactions had in some
+degree subsided, various plans and intrigues were commenced for
+providing the emperor with another wife. There were many competitors
+for the station, all of whom were eager to occupy it; for, though
+Claudius was old, imbecile, and ugly, still he was the emperor; and
+all those ladies of his court who thought that they had any prospect
+of success, aspired to the possession of his hand, as the summit of
+earthly ambition. Among the rest, Agrippina appeared. She was
+Claudius's niece. This relationship was in one respect a bar to her
+success, since the laws prohibited marriage within that degree of
+consanguinity. In another respect, however, the relationship was
+greatly in Agrippina's favor, for under the plea of it she had
+constant access to the emperor, and was extremely assiduous in her
+attentions to him. She succeeded, at length, in inspiring him with
+some sentiment of love, and he determined to make her his wife. The
+Senate were easily induced to alter the laws in order to enable him
+to do this, and Claudius and Agrippina were married.
+
+Claudius not only thus made the mother of our hero his wife, but he
+adopted her son as his son and heir--changing, at the same time, the
+name of the boy. In place of his former plebeian appellation of
+Ahenobarbus, he gave him now the imposing title of Nero Claudius
+Cęsar Drusus Germanicus. He has since generally been known in
+history, however, by the simple prenomen, Nero.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE CHILDHOOD OF NERO.
+
+A.D. 39-53
+
+Early history of Nero.--Character of his father.--Brutal character
+of Brazenbeard.--Nero neglected.--Nero reappears at
+court.--Britannicus.--The secular or centennial games.--Mode of
+celebrating them.--Nero and Britannicus.--Nero applauded.--The
+story of the serpents.--Advancement of Nero after the death of
+Messalina.--Agrippina's treatment of Britannicus.--Nero assumes the
+toga.--Britannicus secluded.--Agrippina's treatment of the two
+boys.--Britannicus offends Nero.--Agrippina's anger.--The Fucine
+lake.--Plan for draining it.--The canal.--Grand celebration at the
+opening of the canal.--Naval conflict to take place on the lake.--End
+of the naval battle.--The water will not flow.--Deepening the
+canal.--New celebrations.--Influences under which Nero's character
+was formed.--Agrippina's plan in respect to Octavia.--Tragical end
+of Silanus.--Marriage of Nero.
+
+
+During the time that Agrippina had been passing through the strange
+and eventful vicissitudes of her history, described in the preceding
+chapters, young Nero himself, as we shall henceforth call him, had
+been growing up an active and intelligent, but an indulged and
+ungoverned boy. His own father died when he was about three years
+old. This, however, was an advantage probably, rather than a loss to
+the boy, as Brazenbeard was an extremely coarse, cruel, and
+unprincipled man. He once killed one of his slaves for not drinking
+as much as he ordered him. Riding one day in his chariot through a
+village, he drove wantonly and purposely over a boy, and killed him
+on the spot. He defrauded all who dealt with him, and was repeatedly
+prosecuted for the worst of crimes. He treated his wife with great
+brutality. As has already been said, he received the announcement of
+the birth of his son with derision, saying that nothing but what
+was detestable could come from him and Agrippina; and when they
+asked him what name they should give the child, he recommended to
+them to name him Claudius. This was said in contempt, for Claudius
+was at that time despised by every one, as a deformed and stupid
+idiot, though he was subsequently made emperor in the manner that
+has been already explained. The manifestation of such a spirit, at
+such a time, on the part of her husband, pained Agrippina
+exceedingly,--but the more it pained her, the more Brazenbeard was
+gratified and amused. The death of such a father could, of course,
+be no calamity.
+
+When Agrippina, Nero's mother, was banished from Rome by the order
+of Caligula, Nero himself did not accompany her, but remained behind
+under the care of his aunt Lepida, with whom he lived for a time in
+comparative neglect and obscurity. Though he belonged to one of the
+most aristocratic families of Rome, his mother being a descendant
+and heir of the Cęsars, he spent some years in a situation of
+poverty and disgrace. His education was neglected, as he received
+no instruction at this time except from a dancing-master and a
+barber, who were his only tutors. Of course, the formation of his
+moral character was wholly neglected,--nor, in fact, considering the
+character of those by whom he was surrounded, would it have been
+possible that any favorable influence should have been exerted upon
+him, if the attempt had been made.
+
+At length when Caligula died and Agrippina was recalled from her
+banishment by Claudius, and reinstated in her former position at
+Rome, Nero emerged from his obscurity, and thenceforth lived with
+his mother in luxury and splendor in the capital. Nero was a
+handsome boy, and he soon became an object of great popular favor
+and regard. He often appeared in public at entertainments and
+celebrations, and when he did so he was always specially noticed and
+caressed. His companion, and in some respects his rival and
+competitor, at such times, was Britannicus, the son of Claudius and
+Messalina. Britannicus was two or three years younger than Nero, and
+being the son of the emperor was of course a very prominent and
+conspicuous object of attention whenever he appeared. But the rank
+of Nero was scarcely less high, since his mother was descended
+directly from the imperial family, while in age and personal
+appearance and bearing he was superior to his cousin.
+
+One instance is specially noticed by the historians of those days,
+in which young Nero was honored with an extraordinary degree of
+public attention and regard. It was on the occasion of celebrating
+what might be called the centennial games. These games were
+generally supposed to be celebrated at each recurrence of a certain
+astronomical period, of about one hundred years' duration, called an
+age; but in reality it was at irregular though very distant
+intervals that they were observed. Claudius instituted a celebration
+of them early in his reign. There had been a celebration of them in
+the reign of Augustus, not many years before,--but Claudius, wishing
+to signalize his own reign by some great entertainment and display,
+pretended that Augustus had made a miscalculation, and had observed
+the festival at the wrong time; and he ordained, accordingly, that
+the celebration should take place again.
+
+The games and shows connected with this festival extended through
+three successive days. They consisted of sacrifices and other
+religious rites, dramatic spectacles, athletic games, and military
+and gladiatorial shows. In the course of these diversions there was
+celebrated on one of the days what was called the Trojan game, in
+which young boys of leading and distinguished families appeared on
+horseback in a circus or ring, where they performed certain
+evolutions and feats of horsemanship, and mock conflicts, in the
+midst of the tens of thousands of spectators who thronged the seats
+around. Of course Britannicus and Nero were the most prominent and
+conspicuous of the boys on this occasion. Nero, however, in the
+estimation of the populace, bore off the palm. He was received with
+the loudest acclamations by the whole assembly, while Britannicus
+attracted far less attention. This triumph filled Agrippina's heart
+with pride and pleasure, while it occasioned to Messalina the
+greatest vexation and chagrin. It made Agrippina more than ever
+before the object of Messalina's hatred and hostility, and the
+empress would very probably before long have found some means of
+destroying her rival had she not soon after this become involved
+herself in the difficulties arising out of her connection with
+Silius, which resulted so soon in her own destruction.
+
+The people, however, were filled with admiration of Nero, and they
+applauded his performance with the utmost enthusiasm. He was for a
+time a subject of conversation in every circle throughout the city,
+and many tales were told of his history and his doings. Among other
+things which were related of him, the story was circulated that
+Messalina became so excited against him in her jealousy and envy,
+that she sent two assassins to murder him in his sleep; and that the
+assassins, coming to him in a garden where he was lying asleep upon
+a pillow, were just putting their cruel orders into execution when
+they were driven away by a serpent that appeared miraculously at the
+moment to defend the child--darting out at the assassins from
+beneath the pillow. Others said that it was in his infancy that this
+occurrence took place, and that there were two serpents instead of
+one, and that they guarded the life of their charge lying with him
+in his cradle. One of the historians of the time states that neither
+of these stories was really true, but that they both originated in
+the fact that Nero was accustomed to wear, when a boy, a bracelet
+made of a serpent's skin, small and of beautiful colors,--and
+fastened, as they said, around the wearer's wrist with a clasp of
+gold.
+
+However the fact may be in respect to Messalina's allowing her
+jealousy of Agrippina to carry her so far as to make direct attempts
+upon his life, there is no doubt that she lived in continual fear of
+the influence both of Nero and of his mother, on the mind of the
+emperor; and Agrippina was consequently compelled to submit to many
+indignities which the position and the power of Messalina enabled
+her to impose upon her enemies and rivals. At length, however, the
+fall of Messalina, and the entire revolution in the situation and
+prospects of Agrippina which was consequent upon it, changed
+altogether the position of Nero. It might have been expected, it is
+true, even after the marriage of Claudius with Agrippina, that
+Britannicus would have still maintained altogether the highest place
+in the emperor's regard, since Britannicus was his own son, while
+Nero was only the son of his wife. But Agrippina was artful enough
+to manage her indolent and stupid husband just as she pleased; and
+she soon found means to displace Britannicus, and to raise Nero in
+his stead, to the highest place, in precedence and honor. She
+persuaded Claudius to adopt Nero as his own son, as was stated in
+the last chapter. She obtained a decree of the Senate, approving and
+confirming this act. She then removed Britannicus from the court and
+shut him up in seclusion, in a nursery, under pretense of tender
+regard for his health and safety. In a word, she treated Britannicus
+in all respects like a little child, and kept him wholly in the
+background; while she brought her own son, though he was but little
+older than the other, very prominently forward, as a young man.
+
+In those ancient days as now, there was an appropriate dress for
+youth, which was changed for that of a man when the subject arrived
+at maturity. The garment which was most distinctively characteristic
+of adult age among the Romans was called the toga; and it was
+assumed by the Roman youth, not as the dress of a man is by young
+persons now, in a private and informal manner, according as the
+convenience or fancy of the individual may dictate,--but publicly
+and with much ceremony, and always at the time when the party
+arrived at the period of legal majority; so that assuming the toga
+marked always a very important era of life. This distinction
+Agrippina caused to be conferred upon Nero by a special edict when
+he was only fourteen years of age, which was at a very much earlier
+period than usual. On the occasion of thus advancing him to the
+dress and to the legal capabilities of manhood, Agrippina brought
+him out in a special manner before the people of Rome at a great
+public celebration, and the more effectually to call public
+attention to him as a young prince of the highest distinction in the
+imperial family, she induced Claudius to bestow a largess upon the
+people, and a donative upon the army, that is a public distribution
+of money, to the citizens and to the soldiers, in Nero's name.
+
+All this time Britannicus was kept shut up in the private apartments
+of the palace with nurses and children. The tutors and attendants
+whom Messalina his mother provided for him were one by one removed,
+and their places supplied by others whom Agrippina selected for the
+purpose, and whom she could rely upon to second her views. When
+inquired of in respect to Britannicus by those who had known him
+before, during his mother's lifetime, she replied that he was a weak
+and feeble child, subject to fits, and thus necessarily kept
+secluded from society.
+
+Sometimes, indeed, on great public occasions, both Nero and
+Britannicus appeared together, but even in these cases the
+arrangements were so made as to impress the public mind more
+forcibly than ever with an idea of the vast superiority of Nero, in
+respect to rank and position. On one such occasion, while
+Britannicus was carried about clothed in the dress of a child, and
+with attendants characteristic of the nursery, Nero rode on
+horseback, richly appareled in the triumphal robes of a general
+returning from a foreign campaign.
+
+Agrippina was one day made very angry with Britannicus, for what
+might seem a very trifling cause. It seems that Britannicus, though
+young, was a very intelligent boy, and that he understood perfectly
+the policy which his step-mother was pursuing toward him, and was
+very unwilling to submit to be thus supplanted. One day, when he and
+Nero were both abroad, attending some public spectacle or
+celebration, they met, and Nero accosted his cousin, calling him
+Britannicus. Britannicus, in returning the salutation, addressed
+Nero familiarly by the name Domitius;--Domitius Ahenobarbus having
+been his name before he was adopted by Claudius. Agrippina was very
+indignant when she heard of this. She considered the using of this
+name by Britannicus, as denoting, on his part, a refusal to
+acknowledge his cousin as the adopted son of his father. She
+immediately went to Claudius with earnest and angry complainings.
+"Your own edict," said she, "sanctioned and confirmed by the Senate,
+is disavowed and annulled, and my son is subjected to public insult
+by the impertinence of this child." Agrippina farther represented to
+Claudius, that Britannicus never would have thought of addressing
+her son in such a manner, of his own accord. His doing it must have
+arisen from the influence of some of the persons around him who were
+hostile to her; and she made use of the occasion to induce Claudius
+to give her authority to remove all that remained of the child's
+instructors and governors, who could be suspected of a friendly
+interest in his cause, and to subject him to new and more rigorous
+restrictions than ever.
+
+One of the most imposing of all the spectacles and celebrations
+which Claudius instituted during his reign, was the one which
+signalized the opening of the canal by which the Fucine lake was
+drained. The Fucine lake was a large but shallow body of water, at
+the foot of the Appenines, near the sources of the Tiber.[A] It was
+subject to periodic inundations, by which the surrounding lands were
+submerged. An engineer had offered to drain the lake, in
+consideration of receiving for his pay the lands which would be laid
+dry by the operation. But Claudius, who seemed to have quite a taste
+for such undertakings, preferred to accomplish the work himself. The
+canal by which the water should be conveyed away, was to be formed
+in part by a deep cut, and partly by a tunnel through a mountain;
+and inasmuch as in those days the power now chiefly relied upon for
+making such excavations, namely, the explosive force of gunpowder,
+was not known, any extensive working in solid rock was an operation
+of immense labor. When the canal was finished, Claudius determined
+to institute a grand celebration to signalize the opening of it for
+drawing off the water; and as he could not safely rely on the
+hydraulic interest of the spectacle for drawing such a concourse to
+the spot as he wished to see there, he concluded to add to the
+entertainment a show more suited to the taste and habits of the
+times. He made arrangements accordingly for having a naval battle
+fought upon the lake, for the amusement of the spectators, just
+before the opening of the canal, which was to draw off the water.
+Thus the battle was to be the closing scene, in which the history
+and existence of the lake were to be terminated forever.
+
+[Footnote A: See Map. Frontispiece.]
+
+Ships were accordingly built, and an immense number of men were
+designated and set apart for fighting the battle. These men
+consisted of convicts and prisoners of war--men whom it was, in
+those days, considered perfectly just and right to employ in killing
+one another for the amusement of the emperor and his guests. A sort
+of bulwark was built all around the shore, and the emperor's guards
+were stationed upon it, to prevent the escape of the combatants, and
+to turn them back to their duty if any of them should attempt, when
+pressed hard in the battle, to escape to the land. The fleet of
+galleys was divided into two antagonistic portions, and the men in
+each were armed completely, as in a case of actual war. At the
+appointed time, hundreds of thousands of people assembled from all
+the surrounding country to see the sight. They lined the shores on
+every side, and crowned all the neighboring heights. The contest, of
+course, might be waged with all the fury and fatal effect of a real
+battle without endangering the spectators at all, as there were in
+those days no flying bullets, or other swift-winged missiles, like
+those which in modern times take so wide a range beyond the limits
+of the battle. The deadly effect of all that was done in an ancient
+combat was confined of course to those immediately engaged. Then
+there was, besides, nothing to intercept the vision. No smoke was
+raised to obscure the view, but the atmosphere above and around the
+combatants remained as pure and transparent at the end of the combat
+as at the beginning.
+
+A real battle was accordingly regarded by the Romans as the most
+sublime and imposing of spectacles, and hundreds of thousands of
+spectators flocked to witness the one which Claudius arranged for
+them on the Fucine lake. He himself presided, dressed in a coat of
+mail; and Agrippina sat by his side, clothed in a magnificent robe,
+which the historian states was woven from threads of gold, without
+the admixture of any other material. The signal was given, and the
+battle was commenced. There was some difficulty experienced, as
+usual in such cases, in getting the men to engage, but they became
+sufficiently ferocious at last to satisfy all the spectators, and
+thousands were slain. At length the emperor gave orders that the
+battle should cease, and the survivors were informed that their
+lives were spared.
+
+It was fortunate, on the whole, for Claudius, that he did not rely
+wholly on the simple drawing off of the water from the lake for the
+amusement of the immense assemblage that he had convened, for it was
+found, when, after the close of the battle, the canal was opened,
+that the water would not run. The engineers had made some mistake in
+their measurements or their calculations, and had left the bed of
+the canal in some part of its course too high, so that the water,
+when the sluices were opened, instead of flowing off into the river
+to which the canal was intended to conduct it, remained quietly in
+the lake as before.
+
+The assembly dispersed, and the work on the canal was resumed with a
+view of making it deeper. In the course of a year the excavation was
+completed, and all was made ready for a new trial. Claudius summoned
+a new assembly to witness the operation, and at this time, instead
+of a naval conflict, he made provision for a great combat of
+gladiators, to be fought on immense floating platforms which were
+built upon the lake near the outlet which the engineers had made. In
+the end, however, the second attempt to make the water flow, proved
+more unfortunate than the first. The channel had been made very deep
+and wide, so that the water was inclined to move, when once put in
+motion, with the utmost impetuosity and force; and it so happened,
+that in some way or other, the means which the engineer had relied
+upon for controlling it were insufficient, and when the gates were
+opened every thing suddenly gave way. The water rushed out in an
+overwhelming torrent, as in an inundation--and undermined and
+carried away the platforms and stagings which had been erected for
+the seats of the spectators. A scene of indescribable tumult and
+confusion ensued. The emperor and empress, with the guests and
+spectators, fled precipitously together, and all narrowly escaped
+being carried down into the canal.
+
+It is by no means difficult to imagine what sort of a character a
+boy must necessarily form, brought up under such influences and
+surrounded by such scenes as those which thus prevailed at the court
+of Claudius. It proved in the end that Nero experienced the full
+effect of them. He became proud, vain, self-willed, cruel, and
+accustomed to yield himself without restraint to all those wicked
+propensities and passions which, under such circumstances, always
+gain dominion over the human soul.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Besides Britannicus, it will be recollected that Messalina had left
+another child,--a daughter named Octavia, who was two or three years
+younger than her brother, and of course about five years younger
+than Nero. Agrippina did not pursue the same course of opposition
+and hostility toward her which she had adopted in regard to
+Britannicus. She determined, at the outset, upon a very different
+plan. Britannicus was necessarily a rival and competitor for Nero;
+and every step in advance which he should make, could not operate
+otherwise than as an impediment and obstacle to Nero's success. But
+Octavia, as Agrippina thought, might be employed to further and aid
+her designs, by being betrothed, and in due time married, to her
+son.
+
+The advantages of such a scheme were very obvious,--so obvious in
+fact that the design was formed by Agrippina at the very
+beginning,--even before her own marriage with the emperor was fully
+effected. There was one serious obstacle in the way, and that was
+that Octavia was already betrothed to a very distinguished young
+nobleman named Lucius Silanus. Agrippina, after having, by various
+skillful manoeuvers, succeeded in enlisting the public officers
+who would act as judges in his case, caused Silanus to be accused of
+infamous crimes. The historians say that the evidence which was
+adduced against him was of the most trivial character. Still he was
+condemned. He seems to have understood the nature and the cause of
+the hostility which had suddenly developed itself against him, and
+to have felt at once all the hopelessness of his condition. He
+killed himself in his despair on the very night of the marriage of
+Claudius with Agrippina.
+
+The empress found afterward no serious difficulty in accomplishing
+her design. She obtained the emperor's consent to a betrothal of
+Nero to Octavia; but as they were yet too young to be married, the
+ceremony was postponed for a short time. At length in about five
+years after the marriage of Agrippina herself, Nero and Octavia were
+married. Nero was at that time about sixteen years of age. His bride
+of course was only eleven.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+NERO AN EMPEROR.
+
+A.D. 54
+
+Claudius is sick.--Agrippina's joy.--Her schemes.--Estimation in
+which Nero was held.--Agrippina considers herself in danger.--Reasons
+for her fears.--Claudius and Britannicus.--She forms plans for
+hastening her husband's death.--Locusta.--Agrippina determines to
+consult her.--Locusta's poison is administered to Claudius.--The
+poison ineffectual.--A new plan.--The feather.--Poison administered by
+the physician.--Claudius dies.--Agrippina conceals her husband's
+death.--Agrippina's measures.--Her disimulation.--Agrippina's plans
+for proclaiming Nero.--Seneca and Burrus.--History of Seneca.--Account
+of Burrus.--His military rank.--The Prętorian cohorts.--Agrippina's
+plans.--Nero brought forward.--His promises to the army.--He is
+proclaimed.--General acquiescence in his elevation.--Agrippina's real
+designs in the elevation of her son.--The funeral solemnities.--Nero's
+oration.--The panegyric.--The senate is convened.--Nero's inaugural
+address.--Nero's excellent promises.--Satisfaction of the
+Senate.--Agrippina assumes the real power.--Discontent of the
+ministers.--An incident.--Reception of Agrippina in the hall of
+audience.
+
+
+About one year after Nero's marriage to Octavia the emperor Claudius
+was suddenly taken sick. On learning this, Agrippina was very much
+excited and very much pleased. If the sickness should result in the
+emperor's death, her son she thought would immediately succeed him.
+Every thing had been long since fully arranged for such a result,
+and all was now ready, she imagined, for the change.
+
+It is true that Nero was still very young, but then he was
+uncommonly mature both in mind and in person, for one of his years;
+and the people had been accustomed for some time to look upon him as
+a man. Among other means which Agrippina had resorted to for giving
+an appearance of manliness and maturity to the character of her son,
+she had brought him forward in the Roman Forum as a public advocate,
+and he had made orations there in several instances, with great
+success. He had been well instructed in those studies which were
+connected with the art of oratory, and as his person and manners
+were agreeable, and his countenance intelligent and prepossessing,
+and especially as the confidence which he felt in his powers gave
+him an air of great self-possession and composure, the impression
+which he made was very favorable. The people were in fact
+predisposed to be pleased with and to applaud the efforts of a young
+orator so illustrious in rank and station--and the ability which he
+displayed, although he was so young, was such as to justify,
+unquestionably, in some degree, the honors that they paid him.
+
+Agrippina, therefore, supposing that her son was now far enough
+advanced in public consideration to make it in some degree certain
+that he would be the emperor's successor, was ready at any time for
+her husband to die. His sickness therefore filled her mind with
+excitement and hope. There was another motive too, besides her
+ambitious desires for the advancement of her son, that made her
+desirous that Claudius should not live. She had been now for several
+months somewhat solicitous and anxious about her own safety. Her
+influence over Claudius, which was at first so absolute and supreme,
+had afterward greatly declined, and within a few months she had
+begun to fear that she might be losing it entirely. In fact she had
+some reason for believing that Claudius regarded her with concealed
+hostility and hate, and was secretly revolving plans for deposing
+both her and her son from the high ascendency to which they had
+raised themselves, and for bringing back his own son to his proper
+prominence, in Nero's place. Agrippina, too, in the midst of her
+ambitious projects and plans, led a life of secret vice and crime,
+and feeling guilty and self-condemned, every trivial indication of
+danger excited her fears. Some one informed her that Claudius one
+day when speaking of a woman who had been convicted of crime, said
+that it had always been _his_ misfortune to have profligate wives,
+but that he always brought them in the end to the punishment that
+they deserved. Agrippina was greatly terrified at this report. She
+considered it a warning that Claudius was meditating some fatal
+proceedings in respect to her.
+
+Agrippina observed, too, as she thought, various indications that
+Claudius was beginning to repent of having adopted Nero and thus
+displaced his own son from the line of inheritance; and that he was
+secretly intending to restore Britannicus to his true position. He
+treated the boy with greater and greater attention every day, and at
+one time, after having been conversing with him and expressing an
+unusual interest in his health and welfare, he ended by saying, "Go
+on improving, my son, and grow up as fast as you can to be a man. I
+shall be able to give a good account of all that I have done in
+regard to you in due time. Trust to me, and you will find that all
+will come out right in the end." At another time he told Britannicus
+that pretty soon he should give him the _toga_, and bring him
+forward before the people as a man,--"and then at last," said he,
+"the Romans will have a prince that is _genuine_."
+
+Agrippina was not present, it is true, when these things were said
+and done, but every thing was minutely reported to her, and she was
+filled with anxiety and alarm. She began to be afraid that unless
+something should speedily occur to enable her to realize her hopes
+and expectations, they would end in nothing but bitter and cruel
+disappointment after all.
+
+Such being the state of things, Agrippina was greatly pleased at the
+news, when she heard that her husband was sick. She most earnestly
+hoped that he would die, and immediately began to consider what she
+could do to insure or to hasten such a result. She thought of
+poison, and began to debate the question in her mind whether she
+should dare to administer it. Then if she were to decide to give her
+husband poison, it was a very serious question what kind of poison
+she should employ. If she were to administer one that was sudden and
+violent in its operation, the effect which it would produce might
+attract attention, and her crime be discovered. On the other hand,
+if she were to choose one that was more moderate and gradual in its
+power, so as to produce a slow and lingering death, time would be
+allowed for Claudius to carry into effect any secret designs that he
+might be forming for disavowing Nero as his son, and fixing the
+succession upon Britannicus; and Agrippina well knew that if
+Claudius were to die, leaving things in such a state that
+Britannicus should succeed him, the downfall and ruin both of
+herself and her son would immediately and inevitably follow.
+
+There was at that time in Rome a celebrated mistress of the art of
+poisoning, named Locusta. She was in prison, having been condemned
+to death for her crimes. Though condemned she had been kept back
+from execution by the influence of Agrippina, on account of the
+skill which she possessed in her art, and which Agrippina thought it
+possible that she might have occasion at some time to make use of.
+This Locusta she now determined to consult. She accordingly went to
+her, and asked her if she did not know of any poison which would
+immediately take effect upon the brain and mind, so as to
+incapacitate the patient at once from all mental action, while yet
+it should be gradual and slow in its operations on the vital
+functions of the body. Locusta answered in the affirmative. Such
+characters were always prepared to furnish any species of
+medicaments that their customers might call for. She compounded a
+potion which she said possessed the properties which Agrippina
+required, and Agrippina, receiving it from her hands, went away.
+
+Agrippina then went to Halotus, the servant who waited upon the
+emperor and gave him his food,--and contrived some means to induce
+him to administer the dose. Halotus was the emperor's "taster," as
+it was termed:--that is, it was his duty to taste first, himself,
+every article of food or drink which he offered to his master, for
+the express purpose of making it sure that nothing was poisoned. It
+is obvious, however, that many ways might be devised for evading
+such a precaution as this, and Halotus and Agrippina arranged it,
+that the poison, in this case, should be put upon a dish of
+mushrooms, and served to the emperor at his supper. The taster was
+to avoid, by means of some dextrous management, the taking of any
+portion of the fatal ingredients himself. The plan thus arranged was
+put into execution. The emperor ate the mushrooms, and Agrippina
+tremblingly awaited the result.
+
+She was, however, disappointed in the effect that was produced.
+Whether the mixture that Locusta had prepared was not sufficiently
+powerful, or whether Halotus in his extreme anxiety not to get any
+of the poisonous ingredients himself failed to administer them
+effectually to his intended victim, the emperor seemed to continue
+afterward much as he had been before,--still sick, but without any
+new or more dangerous symptoms. Of course, Agrippina was in a state
+of great solicitude and apprehension. Having incurred the terrible
+guilt and danger necessarily involved in an attempt to poison her
+husband, she could not draw back. The work that was begun must be
+carried through now, she thought, at all hazards, to its
+termination; and she immediately set herself at work to devise some
+means of reaching her victim with poison, which would avoid the
+taster altogether, and thus not be liable to any interference on his
+part, dictated either by his fidelity to his master or his fears for
+himself. She went, accordingly, to the emperor's physician and found
+means to enlist him in her cause; and a plan was formed between them
+which proved effectual in accomplishing her designs. The manner in
+which they contrived it was this. The physician, at a time when the
+emperor was lying sick and in distress upon his couch, came to him
+and proposed that he should open his mouth and allow the physician
+to touch his throat with the tip of a feather, to promote vomiting,
+which he said he thought would relieve him. The emperor yielded to
+this treatment, and the feather was applied. It had previously been
+dipped in a very virulent and fatal poison. The poison thus
+administered took effect, and Claudius, after passing the night in
+agony, died early in the morning.
+
+[Illustration: THE POISONING OF CLAUDIUS.]
+
+Of course, Agrippina, when her husband's dying struggles were over,
+and she was satisfied that life was extinct, experienced for the
+moment a feeling of gratification and relief. It might have been
+expected, however, that the pangs of remorse, after the deed was
+perpetrated, would have followed very hard upon the termination of
+her suspense and anxiety. But it was not so. Much still remained to
+be done, and Agrippina was fully prepared to meet all the
+responsibilities of the crisis. The death of her husband took place
+very early in the morning, the poisoning operations having been
+performed in the night, and having accomplished their final effect
+about the break of day. Agrippina immediately perceived that the
+most effectual means of accomplishing the end which she had in view,
+was not to allow of any interval to elapse between the announcement
+of the emperor's death and the bringing forward of her son for
+induction into office as his successor; since during such an
+interval, if one were allowed, the Roman people would, of course,
+discuss the question, whether Britannicus or Nero should succeed to
+power, and a strong party might possibly organize itself to enforce
+the claims of the former. She determined, therefore, to conceal the
+death of her husband until noon, the hour most favorable for
+publicly proclaiming any great event, and then to announce the
+death of the father and the accession of the adopted son together.
+
+She accordingly took prompt and decisive measures to prevent its
+being known that the emperor was dead. The immediate attendants
+at his bedside could not indeed be easily deceived, but they were
+required to be silent in respect to what had occurred, and to go on
+with all their services and ministrations just as if their patient
+were still alive. Visitors were excluded from the room, and
+messengers were kept coming to and fro with baths, medicaments, and
+other appliances, such as a desperate crisis in a sick chamber might
+be supposed to require. The Senate was convened, too, in the course
+of the morning, and Agrippina, as if in great distress, sent a
+message to them, informing them of her husband's dangerous
+condition, and entreating them to join with the chief civil
+and religious functionaries of the city, in offering vows,
+supplications, and sacrifices for his recovery. She herself, in the
+mean time, went from room to room about the palace, overwhelmed to
+all appearance, with anxiety and grief. She kept Britannicus and his
+sisters all the time with her, folding the boy in her arms with an
+appearance of the fondest affection, and telling him how
+heart-broken she was at the dangerous condition of his father. She
+kept Britannicus thus constantly near to her, in order to prevent
+the possibility of his being seized and carried away to the camp by
+any party that might be disposed to make him emperor rather than
+Nero, when it should be known that Claudius had ceased to reign. As
+an additional defense against this danger, Agrippina brought up a
+cohort of the life-guards around the palace, and caused them to be
+stationed in such a manner that every avenue of approach to the
+edifice was completely secured. The cohort which she selected was
+one that she thought she could most safely rely upon, not only
+for guarding the palace while she remained within it, but for
+proclaiming Nero as emperor when she should at last be ready to come
+forth and announce the death of her husband.
+
+At length, about noon, she deemed that the hour had arrived, and
+after placing Britannicus and his sisters in some safe custody
+within the palace, she ordered the gates to be thrown open, and
+prepared to come forth to announce the death of Claudius, and to
+present Nero to the army and to the people of Rome, as his rightful
+successor. She was aided and supported in these preparations by a
+number of officers and attendants, among whom were the two whom she
+had determined upon as the two principal ministers of her son's
+government. These were Seneca and Burrus. Seneca was to be minister
+of state, and Burrus the chief military commander.
+
+Both these men had long been in the service of Agrippina and of
+Nero. Seneca was now over fifty years of age. He was very highly
+distinguished as a scholar and rhetorician while he lived, and his
+numerous writings have given him great celebrity since, in every
+age. He commenced his career in Rome as a public advocate in the
+Forum, during the reign of Caligula. After Caligula's death he
+incurred the displeasure of Claudius in the first year of that
+emperor's reign, and he was banished to the island of Corsica, where
+he remained in neglect and obscurity for about eight years. When at
+length Messalina was put to death, and the emperor married
+Agrippina, Seneca was pardoned and recalled through Agrippina's
+influence, and after that he devoted himself very faithfully to the
+service of the empress and of her son. Agrippina appointed him
+Nero's preceptor, and gave him the direction of all the studies
+which her son pursued in qualifying himself for the duties of a
+public orator; and now that she was about attempting to advance her
+son to the supreme command, she intended to make the philosopher his
+principal secretary and minister of state.
+
+Burrus was the commander of the life-guards, or as the office was
+called in those days, prefect of the prętorium. The life-guards, or
+body-guards, whose duty consisted exclusively in attending upon,
+escorting and protecting the emperor, consisted of ten cohorts, each
+containing about a thousand men. The soldiers designated for this
+service were of course selected from the whole army, and as no
+expense was spared in providing them with arms, accoutrements and
+other appointments, they formed the finest body of troops in the
+world. They received double pay, and enjoyed special privileges; and
+every arrangement was made to secure their entire subserviency to
+the will, and attachment to the person, of the reigning emperor. Of
+course such a corps would be regarded by all the other divisions of
+the army as entirely superior in rank and consideration, to the
+ordinary service; and the general who commanded them would take
+precedence of every other military commander, being second only
+to the emperor himself. Agrippina had contrived to raise Burrus
+to this post through her influence with Claudius. He was a friend
+to her interests before, and he became still more devoted to
+her after receiving such an appointment through her
+instrumentality,--Agrippina now depended upon Burrus to carry
+the Prętorian cohorts in favor of her son.
+
+Accordingly at noon of the day on which Claudius died, when all
+things were ready, the palace gates were thrown open and Agrippina
+came forth with her son, accompanied by Burrus and by other
+attendants. The cohort on duty was drawn up under arms at the palace
+gates. Burrus presented Nero to them as the successor of Claudius,
+and at a signal from him they all responded with shouts and
+acclamations. Some few of the soldiers did not join in this
+cheering, but looked on in silence, and then inquired of one
+another what had become of Britannicus. But there were none to
+answer this question, and as no one appeared to proclaim Britannicus
+or to speak in his name, the whole cohort finally acquiesced in the
+decision to which the majority, at the instigation of Burrus, seemed
+inclined. A sort of chair or open palanquin was provided, and Nero
+was mounted upon it. He was borne in this way by the soldiers
+through the streets of the city, escorted by the cohort on the way,
+till he reached the camp. As the procession moved along, the air was
+filled with the shouts and acclamations of the soldiers and of the
+people.
+
+When the party arrived at the camp Nero was presented to the army,
+and the officers and soldiers being drawn up before him he delivered
+a brief speech which Seneca had prepared for the occasion. The
+principal point in this speech, and the one on which its effect was
+expected to depend, was a promise of a large distribution of money.
+The soldiers always expected such a donative on the accession of any
+new emperor,--but Nero, in order to suppress any latent opposition
+which might be felt against his claims, made his proposed
+distribution unusually large. The soldiers readily yielded to the
+influence of this promise, and with one accord proclaimed Nero
+emperor. The Senate was soon afterward convened, and partly through
+the influence of certain prominent members whom Agrippina had taken
+measures to secure in her interest, and partly through the general
+conviction that as things were the claims of Britannicus could not
+be successfully maintained, the choice of the army was confirmed.
+And as the tidings of what had taken place at the capital gradually
+spread through Italy and to the remoter portions of the empire, the
+provinces, and the various legions at their encampments, one after
+another acquiesced in the result, both because on the one hand they
+had no strong motive for dissenting, and on the other, they had
+individually no power to make any effectual resistance. Thus Nero,
+at the age of seventeen became emperor of Rome, and as such the
+almost absolute monarch of nearly half the world.
+
+It was, however, by no means the design of Agrippina that her son
+should actually wield, himself, all this power. Her motive, in all
+her manoeuvers for bringing Nero to this lofty position, was a
+personal, not a maternal ambition. She was herself to reign, not he;
+and she had brought him forward as the nominal sovereign only, in
+order that she might herself exercise the power by acting in his
+name. Her plan was to secure her own ascendency, by so arranging and
+directing the course of affairs that the young emperor himself
+should have as little as possible to do with the duties of his
+office; and that instead of direct action on his part, all the
+functions of the government should be fulfilled by officers of
+various grades, whom she was herself to appoint and to sustain, and
+who, since they would know that they were dependent on Agrippina's
+influence for their elevation, would naturally be subservient to her
+will. Nero being so young, she thought that he could easily be led
+to acquiesce in such management as this, especially if he were
+indulged in the full enjoyment of the luxuries and pleasures,
+innocent or otherwise, which his high station would enable him to
+command, and which are usually so tempting to one of his character
+and years.
+
+The first of Agrippina's measures was to make arrangement for a most
+imposing and magnificent funeral, as the testimonial of the deep
+conjugal affection which she entertained for her husband, and the
+profound grief with which she was affected by his death! The most
+extensive preparations were made for this funeral; and the pomp and
+parade which were displayed in Rome on the day of the ceremony, had
+never been surpassed, it was said, by any similar spectacle on any
+former occasion. In the course of the services that were performed,
+a funeral oration was delivered by Nero to the immense concourse of
+people that were convened. The oration was written by Seneca. It was
+a high panegyric upon the virtues and the renown of the deceased,
+and it represented in the brightest colors, and with great
+magnificence of diction, his illustrious birth, the high offices to
+which he had attained, his taste for the liberal arts, and the peace
+and tranquillity which had prevailed throughout the empire during
+his reign. To write a panegyric upon such a man as Claudius had
+been, must surely have proved a somewhat difficult task; but Seneca
+accomplished it very adroitly, and the people, aided by the
+solemnity of the occasion, listened with proper gravity, until at
+length the orator began to speak of the judgment and the political
+wisdom of Claudius, and then the listeners found that they could
+preserve their decorum no longer. The audience looked at each other,
+and there was a general laugh. The young orator, though for the
+moment somewhat disconcerted at this interruption, soon recovered
+himself, and went on to the end of his discourse.
+
+After these funeral ceremonies had been performed, the Senate was
+convened, and Nero appeared before them to make his inaugural
+address. This address also, was of course prepared for him by
+Seneca, under directions from Agrippina, who, after revolving the
+subject fully in her mind, had determined what it would be most
+politic to say. She knew very well that until the power of her son
+became consolidated and settled, it became him to be modest in his
+pretensions and claims, and to profess great deference and respect
+for the powers and prerogatives of the Senate. In the speech,
+therefore, which Nero delivered in the senate-chamber, he said that
+in assuming the imperial dignity, which he had consented to do in
+obedience to the will of his father the late emperor, to the general
+voice of the army, and the universal suffrages of the people, he
+did not intend to usurp the civil powers of the state, but to leave
+to the Senate, and to the various civil functionaries of the city,
+their rightful and proper jurisdiction. He considered himself as
+merely the commander-in-chief of the armies of the commonwealth, and
+as such, his duty would be simply to execute the national will. He
+promised, moreover, a great variety of reforms in the
+administration, all tending to diminish the authority of the prince,
+and to protect the people from danger of oppression by military
+power. In a word, it was his settled purpose, he said, to restore
+the government to its pristine simplicity and purity, and to
+administer it in strict accordance with the true principles of the
+Roman Constitution, as originally established by the founders of the
+commonwealth. The professions and promises which Nero thus made to
+the Senate, or rather which he recited to them at the dictation of
+his mother and of Seneca, gave great satisfaction to all who heard
+them. All opposition to the claims which he advanced, disappeared,
+and the heart of Agrippina was filled with gladness and joy at
+finding that all her plans had been so fully and successfully
+realized.
+
+The official authority of Nero being thus generally acknowledged,
+Agrippina began immediately to pursue a system of policy designed to
+secure the possession of all real power for herself, leaving only
+the name and semblance of it to her son. She appeared in all public
+places with him, sharing with him the pomp, and parade, and insignia
+of office, as if she were associated with him in official power. She
+received and opened the dispatches and sent answers to them. She
+considered and decided questions of state, and issued her orders.
+She caused several influential persons whom she supposed likely to
+take part with Britannicus, or at least secretly to favor his
+claims, to be put to death, either by violence or by poison; and she
+would have caused the death of many others in this way, if Burrus
+and Seneca had not interposed their influence to prevent it. She did
+all these things in a somewhat covert and cautious manner, acting
+generally in Nero's name, so as not to attract too much attention at
+first to her measures. There was danger, she knew, of awakening
+resistance and opposition, as public sentiment among the Romans had
+always been entirely averse to the idea of the submission of men, in
+any form, to the government of women. Agrippina accordingly did not
+attempt openly to preside in the senate-chamber, but she made
+arrangements for having the meetings of the Senate sometimes held in
+an apartment of the palace where she could attend, during the
+sitting, in an adjoining cabinet, concealed from view by a screen or
+arras, and thus listen to the debate. Even this, however, was
+strongly objected to by some of the senators. They considered this
+arrangement of Agrippina's to be present at their debates as
+intended to intimidate them into the support of such measures as she
+might recommend, or be supposed to favor, and thus as seriously
+interfering with the freedom of their discussions. On one occasion
+Agrippina made a bolder experiment still, by coming into the hall
+where a company of foreign embassadors were to have audience, as if
+it were a part of her official duty to join in receiving them. Her
+son, the emperor, and the government officers around him, were
+confounded when they saw her coming, and at first did not know what
+to do. Seneca however, with great presence of mind, said to Nero,
+"Your mother is entering, go and receive her." Hereupon, Nero left
+his chair of state, and accompanied by his ministers, went to meet
+his mother, and received her with great deference and respect; and
+the attention of all present was wholly devoted to Agrippina while
+she remained, as to a very distinguished and highly honored
+guest,--the business which had called them together being suspended
+on her account until she withdrew.
+
+Notwithstanding some occasional difficulties and embarrassments of
+this kind, every thing went on for a time very prosperously, in
+accordance with Agrippina's wishes and plans. Nero was very young,
+and little disposed at first to thwart or to resist his mother's
+measures. He was, however, all the time growing older, and he soon
+began to grow restive under the domination which Agrippina exercised
+over him, and to form plans and determinations of his own. There
+followed, as might have been expected, a terrible conflict for the
+possession of power between him and his mother. The history and the
+termination of this struggle will form the subject of the two
+following chapters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+BRITANNICUS.
+
+A.D. 54-55
+
+Britannicus and Acte.--Indignation of Agrippina.--Otho and
+Senecio.--Perplexity of Nero's ministers.--They determine to connive
+at Nero's new connection.--Agrippina is greatly enraged.--Her furious
+invectives.--She becomes calm again.--Agrippina changes her
+policy.--Nero rejects his mother's advances.--His treatment of
+her.--He makes her a present of jewelry.--Agrippina is enraged.--Nero
+resolves to subdue his mother.--His plan.--Pallas dismissed.--His
+withdrawal.--Agrippina's bitter reproaches.--Her threats.--She declares
+that she will cause Nero to be deposed.--Probable character and meaning
+of these threats.--The game of "who shall be king?"--Nero's orders
+to Britannicus.--The song which Britannicus sung.--Nero resolves to
+resort to poison.--Pollio and Locusta.--The plan at first fails.--A
+second attempt.--A second preparation.--Mode of administering the
+poison.--Britannicus dies.--Agrippina's agitation and distress.--Effect
+produced by the poison.--Remedy.--The interment of Britannicus.--The
+storm.--Nero's proclamation.
+
+
+The occasion which led to the first open outbreak between Agrippina
+and her son was the discovery on her part of a secret and guilty
+attachment which had been formed between Nero and a young girl of
+the palace whose name was Acte. Acte was originally a slave from
+Asia Minor, having been purchased there and sent to Rome, very
+probably on account of her personal beauty. She had been
+subsequently enfranchised, but she remained still in the palace,
+forming a part of the household of Agrippina. Nero had never felt
+any strong attachment for Octavia. His marriage he had always
+regarded as merely one of his mother's political manoeuvers, and
+he did not consider himself as really bound to his wife by any tie.
+He was, besides, still but a boy, though unusually precocious and
+mature; and he had always been accustomed to the most unlimited
+indulgence of the propensities and passions of youth.
+
+The young prince, as is usual in such cases, was led on and
+encouraged in the vicious course of life that he was now beginning
+to pursue, by certain dissolute companions whose society he fell
+into about this time. There were two young men in particular whose
+influence over him was of the worst character. Their names were Otho
+and Senecio. Otho was descended from a very distinguished family,
+and his rank and social position in Roman society were very high.
+Senecio, on the other hand, was of a very humble extraction--his
+father being an emancipated slave. The three young men were,
+however, nearly of the same age, and being equally unprincipled and
+dissolute, they banded themselves together in the pursuit and
+enjoyment of vicious indulgences. Nero made Otho and Senecio his
+confidants in his connection with Acte, and it was in a great
+measure through their assistance and co-operation that he
+accomplished his ends.
+
+When Seneca and Burrus were informed of Nero's attachment to Acte,
+and of the connection which had been established between them, they
+were at first much perplexed to know what to do. They were men of
+strict moral principle themselves, and as Nero had been their
+pupil, and was still, while they continued his ministers, in some
+sense under their charge, they thought it might be their duty to
+remonstrate with him on the course which he was pursuing, and
+endeavor to separate him from his vicious companions, and bring him
+back, if possible, to his duty to Octavia. But then, on the other
+hand, they said to each other that any attempt on their part really
+to control the ungovernable and lawless propensities of such a soul
+as Nero's must be utterly unavailing, and since he must necessarily,
+as they thought, be expected to addict himself to vicious
+indulgences in some form, the connection with Acte might perhaps be
+as little to be dreaded as any. On the whole, they concluded not to
+interfere.
+
+Not so, however, with Agrippina. When she came to learn of this new
+attachment which her son had formed, she was very much disturbed and
+alarmed. Her distress, however, did not arise from any of those
+feelings of solicitude which, as a mother, she might have been
+expected to feel for the moral purity of her boy, but from fears
+that, through the influence and ascendency which such a favorite as
+Acte might acquire, she should lose her own power. She knew very
+well how absolute and complete the domination of such a favorite
+sometimes became, and she trembled at the danger which threatened
+her of being supplanted by Acte, and thus losing her control.
+
+Agrippina was very violent and imperious in her temper, and had long
+been accustomed to rule those around her with a very high hand; and
+now, without properly considering that Nero had passed beyond the
+age in which he could be treated as a mere boy, she attacked him at
+once with the bitterest reproaches and invectives, and insisted that
+his connection with Acte should be immediately abandoned. Nero
+resisted her, and stoutly refused to comply with her demands.
+Agrippina was fired with indignation and rage. She filled the palace
+with her complaints and criminations. She accused Nero of the basest
+ingratitude toward her, in repaying the long-continued and faithful
+exertions and sacrifices which she had made to promote his
+interests, by thus displacing her from his confidence and regard, to
+make room for this wretched favorite, and of falseness and
+faithlessness to Octavia, in abandoning her, his lawful wife, for
+the society of an enfranchised slave. Agrippina was extremely
+violent in these denunciations. She scolded, she stormed, she
+raved--acting manifestly under the impulse of blind and
+uncontrollable passion. Her passion was obviously blind, for the
+course to which it impelled her was plainly very far from tending to
+accomplish any object which she could be supposed to have in view.
+
+At length, when the first fury of her vexation and anger had spent
+itself, she began to reflect, as people generally do when recovering
+from a passion, that she was spending her strength in working
+mischief to her own cause. This reflection helped to promote the
+subsiding of her anger. Her loud denunciations gradually died away,
+and were succeeded by mutterings and murmurings. At length she
+became silent altogether, and after an interval of reflection, she
+concluded no longer to give way to her clamorous and useless anger,
+but calmly to consider what it was best to _do_.
+
+She soon determined that the wisest and most politic plan after all,
+would be for her to acquiesce in the fancy of her son, and endeavor
+to retain her ascendency over him by aiding and countenancing him in
+his pleasures. She accordingly changed by degrees the tone which she
+had assumed toward him, and began to address him in words of favor
+and indulgence. She said that it was natural, after all, at his time
+of life, to love, and that his superior rank and station entitled
+him to some degree of immunity from the restrictions imposed upon
+ordinary men. Acte was indeed a beautiful girl, and she was not
+surprised, she said, that he had conceived an affection for her. The
+indulgence of his love was indeed attended with difficulty and
+danger, but, if he would submit the affair to her care and
+management, she could take such precautions that all would be well.
+She apologized for the warmth with which she had at first spoken,
+and attributed it to the jealous and watchful interest which a
+mother must always feel in all that relates to the prosperity and
+happiness of her son. She said, moreover, that she was now ready and
+willing to enter into and promote his views, and she offered him the
+use of certain private apartments of her own in the palace, to meet
+Acte in, saying that, by such an arrangement, and with the
+precautions that she could use, he could enjoy the society of his
+favorite whenever he pleased, without interruption and without
+danger.
+
+Nero very naturally reported all this to his companions. They of
+course advised him not to believe any thing that his mother said,
+nor to trust to her in any way. "It is all," said they, "an artful
+device on her part to get you into her power; and no young man of
+pride and spirit will submit to the disgrace of being under his
+mother's management and control." The young profligate listened to
+the counsels of his associates, and rejected the overtures which his
+mother had made him. He continued his attachment to Acte, but kept
+as much as possible aloof from Agrippina.
+
+He desired, however, if possible, to avoid an open quarrel with his
+mother, and so he made some effort to treat her with attention and
+respect, in his general bearing toward her, while he persisted in
+refusing to admit her to his confidence in respect to Acte. These
+general attentions were, however, by no means sufficient to satisfy
+Agrippina. The influence of Acte was what she feared, and she well
+knew that her own power was in imminent danger of being undermined
+and overthrown, unless she could find some means of bringing her
+son's connection with his favorite under her own control. Thus the
+calm that seemed for a short time to reign between Nero and his
+mother was an armistice rather than a peace, and this armistice was
+brought at length to a sudden termination by an act of Nero's which
+he intended as an act of conciliation and kindness, but which proved
+to be in effect the means of awakening his mother's anger anew, and
+of exciting her even to a more violent exasperation than she had
+felt before.
+
+It seems that among the other treasures of the imperial palace at
+Rome there was an extensive wardrobe of very costly female dresses
+and decorations, which was appropriated to the use of the wives and
+mothers of the emperors. Nero conceived the idea of making a present
+to his mother, from this collection. He accordingly selected a
+magnificent dress, and a considerable quantity of jewelry, and sent
+them to Agrippina. Instead of being gratified with this gift,
+however, Agrippina received it as an affront. She had been so long
+accustomed to consider herself as the first personage in the
+imperial household, that she regarded all such things as rightfully
+her own; and she consequently looked upon the act of Nero in
+formally presenting her with a small portion of these treasures, as
+a simple impertinence, and as intended to notify her that he
+considered all that remained of the collection as his property, and
+thenceforth as such subject to his exclusive control. Instead
+therefore of being appeased by Nero's offering she was greatly
+enraged by it. The angry invectives which she uttered were duly
+reported to the emperor, and his indignation and resentment were
+aroused by them anew, and thus the breach between the mother and the
+son became wider than ever.
+
+[Illustration: THE JEWELRY.]
+
+In fact Nero began to perceive very clearly that if he intended to
+secure for himself any thing more than the empty semblance of power,
+he must at once do something effectual to curb the domineering and
+ambitious spirit of his mother. After revolving this subject in his
+mind, he finally concluded that the measure which promised to be
+most decisive was to dismiss a certain public officer named Pallas,
+who had been brought forward into public life many years before by
+Agrippina, and was now the chief instrument of her political power.
+Pallas was the public treasurer, and he had amassed such enormous
+wealth by his management of the public finances, that at one time
+when Claudius was complaining of the impoverished condition of his
+exchequer, some one replied that he would soon be rich enough if he
+could but induce his treasurer to receive him into partnership.
+
+Pallas, as has already been said, had been originally brought
+forward into public life by the influence of Agrippina, and he had
+always been Agrippina's chief reliance in all her political schemes.
+He had aided very effectually in promoting her marriage with
+Claudius; and had co-operated with her in all her subsequent
+measures; and Nero considered him now as his mother's chief
+supporter and ally. Nero resolved, accordingly, to dismiss him from
+office; and in order to induce him to retire peaceably, it was
+agreed that no inquiry or investigation should be made into the
+state of his accounts, but every thing should be considered as
+balanced and settled. Pallas acceded to this proposal. During the
+whole course of his official career, he had lived in great
+magnificence and splendor, and now in laying down his office, he
+withdrew from the imperial palaces, at the head of a long train of
+attendants, and with a degree of pomp and parade which attracted
+universal attention. The event was regarded by the public as a
+declaration on the part of Nero, that thenceforth he himself and not
+his mother was to rule; and Agrippina, of course, fell at once,
+many degrees, from the high position which she had held in the
+public estimation.
+
+She was, of course, greatly enraged, and though utterly helpless in
+respect to resistance, she stormed about the palace, uttering the
+loudest and most violent expressions of resentment and anger.
+
+During the continuance of this paroxysm Agrippina bitterly
+reproached her son for what she termed his cruel ingratitude. It was
+altogether to her, she said, that he owed his elevation. For a long
+course of years she had been making ceaseless exertions, had
+submitted to the greatest sacrifices, and had even committed the
+most atrocious crimes, to raise him to the high position to which he
+had attained; and now, so soon as he had attained it, and had made
+himself sure, as he fancied, of his foothold, his first act was to
+turn basely and ungratefully against the hand that had raised him.
+But notwithstanding his fancied security, she would teach him, she
+said, that her power was still to be feared. Britannicus was still
+alive, and he was after all the rightful heir, and since her son had
+proved himself so unworthy of the efforts and sacrifices that she
+had made for him, she would forthwith take measures to restore to
+Britannicus what she had so unjustly taken from him. She would
+immediately divulge all the dreadful secrets which were connected
+with Nero's elevation. She would make known the arts by means of
+which her marriage with Claudius had been effected, and the adoption
+of Nero as Claudius's son and heir had been secured. She would
+confess the murder of Claudius, and the usurpation on her part of
+the imperial power for Nero her son. Nero would, in consequence, be
+deposed, and Britannicus would succeed him, and thus the base
+ingratitude and treachery toward his mother which Nero had displayed
+would be avenged. This plan, she declared, she would immediately
+carry into effect. She would take Britannicus to the camp, and
+appeal to the army in his name. Both Burrus and Seneca would join
+her, and her undutiful and treacherous son would be stripped
+forthwith of his ill-gotten power.
+
+These words of Agrippina were not, however, the expressions of sober
+purpose, really and honestly entertained. They were the wild and
+unthinking threats and denunciations which are prompted in such
+cases by the frenzy of helpless and impotent rage. It is not at all
+probable that she had any serious intention of attempting such
+desperate measures as she threatened; for if she had really
+entertained such a design, she would have carefully kept it secret
+while making her arrangements for carrying it into execution.
+
+Still these threats and denunciations, though they were obviously
+prompted by a blind and temporary rage, which it might be reasonably
+supposed would soon subside, made a deep impression upon Nero's
+mind. In the first place, he was angry with his mother for daring to
+utter them. Then there was at least a possibility that she might
+really undertake to put them in execution, as no one could foresee
+what her desperate frenzy might lead her to do. Then besides, even
+if Agrippina's resentment were to subside, and she should seem
+entirely to abandon all idea of ever executing her threats, Nero was
+extremely unwilling to remain thus in his mother's power--exposed
+continually to fresh outbreaks of her hostility, whenever her anger
+or her caprice might arouse her again. The threats which his mother
+uttered made him, therefore, extremely restless and uneasy.
+
+A circumstance occurred about this time which, though very trifling
+in itself, had the effect greatly to increase the jealousy and fear
+in respect to Britannicus, which Nero was inclined to feel. It seems
+that among the other amusements with which the company were
+accustomed to entertain themselves in the social gatherings that
+took place, from time to time, in the imperial palace, there was a
+certain game which they used to play, called, "WHO SHALL BE KING?"
+The game consisted of choosing one of the party by lot to be king,
+and then of requiring all the others to obey the commands, whatever
+they might be, which the king so chosen might issue. Of course, the
+success of the game depended upon the art and ingenuity of the king
+in prescribing such things to be done by his various subjects, as
+would most entertain and amuse the company. What the forfeit or
+penalty was, that the rules of the game required, in case of
+disobedience, is not stated; but every one was considered bound to
+obey the commands that were laid upon him,--provided, of course,
+that the thing required was within his power.
+
+Nero himself, it appears, was accustomed to join in these sports,
+and one evening, when a party were all playing it together in his
+palace, it fell to _his_ lot to be king. When it came to be the turn
+of Britannicus to receive orders, Nero directed him to go out into
+the middle of the room, and sing a song to the company. This was a
+very severe requirement for one so young as Britannicus, and so
+little accustomed to take an active part in the festivities of so
+gay a company; and the motive of Nero in making it, was supposed to
+be a feeling of ill-will, and a desire to tease his brother, by
+placing him in an awkward and embarrassing situation--one in which
+he would be compelled either to interrupt the game by refusing to
+obey the orders of the king, or to expose himself to ridicule by
+making a fruitless attempt to sing a song.
+
+To the surprise of all, however, Britannicus rose from his seat
+without any apparent hesitation or embarrassment, walked out upon
+the floor, and took his position. The attention of the whole company
+was fixed upon him. All sounds were hushed.
+
+He began to sing. The song was a lament, describing in plaintive
+words and in mournful music, the situation and the sorrows of a
+young prince, excluded wrongfully from the throne of his
+ancestors.[B] The whole company listened with profound attention,
+charmed at first by the artless simplicity of the music, and the
+grace and beauty of the boy. As Britannicus proceeded in his song,
+and the meaning of it, in its application to his own case, began to
+be perceived, a universal sympathy for him was felt, by the whole
+assembly, and when he concluded and resumed his seat, the apartment
+was filled with suppressed murmurs of applause. The effect of this
+scene upon the mind of Nero, was of course only to awaken feelings
+of vexation and anger. He looked on in moody silence, uttering
+mentally the fiercest threats and denunciations against the object
+of his jealousy, whom he was now compelled to look upon, more than
+ever before, as a dangerous and formidable rival. He determined, in
+fact, that Britannicus should die.
+
+[Footnote B: By some it has been thought that the song which
+Britannicus sung on this occasion was one which he had learned
+before--one perhaps which he had accidentally seen or heard, and
+which had attracted his attention on account of its adaptedness to
+his own case; and there is a song of Ennius, an ancient writer,
+which is sometimes cited as the one he sang on this occasion. Others
+say that the performance was original and extemporaneous; that the
+young prince, excited by his wrongs, and by the peculiar
+circumstances of the occasion, gave utterance to his own feelings in
+words which suggested themselves to him on the spot. To do this
+would require, of course great intellectual readiness and
+ability,--but the difficulty of such a performance would be somewhat
+diminished by the fact, that the ancient poetry was wholly different
+from that of modern times, being marked only by a measured cadence,
+unconnected with rhyme.]
+
+In considering by what means he should undertake to effect his
+purpose, it seemed to Nero most prudent to employ poison. There was
+no pretext whatever for any criminal charge against the young
+prince, and Nero did not dare to resort to open violence. He
+determined, therefore, to resort to poison, and to employ Locusta to
+prepare it.
+
+Locusta, the reader will remember, was the woman whom Agrippina had
+employed for the murder of her husband, Claudius. She was still in
+custody as a convict, being under sentence of death for her crimes.
+She was in the charge of a certain captain named Pollio, an officer
+of the Prętorian guard. Nero sent for Pollio, and directed him to
+procure from his prisoner a poisonous potion suitable for the
+purpose intended. The potion was prepared, and soon afterward it
+was administered. At least it was given to certain attendants that
+were employed about the person of Britannicus, with orders that they
+should administer it. The expected effect, however, was not
+produced. Whether it was because the potion which Locusta had
+prepared was too weak, or because it was not really administered by
+those who received it in charge, no result followed, and Nero was
+greatly enraged. He sent for Pollio, and assailed him with
+reproaches and threats, and as for Locusta, he declared that she
+should be immediately put to death. They were both miserable
+cowards, he said, who had not the firmness to do their duty. Pollio,
+in reply, made the most earnest protestations of his readiness to do
+whatever his master should command. He assured Nero that the failure
+of their attempt was owing entirely to some accidental cause, and
+that if he would give Locusta one more opportunity to make the
+trial, he would guarantee that she would prepare a mixture that
+would kill Britannicus as quick as a dagger would do it.
+
+Nero ordered that this should immediately be done. Locusta was sent
+for, and was shut up with Pollio in an apartment adjoining that of
+the emperor, with directions to make the mixture there, and then to
+administer it forthwith. Their lives were to depend upon the result.
+The poison was soon prepared. There was, however, a serious
+difficulty in the way of administering it, since a potion so sudden
+and violent in its character as this was intended to be, might be
+expected to take immediate effect upon the taster, and so produce an
+alarm which would prevent Britannicus from receiving it. To obviate
+this difficulty, Pollio and Locusta cunningly contrived the
+following plan.
+
+They mixed the poison when it was prepared, with cold water, and put
+it in the pitcher in which cold water was customarily kept in the
+apartment where Britannicus was to take his supper. When the time
+arrived Nero himself came in and took his place upon a couch which
+was standing in the room, with a view of watching the proceedings.
+Some broth was brought in for the prince's supper. The attendant
+whose duty it was, tasted it as usual, and then passed it into the
+prince's hand. Britannicus tasted it, and found it too hot. It had
+been purposely made so. He gave it back to the attendant to be
+cooled. The attendant took it to the pitcher, and cooled it with the
+poisoned water, and then gave it back again to Britannicus without
+asking the taster to taste it again. Britannicus drank the broth. In
+a few minutes the fatal consequences ensued. The unhappy victim sank
+suddenly down in a fainting fit. His eyes became fixed, his limbs
+were paralyzed, his breathing was short and convulsive. The
+attendants rushed toward him to render him assistance, but his life
+was fast ebbing away, and before they could recover from the shock
+which his sudden illness occasioned them, they found that he had
+ceased to breathe.
+
+The event produced, of course, great excitement and commotion
+throughout the palace. Agrippina was immediately summoned, and as
+she stood over the dying child she was overwhelmed with terror and
+distress. Nero, on the other hand, appeared wholly unmoved. "It is
+only one of his epileptic fits," said he. "Britannicus has been
+accustomed to them from infancy. He will soon recover."
+
+As soon, however, as there was no longer any room to question that
+Britannicus was dead, Nero began immediately to make preparations
+for the burial of the body. The remorse which, notwithstanding his
+depravity, he could not but feel at having perpetrated such a crime,
+made him impatient to remove all traces and memorials of it from his
+sight; and, besides, he was afraid to wait the usual period and then
+to make arrangements for a public funeral, lest the truth in respect
+to the death of Britannicus might be suspected by the Romans, and a
+party be formed to revenge his wrongs. Any tendency of this kind
+which might exist would be greatly favored, he knew, by the
+excitement of a public funeral. He determined, therefore, that the
+body should be immediately buried.
+
+There was another reason still for this dispatch. It seems that one
+of the effects of the species of poison which Locusta had
+administered was that the body of the victim was turned black by it
+soon after death. This discoloration, in fact, began to appear in
+the face of the corpse of Britannicus before the time for the
+interment arrived; and Nero, in order to guard against the exposure
+which this phenomenon threatened, ordered the face to be painted of
+the natural color, by means of cosmetics, such as the ladies of the
+court were accustomed to use in those days. By doing this the
+countenance of the dead was restored to its proper color, and
+afterward underwent no further change. Still the emperor was
+naturally impatient to have the body interred.
+
+The preparations were accordingly made that same evening, and in the
+middle of the night the body of Britannicus was buried in the Field
+of Mars, a vast parade-ground in the precincts of the city. In
+addition to the darkness of the night, a violent storm arose, and
+the rain fell in torrents while the interment proceeded. Very few,
+therefore, of the people of the city knew what had occurred until
+the following day. The violence of the storm, however, which
+promoted in one respect the accomplishment of Nero's designs by
+favoring the secrecy of the interment, in another respect operated
+strongly against him, for the face of the corpse became so wet with
+the fallen rain, that the cosmetic was washed away and the blackened
+skin was brought to view. The attendants who had the body in charge
+learned thus that the boy had been poisoned.
+
+On the morning after the funeral the emperor issued a proclamation
+announcing the death and burial of his brother, and calling upon the
+Roman Senate and the Roman people for their sympathy and support in
+the bereavement which he had sustained.
+
+At the time of his death Britannicus was fourteen years old.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE FATE OF AGRIPPINA.
+
+A.D. 55-60
+
+Situation of Agrippina.--Her state of mind.--Nero's views in respect
+to his mother.--Plans and measures adopted by Agrippina.--Nero
+establishes his mother as a private lady.--Agrippina finds herself
+forsaken and friendless.--A plot discovered.--Statement of Paris.--Nero
+is greatly alarmed.--A council called.--Burrus defends
+Agrippina.--Agrippina's indignant answer to the charge.--Return of
+the commissioners to Nero.--Nero is convinced of his mother's
+innocence.--Nero's course of life.--Riots in the street.--Agrippina
+lives in seclusion.--Poppęa.--Her influence over Nero.--Her taunts
+and reproaches.--Effect of them on Nero's mind.--Nero begins to
+desire the death of his mother.--Great naval celebration at
+Misenum.--Anicetus.--Proposal of Anicetus.--Nero is pleased with
+it.--Arrangements for carrying it into effect.--Agrippina goes
+to Baię.--Preparations for destroying Agrippina.--Nero bids his
+mother an affectionate farewell.--Agrippina and her attendant
+on board the barge.--The result of the attempt.--Narrow escape
+of Agrippina.--Agrippina and Aceronia in the sea.--Agrippina
+escapes.--Her message to Nero.--Nero's alarm on bearing of his
+mother's escape.--Consultation with Seneca and Burrus.--Anicetus
+undertakes to finish his work.--Anicetus goes to Agrippina's
+villa.--Conversation.--Agrippina is murdered.--Nero is overwhelmed with
+remorse and horror.--He becomes more calm.--The dead body.--Burning
+of the body of Agrippina.
+
+
+However it may have been with others, Agrippina herself was not
+deceived by the false pretenses which Nero offered in explanation
+of his brother's death. She understood the case too well, and the
+event filled her mind with a tumult of conflicting emotions.
+Notwithstanding the terrible quarrels which had disturbed her
+intercourse with the emperor, he was still her son,--her first-born
+son,--and she loved him as such, even in the midst of the resentment
+and hostility which her disappointed ambition from time to time
+awakened in her mind. Her ambition was now more bitterly
+disappointed than ever. In the death of Britannicus the last link of
+her power over Nero seemed to be forever sundered. The hand by which
+he had fallen was still that of her son,--a son to whom she could
+not but cling with maternal affection, while she felt deeply wounded
+at what she considered his cruel ingratitude toward her, and vexed
+and maddened at finding herself so hopelessly circumvented in all
+her schemes.
+
+As for Nero himself, he had no longer any hope or expectation of
+being on good terms with his mother again. He saw clearly that her
+schemes and plans were wholly incompatible with his, and that in
+order to secure the prosperous accomplishment of his own designs he
+must now finish the work that he had begun, and curtail and restrict
+his mother's influence by every means in his power. Other persons he
+attempted to conciliate. He made splendid presents to the leading
+men of Rome, as bribes to prevent their instituting inquiries in
+respect to the death of Britannicus. To some he gave landed estates,
+to others sums of money, and others still he advanced to high
+offices of civil or military command. Those whom he most feared he
+removed from Rome, by giving them honorable and lucrative
+appointments in distant provinces.
+
+In the mean time Agrippina herself was not idle. As soon as she
+recovered from the first shock which the death of Britannicus had
+occasioned her, she began to think of revenge. Within the limits
+and restrictions which the suspicion and vigilance of Nero imposed
+upon her, she formed a small circle of friends and adherents, and
+sought out, diligently, though secretly, all whom she supposed to be
+disaffected to the government of Nero. She attached herself
+particularly to Octavia, who, being the daughter of Claudius,
+succeeded now, on the death of Britannicus, to whatever hereditary
+rights had been vested in him. She collected money, so far as she
+had power to do so, from all the resources which remained to her,
+and she availed herself of every opportunity to cultivate the
+acquaintance, and court the favor, of all such officers of the army
+as were accessible to her influence. In a word, she seemed to be
+meditating some secret scheme for retrieving her fallen
+fortunes,--and Nero, who watched all her motions with a jealous and
+suspicious eye, began to be alarmed, not knowing to what desperate
+extremes her resentment and ambition might urge her.
+
+Up to this time Agrippina had lived in the imperial palace with
+Nero, forming, with her retinue, a part of his household, and
+sharing of course, in some sense, the official honors paid to him.
+Nero now concluded, however, that he would remove her from this
+position and give her a separate establishment of her own,--making
+it correspond in its appointments with the secondary and subordinate
+station to which he intended thenceforth to confine her. He
+accordingly assigned to her a certain mansion in the city which had
+formerly been occupied by some branch of the imperial family, and
+removed her to it, with all her attendants. He dismissed, however,
+from her service, under various pretexts, such officers and
+adherents as he supposed were most devoted to her interests and most
+disposed to join with her in plots and conspiracies against him. The
+places of those whom he thus superseded were supplied by men on whom
+he could rely for subserviency to him. He diminished too the number
+of Agrippina's attendants and guards; he withdrew the sentinels that
+had been accustomed to guard the gates of her apartments, and
+dismissed a certain corps of German soldiers that had hitherto
+served under her command, as a sort of life-guard. In a word he
+removed her from the scenes of imperial pomp and splendor in which
+she had been accustomed to move, and established her instead in the
+position of a private Roman lady.
+
+The unhappy Agrippina soon found that this change in her position
+made a great change in respect to the degree of consideration and
+regard which was bestowed upon her by the public. The circle of her
+adherents and friends was gradually diminished. Her visitors were
+few. The emperor himself went sometimes to see his mother, but he
+came always attended with a retinue, and after a brief and formal
+interview, he retired as ceremoniously as he came,--thus giving to
+his visit the character simply of a duty of state etiquette. In a
+word, Agrippina found herself forsaken and friendless, and her mind
+gradually sank into a condition of hopeless despondency, vexation
+and chagrin.
+
+Things continued in this state for some time until at length one
+night when Nero had been drinking and carousing at a banquet in his
+palace, a well-known courtier named Paris, one of the principal of
+Nero's companions and favorites, came into the apartment and
+informed the emperor with a countenance expressive of great concern,
+that he had tidings of the most serious moment to communicate to
+him. Nero withdrew from the scene of festivity to receive the
+communication, and was informed by Paris, that a discovery had been
+made of a deep-laid and dangerous plot, which Agrippina and certain
+accomplices of hers had formed. The object of the conspirators, as
+Paris alledged, was to depose Nero, and raise a certain descendant
+of Augustus Cęsar, named Plautus, to the supreme command, in his
+stead. This revolution being effected, Agrippina was to marry the
+new emperor, and thus be restored to her former power.
+
+The statement which Paris made was very full in all its details. The
+names of the chief conspirators were given, and all the plans
+explained. The chief witness on whose authority the charge was made,
+was a celebrated woman of the court, an intimate acquaintance and
+visitor of Agrippina, named Silana. Silana and Agrippina had been
+very warm friends, but a terrible quarrel had recently broken out
+between them, in consequence of some interference on the part of
+Agrippina, to prevent a marriage, which had been partially arranged
+between Silana and a distinguished Roman citizen, from being carried
+into effect. Silana had been exasperated by this ill office, and
+the revelation which she had made had been the result. Whether such
+a conspiracy had really been formed, and Silana had been induced to
+betray the secret in consequence of the injury which Agrippina had
+inflicted upon her in preventing her marriage, or whether she wholly
+invented the story under the impulse of a desperate revenge, was
+never fully known. The historians of the time incline to the latter
+opinion.
+
+However this may be, Nero was greatly alarmed at the communication
+which Paris made to him. He immediately abandoned his festivities
+and carousals, dismissed his guests, and called a council of his
+most confidential advisers, to consider what was to be done. He
+stated the case to this council, and announced it as his
+determination immediately to pronounce sentence of death upon his
+mother and upon Plautus, and to send officers at once to execute the
+decree, as the first step to be taken. Burrus, however, strongly
+dissuaded him from so rash a proceeding. "These are only charges,"
+said he, "at present. We have yet no proofs. An informer has come
+to you at dead of night with this wild and improbable story, and if
+we take it for granted at once that it is true, and allow ourselves
+to act under the influence of excitement and alarm, we should
+afterward regret our rashness when the consequences could not be
+retrieved. Besides, Agrippina is your mother; and as it is the right
+of the humblest person in the commonwealth, when accused of crime,
+to be heard in answer to the accusation, it would be an atrocious
+crime to deprive the mother of the emperor of that privilege.
+Postpone, therefore, pronouncing judgment in this case until we can
+learn the facts more certainly. I pledge myself to execute sentence
+of death on Agrippina, if after a fair hearing, this charge is
+proved against her."
+
+By such arguments and remonstrances as these Nero was in some degree
+appeased, and it was determined to postpone taking any decisive
+action in the emergency until the morning. As soon as it was day,
+Burrus and Seneca, accompanied by several attendants, who were to
+act as witnesses of the interview, were dispatched to the house of
+Agrippina to lay the charge before her and to hear what she had to
+say.
+
+Agrippina was at first somewhat astonished at being summoned at so
+early an hour to give audience to so formidable a commission; but
+her proud spirit had become so fierce and desperate under the
+treatment which she had received from her son, that she was very
+slightly sensible to fear. She listened, therefore, to the heavy
+charge which Burrus brought against her, undismayed; and when he
+paused to hear her reply, instead of excusing and defending herself,
+and deprecating the emperor's displeasure, she commenced the most
+severe and angry invectives against her son, for listening for a
+moment to calumnies against her so wild and improbable. That Silana,
+who was, as she said, a dissolute and unprincipled woman, and who,
+consequently, could have no idea of the strength and the fidelity of
+maternal affection, should think it possible that a mother could
+form plots and conspiracies against an only son, was not strange;
+but that Nero himself, for whom she had made such exertions and
+incurred such dangers, and to whose interests she had surrendered
+and sacrificed every thing that could be dear to the heart of a
+woman--could believe such tales, and actually conceive the design
+of murdering his mother on the faith of them, was not to be endured.
+"Does not he know well," said she, in a voice almost inarticulate
+with excitement and indignation, "that, if by any means,
+Britannicus, or Plautus, or any other man were to be raised to
+power, my life would be immediately forfeited in consequence of what
+I have already done for him? Can he imagine, after the deep and
+desperate crimes which I have committed for his sake, in order that
+I might raise him to his present power, that I could seal my own
+destruction by bringing forward any one of his rivals and enemies to
+his place? Go back and tell him this, and say, moreover, that I
+demand an audience of him. I am his mother; and I have a right to
+expect that he shall see me himself, and hear what I have to say."
+
+The commissioners whom Nero had sent with the accusations, were
+somewhat astonished at receiving these angry denunciations and
+invectives in reply, instead of the meek and faltering defense which
+they had expected. They were overawed, too, by the lofty and
+passionate energy with which Agrippina had spoken. They answered her
+with soothing and conciliatory words, and then went back to Nero,
+and reported the result of their interview.
+
+Nero consented to see his mother. In his presence she assumed the
+same tone of proud and injured innocence, that had characterized her
+interview with the messengers. She scorned to enter into any
+vindication of herself; but _assumed_ that she was innocent, and
+demanded that her accusers should be punished as persons guilty of
+the most atrocious calumny. Nero was convinced of her innocence, and
+yielded to her demands. Silana and two others of her accusers, were
+banished from Rome. Another still was punished with death.
+
+Thus a sort of temporary and imperfect peace was once more
+established between Nero and his mother.
+
+This state of things continued for about the space of three years.
+During this time, the public affairs of the empire, as conducted by
+the ministers of state and the military generals, to whom Nero
+intrusted them, went on with tolerable prosperity and success, while
+in every thing that related to personal conduct and character, the
+condition of the emperor was becoming every day more and more
+deplorable. He spent his days in sloth and sensual stupor, and his
+nights in the wildest riot and debauchery. He used to disguise
+himself as a slave, and sally forth at midnight with a party of his
+companions similarly attired, into the streets of the city,
+disturbing the night with riot and noise. Sometimes they would go
+out at an earlier hour,--while the people were in the streets and
+the shops were open,--and amuse themselves with seizing the goods
+and merchandise that they found offered for sale, and assaulting all
+that came in their way. In these frolics, the emperor and his party
+were met sometimes by other parties; and in the brawls which ensued
+Nero was frequently handled very roughly--his opponents not knowing
+who he was. At one time he was knocked down and very seriously
+wounded; and in consequence of this adventure, his face was for a
+long time disfigured with a scar.
+
+Although in these orgies Nero went generally in disguise, yet as he
+and his companions were accustomed afterward to boast of their
+exploits, it soon became generally known to the people of the city
+that their young emperor was in the habit of mingling in these
+midnight brawls. Of course every wild and dissolute young man in
+Rome was fired with an ambition to imitate the example set him by so
+exalted an authority. Midnight riots became the fashion. As the
+parties grew larger, the brawls which occurred in the streets became
+more and more serious, until at last Nero was accustomed to take
+with him a gang of soldiers and gladiators in disguise, who were
+instructed to follow him within call, so as to be ready to come up
+instantly to his aid whenever he should require their assistance.
+
+Year after year passed away in this manner, Nero abandoning himself
+all the time to the grossest sensual pleasures, and growing more and
+more reckless and desperate every day. His mother lived during this
+period in comparative seclusion. She attempted to exercise some
+little restraint over her son, but without success. She attached
+herself strongly to Octavia, the wife of Nero, and would have
+defended her, if she could, from the injuries and wrongs which the
+conduct of Nero as a husband heaped upon her.
+
+At length the young emperor, in following his round of vicious
+indulgence, formed an intimacy with a certain lady of the court
+named Poppęa, the wife of Otho, one of Nero's companions in
+pleasure. Nero sent Otho away on some distant appointment, in order
+that he might enjoy the society of Poppęa without restraint. At
+length Poppęa gained so great an ascendency over the mind of the
+emperor as to seduce him entirely away from his duty to his wife,
+and she proposed that they should both be divorced and then marry
+one another. Nero was inclined to accede to this proposal, but
+Agrippina strongly opposed it. For a time Nero hesitated between the
+influence of Agrippina and the sentiment of duty, on the one hand,
+and the enticements of Poppęa on the other. In addition to the
+influence of her blandishments and smiles, she attempted to act upon
+Nero's boyish pride by taunting him with what she called his
+degrading and unmanly subjection to his mother. How long, she asked,
+was he to remain like a child under maternal tutelage? She wondered
+how he could endure so ignoble a bondage. He was in name and
+position, she said, a mighty monarch, reigning absolutely over half
+the world,--but in actual fact he was a mere nursery boy, who could
+do nothing without his mother's leave. She was ashamed, she said, to
+see him in so humiliating a condition; and unless he would take some
+vigorous measures to free himself from his chains, she declared that
+she would leave him forever, and go with her husband to some distant
+quarter of the world where she could no longer be a witness of his
+disgrace.
+
+The effect of these taunts upon the mind of Nero was very much
+heightened by the proud and imperious spirit which his mother
+manifested toward him, and which seemed to become more and more
+stern and severe, through the growing desperation which the conduct
+of her son and her own hopeless condition seemed to awaken in her
+mind. The quarrel, in a word, between the emperor and his mother
+grew more and more inveterate and hopeless every day. At length he
+shunned her entirely, and finally, every remaining spark of filial
+duty having become extinguished, he began to meditate some secret
+plan of removing her out of his way.
+
+He revolved various projects for accomplishing this purpose, in his
+mind. He did not dare to employ open violence, as he had no charge
+against his mother to justify a criminal sentence against her; and
+he dreaded the effect upon the public mind which would be produced
+by the spectacle of so unnatural a deed as the execution of a mother
+by command of her son. He could not trust to poison. Agrippina was
+perfectly familiar with every thing relating to the poisoning art,
+and would doubtless be fully on her guard against any attempt of
+that kind that he might make. Besides, he supposed, that by means of
+certain antidotes which she was accustomed to use, her system was
+permanently fortified against the action of every species of poison.
+
+While Nero was revolving these things in his mind, the occasion
+occurred for a great naval celebration at Baię, a beautiful bay
+south of Rome, near what is now the bay of Naples. Baię was
+celebrated in ancient times, as it is in fact now, for the beauty of
+its situation, and it was a place of great resort for the Roman
+nobility. There was a small, but well-built town at the head of the
+bay, and the hills and valleys in the vicinity, as well as every
+headland and promontory along the shore, were ornamented with villas
+and country-seats, which were occupied as summer residences by the
+wealthy people of the city. Baię was also a great naval station, and
+there was at this time a fleet stationed there,--or rather at the
+promontory of Misenum, a few miles beyond,--under the command of one
+of Nero's confidential servants, named Anicetus. The naval
+celebration was to take place in connection with this fleet. It was
+an annual festival, and was to continue five days.
+
+Anicetus had been a personal attendant upon Nero in his infancy, and
+had lived always in habits of great intimacy with him. For some
+reason or other, too, he was a great enemy to Agrippina, having been
+always accustomed, when Nero was a child, to take his part in the
+little contests which had arisen, from time to time, between him and
+his mother. Anicetus was of course prepared to sympathize very
+readily with Nero in the hatred which he now cherished toward
+Agrippina, and when he learned that Nero was desirous of devising
+some means of accomplishing her death, he formed a plan which he
+said would effect the purpose very safely. He proposed to invite
+Agrippina to Baię, and then, in the course of the ceremonies and
+manoeuvers connected with the naval spectacle, to take her out
+upon the bay in a barge or galley. He would have the barge so
+constructed, he said, that it should go to pieces at sea, making
+arrangements beforehand for saving the lives of the others, but
+leaving Agrippina to be drowned.
+
+Nero was greatly pleased with this device, and determined at once to
+adopt the plan. In order to open the way for carrying it into
+effect, he pretended, when the time for the festival drew nigh, that
+he desired to be reconciled to his mother, and that he was ready now
+to fall in with her wishes and plans. He begged her to forget all
+his past unkindness to her, and assuring her that his feelings
+toward her were now wholly changed, he lavished upon her expressions
+of the tenderest regard. A mother is always very easily deceived by
+such protestations on the part of a wayward son, and Agrippina
+believed all that Nero said to her. In a word, the reconciliation
+seemed to be complete.
+
+At length, when the time for the naval festival drew nigh, Nero, who
+was then at Baię, sent an invitation to his mother to come and join
+him in witnessing the spectacle. Agrippina readily consented to
+accept the invitation. She was at this time at Antium, the place,
+it will be recollected, where Nero was born. She accordingly set
+sail from this place in her own galley, and proceeded to the
+southward. She landed at one of the villas in the neighborhood of
+Baię. Nero was ready upon the shore to meet her. He received her
+with every demonstration of respect and affection. He had provided
+quarters for her at Baię, and there was a splendid barge ready to
+convey her thither; the plan being that she should embark on board
+this barge, and leave her own galley,--that is the one by which she
+had come in from sea,--at anchor at the villa where she landed. The
+barge in which Agrippina was thus invited to embark, was the
+treacherous trap that Anicetus had contrived for her destruction. It
+was, however, to all appearance, a very splendid vessel, being very
+richly and beautifully decorated, as if expressly intended to do
+honor to the distinguished passenger whom it was designed to convey.
+
+Agrippina, however, did not seem inclined to go in the barge. She
+preferred proceeding to Baię by land. Perhaps, notwithstanding
+Nero's apparent friendliness she felt still some misgivings, and
+was afraid to trust herself entirely to his power,--or perhaps she
+preferred to finish her journey by land only because, in making the
+passage from Antium, she had become tired of the sea. However this
+may have been, Nero acquiesced at once in her decision, and provided
+a sort of sedan for conveying her to Baię by land. In this sedan she
+was carried accordingly, by bearers to Baię, and there lodged in the
+apartments provided for her.
+
+No favorable opportunity occurred for taking Agrippina out upon the
+water until the time arrived for her return to Antium. During the
+time of her stay at Baię, Nero devoted himself to her with the most
+assiduous attention. He prepared magnificent banquets for her, and
+entertained her with a great variety of amusements and diversions.
+In his conversation he sometimes addressed her with a familiar
+playfulness and gayety, and at other times he sought occasions to
+discourse with her seriously on public affairs, in a private and
+confidential manner. Agrippina was completely deceived by these
+indications, and her heart was filled with pride and joy at the
+thought that she had regained the affection and confidence of her
+son.
+
+Nero and Anicetus determined finally to put their plan into
+execution by inducing Agrippina to embark on board their barge in
+returning to Antium, when the time should arrive, instead of going
+back in her own vessel. Their other attempts to induce her to go out
+upon the water had failed, and this was the only opportunity that
+now remained. It was desirable that this embarkation should take
+place in the night, as the deed which they were contemplating could
+be more effectually accomplished under the cover of the darkness.
+Accordingly, on the afternoon of the day on which Agrippina was to
+return, Nero prepared a banquet for her, and he protracted the
+festivities and entertainments which attended it until late in the
+evening, so that it was wholly dark before his mother could take her
+leave. Anicetus then contrived to have one of the vessels of his
+fleet run against the galley in which Agrippina had come from
+Antium, as it lay at anchor near the shore at the place where she
+had landed. The galley was broken down and disabled by the
+collision. Anicetus came to Agrippina to report the accident, with
+a countenance expressive of much concern; but added that the barge
+which the emperor had prepared for her was at her service, and
+proposed to substitute that in the place of the one which had been
+injured. There seemed to be no other alternative, and Agrippina,
+after taking a very affectionate leave of her son, went gayly, and
+wholly unconscious of danger, on board the beautiful but treacherous
+vessel.
+
+It was observed that Nero exhibited an extreme degree of tender
+regard for his mother in bidding her farewell on this occasion. He
+hung upon her neck a long time, and kissed her again and again,
+detaining her by these endearments on the shore, as if reluctant to
+let her go. After Agrippina's death this scene was remembered by
+those who witnessed it, but in reflecting upon it they could not
+decide whether these tokens of affection were all assumed, as
+belonging to the part which he was so hypocritically acting, or
+whether he really felt at the last moment some filial relentings,
+which led him to detain his mother for a time on the brink of the
+pit which he had been preparing for her destruction. From all,
+however, that we now know in respect to the personal character which
+Nero had formed at this period, it is probable that the former is
+the correct supposition.
+
+The plot, dextrous as the contrivance of it had been, was not
+destined to succeed. The vessel moved gently from the shore, rowed
+by the mariners. It was a clear starlight night. The sea was smooth,
+and the air was calm. Agrippina took her place upon a couch which
+had been arranged for her, under a sort of canopy or awning, the
+frame-work of which, above, had been secretly loaded with lead. She
+was attended here by one of her ladies named Aceronia Polla, who lay
+at her mistress's feet, and entertained her with conversation as the
+boat glided along on its way. They talked of Nero--of the kind
+attentions which he had been paying to Agrippina, and of the various
+advantages which were to follow from the reconciliation which had
+been so happily effected. In this manner the hours passed away, and
+the barge went on until it reached the place which had been
+determined upon for breaking it down and casting Agrippina into the
+sea. The spot which had been chosen was so near the land as to allow
+of the escape of the mariners by swimming, but yet remote enough,
+as was supposed, to make Agrippina's destruction sure. A few of the
+mariners were in the secret, and were in some degree prepared for
+what was to come. Others knew nothing, and were expected to save
+themselves as they best could, when they should find themselves cast
+into the sea.
+
+At a given signal the fastenings of the canopy were loosened, and
+the loaded structure came down suddenly with a heavy crash, carrying
+away with it other parts of the vessel. One man was crushed under
+the weight of the falling ruins, and instantly killed. Agrippina and
+the lady in waiting upon her were saved by the posts of the bed or
+couch on which Agrippina was reclining, which happened to be in such
+a position that they held up the impending mass sufficiently to
+allow the ladies to creep out from beneath it. The breaking down,
+too, of the deck and bulwarks of the barge was less extensive than
+had been intended, so that Agrippina not only escaped being crushed
+by the ruins but she also saved herself at first from being thrown
+into the sea. The men then who were in the secret of the plot
+immediately raised a great cry and confusion, and attempted to
+upset the barge by climbing up upon one side of it--while the
+others, who did not understand the case, did all they could to save
+it. In the mean time the noise of the outcries reached the shore,
+and fishermen's boats began to put off with a view of coming to the
+rescue of the distressed vessel. Before they arrived, however, the
+boat had been overturned, Agrippina and Aceronia had been thrown
+into the sea, and the men who were in the secret of the plot, taking
+advantage of the darkness and confusion, were endeavoring to seal
+the fate of their victims, by beating them down with poles and oars
+as they struggled in the water.
+
+[Illustration: THE ATTEMPT OF ANICETUS.]
+
+These efforts succeeded in the case of Aceronia, for she uttered
+loud and continual outcries in her terror, and thus drew upon
+herself the blows of the assassins. Agrippina, on the other hand,
+had the presence of mind to keep silence. She received one heavy
+blow upon the shoulder, which inflicted a serious wound. In other
+respects she escaped uninjured, and succeeded, partly through the
+buoyancy of her dress, and partly by the efforts that she made to
+swim, in keeping herself afloat until she was taken up by the
+fishermen and conveyed to the shore. She was taken to a villa
+belonging to her, which was situated not far from the place where
+the disaster had occurred.
+
+As soon as Agrippina had recovered a little from the terror and
+excitement of this scene, and had time to reflect upon the
+circumstances of it, she was convinced that what had occurred was no
+accident, but the result of a deep-laid design to destroy her life.
+She, however, thought it most prudent to dissemble her opinion for a
+time. As soon therefore as she had safely reached her villa, and her
+wound had been dressed, she dispatched a messenger to Baię to inform
+Nero of what had occurred. The vessel in which she had embarked had
+been wrecked at sea, she said, and she had narrowly escaped
+destruction. She had received a severe hurt, by some falling spar,
+but had at length safely reached her home at Antium. She begged,
+however, that her son would not come to see her, as what she needed
+most was repose. She had sent the messenger, she said, to inform him
+of what had occurred only that he might rejoice with her in the
+signal interposition of divine providence by which she had been
+rescued from so imminent a danger.
+
+In the mean time Nero was waiting impatiently and anxiously in his
+palace at Baię, for the arrival of a messenger from Anicetus to
+inform him that his plot had been successful, and that his mother
+was drowned. Instead of this a rumor of her escape reached him some
+time before Agrippina's messenger arrived, and threw him into
+consternation. People came from the coast and informed him that the
+barge in which his mother had sailed had been wrecked, and that
+Agrippina had narrowly escaped with her life. The particulars were
+not fully given to him, but he presumed that Agrippina must have
+learned that the occurrence was the result of a deliberate attempt
+to destroy her, and he was consequently very much alarmed. He
+dreaded the desperate spirit of resentment and revenge which he
+presumed had been aroused in his mother's mind.
+
+He forthwith sent for Burrus and Seneca, and revealed to them all
+the circumstances of the case. He made the most bitter accusations
+against his mother, in justification of his attempt to destroy her.
+He had long been convinced, he said, that there could be no peace
+or safety for him as long as she lived, and now, at all events,
+since he had undertaken the work of destroying her and made the
+attempt, no alternative was left to him but to go on and finish what
+he had begun. "She must die now," said he, "or she will most
+assuredly contrive some means to destroy me."
+
+Seneca and Burrus were silent. They knew not what to say. They saw
+very clearly that a crisis had arrived, the end of which would be,
+that one or the other must perish, and consequently the only
+question for them to decide was, whether the victim should be the
+mother or the son. At length, after a long and solemn pause, Seneca
+looked to Burrus, and inquired whether the soldiers under his
+command could be relied upon to execute death upon Agrippina. Burrus
+shook his head. The soldiers, he said, felt such a veneration for
+the family of Germanicus, which was the family from which Agrippina
+had sprung, that they would perform no such bloody work upon any
+representative of it. "Besides," said he, "Anicetus has undertaken
+this duty. It devolves on him to finish what he has begun."
+
+Anicetus readily undertook the task. He had, in fact, a personal
+interest in it, for, after what had passed, he knew well that there
+could be no safety for him while Agrippina lived. Nero seemed
+overjoyed at finding Anicetus so ready to meet his wishes. "Be
+prompt," said he, "in doing what you have to do. Take with you whom
+you please to assist you. If you accomplish the work, I shall
+consider that I owe my empire to your fidelity."
+
+Anicetus, having thus received his commission, ordered a small
+detachment from the fleet to accompany him, and proceeded to the
+villa where Agrippina had taken refuge. He found a crowd of country
+people assembled around the gates of the villa. They had been drawn
+thither by the tidings of the disaster which had happened to
+Agrippina, curious to learn all the particulars of the occurrence,
+or desirous, perhaps, to congratulate Agrippina on her escape. When
+these peasantry saw the armed band of Anicetus approaching, they
+know not what it meant, but were greatly alarmed, and fled in all
+directions.
+
+The guards at the gates of Agrippina's villa made some resistance
+to the entrance of the soldiers, but they were soon knocked down and
+overpowered; the gates were burst open, and Anicetus entered at the
+head of his party of marines. Agrippina, who was upon her bed in an
+inner chamber at the time, heard the noise and tumult, and was
+greatly alarmed. A number of friends who were with her, hearing the
+footsteps of the armed men on the stairs, fled from the chamber in
+dismay, by a private door, leaving Agrippina alone with her maid.
+The maid, after a moment's pause, fled too, Agrippina saying to her
+as she disappeared, "Are you, too, going to forsake me?" At the same
+moment, Anicetus forced open the door of entrance, and came in
+accompanied by two of his officers. The three armed men, with an
+expression of fierce and relentless determination upon their
+countenances, advanced to Agrippina's bedside.
+
+Agrippina was greatly terrified, but she preserved some degree of
+outward composure, and raising herself in her bed, she looked
+steadily upon her assassins.
+
+"Do you come from my son?" said she.
+
+They did not answer.
+
+"If you came to inquire how I am," said she, "tell him that I am
+better, and shall soon be entirely well. I can not believe that he
+can possibly have sent you to do me any violence or harm."
+
+At this instant one of the assassins struck at the wretched mother
+with his club. The arm, however, of the most hardened and
+unrelenting monster, usually falters somewhat at the beginning, in
+doing such work as this, and the blow gave Agrippina only an
+inconsiderable wound. She saw at once, however, that all was
+lost--that the bitter moment of death had come,--but instead of
+yielding to the emotions of terror and despair which might have been
+expected to overwhelm the heart of a woman in such a scene, her
+fierce and indomitable spirit aroused itself to new life and vigor
+in the terrible emergency. As the assassins approached her with
+their swords brandished in the air, preparing to strike her, she
+threw the bed-clothes off, so as to uncover her person, and called
+upon her murderers to strike her in the womb. "It is there," said
+she, "that the stab should be given when a mother is to be murdered
+by her son." She was instantly thrust through with a multitude of
+wounds in every part of her body, and died weltering in the blood
+that flowed out upon the couch on which she lay.
+
+Anicetus and his comrades, when the deed was done, gazed for a
+moment on the lifeless body, and then gathering together again the
+soldiers that they had left at the gates, they went back to Baię
+with the tidings. The first emotion which Nero experienced, on
+hearing that all was over, was that of relief. He soon found,
+however, that monster as he was, his conscience was not yet so
+stupefied, that he could perpetrate such a deed as this without
+bringing out her scourge. As soon as he began to reflect upon what
+he had done, his soul was overwhelmed with remorse and horror. He
+passed the remainder of the night in dreadful agony, sometimes
+sitting silent and motionless--gazing into vacancy, as if his
+faculties were bewildered and lost, and then suddenly starting up,
+amazed and trembling, and staring wildly about, as if seized with a
+sudden frenzy. His wild and ghastly looks, his convulsive
+gesticulations, and his incoherent ravings and groans, indicated the
+horror that he endured, and were so frightful that his officers and
+attendants shrunk away from his presence, and knew not what to do.
+
+At length they sent in one after another to attempt to calm and
+console him. Their efforts, however, were attended with little
+success. When the morning came, it brought with it some degree of
+composure; but the dreadful burden of guilt which pressed upon
+Nero's mind made him still unutterably wretched. He said that he
+could not endure any longer to remain on the spot, as every thing
+that he saw, the villas, the ships, the sea, the shore, and all the
+other objects around him, were so associated in his mind with the
+thought of his mother, and with the remembrance of his dreadful
+crime, that he could not endure them.
+
+In the mean time, as soon as the servants and attendants at
+Agrippina's villa found that Anicetus and his troop had gone, they
+returned to the chamber of their mistress and gazed upon the
+spectacle which awaited them there, with inexpressible horror.
+Anicetus had left some of his men behind to attend to the disposal
+of the body, as it was important that it should be removed from
+sight without delay, since it might be expected that all who should
+look upon it would be excited to a high pitch of indignation against
+the perpetrators of such a crime. The countenance, in the condition
+of repose which it assumed after death, appeared extremely
+beautiful, and seemed to address a mute but touching appeal to the
+commiseration of every beholder. It was necessary, therefore, to
+hurry it away. Besides, the soldiers themselves were impatient. They
+wished to get through with their horrid work and be gone.
+
+They accordingly built a funeral pile in the garden of the
+villa,--using such materials for the purpose as came most readily to
+hand--and then took up the body of Agrippina on the bed upon which
+it lay, and placed all together upon the pile. The fires were
+lighted. The soldiers watched by the side of it until the pile was
+nearly consumed, and then went away, leaving the heart-broken
+domestics of Agrippina around the smoldering embers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+EXTREME DEPRAVITY.
+
+A.D. 62-64
+
+The atrocity of Nero's crime in murdering Agrippina.--Nero's messages
+to the senate.--Action of the senate.--Nero divorces Octavia and
+marries Poppęa.--Octavia banished from Rome.--Anicetus.--Octavia's
+unhappy destiny.--Charges against her.--She is put to death.--Extreme
+depravity.--Nero recovers from his remorse.--His various
+crimes.--Public affairs neglected.--His performances on the
+stage.--Musical training.--Nero's success.--His trained
+applauders.--Rules and regulations at the theater.--Races and
+games.--Nero generally the victor.--His private conduct and
+character.--His midnight brawls.--Rioting and excess.--His great
+feasts.--The artificial lake.--Immense sums of money expended by
+Nero.--His favorites.--His excursions to Ostia.--The burning of
+Rome.--Nero accused of being the incendiary.--His probable
+motives.--He comes to see the fire.--He celebrates the occasion by a
+song.
+
+
+There was nothing in the attendant circumstances that were connected
+with the act of Nero in murdering his mother, which could palliate
+or extenuate the deed in the slightest degree. It was not an act of
+self-defense. Agrippina was not doing him, or intending to do him
+any injury. It was not an act of hasty violence, prompted by sudden
+passion. It was not required by any political necessity as a means
+for accomplishing some great and desirable public end. It was a
+cool, deliberate, and well-considered crime, performed solely for
+the purpose of removing from the path of the perpetrator of it an
+obstacle to the commission of another crime. Nero murdered his
+mother in cool blood, simply because she was in the way of his plans
+for divorcing his innocent wife, and marrying adulterously another
+woman.
+
+For some time after the commission of this great crime, the mind of
+Nero was haunted by dreadful fears, and he suffered continually, by
+day and by night, all the pangs of remorse and horror. He did not
+dare to return to Rome, not knowing to what height the popular
+indignation, that would be naturally excited by so atrocious a deed,
+might rise; or what might be the consequences to him if he were to
+appear in the city. He accordingly remained for a time on the coast
+at Neapolis, the town to which he had retired from Baię. From this
+place he sent various communications to the Roman Senate, explaining
+and justifying what he called the execution of his mother. He
+pretended that he had found her guilty of treasonable conspiracies
+against him and against the state, and that her death had been
+imperiously demanded, as the only means of securing the public
+safety. The senators hated Nero and abhorred his crimes; but they
+were overawed by the terrible power which he exercised over them
+through the army, which they knew was entirely subservient to his
+will, and by their dread of his ruthless and desperate character.
+They passed resolves approving of what he had done. His officers and
+favorites at Rome sent him word that the memory of Agrippina was
+abhorred at the capital, and that in destroying her, he was
+considered as having rendered a great service to the state. These
+representations in some measure reassured his mind, and at length he
+returned to the city.
+
+In due time he divorced Octavia, and married Poppęa. Octavia,
+however, still remained at Rome, residing in apartments assigned her
+in one of the imperial palaces. Her high birth and distinguished
+position, and, more than all, the sympathy that was felt for her in
+her misfortunes, made her an object of great attention. The people
+put garlands upon her statues in the public places in the city, and
+pulled down those which were placed at Nero's command upon those of
+Poppęa. These and other indications of the popular feeling, inflamed
+Poppęa's hatred and jealousy to such a degree, that she suborned one
+of Octavia's domestics to accuse her mistress of an ignominious
+crime. When thus accused, other women in Octavia's service were put
+to the rack to compel them to testify against her. They, however,
+persevered, in the midst of their tortures, in asserting her
+innocence. Poppęa, nevertheless, insisted that she should be
+condemned, and at last, by way of compromising the case, Nero
+consented to banish her from the city.
+
+She was sent to a villa on the sea-coast, in the neighborhood of the
+place where Anicetus was stationed with his fleet. But Poppęa would
+not allow her to live in peace even as an exile. She soon brought a
+charge against her of having formed a conspiracy against the
+government of Nero, and of having corrupted Anicetus, with a view of
+obtaining the co-operation of the fleet in the execution of
+treasonable designs. Anicetus himself testified to the truth of this
+charge. He said that Octavia had formed such a plan, and that she
+had given herself up, in person, wholly to him, in order to induce
+him to join in it. Octavia was accordingly condemned to die.
+
+Notwithstanding the testimony of Anicetus, Octavia was not at the
+time generally believed to be guilty of the charge on which she was
+condemned. It was supposed that Anicetus was induced, by promises
+and bribes from Nero and Poppęa, to fabricate the story, in order
+that they might have a pretext for putting Octavia to death. However
+this may be, the unhappy princess was condemned, and the sentence
+pronounced upon her was, that she must die.
+
+The life of Octavia, lofty as her position was in respect to earthly
+grandeur, had been one of uninterrupted suffering and sorrow. She
+had been married to Nero when a mere child, and during the whole
+period of her connection with her husband he had treated her with
+continual unkindness and neglect. She had at length been cruelly
+divorced from him, and banished from her native city on charges of
+the most ignominious nature, though wholly false--and before this
+last accusation was made against her there seemed to be nothing
+before her but the prospect of spending the remainder of her days in
+a miserable and hopeless exile. Still she clung to life, and when
+the messengers of Nero came to tell her that she must die, she was
+overwhelmed with agitation and terror.
+
+She begged and implored them with tears and agony, to spare her
+life. She would never, she said, give the emperor any trouble, or
+interfere in any way with any of his plans. She gave up willingly
+all claims to being his wife, and would always consider herself as
+only his sister. She would live in retirement and seclusion in any
+place where Nero might appoint her abode, and would never occasion
+him the slightest uneasiness whatever. The executioners cut short
+these entreaties by seizing the unhappy princess in the midst of
+them, binding her limbs with thongs, and opening her veins. She
+fainted, however, under this treatment, and when the veins were
+opened the wretched victim lay passive and insensible in the hands
+of her executioners, and the blood would not flow. So they carried
+her to a steam-bath which happened to be in readiness near at hand,
+and shutting her up in it, left her to be suffocated by the vapor.
+
+Thus the great crowning crime of Nero's life,--for the murder of
+Agrippina, the adulterous marriage with Poppęa, and the subsequent
+murder of Octavia, are to be regarded as constituting one single
+though complicated crime,--was consummate and complete. It was a
+crime of the highest possible atrocity. To open the way to an
+adulterous marriage by the deliberate and cruel murder of a mother,
+and then to seal and secure it by murdering an innocent
+wife,--blackening her memory at the same time with an ignominy
+wholly undeserved, constitute a crime which for unnatural and
+monstrous enormity must be considered as standing at the head of all
+that human depravity has ever achieved.
+
+Nero gradually recovered from the remorse and horror with which the
+commission of these atrocities at first overwhelmed him; and in
+order to hasten his relief he plunged recklessly into every species
+of riot and excess, and in the end hardened himself so completely in
+crime, that during the remainder of his life he perpetrated the most
+abominable deeds without any apparent compunction whatever. He
+killed Poppęa herself at last with a kick, which he gave her in a
+fit of passion at a time when circumstances were such with her that
+the violence brought on a premature and unnatural sickness. He
+afterward ordered her son to be drowned in the sea, by his slaves,
+when he was a-fishing, because he understood that the boy, in
+playing with the other children, often acted the part of an emperor.
+His general Burrus he poisoned. He sent him the poison under
+pretense that it was a medical remedy for a swelling of the throat
+under which Burrus was suffering. Burrus drank the draught under
+that impression and died. He destroyed by similar means in the
+course of his life great numbers of his relatives and officers of
+state, so that there was scarcely a person who was brought into any
+degree of intimate connection with him that did not sooner or later
+come to a violent end.
+
+During his whole reign Nero neglected the public affairs of the
+empire almost altogether,--apparently regarding the vast power, and
+the immense resources that were at his command, as only means for
+the more complete gratification of his own personal propensities and
+passions. The only ambition which ever appeared to animate him was a
+desire for fame as a singer and actor on the stage.
+
+At the time when he commenced his career it was considered wholly
+beneath the dignity of any Roman of rank to appear in any public
+performance of that nature; but Nero, having conceived in his youth
+a high idea of his merit as a singer, devoted himself with great
+assiduity to the cultivation of his voice, and, as he was encouraged
+in what he did by the flatterers that of course were always around
+him, his interest in the musical art became at length an extravagant
+passion. He submitted with the greatest patience to the rigorous
+training customary in those times for the development and
+improvement of the voice; such as lying for long periods upon his
+back, with a weight of lead upon his breast, in order to force the
+muscles of the chest to extraordinary exertion, for the purpose of
+strengthening them--and taking medicines of various kinds to clear
+the voice and reduce the system. He was so much pleased with the
+success of these efforts, that he began to feel a great desire to
+perform in public upon the stage. He accordingly began to make
+arrangements for doing this. He first appeared in private
+exhibitions, in the imperial palaces and gardens, where only the
+nobility of Rome and invited guests were present. He, however,
+gradually extended his audiences, and at length came out upon the
+public stage,--first, however, in order to prepare the public mind
+for what they would have otherwise considered a great degradation,
+inducing the sons of some of the principal nobility to come forward
+in similar entertainments. He was so pleased with the success which
+he imagined that he met with in this career that he devoted a large
+part of his time during his whole life to such performances. Of
+course, his love of applause in his theatrical career, increased
+much too fast to be satisfied with the natural and ordinary means of
+gratifying it, and he accordingly made arrangements, most absurdly,
+to create for his performances a fictitious and counterfeit
+celebrity. At one time he had a corps of five thousand men under pay
+to applaud him, in the immense circuses and amphitheaters where he
+performed. These men were regularly trained to the work of
+applauding, as if it were an art to be acquired by study and
+instruction. It _was_ an art, in fact, as they practiced
+it,--different modes of applause being designated for different
+species of merit, and the utmost precision being required on the
+part of the performers, in the concert of their action, and in their
+obedience to the signals. He used also to require on the days when
+he was to perform, that the doors of the theater should be closed
+when the audience had assembled, and no egress allowed on any
+pretext whatever. Such regulations of course excited great
+complaint, and much ridicule; especially as the sessions at these
+spectacles were sometimes protracted and tiresome to the last
+degree. Even sudden sickness was not a sufficient reason for
+allowing a spectator to depart, and so it was said that the people
+used sometimes to feign death, in order to be carried out to their
+burial. In some cases, it was said, births took place in the
+theaters, the mothers having come incautiously with the crowd to
+witness the spectacles, without properly considering what might be
+the effect of the excitement, and then afterward not being permitted
+to retire.
+
+Besides singing and acting on the stage, Nero took part in every
+other species of public amusement. He entered as a competitor for
+the prize in races and games of every kind. Of course he always came
+off victor. This end was accomplished sometimes by the secret
+connivance of the other competitors, and sometimes by open bribery
+of the judges. Nero's ridiculous vanity and self-conceit seemed to
+be fully gratified by receiving the prize, without any regard
+whatever to the question of deserving it. He used to come back
+sometimes from journeys to foreign cities, where he had been
+performing on the stage at great public festivals, and enter Rome in
+triumph, with the garlands, and crowns, and other decorations which
+he had won, paraded before him in the procession, in the manner in
+which distinguished commanders had been accustomed to display the
+trophies of their military victories, when returning from foreign
+campaigns.
+
+In fact it was only in the perpetration of such miserable follies as
+these that Nero appeared before the public at all, and in his
+private conduct and character he sank very rapidly, after he came
+into power, to the very lowest degree of profligacy and vice. After
+having spent the evening in drinking and debauchery, he would sally
+forth into the streets at midnight, as has already been stated, to
+mingle there with the vilest men and women of the town in brawls and
+riots. On these excursions he would attack such peaceable parties as
+he chanced to meet in the streets, and if they made resistance, he
+and his companions would beat them down and throw them into canals
+or open sewers. Sometimes in these combats he was beaten himself,
+and on one occasion he came very near losing his life, having been
+almost killed by the blows dealt upon him by a certain Roman
+senator, whose wife he insulted as she was walking with her husband
+in the street. The senator, of course, did not know him. He used to
+go to the theater in disguise, in company with a gang of companions
+of similar character to himself, and watch for opportunities to
+excite or encourage riots or tumults there. Whenever he could
+succeed in urging these tumults on to actual violence he would
+mingle in the fray, and throw stones and fragments of broken benches
+and furniture among the people.
+
+After a while, when he had grown more bold and desperate in his
+wickedness, he began to lay aside all disguise, and at last he
+actually seemed to take a pride and pleasure in exhibiting the
+scenes of riot and excess in which he engaged, in the most impudent
+manner before the public gaze. He used to celebrate great feasts in
+the public amphitheaters, and on the arena of the circus, and
+carouse there in company with the most dissolute men and women of
+the city--a spectacle to the whole population. There was a large
+artificial lake or reservoir in one part of the city, built for the
+purpose of exhibiting mimic representations of the manoeuvers of
+fleets, and naval battles, for the amusement of the people at great
+public celebrations. There were, of course, numerous ranges of seats
+around the margin of this lake for the accommodation of the
+spectators. Nero took possession of this structure for some of his
+carousals, in order to obtain greater scope for ostentation and
+display. The water was drawn off on such occasions and the gates
+shut, and then the bottom of the reservoir was floored over to make
+space for the tables.
+
+The sums of money which Nero spent in the pursuit of sensual
+pleasures were incalculable. In fact there were no bounds to his
+extravagance and profusion. He had command, of course, of all the
+treasure of the empire, and he procured immense sums besides, by
+fines, confiscations, and despotic exactions of various kinds; and
+as he undertook no public enterprises--being seldom engaged in
+foreign wars, and seldom attempting any useful constructions in the
+city--the vast resources at his command were wholly devoted to the
+purposes of ostentatious personal display, and sensual
+gratifications. The pomp and splendor of his feasts, his
+processions, his journeys of pleasure, and the sums that he is said
+to have lavished sometimes in money and jewels, and sometimes in
+villas, gardens, and equipages, upon his favorites, both male and
+female, are almost incredible. On some of the pleasure excursions
+which he took to the mouth of the Tiber, he would have the banks of
+the river lined with booths and costly tents all the way from the
+river to the sea. These tents were provided with sumptuous
+entertainments, and with beds and couches for repose; and they were
+all attended by beautiful girls who stood at the doors of them
+inviting Nero and his party to land, as they passed along the river
+in their barges. He used to fish with a golden net, which was drawn
+by silken cords of a rich scarlet color. Occasionally he made grand
+excursions of pleasure through Italy or into Greece, in the style of
+royal progresses. In these expeditions he sometimes had no less than
+a thousand carts to convey his baggage--the mules that drew them
+being all shod with silver, and their drivers dressed in scarlet
+clothes of the most costly character. He was attended, also, on
+these excursions, by a numerous train of footmen, and of African
+servants, who wore rich bracelets upon their arms, and were mounted
+on horses splendidly caparisoned.
+
+One of the most remarkable of the events which occurred during
+Nero's reign was what was called the burning of Rome,--a great
+conflagration, by which a large part of the city was destroyed. It
+was very generally believed at the time that this destruction was
+the work of Nero himself,--the fruit of his reckless and willful
+depravity. There is, it is true, no very positive proof that the
+fire was set by Nero's orders, though one of the historians of the
+time states that confidential servants belonging to Nero's household
+were seen, when the fire commenced, going from house to house with
+combustibles and torches, spreading the flames. He was himself at
+Antium at the time, and did not come to Rome until the fire had been
+raging for many days. If it is true that the fire was Nero's work,
+it is not supposed that he designed to cause so extensive a
+conflagration. He intended, perhaps, only to destroy a few buildings
+that covered ground which he wished to occupy for the enlargement of
+his palaces; though it was said by some writers that he really
+designed to destroy a great part of the city, with a view to
+immortalize his name by rebuilding it in a new and more splendid
+form. With these motives, if these indeed were his motives, there
+was doubtless mingled a feeling of malicious gratification at any
+thing that would terrify and torment the miserable subjects of his
+power. When he came to Rome from Antium at the time that the
+conflagration was at its height, he found the whole city a scene of
+indescribable terror and distress. Thousands of the people had been
+burned to death or crushed beneath the ruins of the fallen houses.
+The streets were filled with piles of goods and furniture burnt and
+broken. Multitudes of men, though nearly exhausted with fatigue,
+were desperately toiling on, in hopeless endeavors to extinguish the
+flames, or to save some small remnant of their property,--and
+distracted mothers, wild and haggard from terror and despair, were
+roaming to and fro, seeking their children,--some moaning in
+anguish, and some piercing the air with loud and frantic outcries.
+Nero was entertained by the scene as if it had been a great dramatic
+spectacle. He went to one of the theaters, and taking his place upon
+the stage he amused himself there with singing and playing a
+celebrated composition on the subject of the burning of Troy. At
+least it was said and generally believed in the city that he did so,
+and the minds of the people were excited against the inhuman monster
+to the highest pitch of indignation. In fact, Nero seems to have
+thought at last that he had gone too far, and he began to make
+efforts in earnest to relieve the people from some portion of their
+distress. He caused great numbers of tents to be erected in the
+parade-ground for temporary shelter, and brought fresh supplies of
+corn into the city to save the people from famine. These measures of
+mercy, however, came too late to retrieve his character. The people
+attributed the miseries of this dreadful calamity to his desperate
+maliciousness, and he became the object of universal execration.
+
+[Illustration: BURNING OF ROME.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+PISO'S CONSPIRACY.
+
+A.D. 65
+
+Origin and nature of Piso's conspiracy.--Lucan, the Latin poet.--His
+quarrel with Nero.--Lateranus.--Celebrity of his name.--The church
+of St. John Lateran.--Fenius Rufus.--A woman in the secret.--Plans
+and arrangements of the conspirators.--Bold proposals of Flavius.--The
+palace to be set on fire.--Epicharis impatient.--She goes to the
+fleet.--She communicates with Proculus at Misenum.--Proculus reveals
+the plot to Nero.--Nero perplexed.--Epicharis imprisoned.--A new
+plan.--Piso's objections.--Reasons.--Final arrangements agreed
+upon.--Nero to be slain in the theatre.--The several parts
+assigned.--Scevinus.--Excitement of Scevinus.--His knife.--He gives
+his knife to Milichus to be ground.--Milichus confers with his
+wife.--Their suspicions.--Revelations made by Milichus.--Scevinus's
+defense.--He denies the allegations of his accuser.--Nero
+perplexed.--The truth at last discovered.--Scevinus and Natalis make
+a full confession.
+
+
+Although the people of Rome were generally so overawed by the terror
+of Nero's power, that for a long period no one dared to make any
+open resistance to his will, still his excesses and cruelties
+excited in the minds of men a great many secret feelings of
+resentment and detestation. At one period in the course of his reign
+a very desperate conspiracy was formed by some of the leading men of
+the state, to dethrone and destroy the tyrant. This plot was a very
+extensive and a very formidable one. It was, however, accidentally
+discovered before it was fully mature, and thus was unsuccessful. It
+is known in history as Piso's Conspiracy--deriving its name from
+that of the principal leader of it, Caius Calpurnius Piso.
+
+It is not supposed, however, that Piso was absolutely the originator
+of the conspiracy, nor is it known, in fact, who the originator of
+it was. A great number of prominent men were involved in the
+plot--men who, possessing very different characters, and occupying
+very different stations in life, were probably induced by various
+motives to take part in the conspiracy. A conspiracy, however, of
+this kind, against so merciless a tyrant as Nero, is an enterprise
+of such frightful danger, and is attended, if unsuccessful, with
+such awful consequences to all concerned in it, that men will seldom
+engage in such a scheme until goaded to desperation, and almost
+maddened, by the wrongs which they have endured.
+
+And yet the exasperation which these conspirators felt against Nero,
+seems to have been produced, in some instances at least, by what we
+should now consider rather inadequate causes. For example, one of
+the men most active in this secret league, was the celebrated Latin
+poet Lucan. In the early part of his life, Lucan had been one of
+Nero's principal flatterers, having written hymns and sonnets in his
+praise. At length, as it was said, some public occasion occurred in
+which verses were to be recited in public, for a prize. Nero, who
+imagined himself to excel in every human art or attainment, offered
+some of his own verses in the competition. The prize, however, was
+adjudged to Lucan. Nero's mind was accordingly filled with envy and
+hate toward his rival, and he soon found some pretext for forbidding
+Lucan ever to recite any verses in public again. This of course
+exasperated Lucan in his turn, and was the cause of his joining in
+the conspiracy.
+
+Another of the conspirators was a certain Roman nobleman, whose
+family name has since become very widely known in all parts of the
+civilized world, through an estate in the city with which it was
+associated,--which estate, and certain buildings erected upon it,
+became subsequently greatly celebrated in the ecclesiastical history
+of Rome. The name of this nobleman was Plautius Lateranus. When
+Lateranus was put to death at the detection of the conspiracy, in
+the manner to be presently described, his estate was confiscated.
+The palace and grounds thus became the property of the Roman
+emperors. In process of time, the emperor Constantine gave the place
+to the pope, and from that period it continued to be the residence
+of the successive pontiffs for a thousand years. A church was built
+upon the ground, called the Basilica of St. John of Lateran, where
+many ancient councils were held, known in ecclesiastical history as
+the councils of the Lateran. This church is still used for some of
+the ceremonies connected with the inauguration of the pope, but the
+palace is now uninhabited. It presents, however, in its ruins, a
+vast and imposing, though desolate aspect.
+
+Lateranus was an unprincipled and dissolute man, and in consequence
+of certain crimes which he committed in connection with Messalina,
+during the reign of Claudius, he had been condemned to death. The
+sentence of death was not executed, though Lateranus was deprived of
+his rank, and doomed to live in retirement and disgrace. At the
+death of Claudius, and the accession of Nero, Lateranus was fully
+pardoned and restored to his former rank and position, through
+Nero's instrumentality. It might have been supposed that gratitude
+for these favors would have prevented Lateranus from joining such a
+conspiracy as this against his benefactor, but gratitude has very
+little place in the hearts of those who dwell in the courts and
+palaces of such tyrants as Nero.
+
+The man on whom the conspirators relied most for efficient military
+aid, so far as such aid should be needed in their enterprise, was a
+certain Fenius Rufus, a captain of the imperial guards. He was a man
+of very resolute and decided character, and was very highly esteemed
+by the people of Rome. He was not one of the originators of the
+plot, but joined it at a later period; and when the news of his
+accession to it was communicated to the rest, it gave them great
+encouragement, as they attached great importance to the adhesion of
+such a man to their cause. They now immediately began to take
+measures for executing their plans.
+
+There was a woman in the secret of this conspiracy, though how she
+obtained a knowledge of it no one seemed to know. Her name was
+Epicharis. While the execution of the plans of the confederates was
+delayed, Epicharis came to the principal conspirators privately,
+first to one and then to another, and urged them to action. None of
+the members of the plot would admit that they had given her any
+information on the subject, and how she obtained her information no
+one could tell. She was a woman of bad character, and as such women
+often are, she was violent and implacable in her hatred. She hated
+Nero, and was so impatient at the delay of the conspirators that
+she made repeated and earnest efforts to urge them on.
+
+The conspirators in the mean time held various secret meetings to
+mature their plans, and to complete the preparation for the
+execution of them. They designed to destroy Nero by some violent
+means, and then to cause Piso to be proclaimed emperor in his place.
+Piso was a man well suited for their purpose in this respect. He was
+tall and graceful in form, and his personal appearance was in every
+respect prepossessing. His rank was very high, and he was held in
+great estimation by all the people of the city for the many generous
+and noble qualities that he possessed. He was allied, too, to the
+most illustrious families of Rome, and he occupied in all respects
+so conspicuous a position, and was so much an object of popular
+favor, that the conspirators believed that his elevation to the
+empire could easily be effected, if Nero himself could once be put
+out of the way. To effect the assassination of Nero, therefore, was
+the first step.
+
+After much debate, and many consultations in respect to the best
+course to be pursued, it was decided to accept the offer of a
+certain Subrius Flavius, who undertook to kill the emperor in the
+streets, at night, at some time when he was roaming about in his
+carousals. Flavius, in fact, was very daring and resolute in his
+proposals, though wanting, as it proved in the end, in the
+fulfillment of them. He offered to stab Nero in the theater, when he
+was singing on the stage, in the midst of all the thousands of
+spectators convened there. This the conspirators thought, it seems,
+an unnecessarily bold and desperate mode of accomplishing the end in
+view, and the plan was accordingly overruled. Flavius then proposed
+to set the palace on fire some night when Nero was out in the city,
+and then, in the confusion that would ensue, and while the attention
+of the guards who had accompanied Nero should be drawn toward the
+fire, to assassinate the emperor in the streets. This plan was
+acceded to by the conspirators, and it was left to Flavius to select
+a favorable time for the execution of it.
+
+Time passed on, however, and nothing was done. The favorable time
+which Flavius looked for did not appear. In the meanwhile Epicharis
+became more and more impatient of the delay. She urged the
+conspirators to do their work, and chided in the strongest terms
+their irresolution and pusillanimity. At length finding that her
+invectives and reproaches were of no avail, she determined to leave
+them, and to see what she could do herself toward the attainment of
+the end.
+
+She accordingly left Rome and proceeded southwardly along the coast
+till she came to Misenum, which, as has already been said, was the
+great naval station of the empire at this time. Epicharis went to
+some of the officers of the fleet, many of whom she knew,--and in a
+very secret and cautious manner made known to them the nature of the
+plot which had been formed at Rome for the destruction of Nero and
+the elevation of Piso to the empire in his stead. Before, however,
+communicating intelligence of the conspiracy to any persons
+whatever, Epicharis would converse with them secretly and
+confidentially to learn how they were affected toward Nero and his
+government. If she found them well disposed she said nothing. If on
+the other hand any one appeared discontented with the government, or
+hostile to it in any way, she would cautiously make known to him
+the plans which were concocting at Rome for the overthrow of it. She
+took care, however, in these conversations to have never more than
+one person present with her at a time, and she revealed none of the
+names of the conspirators.
+
+Among the other officers of the fleet was a certain Proculus, who
+was one of the first with whom Epicharis communicated. Proculus was
+one of the men who had been employed by Nero in his attempts to
+assassinate Agrippina his mother, and for his services on that
+occasion had been promoted to the command of a certain number of
+ships, a number containing in all one thousand men. This promotion,
+however, as Epicharis found when she came to converse with him,
+Proculus did not consider as great a reward as his services had
+deserved. The perpetration of so horrible a crime as the murder of
+the emperor's mother, merited, in his opinion, as he said to
+Epicharis, a much higher recompense than the command of a thousand
+men. Epicharis thought so too. She talked with Proculus about his
+wrongs, and the injuries which he suffered from Nero's ingratitude
+and neglect, until she fancied that he was in a state of mind which
+would prepare him to join in the plans of the conspirators, and then
+she cautiously unfolded them to him.
+
+Proculus listened with great apparent interest to Epicharis's
+communication, and pretended to enter very cordially into the plan
+of the conspiracy; but as soon as the interview was ended he
+immediately left Misenum, and proceeded immediately to Rome, where
+he divulged the whole design to Nero.
+
+Nero was exceedingly alarmed, and sent officers off at once to seize
+Epicharis and bring her before him. Epicharis, when questioned and
+confronted with Proculus, resolutely denied that she had ever held
+any such conversation with Proculus as he alledged, and feigned the
+utmost astonishment at what she termed the impudence of his
+accusation. She called for witnesses and proofs. Proculus of course
+could produce none, for Epicharis had taken care that there should
+be no third person present at their interviews. Proculus could not
+even give the names of any of the conspirators at Rome. He could
+only persist in his declaration that Epicharis had really disclosed
+to him the existence of the conspiracy, and had proposed to him to
+join in it; while she on the contrary as strenuously and positively
+denied it. Nero was perplexed. He found it impossible to determine
+what to believe. He finally dismissed Proculus, and sent Epicharis
+to prison, intending that she should remain there until he could
+make a more full examination into the case, and determine what to
+do.
+
+In the mean time the conspirators became considerably alarmed when
+they heard of the arrest of Epicharis, and though they knew that
+thus far she had revealed nothing, they could not tell how soon her
+fidelity and firmness might yield under the tortures to which she
+was every day liable to be subjected; and as there appeared to be
+now no prospect that Flavius would ever undertake to execute his
+plan, they began to devise some other means of attaining the end.
+
+It seems that Piso possessed at this time a villa and country-seat
+at Baię, on the coast south of Rome, and near to Misenum, and that
+Nero was accustomed sometimes to visit Piso here. It was now
+proposed by some of the conspirators that Piso should invite Nero to
+visit him at this villa, as if to witness some spectacles or shows
+which should be arranged for his entertainment there, and that then
+persons employed for the purpose should suddenly assassinate him,
+when off his guard, in the midst of some scene of convivial
+pleasure. Piso, however, objected to this plan. He conceived, he
+said, that it would be dishonorable in him to commit an act of
+violence upon a guest whom he had invited under his roof, as his
+friend. He was willing to take his full share of the responsibility
+of destroying the tyrant in any fair and manly way, but he would not
+violate the sacred rites of hospitality to accomplish the end.
+
+So this plan was abandoned. It was supposed, however, that Piso had
+another and a deeper reason for his unwillingness that Nero should
+be assassinated at Baię than his regard for his honor as a host. He
+thought, it was said, that it would not be safe for him to be away
+from Rome when the death of Nero should be proclaimed in the
+capitol, lest some other Roman nobleman or great officer of state
+should suddenly arise in the emergency and assume the empire. There
+were, in fact, one or two men in Rome of great power and influence,
+of whom Piso was specially jealous and he was naturally very much
+disposed to be on his guard against opening any door of opportunity
+for them to rise to power. To commit a great crime in order to
+secure his own aggrandizement, and yet to manage the commission of
+it in such a way as not only to shut himself off from the expected
+benefit, but to secure that benefit to a hated rival, would have
+been a very fatal misstep. So the plan of destroying Nero at Baię
+was overruled.
+
+At length one more, and as it proved a final scheme, was formed for
+accomplishing the purpose of the conspiracy. It was determined to
+execute Nero in Rome, at a great public celebration which was then
+about to take place. It seems that it was sometimes customary in
+ancient times for persons who had any request or petition to make to
+an emperor or king, to avail themselves of the occasion of such
+celebrations to present them. Accordingly it was determined that
+Lateranus should approach Nero at a certain time during the
+celebration of the games, as if to offer a petition,--the other
+conspirators being close at hand, and ready to act at a moment's
+warning. Lateranus, as soon as he was near enough, was to kneel down
+and suddenly draw the emperor's robes about his feet, and then
+clasp the feet thus enveloped, in his arms, so as to render Nero
+helpless. The other conspirators were then to rush forward and kill
+their victim with their daggers. In the mean time while Lateranus
+and his associates were perpetrating this deed in the circus where
+the games were to be exhibited, Piso was to station himself in a
+certain temple not far distant, to await the result; while Fenius,
+the officer of the guard, who has already been mentioned as the
+chief military reliance of the conspirators, was to be posted in
+another part of the city, with a military cavalcade in array, ready
+to proceed through the streets and bring Piso forth to be proclaimed
+emperor as soon as he should receive the tidings that Nero had been
+slain. It is said that in order to give additional éclat and
+popularity to the proceeding, it was arranged that Octavia, a
+daughter of Claudius, the former emperor, was to be brought forward
+with Piso in the cavalcade, as if to combine the influence of her
+hereditary claims, whatever they might be, with the personal
+popularity of Piso in favor of the new government about to be
+established.
+
+Thus every thing was arranged. To each conspirator, his own
+particular duty was assigned, and, as the day approached for the
+execution of the scheme, every thing seemed to promise success. It
+is obvious, however, that, as the affair had been arranged, all
+would depend upon the resolution and fidelity of those who had been
+designated to stab the emperor with their daggers, when Lateranus
+should have grasped his feet. The slightest faltering or fear at
+this point, would be fatal to the whole scheme. The man on whom the
+conspirators chiefly relied for this part of their work, was a
+certain desperate profligate, named Scevinus, who had been one of
+the earliest originators of the conspiracy, and one of the most
+dauntless and determined of the promoters of it, so far as words and
+professions could go. He particularly desired that the privilege of
+plunging the first dagger into Nero's heart should be granted to
+him. He had a knife, he said, which he had found in a certain temple
+a long time before, and which he had preserved and carried about his
+person constantly ever since, for some such deed. So it was arranged
+that Scevinus should strike the fatal blow.
+
+As the time drew nigh, Scevinus seemed to grow more and more excited
+with the thoughts of what was before him. He attracted the attention
+of the domestics at his house, by his strange and mysterious
+demeanor. He held a long and secret consultation with Natalis,
+another conspirator, on the day before the one appointed for the
+execution of the plot, under such circumstances as to increase still
+more the wonder and curiosity of his servants. He formally executed
+his will, as if he were approaching some dangerous crisis. He made
+presents to his servants, and actually emancipated one or two of his
+favorite slaves. He talked with all he met, in a rapid and
+incoherent manner, on various subjects, and with an air of gayety
+and cheerfulness which it was obvious to those who observed him was
+all assumed; for, in the intervals of these conversations, and at
+every pause, he relapsed into a thoughtful and absent mood, as if he
+were meditating some deep and dangerous design.
+
+That night, too, he took out his knife from its sheath, and gave it
+to one of his servants, named Milichus, to be ground. He directed
+Milichus to be particularly attentive to the sharpening of the
+point. Before Milichus brought back the knife, Scevinus directed him
+to prepare bandages such as would be suitable for binding up wounds
+to stop the effusion of blood. Milichus observed all these
+directions, and, having made all the preparations required,
+according to the orders which Scevinus had given him--keeping the
+knife, however, still in his possession--he went to report the whole
+case to his wife, in order to consult with her in respect to the
+meaning of all these mysterious indications.
+
+[Illustration: THE KNIFE.]
+
+The wife of Milichus soon came to the conclusion, that these strange
+proceedings could denote nothing less than a plot against the life
+of the emperor; and she urged her husband to go early the next
+morning, and make known his discovery. She told him that it was
+impossible that such a conspiracy should succeed, for it must be
+known to a great many persons, some one of whom would be sure to
+divulge it in hope of a reward. "If you divulge it," she added, "you
+will secure the reward for yourself; and if you do not, you will be
+supposed to be privy to it, when it is made known by others, and so
+will be sacrificed with the rest to Nero's anger."
+
+Milichus was convinced by his wife's reasonings, and on the
+following morning, as soon as the day dawned, he rose and repaired
+to the palace. At first he was refused admittance, but on sending
+word to the officer of the household, that he had intelligence of
+the most urgent importance to communicate to Nero, they allowed him
+to come in. When brought into Nero's presence, he told his story,
+describing particularly all the circumstances that he had observed,
+which had led him to suppose that a conspiracy was formed. He spoke
+of the long and mysterious consultation which Scevinus and Natalis
+had held together on the preceding day; he described the singular
+conduct and demeanor which Scevinus had subsequently manifested, the
+execution of his will, his wild and incoherent conversation, his
+directions in respect to the sharpening of the knife and the
+preparation of the bandages; and, to crown his proofs, he produced
+the knife itself, which he had kept for this purpose, and which thus
+furnished, in some sense, an ocular demonstration of the truth of
+what he had declared.
+
+Officers were immediately sent to seize Scevinus, and to bring him
+into the presence of the emperor. Scevinus knew, of course, that the
+only possible hope for him was in a bold and resolute denial of the
+charge made against him. He accordingly denied, in the most solemn
+manner, that there was any plot or conspiracy whatever, and he
+attempted to explain all the circumstances which had awakened his
+servant's suspicions. The knife or dagger which Milichus had
+produced, was an ancient family relic, he said,--one which he had
+kept for a long time in his chamber, and which his servant had
+obtained surreptitiously, for the purpose of sustaining his false
+and malicious charge against his master. As to his will, he often
+made and signed a will anew, he said, as many other persons were
+accustomed to do, and no just inference against him could be drawn
+from the circumstance that he had done this on the preceding day;
+and in respect to the bandages and other preparation for the
+dressing of wounds which Milichus alledged that he had ordered, he
+denied the statement altogether. He had not given any such orders.
+The whole story was the fabrication of a vile slave, attempting, by
+these infamous means, to compass his master's destruction. Scevinus
+said all this with so bold and intrepid a tone of voice, and with
+such an air of injured innocence, that Nero and his friends were
+half disposed to believe that he was unjustly accused, and to
+dismiss him from custody. This might very probably have been the
+result, and Milichus himself might have been punished for making a
+false and malicious accusation, had not the sagacity of his wife,
+who was all the time watching these proceedings with the most
+anxious interest, furnished a clew which, in the end, brought the
+whole truth to light.
+
+She called attention to the long conference which Scevinus had held
+with Natalis on the preceding day. Scevinus was accordingly
+questioned concerning it. He declared that his interview was nothing
+but an innocent consultation about his own private affairs. He was
+questioned then about the particulars of the conversation. Of course
+he was compelled to fabricate a statement in reply. Natalis himself
+was then sent for, and examined, apart from Scevinus, in regard to
+the conversation they had held together. Natalis, of course,
+fabricated a story too,--but, as usual with such fabrications, the
+two accounts having been invented independently, were inconsistent
+with each other. Nero was immediately convinced that the men were
+guilty, and that some sort of plot or conspiracy had been formed. He
+ordered that they should both be put to the torture in order to
+compel them to confess their crime, and disclose the names of their
+accomplices. In the mean time they were sent to prison, and loaded
+with irons, to be kept in that condition until the instruments of
+torture could be prepared.
+
+When at length they were brought to the rack, the sight of the
+horrid machinery unmanned them. They begged to be spared, and
+promised to reveal the whole. They acknowledged that a conspiracy
+had been formed, and gave the names of all who had participated in
+it. They explained fully, too, the plans which had been devised, and
+as in this case, though they were examined separately, their
+statements agreed, Nero and his friends were convinced of the truth
+of their declarations, and thus at last the plot was fully brought
+to light. Nero himself was struck with consternation and terror at
+discovering the formidable danger to which he had been exposed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE FATE OF THE CONSPIRATORS.
+
+A.D. 65
+
+Epicharis denies all knowledge of the conspiracy.--Seizures and
+executions.--General panic.--Death of Piso.--The conspirators
+discouraged.--Epicharis at the torture.--Her death.--The conspirators
+tried before Nero.--Flavius.--Demeanor of Rufus in the garden.--He is
+accused.--Rufus begs for his life.--His execution.--Flavius is
+accused.--His desperation.--The execution of Flavius.--The executioner's
+fears.--Seneca.--His character and public position.--Evidence against
+Seneca.--His journey to Rome.--Seneca arrested.--His defence.--The
+officer's report.--Nero decides that Seneca must die.--The death of
+Seneca.--Grief and despair of Paulina.--They save Paulina's life.--The
+consul Vestinus.--Large force sent to arrest Vestinus.--Vestinus
+arrested.--His extraordinary fate.--Nero is pleased.--The guests at
+Vestinus's supper.--Appearances of public rejoicing.--Nero grants gifts
+to the army.--Nature of despotic government.--Secret of their
+power.--Doubt in respect to Piso's conspiracy.
+
+
+As soon as Nero had obtained all the information which he and his
+officers could draw from Scevinus and Natalis, and had sent to all
+parts of the city to arrest those whom the forced disclosures of
+these witnesses accused, he thought of Epicharis, who, it will be
+recollected, had been sent to prison, and who was still in
+confinement there. He ordered Epicharis to be told that concealment
+was no longer possible,--that Scevinus and Natalis had divulged the
+plot in full, and that her only hope lay in amply confessing all
+that she knew.
+
+This announcement had no effect upon Epicharis. She refused to admit
+that she knew any thing of any conspiracy.
+
+Nero then ordered that she should be put to the torture. The engines
+were prepared and she was brought before them. The sight of them
+produced no change. She was then placed upon the wheel, and her
+frail and delicate limbs were stretched, dislocated, and broken,
+until she had endured every form of agony which such engines could
+produce. Her constancy remained unshaken to the end. At length, when
+she was so much exhausted by her sufferings that she could no longer
+feel the pain, she was taken away to be restored by medicaments,
+cordials, and rest, in order that she might recover strength to
+endure new tortures on the following day.
+
+In the mean time, panic and excitement reigned throughout the city.
+Nero doubled his guards; he garrisoned his palace; he brought out
+bodies of armed men, and stationed them on the walls of the city and
+in the public squares, or marched them to and fro about the streets.
+As fast as men were accused they were put to the question, and as
+each one saw that the only hope for safety to himself was in freely
+denouncing others, the names of supposed confederates were revealed
+in great numbers, and as fast as these names were obtained the men
+were seized and imprisoned or executed--the innocent and the guilty
+together.
+
+On the very first announcement that the plot had been discovered,
+those of the conspirators who were still at large made all haste to
+the house of Piso. They found him prostrate in consternation and
+despair. They urged him immediately to come forth, and to put
+himself at the head of an armed force, and fight for his life.
+Desperate as such an undertaking might be, no other alternative,
+they said, was now left to him. But all was of no avail. The
+conspirators could not arouse him to action. They were obliged to
+retire and leave him to his fate. He opened the veins in his arm,
+and bled to death while the soldiers whom Nero had sent were
+breaking into his house to arrest him.
+
+Being thus deprived of their leader, the conspirators gave up all
+hope of effecting the revolution, and thought only of the means of
+screening themselves from Nero's vengeance.
+
+In the mean time, Epicharis had so far recovered during the night,
+that on the following morning it was determined to bring her again
+to the torture. She was utterly helpless,--her limbs having been
+broken by the execution of the day before. The officers accordingly
+put her into a sort of sedan chair, or covered litter, in order that
+she might be carried by bearers to the place of torture. She was
+borne in this way to the spot, but when the executioners opened the
+door of the chair to take her out, they beheld a shocking spectacle.
+Their wretched victim had escaped from their power. She was hanging
+by the neck, dead. She had contrived to make a noose in one end of
+the cincture with which she was girded, and fastening the other end
+to some part of the chair within, she had succeeded in bringing the
+weight of her body upon the noose around her neck, and had died
+without disturbing her bearers as they walked along.
+
+[Illustration: BRINGING EPICHARIS TO THE TORTURE.]
+
+In the mean time the various parties that were accused were seized
+in great numbers, and were brought in for trial before a sort of
+court-martial which Nero himself, with some of his principal
+officers, held for this purpose in the gardens of the palace. The
+number of those accused was so large that the avenues to the garden
+were blocked up with them, and with the parties of soldiers that
+conducted them, and multitudes were detained together at the gates,
+in a state, of course, of awful suspense and agitation, waiting
+their turns. It happened singularly enough that among those whom
+Nero summoned to serve on the tribunal for the trial of the
+prisoners were two of the principal conspirators, who had not yet
+been accused. These were Subrius Flavius and Fenius Rufus, whom the
+reader will perhaps recollect as prominent members of the plot.
+Flavius was the man who had once undertaken to kill the emperor in
+the streets, and while standing near him at the tribunal, he made
+signs to the other conspirators that he was ready to stab him to the
+heart now, if they would but say the word. But Rufus restrained
+him, anxiously signifying to him that he was by no means to attempt
+it. Rufus in fact seems to have been as weak-minded and irresolute
+as Flavius was desperate and bold.
+
+In fact although Rufus, when summoned to attend in the garden, for
+the trial of the conspirators, did not dare to disobey, he yet found
+it very difficult to summon resolution to face the appalling dangers
+of his position. He took his place at last among the others, and
+with a forced external composure which ill concealed the desperate
+agitation and anxiety which reigned in his soul, he gave himself to
+the work of trying and condemning his confederates and companions.
+For a time no one of them betrayed him. But at length during the
+examination of Scevinus, in his solicitude to appear zealous in
+Nero's cause he overacted his part, so far as to press Scevinus too
+earnestly with his inquiries, until at length Scevinus turned
+indignantly toward him saying--
+
+"Why do _you_ ask these questions? No person in Rome knows more
+about this conspiracy than you, and if you feel so devoted to this
+humane and virtuous prince of yours, show your gratitude by telling
+him, yourself, the whole story."
+
+Rufus was perfectly overwhelmed at this sudden charge, and could not
+say a word. He attempted to speak, but he faltered and stammered,
+and then sank down into his seat, pale and trembling, and covered
+with confusion. Nero and the other members of the tribunal were
+convinced of his guilt. He was seized and put in irons, and after
+the same summary trial to which the rest were subjected, condemned
+to die. He begged for his life with the most earnest and piteous
+lamentations, but Nero was relentless, and he was immediately
+beheaded.
+
+The conspirator Flavius displayed a very different temper. When he
+came to be accused, at first he denied the charge, and he appealed
+to his whole past character and course of life as proof of his
+innocence. Those who had informed against him, however, soon
+furnished incontestable evidence of his guilt, and then changing his
+ground, he openly acknowledged his share in the conspiracy and
+gloried in it even in the presence of Nero himself. When Nero asked
+him how he could so violate his oath of allegiance and fidelity as
+to conspire against the life of his sovereign, he turned to him with
+looks of open and angry defiance and said--
+
+"It was because I hated and detested you, unnatural monster as you
+are. There was a time when there was not a soldier in your service
+who was more devoted to you than I. But that time has passed. You
+have drawn upon yourself the detestation and abhorrence of all
+mankind by your cruelties and your crimes. You have murdered your
+mother. You have murdered your wife. You are an incendiary. And not
+content with perpetrating these enormous atrocities, you have
+degraded yourself in the eyes of all Rome to the level of the lowest
+mountebank and buffoon, so as to make yourself the object of
+contempt as well as abhorrence. I hate and defy you."
+
+Nero was of course astonished and almost confounded at hearing such
+words. He had never listened to language like this before. His
+astonishment was succeeded by violent rage, and he ordered Flavius
+to be led out to immediate execution.
+
+The centurion to whom the execution was committed conducted Flavius
+without the city to a field, and then set the soldiers at work to
+dig the grave, as was customary at military executions, while he
+made the other necessary preparations. The soldiers, in their haste,
+shaped the excavation rudely and imperfectly. Flavius ridiculed
+their work, asking them, in a tone of contempt, if they considered
+that the proper way to dig a military grave. And when at length,
+after all the preparations had been made, and the fatal moment had
+arrived, the tribune who was in command called upon him to uncover
+his neck and stand forth courageously to meet his fate--he replied
+by exhorting the officer himself to be resolute and firm. "See,"
+said he, "if you can show as much nerve in striking the blow,
+as I can in meeting it." To cut down such a man, under such
+circumstances, was of course a very dreadful duty, even for a Roman
+soldier, and the executioner faltered greatly in the performance of
+it. The decapitation should have been effected by a single blow; but
+the officer found his strength failing him when he came to strike,
+so that a second blow was necessary to complete the severance of the
+head from the body. The tribune was afraid that this, when
+represented to Nero, might bring him under suspicion, as if it
+indicated some shrinking on his part from a prompt and vigorous
+action in putting down the conspiracy; and so on his return to Nero
+he boasted of his performance as if it had been just as he intended.
+"I made the traitor die twice," said he, "by taking two blows to
+dispatch him."
+
+But perhaps the most melancholy of all the results of this most
+unfortunate conspiracy, was the fate of Seneca. Seneca, it will be
+remembered, had been Nero's instructor and guardian in former years,
+and subsequently one of his chief ministers of state. He was now
+almost seventy years of age, and besides the veneration in which he
+was held on this account, and the respect that was paid to the
+exalted position which he had occupied for so long a period, he was
+very highly esteemed for his intellectual endowments and for his
+private character. His numerous writings, in fact, had acquired for
+him an extensive literary fame.
+
+But Nero hated him. He had long wished him out of the way. It was
+currently reported, and generally believed, that he had attempted to
+poison him. However this may be, he certainly desired to find some
+occasion of proceeding against him, and such an occasion was
+furnished by the developments connected with this conspiracy.
+
+Natalis, in the course of his testimony, said that he supposed that
+Seneca was concerned in the plot, for he recollected that he was
+once sent to him, while he was confined to his house by illness,
+with a message from Piso. The message was, that Piso had repeatedly
+called at his, that is, Seneca's house, but had been unable to
+obtain admittance. The answer which Seneca had returned was, that
+the reason why he had not received visitors was, that the state of
+his health was very infirm, but that he entertained none but
+friendly feelings toward Piso, and wished him prosperity and
+success.
+
+Nero determined to consider this as proof that Seneca was privy to
+the conspiracy, and that he secretly abetted it. At least he
+determined, for a first step, to send an officer with a band of
+armed men to arrest him, and to lay the crime to his charge. Seneca
+was not in the city at this time. He had been absent in Campania,
+which was a beautiful rural region, south of Rome, back from
+Misenum. He was, however, that very day on his return to Rome, and
+Silvanus, the officer whom Nero sent to him, met him on the way, at
+a villa which he possessed a few miles from Rome. The name of this
+villa was Nomentanum.[C] Seneca had stopped at the villa to spend
+the night, and was seated at the table with Paulina his wife, when
+Silvanus and his troop arrived.
+
+[Footnote C: See map. Frontispiece.]
+
+The soldiers surrounded the house, so as to prevent all possibility
+of escape, and posted sentinels at the doors. Silvanus and some of
+his associates then went in, and entering the hall where Seneca was
+at supper, they informed him for what purpose they were come.
+Silvanus repeated what Natalis had testified in respect to the
+messages which had passed between Seneca and Piso. Seneca admitted
+that the statement was true, but he declared that the word which he
+had sent to Piso was only an ordinary message of civility and
+friendliness; it meant nothing more. Finding that no farther
+explanation could be obtained, Silvanus left Seneca in his villa,
+with a strong guard posted around the house, and returned to Rome to
+report to Nero.
+
+When Nero had heard the report, he asked Silvanus whether Seneca
+appeared sufficiently terrified by the accusation to make it
+probable that he would destroy himself that night.[D] Silvanus
+answered no. "He displayed," said he, "no marks of fear. There was
+no agitation, no sign of regret, no token of sorrow. His words and
+looks bespoke a mind calm, confident and firm."
+
+[Footnote D: It seems to have been considered by public men in those
+days, that to resolve on self-destruction was a much more honorable
+course to pursue in an extreme emergency like this, than to wait to
+be condemned and executed by the officers of the law. The attempt to
+frighten a man into the act of killing himself was accordingly _one_
+of the various modes which a tyrant might resort to, to remove those
+who were obnoxious to him.]
+
+"Go to him," rejoined Nero, "and tell him that he must make up his
+mind to die."
+
+Silvanus was thunderstruck at receiving this order. He could not
+believe it possible that Nero would really put to death a man so
+venerable in years and wisdom, who had been to him all his life, in
+the place of a father. Instead of proceeding directly to Seneca's
+house he went to consult with the captain of the guard, who, though
+really one of the conspirators, had not yet been accused, and was
+still at liberty, though trembling with apprehension at the
+imminence of his danger. The captain, after hearing the case, said
+that nothing was to be done but to deliver the message. Silvanus
+then went to Seneca's villa, but not being able to endure the
+thought of being himself the bearer of such tidings, sent in a
+centurion with the message.
+
+Seneca received it with calm composure, and immediately made
+preparations for terminating his life. His wife Paulina insisted on
+sharing his fate. He gathered his friends around him to give them
+his parting counsels and bid them farewell, and ordered his servants
+to make the necessary preparations for opening his veins. Then
+ensued one of those sad and awful scenes of mourning and death, with
+which the page of ancient history is so often darkened--forming
+pictures, as they do, too shocking to be exhibited in full detail.
+The calm composure of Seneca, was contrasted on the one hand with
+the bitter anguish and loud lamentations of his domestics and
+friends, and on the other with Paulina's mute despair. When the
+veins were opened, the blood at first would not flow, and various
+artificial means were resorted to, to accelerate the extinction of
+life; at last, however, Seneca ceased to breathe. The domestics of
+the family then begged and entreated the soldiers with many tears,
+that they might be allowed to save Paulina if it were not too late.
+The soldiers consented; so the women bound up her wounds, as she lay
+insensible and helpless before them, and thus stopping the farther
+effusion of blood, they watched over her with assiduous care, in
+hopes to restore her. They succeeded. They brought her back to life,
+or rather to a semblance of life; for she never really recovered so
+as to be herself again, during the few lonely and desolate years
+through which she afterward lingered.
+
+There was another Roman citizen of the highest rank who fell an
+innocent victim to the angry passions which the discovery of this
+plot awakened in Nero's mind. It was the consul Vestinus. Vestinus
+was a man of great loftiness of character, and had never evinced
+that pliancy of temper, and that submissiveness to the imperial
+will, which Nero required. His position, too, as consul, which was
+the highest civil office in the commonwealth, gave him a vast
+influence over the people of Rome, so that Nero feared as well as
+hated him. In fact, so great was his independence of character, and
+his intractability, as it was sometimes called, that the
+conspirators, after mature deliberation, had concluded not to
+propose to him to engage in the plot. But, though he was thus
+innocent, Nero did not certainly know the fact, and, at any rate,
+such an opportunity to effect the destruction of a hated rival, was
+too good to be lost. Very soon, therefore, after the disclosure of
+the conspiracy had been made, Nero sent a tribune, at the head of
+five hundred men, to arrest the consul.
+
+This large force was designated for the service, partly because,--on
+account of the high rank and office of the accused,--Nero did not
+know what means of resistance the consul might be able to command,
+and partly because his house, which was situated in the most public
+part of the city, overlooking the Forum, was in itself a sort of
+citadel, of which the various officers of Vestinus's household, and
+his numerous retainers, constituted a sort of garrison. It happened
+that, at the time when Nero sent his troop to make the arrest,
+Vestinus was entertaining a large party of friends at supper. The
+festivities were suddenly interrupted, and the whole company were
+thrown into a state of the most frightful excitement and confusion,
+by the sudden onset of this large body of armed men, who besieged
+the doors, blocked up all the avenues of approach, and, surrounding
+and guarding the house on every side, shut all the inmates in, as if
+they were investing the castle of an enemy. Certain soldiers of the
+guard were then sent in to Vestinus in the banqueting-room, to
+inform him that the tribune wished to speak with him on important
+business.
+
+The consul knew the character of Nero, and the feelings which the
+tyrant entertained toward him too well, and saw too clearly the
+advantage which the discovery of the conspiracy gave to Nero, not to
+perceive at once that his fate was sealed; and the action which he
+took in this frightful emergency comported well with his
+insubmissive and intractable character. Instead of obeying the
+summons of the tribune, he repaired immediately to a private
+apartment, summoned his physician, directed a bath to be prepared,
+ordered the physician to open his veins, lay down in the bath to
+promote the flowing of the blood, and in a few minutes ceased to
+breathe.
+
+The announcement of the consul's death, when it came to be reported
+to Nero, of course gave him great satisfaction. He continued the
+guards, however, still about the house, keeping the guests
+imprisoned in the banqueting-room for many hours. Of course, during
+all this time, the minds of these guests were in a state of extreme
+distress and apprehension, inasmuch as every one of them must
+necessarily have felt in immediate danger. When the anxiety and
+agitation which they felt, was reported to Nero, he was greatly
+entertained by it, and said that they were paying for their consular
+supper. He kept them in this state of suspense until nearly morning,
+and then ordered the guards to be withdrawn.
+
+The number of victims who were sacrificed to Nero's resentment in
+consequence of this conspiracy, was very large; so that the streets
+were filled with executions and with funeral processions for many
+days. Universal grief and panic prevailed, and yet no one dared to
+manifest the slightest indications of sorrow or of fear. The people
+supposed that pity for the sufferers, or anxiety for themselves,
+would be interpreted as proofs that they had been concerned in the
+conspiracy; for multitudes of those who had been put to death, were
+condemned on pretexts and pretended proofs of the most frivolous
+character. Every one, therefore, even of those whose nearest and
+dearest friends had been killed, was compelled to assume all the
+appearances of extravagant joy that so wicked a plot against the
+life of so wise and excellent a prince, had been exposed, and the
+guilty devisers of it brought to punishment. Parents whose sons had
+been slain, and wives and children who had lost their husbands and
+fathers, were thus compelled to unite in the congratulations and
+expressions of joy which were everywhere addressed to the emperor.
+Processions were formed, addresses were made, sacrifices were
+offered, games, spectacles, and illuminations without number were
+celebrated, to testify to the general rejoicing; and thus the city
+presented all the outward appearances of universal gladness and joy,
+while, in truth, the hearts of men were everywhere overwhelmed with
+anxiety, grief, and fear.
+
+When at length a sufficient number of the citizens of Rome had been
+destroyed, Nero assembled the army, and after making an address to
+the troops on the subject of the conspiracy, and on his happy escape
+from the danger, he divided an immense sum of money from the public
+treasury among the soldiers, so as to give a very considerable
+largess to each man. He also distributed among them a vast amount of
+provisions from the public granaries. This act, and the connection
+between Nero and the troops which it illustrates, explain what would
+otherwise seem an inscrutable mystery, namely, how it can be
+possible for one man to bring the immense population of such an
+empire as that of ancient Rome so entirely under his power, that any
+number of the most prominent and influential of the citizens shall
+be seized and beheaded, or thrust through the heart with swords and
+daggers at a word or a nod from him. The explanation is, _the army_.
+Give to the single tyrant one or two hundred thousand desperadoes,
+well banded together, and completely armed, under a compact between
+them by which he says, "Help me to control, to domineer over, and to
+plunder the industrial classes of society, and I will give you a
+large share of the spoil," and the work is very easy. The
+governments that have existed in the world have generally been
+formed on this plan. They have been simply vast armies authorized to
+collect their own pay by the systematic plunder of the millions
+whose peaceful industry feeds and clothes the world. The remedy
+which mankind is now beginning to discover and apply is equally
+simple. The millions who do the work are learning to keep the arms
+in their own hands, and to forbid the banding together of masses of
+troops for the purpose of exalting pride and cruelty to a position
+of absolute and irresponsible power.
+
+In Nero's case, so great was the awe which the terrible power of the
+Roman legions inspired, that even the Senate bowed humbly before it,
+and joined in the general adulation of the hated tyrant. They
+decreed oblations and public thanksgivings; they erected new temples
+to express their gratitude to the gods for so signal a deliverance;
+they instituted new games and festivities to express the general
+joy, and erected statues and monuments in honor of those who had
+contributed to the discovery of the plot. The knife or dagger which
+Milichus had produced as the one by which Nero was to have been
+slain, was preserved as a sacred relic. A suitable inscription was
+placed upon it, and it was deposited, with all solemnity, in one of
+the temples of the city, there to remain a memorial of the event for
+all future generations. In a word, the tyrant's escape from death
+called forth all the outward manifestations of joy which could have
+been deserved by the greatest public benefactor.
+
+And yet, notwithstanding all this, such was the estimate which
+public sentiment really entertained of the true character of Nero,
+that it was considered extremely doubtful at the time, and has, in
+fact, been so considered ever since, whether there ever was any
+conspiracy at all. It was very extensively believed that the whole
+pretended discovery of the plot was an ingenious device on the part
+of Nero, to furnish him with plausible pretexts for destroying a
+great number of men who were personally obnoxious to him. And were
+it not almost impossible to believe that such monstrous wickedness
+and tyranny as that of Nero could riot so long over Romans without
+arousing them to some desperate attempts to destroy him, we might
+ourselves adopt this view, and suppose that this celebrated plot was
+wholly a fabrication.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE EXPEDITION INTO GREECE.
+
+A.D. 65
+
+Nero becomes more depraved and abandoned than ever.--Nero appears on
+the public stage.--Estimation in which players were held.--Action of
+the Senate.--Theatrical excitements.--Humiliating demeanor of the
+emperor.--Rewards and honors conferred upon Nero.--The Olympic
+games.--The plain.--Rules.--Preliminary arrangements of the Olympic
+games.--Various contests and spectacles at the Olympic games.--Nero
+sets out for Greece.--His retinue.--Nero's progress through
+Greece.--Crowds of auditors.--Nero is received with great
+applause.--The crown of olive leaves.--Ceremonies.--Sacrifices and
+festivities.--Nero at Olympia.--His chariot race.--Nero receives the
+prizes.--Nero sends despatches to Rome.--His plan for cutting through
+the Isthmus of Corinth.--Breaking ground.--The golden pick-axe.--Helius
+calls upon Nero to return to Rome.--Nero returns.--His train.--His
+prizes.--His voyage.--Danger of shipwreck.--Journey to Rome.--His
+triumphal entry into Rome.--His proceedings.--He continues the training
+of his voice.--The _Phonascus_.--Public performances.--Pecuniary
+embarassments.--Bessus's story.--Nero sends to Egypt for the
+treasure.--His disappointment.--The dream.
+
+
+As the excitement which had been produced by the discovery, real or
+pretended, of Piso's conspiracy, and by the innumerable executions
+which were attendant upon it, passed away, Nero returned to his
+usual mode of life, and in fact abandoned himself to the indulgence
+of his brutal propensities and passions more recklessly than ever.
+He spent his days in sloth, and his nights in rioting and carousals,
+and was rapidly becoming an object of general contempt and
+detestation. The only ambition which seemed to animate him was to
+excel, or rather to have the credit of excelling, as a player and
+singer on the public stage.
+
+Not long after the period of the conspiracy described in the last
+two chapters, and when the excitement connected with it had in some
+measure subsided, the attention of the public began to be turned
+toward a great festival, the time for which was then approaching.
+This festival was celebrated with spectacles and games of various
+kinds, which were called the quinquennial games, from the
+circumstance that the period for the celebration of them recurred
+once in five years. A principal part of the performances on these
+occasions consisted of contests for prizes, which were offered for
+those who chose to compete for them. Some of these prizes were for
+those who excelled in athletic exercises, and in feats of strength
+and dexterity, while others were for singers and dancers, and other
+performers on the public stage. Nero could not resist the temptation
+to avail himself of this grand occasion for the display of his
+powers, and he prepared to appear among the other actors and
+mountebanks as a competitor for the theatrical prizes.
+
+Performers on the public stage were regarded in ancient days much as
+they are now. They were applauded, flattered, caressed, and most
+extravagantly paid; but after all they formed a social class
+distinct from all others, and of a very low grade. Just as now great
+public singers are rewarded sometimes with the most princely
+revenues,--not twice or three times, but _ten_ times perhaps the
+amount ever paid to the highest ministers of state,--and receive the
+most flattering attentions from the highest classes of society, and
+are followed by crowds in the public streets, and enter cities
+escorted by grand processions, while yet there is scarce a
+respectable citizen of the better class who would not feel himself
+demeaned at seeing his son or his daughter on the stage by their
+side.
+
+In the same manner public sentiment was such in the city of Rome, in
+Nero's day, that to see the chief military magistrate of the
+commonwealth publicly performing on the stage, and entering into an
+eager competition with the singing men and women, the low comedians,
+the dancers, the buffoons, and other such characters, that figured
+there, was a very humiliating spectacle. In fact, when the time for
+the quinquennial celebration approached, the government attempted to
+prevent the necessity of the emperor's actual appearing upon the
+stage, by passing in the Senate, among other decrees relating to the
+celebrations, certain votes awarding honorary crowns and prizes to
+Nero, by anticipation,--thus acknowledging him to be the first
+without requiring the test of actual competition. But this did not
+satisfy Nero. In fact, the honor of being publicly proclaimed victor
+was not probably the chief allurement which attracted him. He wished
+to enjoy the excitement and the pleasure of the contest,--to see the
+vast audience assembled before him, and held in charmed and
+enraptured attention by his performance; and to listen to and enjoy
+the triumphant grandeur of the applause which rolled and
+reverberated in the great Roman amphitheaters on such occasions with
+the sound of thunder. In a word it was the vanity of personal
+display, rather than ambition for an honorable distinction, that
+constituted the motive which actuated him.
+
+He consequently disregarded the honorary awards which the Senate had
+decreed him, and insisted on actually appearing on the stage. His
+first performance was the reciting of a poem which he had composed.
+The poem was received, of course, with unbounded applause. Afterward
+he appeared on the stage in competition with the harpers and other
+musical performers. The populace applauded his efforts with the
+greatest enthusiasm, while the more respectable citizens were
+silent, or spoke to each other in secret murmurs of discontent and
+disapproval. There were a great many rules and restrictions which
+the candidates in these contests were required to observe; and
+though they were all proper enough for the class of men for whom
+they were intended, were yet such that the emperor, in subjecting
+himself to them, placed himself in a very low and degraded position,
+so as to become an object of ridicule and contempt. For example,
+after coming to the end of a performance on the harp, he would
+advance to the front of the stage, and there, after the manner
+customary among the players of that day, would kneel down in an
+imploring attitude, with his hands raised, as if humbly soliciting a
+favorable sentence from the audience, as his judges, and tremblingly
+waiting their decision. This, considering that the suppliant
+performer was the greatest potentate on earth, officially
+responsible for the government of half the world, and the audience
+before whom he was kneeling was mainly composed of the lowest rabble
+of the city, seemed to every respectable Roman, absurd and
+ridiculous to the last degree.
+
+Nevertheless, the fame of these exploits performed by Nero as a
+public actor, spread gradually throughout the empire, and the
+subject attracted special attention in the cities of Greece, where
+games and public spectacles of every kind were celebrated with the
+greatest pomp and splendor. Several of these cities sent deputations
+to Rome, with crowns and garlands for the emperor, which they had
+decreed to him in honor of the skill and superiority which he had
+displayed in the histrionic art. Nero was extremely gratified at
+having such honors conferred upon him. He received the deputations
+which brought these tokens, with great pomp and parade, as if they
+had been embassadors from sovereign princes or states, sent to
+transact business of the most momentous concern. He gave them
+audience, in fact, before all others, and entertained them with
+feasts and spectacles, and conferred upon them every other mark of
+public consideration and honor. On one occasion, at a feast to which
+he had invited such a company of embassadors, one of them asked him
+to favor them with a song. The emperor at once complied, and sang a
+song for the entertainment of the company at the table. He was
+rapturously applauded, and was so delighted with the enthusiasm
+which his performance awakened, as to exclaim that the Greeks were,
+after all, the only people that really had a taste for music; none
+but they, he said, could understand or appreciate a good song.
+
+The most renowned of all the celebrations of the ancient Greeks were
+the Olympic games. These games constituted a grand national
+festival, which was held once in four years on a plain in the
+western part of the Peloponnesus, called the Olympian Plain. This
+plain was but little more than a mile in extent, and was bordered on
+one side by rocky hills, and on the other by the waters of a river.
+Here suitable structures were erected for the exhibition of the
+spectacles and games, and for the accommodation of the spectators,
+and when the period for the celebrations arrived, immense multitudes
+assembled from every part of Greece to witness the solemnities. The
+spectators, however, were all men; for with the exception of a few
+priestesses who had certain official duties to perform, no females
+were allowed to be present. The punishment for an attempt to evade
+this law was death; for if any woman attempted to witness the scene
+in disguise, the law was that she was to be seized, if detected,
+and hurled down a neighboring precipice, to be killed by the fall.
+It is said, however, that only one case of such detection ever
+occurred, and in that case the woman was pardoned in consideration
+of the fact that her father, her brothers, and her son had all been
+victors in the games.
+
+The games continued for five days. The general arrangements were
+made, and the umpires were appointed, by the government of Elis,
+which was the state in which the Olympian plain was situated. There
+was a gymnasium in the vicinity, where those who intended to enter
+the lists as competitors were accustomed to put themselves in
+training. This training occupied nearly a year, and for thirty days
+previous to the public exhibition the exercises were conducted at
+this gymnasium in the same manner and form as at the games
+themselves. There was a large and regularly organized police
+provided to preserve order, and umpires appointed with great
+formality, to decide the contests and make the awards. These umpires
+were inducted into office by the most solemn oaths. They bound
+themselves by these oaths to give just and true decisions without
+fear or favor.
+
+The festival was opened, when the time arrived, in the evening, by
+the offering of sacrifices,--the services being conducted in the
+most imposing and solemn manner. On the following morning at
+daybreak the games and contests began. These consisted of races--in
+chariots, on horseback, and on foot,--the runners being in the
+latter case sometimes dressed lightly, and sometimes loaded with
+heavy armor;--of matches in leaping, wrestling, boxing, and throwing
+the discus;--and finally, of musical and poetical performances of
+various kinds. To obtain the prize in any of these contests was
+considered throughout the whole Grecian world as an honor of the
+highest degree.
+
+The period for the celebration of these games began to draw nigh, as
+it happened, not long after the time when the deputations from
+Greece came to Nero with the compliments and crowns decreed to him
+in token of their admiration of his public performances at
+Rome,--and it is not at all surprising that his attention and
+interest were strongly awakened by the approach of so renowned a
+festival. In short he resolved to go to Greece, and display his
+powers before the immense and distinguished audiences that were to
+assemble on the Olympic plains.
+
+He accordingly organized a very large retinue of attendants and
+followers, and prepared to set out on his journey. This retinue was
+in numbers quite an army; but in character it was a mere troop of
+actors, musicians and buffoons. It was made up almost wholly of
+people connected in various ways with the stage, so that the baggage
+which followed in its train, instead of being formed of arms and
+munitions of war, as was usual when a great Roman commander had
+occasion to pass out of Italy, consisted of harps, fiddles, masks,
+buskins, and such other stage property as was in use in those
+times,--while the company itself was formed almost entirely of
+comedians, singers, dancers, and wrestlers, with an immense retinue
+of gay and dissipated men and women, who exemplified every possible
+stage of moral debasement and degradation. With this company Nero
+crossed to the eastern shore of Italy, and there, embarking on board
+the vessels which had been prepared for the voyage, he sailed over
+the Adriatic sea to the shores of Greece.
+
+He landed at Cassiope, a town in the northern part of the island of
+Corcyra. Here there was a temple to Jupiter, and the first of Nero's
+exploits was to go there and sing, being impatient, it would seem,
+to give the people of Greece a specimen of his powers immediately on
+landing. After this he passed over to the continent, and thence
+advanced into the heart of Greece, playing, singing, and acting in
+all the cities through which he passed. As there were yet some
+months to elapse before the period for celebrating the Olympic
+games, Nero had ample time for making this tour. He was of course
+everywhere received with the most unbounded applause, for of course
+those only, in general, who were most pleased with such amusements,
+and were most inclined to approve of Nero's exhibiting himself as a
+performer, came together in the assemblies which convened to hear
+him. Thus it happened that the virtuous, the cultivated, and the
+refined, remained at their homes; while all the idle, reckless,
+and dissolute spirits of the land flocked in crowds to the
+entertainments which their imperial visitor offered them. These men,
+of course, considered it quite a triumph for them that so
+distinguished a potentate should take an active part in ministering
+to their pleasures; and thus wherever Nero went he was sure to be
+attended by crowds, and his performances, whether skillful or not,
+could not fail of being extravagantly extolled in conversation, and
+of eliciting in the theaters thunders of applause. The consequence
+was that Nero was delighted with the enthusiasm which his
+performances seemed everywhere to awaken. To be thus received and
+thus applauded in the cities of Greece, seemed to satisfy his
+highest ambition.
+
+It has always been considered a very extraordinary proof of mental
+and moral degradation on the part of Nero, that he could thus
+descend from the exalted sphere of responsibility and duty to which
+his high official station properly consigned him, in order to mingle
+in such scenes and engage in such contests as were exhibited in the
+ordinary theaters and circuses in Greece. It is however not so
+surprising that he should have been willing to appear as a
+competitor at the Olympic games: so prominent were these games above
+all the other athletic and military celebrations of that age, and so
+great was the value attached to the honor of a victory obtained in
+them. There was, it is true, no value in the prize itself, that was
+bestowed upon the victors. There was no silver cup, or golden crown,
+or sum of money staked upon the issue. The only direct award was a
+crown of olive leaves, which, at the close of the contest, was
+placed upon the head of the victor. Everything pertaining to this
+crown was connected with the most imposing and peculiar ceremonies.
+The leaves from which the garland was made were obtained from a
+certain sacred olive-tree, which grew in a consecrated grove in
+Olympia. The tree itself had been originally brought, it was said,
+from the country of the Hyperboreans, by Hercules, and planted in
+Olympia, where it was sacredly preserved to furnish garlands for the
+victors in the games. The leaves were cut from the tree by a boy
+chosen for the purpose. He gathered the leaves by means of a golden
+sickle, which was set apart expressly to this use. When the time
+arrived for the crowning of the victor, the candidate was brought
+forward in presence of a vast concourse of spectators, and placed
+upon a tripod, which was originally formed of bronze, but in
+subsequent ages was wrought in ivory and gold. Branches of
+palm-trees, the usual symbols of victory, were placed in his hands.
+His name and that of his father and of the country whence he came,
+were proclaimed with great ceremony by the heralds. The crown was
+then placed upon his head, and the festival ended with processions
+and sacrifices and a public banquet given in honor of the occasion.
+On his return to his own country, the victor entered the capital by
+a triumphal procession, and was usually rewarded there by immunities
+and privileges of the most important character.
+
+At length the time arrived for the celebration of the Olympic games,
+and Nero repaired to the spot, following the vast throngs that were
+proceeding thither from every part of Greece, and there entered into
+competition with all the common singers and players of the time. The
+prize for excellence in music was awarded to him. It was, however,
+generally understood that the judges were bribed to decide in his
+favor. Nero entered as a competitor, too, in the chariot race; and
+here he was successful in winning the prize; though in this case it
+was decreed to him in plain and open violation of all rule. He
+undertook to drive ten horses in this race; but he found the team
+too much for him to control. The horses became unmanageable; Nero
+was thrown out of his carriage and was so much hurt that he could
+not finish the race at all. He, however, insisted that accidents and
+casualties were not to be taken into the account, and that inasmuch
+as he should certainly have outran his competitors if he had not
+been prevented by misfortune, he claimed that the judges should
+award him the prize. Greatly to his delight the judges did so. It is
+true they were bound by the most solemn oaths to make just and true
+decisions; but it has been seldom found in the history of the world
+that official oaths constitute any serious barrier against the
+demands or encroachments of emperors or kings.
+
+When the games were ended Nero conferred very rich rewards upon all
+the judges.
+
+These successes at the Olympic games, nominal and empty as they
+really were, seemed to have inflamed the emperor's vanity and
+ambition more than ever. Instead of returning to Rome he commenced
+another tour through the heart of Greece, singing and playing in all
+the cities where he went, and challenging all the most distinguished
+actors and performers to meet him and contend with him for prizes.
+
+Of course the prizes were always awarded to Nero on this tour, as
+they had been at the Olympic games. Nero sent home regular
+despatches after each of his performances, to inform the Roman
+Senate of his victories, just as former emperors had been accustomed
+to send military bulletins to announce the progress of their armies,
+and the conquests which they had gained in battle; and with a degree
+of vanity and folly which seems almost incredible, he called upon
+the Senate to institute religious celebrations and sacrifices in
+Rome, and great public processions, in order to signalize and
+commemorate these great successes, and to express the gratitude of
+the people to the gods for having vouchsafed them. Not satisfied
+with expecting this parade of public rejoicing in Rome, he called
+upon the Senate to ordain that similar services should be held in
+all the cities and towns throughout the empire.
+
+During the visit of Nero to Greece, he engaged in one undertaking
+which might be denominated a useful enterprise, though he managed it
+with such characteristic imbecility and folly, that it ended, as
+might have been foreseen, in a miserable failure. The plan which he
+conceived, was to cut through the Isthmus of Corinth, so as to open
+a ship communication between the Ionian and the Ęgean seas. Such a
+canal, he thought, would save for many vessels the long and
+dangerous voyage around the Peloponnesus, and thus prevent many of
+the wrecks which then annually took place on the shores of the
+Peninsula, and which were often attended with the destruction of
+much property and of many lives.
+
+The plan might thus have been a very good one, had any proper and
+efficient means been adopted for carrying it into execution; but in
+all that he did in this respect, Nero seems to have looked no
+farther than to the performance of pompous and empty ceremonies in
+commencing the work. He convened a great public assembly on the
+ground. He entertained this assembly with spectacles and shows. He
+then placed himself at the head of his life-guards, and, after a
+speech of great promise and pretension, he advanced at the head of a
+procession, singing and dancing by the way, to the place where the
+first ground was to be broken. Here he made three strokes with a
+golden pick-axe, which had been provided for the occasion, and
+putting the earth which he had loosened into a basket, he carried it
+away to a short distance, and threw it out upon the ground. This
+ceremony was meant for the commencement of the canal; and when it
+was over, the company dispersed, and Nero was escorted by his guards
+back to the city of Corinth, which lay at a few miles' distance from
+the scene.
+
+Nothing more was ever done. Nero issued orders, it is true, that all
+the criminals, convicts, and prisoners in Greece, should be
+transported to the Isthmus, and set to work upon this canal; and
+some Jewish captives were actually employed there for a time; but,
+for some reason or other, nothing was done. The actual work was
+never seriously undertaken.
+
+In the mean time, Nero had left the government at Rome in the hands
+of a certain ignoble favorite, named Helius, who, being placed in
+command of the army during his master's absence, held the lives and
+fortunes of all the inhabitants at his supreme disposal, and, as
+might have been expected, he pursued such a career of cruelty and
+oppression, in his attempts to overawe and subject those who were
+under his power, that a universal feeling of hostility and hatred
+was awakened against him. Things at last assumed so alarming an
+attitude, that Helius was terrified in his turn, and at length he
+began to send for Nero to come home. Nero at first paid no attention
+to these requests. The danger, however, increased; the crisis became
+extremely imminent, so that a general insurrection was anticipated.
+Helius sent messengers after messengers to Nero, imploring him to
+return, if he wished to save himself from ruin;--but all the answer
+that he could obtain from Nero was, that, if Helius truly loved him,
+he would not envy him the glory that he was acquiring in Greece;
+but, instead of hastening his return, would rather wish that he
+should come back worthy of himself, after having fully accomplished
+his victories. At last Helius, growing desperate in view of the
+impending danger, left Rome, and, traveling with all possible
+dispatch, night and day, came to Nero in Greece, and there made such
+statements and disclosures in respect to the condition of things at
+Rome, that Nero at length reluctantly concluded to return.
+
+He accordingly set out in grand state on his journey westward,
+escorted by his body-guard, and with his motley and innumerable
+horde of singers, dancers, poets, actors, and mountebanks in his
+train. He brought with him the prizes which he had won in the
+various cities of Greece. The number of these prizes, it was said,
+was more than eighteen hundred. On his way through Greece, when
+about to return to Rome, he went to Delphi, to consult the sacred
+oracle there, in respect to his future fortunes. The reply of the
+Pythoness was, "_Beware of seventy-three._" This answer gave Nero
+great satisfaction and pleasure. It meant, he had no doubt, that he
+had no danger to fear until he should have attained to the age of
+seventy-three; and as he was yet not quite thirty, the response of
+the oracle seemed to put so far away the evil day, that he thought
+he might dismiss it from his mind altogether. So he repaid the
+oracle for the flattering prediction with most magnificent presents,
+and pursued his journey toward Rome with a mind quite at ease.
+
+The ships in which he embarked to cross the Adriatic on his return
+to Italy encountered a terrible storm, by which they were dispersed,
+and many of them were destroyed. Nero himself had a very narrow
+escape, as the ship which he was in came very near being lost. To
+see him in this danger seems greatly to have pleased some of his
+attendants, for so imperious and cruel was his temper, that he was
+generally hated by all who came under his power. These men hated him
+so intensely that they were willing, as it would appear, to perish
+themselves, for the pleasure of witnessing his destruction; and in
+the extreme moments of danger they openly manifested this feeling.
+The vessel, however, was saved, and Nero, as soon as he landed,
+ordered these persons all to be slain.
+
+On landing he gathered together the scattered remnants of his
+company, and organizing a new escort, he advanced toward Rome, in a
+grand triumphal march, displaying his prizes and crowns in all the
+great cities through which he passed, and claiming universal homage.
+When he arrived at the gates of Rome, he made preparations for a
+grand triumphal entry to the city, in the manner of great military
+conquerors. A breach was made in the walls for the admission of the
+procession. Nero rode in the triumphal chariot of Augustus, with a
+distinguished Greek harpist by his side, who wore an Olympic crown
+upon his head, and carried another crown in his hand. Before this
+chariot marched a company of eighteen hundred men, each of them
+carrying one of the crowns which Nero had won, with an inscription
+for the spectators to read, signifying where the crown had been won,
+the name of the emperor's competitor, the title of the song which he
+had sung, and other similar particulars. In this way he traversed
+the principal streets, exhibiting himself and his trophies to the
+populace, and finally when he arrived at his house, he entered it
+with great pomp and parade, and caused the crowns to be hung up upon
+the innumerable statues of himself which had been erected in the
+courts and halls of the building. Those which he valued most highly
+he placed conspicuously around his bed in his bedchamber, in order
+that they might be the last objects for his eyes to rest upon at
+night, and the first to greet his view in the morning.
+
+As soon as he became established in Rome again, he began to form new
+plans for developing his powers and capacities as a musician, in the
+hope of gaining still higher triumphs than those to which he had
+already attained. Far from giving his time and attention to the
+public business of the empire, he devoted himself with new zeal and
+enthusiasm to the cultivation of his art. In doing this it was
+necessary, according to the customs and usages in respect to the
+training of musicians that prevailed in those days, that he should
+submit to rules and exercises most absurd and degrading to one
+holding such a station as his; and as accounts of his mode of life
+circulated among the community, he became an object of general
+ridicule and contempt. In order to strengthen his lungs and improve
+his voice he used to lie on his back with a plate of lead upon his
+chest, that the lungs, working under such a burden, might acquire
+strength by the effort. He took powerful medicines, such as were
+supposed in those days to act upon the system in such a manner as to
+produce clearness and resonance in the tones of the voice. He
+subjected himself to the most rigid rules of diet,--and gave up the
+practice of addressing the senate and the army, which the Roman
+emperors often had occasion to do, for fear that speaking so loud
+might strain his voice and injure the sweetness of its tones. He had
+a special officer in his household, called his _Phonascus_, meaning
+his voice-keeper. This officer was to watch him at all times,
+caution him against speaking too loud or too fast,--prescribe for
+him, and in every way take care that his voice received no
+detriment. During all this time Nero was continually performing in
+public, and though his performances were protracted and tedious to
+the last degree, all the Roman nobility were compelled always to
+attend them, under pain of his horrible displeasure.
+
+As Nero went on thus in the career which he had chosen,--neglecting
+altogether the affairs of government, and giving himself up more and
+more every year to the most expensive dissipation, his finances
+became at length greatly involved, and he was compelled to resort to
+every possible form of extortion, in order to raise the money that
+he required. His pecuniary embarrassments became, at length, very
+perplexing, and they were finally very much increased by the
+extraordinary folly which he displayed in giving credence to the
+dreams and promises of a certain adventurer who came to him from
+Africa. The name of this man was Bessus. He was a native of
+Carthage. He came, at one time, to Rome, and having contrived, by
+means of presents and bribes which he offered to the officers of
+Nero's household, to obtain an audience of the emperor, he informed
+him that he had intelligence of the highest importance to
+communicate, which was, that on his estate in Africa, there was a
+large cavern, in which was stored an immense treasure. This treasure
+consisted, he said, of vast heaps of golden ingots, rude and
+shapeless in form, but composed of pure and precious metal. The
+cavern, he said, which contained these stores, was very spacious,
+and the gold lay piled in it in heaps, and sometimes in solid
+columns, towering to a prodigious height. These treasures had been
+deposited there, he said, by Dido, the ancient Carthaginian queen,
+and they had remained there so long, that all knowledge of them had
+been lost. They had been reserved, in a word, for Nero, and were all
+now at his disposal, ready to be brought out and employed in
+promoting the glory and magnificence of his reign.
+
+Nero readily gave credit to this story, and inasmuch as in the
+exuberance of his exultation he made known this wonderful discovery
+to those around him, the tidings of it soon spread throughout the
+city, and produced the most intense excitement among all classes.
+Nero immediately began to fit out an expedition to proceed to
+Africa, and bring the treasure home. Galleys were equipped to convey
+it, and a body of troops was designated to escort it, and suitable
+officers appointed to proceed with Bessus to Carthage, and
+superintend the transportation of the metal. These preparations
+necessarily required some time, and during the interval Bessus was
+of course the object at Rome of universal attention and regard. Nero
+himself, finding that he was about to enter upon the possession of
+such inexhaustible treasures, dismissed all concern in respect to
+his finances, and launched out into wilder extravagance than ever.
+He raised money for the present moment, by assigning shares in the
+treasure at exorbitant rates of discount, and thus borrowed and
+expended with the most unbounded profusion.
+
+At length the expedition sailed for Carthage, taking Bessus with
+them,--but all search for the cavern, when they arrived, was
+unavailing. It proved that all the evidence which Bessus had of the
+existence of the cave, and of the heaps of gold contained in it, was
+derived from certain remarkable dreams which he had had,--and though
+Nero's commissioners dug into the ground most faithfully in every
+place on the estate which the dreams had indicated, no treasure, and
+not even the cavern, could ever be found.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+NERO'S END.
+
+A.D. 66.
+
+Galba.--His history.--His province.--Revolt of Vindex.--Embassadors
+sent to Galba.--Debates in the council.--Galba joins Vindex.--News of
+the rebellion meets Nero at Naples.--The proclamation of Vindex.--Nero's
+ire.--Nero plans new performances.--The new instruments.--Galba joins
+the insurrection.--Nero appalled.--His plans for vengeance.--He is
+restrained.--He attempts to raise an army.--Slaves.--Nero's hopeless
+condition.--His plans for escape.--The arrival of the cargoes of sand
+from Egypt.--His distraction and terror.--Nero proposes to fly to
+Egypt.--He sinks into hopeless despair.--The night.--He is deserted by
+his guards.--He calls for a gladiator.--Phaon proposes a place of
+retreat.--Nero's flight from the city.--Incidents.--He refuses to be
+buried before he is dead.--He gets through the wall.--He is
+concealed.--Phaon counsels Nero to kill himself.--Nero is condemned by
+the Senate.--The daggers.--Armed men come to arrest Nero at Phaon's
+home.--The soldiers attempt to save Nero.--He dies.--Galba's march to
+Rome.--Seventy-three.
+
+
+The successor of Nero in the line of Roman emperors, was Galba.
+Galba, though a son of one of the most illustrious Roman families,
+was born in Spain, and he was about forty years older than Nero,
+being now over seventy, while Nero was yet but thirty years of age.
+
+During the whole course of his life, Galba had been a very
+distinguished commander, and had risen from one post of influence
+and honor to another, until he became one of the most considerable
+personages in the state. Nero at length appointed him to the command
+of a very large and important province in Spain. At this station
+Galba remained some years, and he was here, attending regularly to
+the duties of his government, at the time when Nero returned from
+his expedition into Greece. Galba himself, and all the other
+governors around him, felt the same indignation at Nero's cruelties
+and crimes, and the same contempt for his low and degrading vanity
+and folly, that prevailed so generally at Rome. In fact, feelings of
+exasperation and hatred against the tyrant, began to extend
+universally throughout the empire. The people in every quarter, in
+fact, seemed ripe for insurrection.
+
+While things were in this state, a messenger arrived one day at
+Galba's court, from a certain chieftain of the Gauls, named Julius
+Vindex. This messenger came to announce to Galba that Vindex had
+revolted against the Roman government in Gaul. He declared, however,
+that it was only _Nero's_ power that Vindex intended to resist, and
+promised that if Galba would himself assume the supreme command,
+Vindex would acknowledge allegiance to him, and would do all in his
+power to promote his cause. He said, moreover, that such was the
+detestation in which Nero was universally held, that there was no
+doubt that the whole empire would sustain Galba in effecting such a
+revolution, if he would once raise his standard. At the same time
+that this messenger came from Vindex, another came from the Roman
+governor of the province of Gaul, where Vindex resided, to inform
+Galba of the revolt, and asking for a detachment of troops to
+assist him in putting it down. Galba called a council, and laid the
+subject before them.
+
+After some debate one of the councillors rose and said that there
+was no more danger in openly joining Vindex in his rebellion, than
+there was in debating, in such a council, what they should do. "It
+is just as treasonable," said he, "to doubt and hesitate whether to
+send troops to put down the revolt, as it would be openly to rebel;
+and Nero will so regard it. My counsel therefore is that, unless you
+choose to be considered as aiding the revolution, you should
+instantly send off troops to put it down."
+
+Galba was much impressed with the wisdom of this advice. He felt
+strongly inclined to favor the cause of Vindex and the rebels, and
+on further reflection he secretly determined to join them, and to
+take measures for raising a general insurrection. He did not,
+however, make known his determination to any one, but dismissed the
+council without declaring what he had concluded to do. Soon
+afterward he sent out to all parts of the province, and ordered a
+general mustering of the forces under his command, and of all that
+could be raised throughout the province, requiring them to meet at a
+certain appointed rendezvous. The army, though not openly informed
+of it, suspected what the object of this movement was to be, and
+came forward to the work, with the utmost alacrity and joy.
+
+In the mean time the tidings of Vindex's revolt traveled rapidly to
+Rome, and thence to Naples, where Nero was at this time performing
+on the public stage. Nero seemed to be very much delighted to hear
+the news. He supposed that the rebellion would of course be very
+easily suppressed, and that when it was suppressed he could make it
+an excuse for subjecting the province in which it had occurred to
+fines and confiscations that would greatly enrich his treasury. He
+was extremely pleased therefore at the tidings of the revolt, and
+abandoned himself to the theatrical pursuits and pleasures in which
+he was engaged, more absolutely and recklessly than ever.
+
+In the mean time fresh messengers arrived at short intervals from
+Rome, to inform Nero of the progress of the rebellion. The news was
+that Vindex was gaining strength every day, and was issuing
+proclamations to the people calling upon them everywhere to rise and
+throw off the ignoble yoke of oppression which they were enduring.
+In these proclamations the emperor was called Brazenbeard, and
+designated as a "wretched fiddler." These taunts excited Nero's ire.
+He wrote to the Senate at Rome calling upon them to adopt some
+measures for putting down this insolent rebel, and having dispatched
+this letter, he seemed to dismiss the subject from his mind, and
+turned his attention anew to his dancing and acting.
+
+His mind was, however, soon disturbed again, for fresh messengers
+continued to come, each bringing reports more alarming than those of
+his predecessor. The rebellion was evidently gaining ground. Nero
+was convinced that something must be done. He accordingly broke
+away, though with great reluctance, from his amusements at Naples,
+and proceeded to Rome. On his arrival at the capital he called a
+council of some of his principal ministers of state, and after a
+short consultation on the subject of the rebellion--in which,
+however, nothing was determined upon--he proceeded to produce some
+newly-invented musical instruments which he had brought with him
+from Naples, and in which he was greatly interested. After showing
+and explaining these instruments to the councilors, he promised them
+that he would give them the pleasure before long of hearing a
+performance upon them, on the stage,--"provided," he added jocosely,
+"that this Vindex will give me leave."
+
+The councilors at length withdrew, and Nero remained in his
+apartment. On retiring to rest, however, he found that he could not
+sleep. His thoughts were running on the musical instruments which he
+had been showing, and on the pleasure which he anticipated in a
+public performance with them. At length, at a very late hour, he
+sent for his councilors to come again to his apartment. They came,
+full of excitement and wonder, supposing that they were thus
+suddenly summoned on account of some new and very momentous tidings
+which had been received from Gaul. They found, however, that Nero
+only wished to give some further account of the instruments which he
+had shown them, and to ask their opinions of certain improvements
+which had occurred to him since they went away.
+
+Nero did not, however, remain very long in this state of insane and
+stupid unconcern; for on the evening of the following day a courier
+arrived from the north with the appalling intelligence that Vindex
+had made himself master of Gaul, and that Galba, the most powerful
+general in the Roman army, had joined the insurrection with all the
+legions under his command, and that he was now advancing toward Rome
+at the head of his armies with the avowed purpose of deposing Nero,
+and making himself emperor in his stead.
+
+Nero was at first absolutely stupefied at hearing these tidings. He
+remained for some time silent and motionless, as if made completely
+senseless with consternation. When at length he came to himself
+again, he fell into a perfect frenzy of rage and terror. He
+overturned the supper table, tore his garments, threw down two
+valuable cups to the floor and broke them to pieces, and then began
+to dash his head against the wall, as if he were perfectly insane.
+He said he was undone. No man had ever been so wretched. His
+dominions were to be seized from him while he yet lived, and held
+by an usurper; he was utterly ruined and undone.
+
+After a little time had elapsed the agitation and excitement of his
+mind took another direction, that of furious anger against the
+generals and officers of his army,--not only those who had actually
+rebelled, but all others, for he was jealous and suspicious of all,
+and said that he believed that the whole army was engaged in the
+conspiracy. He was going to send out orders to the various provinces
+and encampments, for the assassination of great numbers of the
+officers,--such as he imagined might be inclined to turn against
+him,--and he would probably have done so if he had not been
+restrained by the influence of his ministers of state. He also
+proposed to seize and kill all the Gauls then in Rome, as a mode of
+taking vengeance on their countrymen for joining Vindex in his
+rebellion, and could scarcely be prevented from doing this by the
+urgent remonstrances of all his friends.
+
+After a time Nero so far recovered his self-possession that he began
+to make preparations for organizing an army, with the design of
+marching against the rebels. He accordingly ordered troops to be
+enlisted and arms and ammunition to be provided,--assessing at the
+same time heavy taxes upon the people of Rome to defray the expense.
+All these arrangements, however, only increased the general
+discontent. The people saw that the preparations which the emperor
+was making were wholly inadequate to the crisis, and that no
+efficient military operations could ever come from them. In the
+first place, he could obtain no troops, for no men fit for soldiers
+were willing to enlist,--and so he undertook to supply the
+deficiency by requiring every master of slaves to send him a certain
+number of his bondmen, and these bondmen he freed and then enrolled
+them in his army, in lieu of soldiers. Moreover, in making provision
+for the wants of his army, instead of devoting his chief attention
+to securing a sufficiency of arms, ammunition, military stores, and
+other such supplies as were required in preparing for an efficient
+campaign, he seemed only interested in getting together actors,
+dancers, musical instruments, and dresses for performers on the
+public stage. In excuse for this course of procedure, Nero said
+frankly that he did not expect that his expedition would lead to
+any important military operations. As soon as he reached the rebel
+armies his intention was, he said, to throw himself upon their sense
+of justice and their loyalty. He would acknowledge whatever had been
+wrong in his past government, and promise solemnly that his sway in
+future should be more mild and beneficent; and he had no doubt that
+thus the whole disturbance would be quelled. The revolted troops
+would at once return to their duty, and the musical and theatrical
+preparations which he was making were intended for a series of grand
+festivities to celebrate the reconciliation.
+
+Of course such insane and hopeless folly as this awakened a
+sentiment of universal contempt and indignation among the people of
+Rome. The greatest excitement and confusion prevailed throughout the
+city; and, as is usual in times of public panic, money and
+provisions were hid away by those who possessed them, in secret
+hoards; and this soon occasioned a great scarcity of food. The
+city, in fact, was threatened with famine. In the midst of the
+alarm and anxiety which this state of things occasioned, two ships
+arrived from Egypt, at Ostia, and the news produced a general
+rejoicing,--it being supposed, of course, that the ships were laden
+with corn. It proved, however, that there was no corn on board.
+Instead of food for the metropolis, the cargo consisted of _sand_,
+intended to form the _arena_ of some of the emperor's amphitheaters,
+for the gladiators and wrestlers to stand upon, in contending. This
+incident seemed to fill the cup of public indignation to the brim;
+and, as news arrived just at this time that the rebellion had
+extended into Germany, and that all the legions in the German
+provinces had gone over to Galba, Nero's power began to be
+considered at an end. Tumults prevailed everywhere throughout the
+city, and assemblies were held, threatening open defiance to the
+authority of the emperor, and declaring the readiness of the people
+to acknowledge Galba so soon as he should arrive.
+
+Nero was now more terrified than ever. He knew not what to do. He
+fled from his palace, and sought a retreat in certain gardens
+near--acting in this, however, under the influence of a blind and
+instinctive fear, rather than from any rational hope of securing his
+safety by seeking such a place of refuge.
+
+In fact, he was now perfectly distracted with terror. He procured
+some poison before he left his palace, and carried it in a small
+golden box with him to the gardens; but he had not strength or
+resolution to take it. He then conceived of the plan of flying from
+Rome altogether. He would go at once to Ostia, he said, and there
+embark on board a ship and sail for Egypt, where, it might be
+supposed, he would be out of the reach of his enemies. He asked his
+officers and attendants if they would accompany him in this flight.
+But they refused to go.
+
+Then he began to talk of another plan. He would go and meet Galba as
+a suppliant, and, falling upon his knees before the conqueror, would
+implore him to spare his life. Or he would go into the Roman Forum,
+and make a humble and supplicatory address to the people there,
+imploring their forgiveness for his cruelties and crimes, and
+solemnly promising never to be guilty of such excesses again, if
+they would pardon and protect him. The by-standers told him that
+such a proceeding was wholly out of the question; for if he were to
+go forth for such a purpose from his retreat, the people were in
+such a frenzy of excitement against him, that they would tear him
+to pieces before he could reach the Rostra. In a word, the
+distracted thoughts of the wretched criminal turned this way and
+that, in the wild agitation with which remorse and terror filled his
+mind, vainly seeking some way of escape from the awful dangers which
+were circling and narrowing so rapidly around him. There was, in
+fact, no hope now left for him--no refuge, no protection, no
+possibility of escape; and so, after suddenly seizing, and as
+suddenly abandoning, one impracticable scheme after another, his
+mind became wholly bewildered, and he sank down, at length, into a
+condition of blank and hopeless despair.
+
+Although the insurrection had become very general in the provinces,
+the troops in the city, consisting chiefly of the emperor's guards,
+yet remained faithful; and now as the night was coming on, they were
+stationed as usual at their respective posts in various parts of the
+city and at the palace gates. Nero retired to rest. He found,
+however, that he could not sleep. At midnight he rose, and came
+forth from his apartment. He was surprised to find that there was no
+sentinel at the door. On farther examination he found to his
+amazement that the palace guards had been wholly withdrawn. He was
+thunderstruck at making this discovery. He returned into the palace
+and aroused some of the domestics, and then went forth with them to
+the residences of some of his chief ministers, who resided near, to
+ask for help. He could, however, nowhere gain admission. He found
+the houses all closely shut up, and by all his knocking at the doors
+he could get no answer from any persons within. He then came back in
+great distress and alarm to his own apartment. He found that it had
+been broken into during the short time that he had been gone, and
+rifled of every thing valuable that it contained. Even his golden
+box of poison had been carried away. In a word the great sovereign
+of half the world found that he had been abandoned by all his
+adherents, and left in a condition of utter and absolute exposure.
+The guards had concluded to declare for Galba, and had accordingly
+gone away, leaving the fallen tyrant to his fate.
+
+Nero called desperately to his servants to send for a gladiator to
+thrust him through with a sword, but no one would go. "Alas!" he
+exclaimed, "has it come to this? Am I so utterly abandoned that I
+have not even enemies left who are willing to kill me?"
+
+After a little time he began to be a little more composed, and
+expressed a wish that he knew of some place in the environs of the
+city where he could go and conceal himself for a little time until
+he could determine what to do. One of the servants of his household
+named Phaon, told him that he had a country-house near the city,
+where, perhaps, Nero might hide. Nero immediately resolved to go
+there. The better to conceal his flight he disguised himself in mean
+apparel, and tied a handkerchief about his face; and then, mounting
+on horseback in company with two or three attendants, he proceeded
+out of the city. As he went, it thundered and lightened from time to
+time, and Nero was greatly terrified. He supposed that the commotion
+of the elements was occasioned by the spirits of those whom he had
+murdered coming now to persecute and torment him in the hour of his
+extremity.
+
+He passed, during his ride, a station of the guard which happened to
+be on his way, and heard the soldiers cursing him as he went by,
+and expressing joy at his downfall. Soon after this he overheard a
+passenger whom his party met on the road, say to his companion, when
+he saw Nero and his attendants riding by, "These men no doubt are
+going in pursuit of the emperor." Another man whom they met on the
+way stopped them to ask what news there was in town about the
+emperor. In these occurrences, though they of course tended to
+increase the agitation and excitement of Nero's mind, there was
+nothing particularly alarming; but at length an incident happened
+which frightened the fugitive extremely. He was passing a place
+where a carcass lay by the side of the road. Some soldiers of the
+guard were standing near. The horse that Nero rode was startled at
+the sight of the carcass, and springing suddenly shook down the
+handkerchief from Nero's face. One of the soldiers by this means
+obtained a view of his countenance, and exclaimed that that was the
+emperor. Nero was so much alarmed at this that he hastened on, and
+as soon as he was out of the view of the men who had seen him, he
+leaped from his horse, and calling upon his attendants to dismount
+too and follow him, he ran into an adjoining thicket, among bushes
+and briers, and thence the whole party made their way circuitously
+round to the rear of Phaon's grounds. Here they stopped and hid
+themselves till they could contrive some way to get through or over
+the wall.
+
+There was a pit near by, which had been made by digging for sand.
+Phaon proposed that Nero should hide in this pit until an opening
+could be made in the wall. But Nero refused to do this, saying that
+he would not be buried before he was dead. So he remained hid in the
+thickets while Phaon went to work to make an opening in the wall.
+
+The wall was not of a very substantial character; if it had been, it
+would not have been possible for Phaon, with the means at his
+command, to have effected a passage. As it was, he succeeded, though
+with difficulty, in loosening some of the stones, so as gradually to
+make an opening.
+
+Nero was engaged, while this work was going on, in pulling the
+briers out of his clothes and flesh, and being thirsty, he went down
+to a ditch that was near, and drank, taking up the water in his
+hands. As he drank, he groaned out, "Oh, can it be that I have come
+to this!"
+
+[Illustration: PHAON AT THE WALL.]
+
+In the mean time, Phaon went on with his work, and soon succeeded in
+making a hole in the wall sufficient for his purpose, and then the
+men dragged Nero through. They brought him into the house, and shut
+him up in a small and secret apartment there.
+
+Nero now felt relieved from the extreme terror which he had suffered
+during his flight; but the feelings of terror subsided in his mind,
+only to give place to the still more dreadful pangs of remorse and
+horror. He moaned continually in his anguish, and incessantly
+repeated the words, "My father, my mother, and my wife doom me to
+destruction." These were indeed the words of one of the tragedies
+which he had been accustomed to act upon the stage, but they
+expressed the remorse and anguish of his mind so truly, that they
+recurred continually to his lips. Phaon and the men who had brought
+him to the house, finding it impossible to calm him, and seeing no
+hope of his final escape from death, and perhaps, moreover, wishing
+to relieve themselves of what was now fast becoming a serious
+burthen to them, recommended to him to kill himself,--and thus, as
+they said, since he must die, die like a man. Finally, Nero seemed
+to yield to their urgings. He said that he would kill himself as
+they desired. They might go out and dig a grave for him, and prepare
+wood and water for washing the body. While giving these orders he
+moaned and groaned continually, as if in a state of delirium.
+
+In the mean time the morning had come, and at Rome all was
+excitement and commotion. The Senate came together and proclaimed
+Galba emperor. They also passed a decree pronouncing Nero an enemy
+to the state, and sentencing him to be punished as such in the
+ancient manner. When this news transpired, a friend of Phaon wrote a
+letter to him, giving an account of what the Senate had done, and
+sent it off with the utmost haste by a trusty messenger. The
+messenger arrived at Phaon's house, and brought the letter in. Nero
+seized it from Phaon's hands, and read it. "What is the ancient
+manner?" he asked, in a tone of great anxiety and terror. They told
+him that it was to be stripped naked, and then to be secured by
+having his head fastened in a pillory, and in that position to be
+whipped to death. At hearing this, Nero broke forth in fresh groans
+and lamentations. He could not endure such a death as that, he said,
+and he would kill himself, therefore, at once, if they would give
+him a dagger.
+
+There were daggers at hand. Nero took them, examined the points of
+them with a trembling touch, seemed undecided, and finally put them
+away again, saying that his hour was not yet quite come. Presently
+he took one of the daggers again, and made a new attempt to awaken
+in himself sufficient resolution to strike the blow, but his courage
+failed him. He moaned and raved all this time in the most incoherent
+and distracted manner. He even begged that one of the attendants who
+were with him would take the dagger and kill himself first, in order
+to encourage Nero by letting him see that it was not after all so
+dreadful a thing to die. But no one of the attendants seemed
+sufficiently devoted to his master to be willing to render him such
+a service as this.
+
+In the midst of this perplexity and delay a noise was heard as of
+horsemen riding up to the door. Nero was terrified anew at the
+sound. They were coming, he said, to seize him. He immediately drew
+one of the daggers, and putting it to his throat, attempted
+desperately to nerve himself to the work of driving it home. But he
+could not do it. The noise at the door in the mean time increased.
+Nero then gave the dagger to one of the men standing by, and begged
+that he would kill him. The man took the dagger with great
+reluctance, but presently gave the fatal stab, and Nero sank down
+upon the ground mortally wounded.
+
+At this moment the door was suddenly opened, and the soldiers that
+had just arrived came in. They had been sent by the Senate to search
+for the fugitive and bring him back to Rome. The centurion who
+commanded these men, advanced into the room, and looked at the
+fallen emperor, as he lay upon the floor, weltering in his blood. He
+had been commanded to bring the prisoner to the city, if possible,
+alive; and he accordingly ordered the soldiers to come to the dying
+man and endeavor to stanch his wounds and save him. But it was too
+late. Nero stared at them as they advanced to take hold of him, with
+a wild and frightful expression of countenance, which shocked all
+who saw him, and in the midst of this agony of terror, he sank down
+and died.
+
+The news of the tyrant's death spread with the utmost rapidity in
+all directions. A courier immediately set off for the north to carry
+tidings of the event to Galba. People flocked from all quarters to
+the house of Phaon to gaze on the lifeless body, and to exult in the
+monster's death. The people of the city gave themselves up to the
+wildest and most extravagant joy. They put on caps such as were worn
+by manumitted slaves when first obtaining their freedom, and roamed
+about the city expressing in every possible way the exultation they
+felt at their deliverance, and breaking down and destroying the
+statues of Nero wherever they could find them.
+
+In the mean time Galba was steadily advancing on the way to Rome. In
+due time he made his entry into the city, and embassadors came to
+him there from all parts of the Roman world to acknowledge him as
+the reigning emperor. At this time he was seventy-three years old.
+So that the number seventy-three of which the oracle had warned Nero
+to beware, denoted the age of his rival and enemy,--not his own.
+
+                         THE END.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
+
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+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Nero, Makers of History, by Jacob Abbott.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nero, by Jacob Abbott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Nero
+       Makers of History Series
+
+Author: Jacob Abbott
+
+Release Date: November 22, 2008 [EBook #27312]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NERO ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D. Alexander and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h2>Makers of History</h2>
+
+<h1>Nero</h1>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">By</span> JACOB ABBOTT</h3>
+
+<p class="center">WITH ENGRAVINGS</p>
+
+<p class="gap">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 124px;">
+<img src="images/i001.jpg" width="124" height="150" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="smallgap">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">NEW YORK AND LONDON</p>
+<p class="center">HARPER &amp; BROTHERS PUBLISHERS</p>
+<p class="center">1901</p>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+
+<p class="center">Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand<br />
+eight hundred and fifty-three, by</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Harper &amp; Brothers</span>,</p>
+
+<p class="center">in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District
+of New York.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Copyright, 1881, by <span class="smcap">Benjamin Vaughan Abbott</span>, <span class="smcap">Austin<br />
+Abbott</span>, <span class="smcap">Lyman Abbott</span>, and <span class="smcap">Edward Abbott</span>.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+
+<p><a name="Frontispiece" id="Frontispiece"></a></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i003.jpg" class="jpg ispace" width="500" height="267" alt="Environs of Rome." title="" />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Environs of Rome.</span></span>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+<p>In writing the series of historical narratives to which the present
+work pertains, it has been the object of the author to furnish to
+the reading community of this country an accurate and faithful
+account of the lives and actions of the several personages that are
+made successively the subjects of the volumes, following precisely
+the story which has come down to us from ancient times. The writer
+has spared no pains to gain access in all cases to the original
+sources of information, and has confined himself strictly to them.
+The reader may, therefore, feel assured in perusing any one of these
+works, that the interest of it is in no degree indebted to the
+invention of the author. No incident, however trivial, is ever added
+to the original account, nor are any words even, in any case,
+attributed to a speaker without express authority. Whatever of
+interest, therefore, these stories may possess, is due solely to the
+facts themselves which are recorded in them, and to their being
+brought together in a plain, simple, and connected narrative.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1" summary="CONTENTS">
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">CHAPTER</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">PAGE</td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">I.</td>
+<td align="left">NERO'S MOTHER</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#NERO">13</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">II.</td>
+<td align="left">THE ASSASSINATION OF CALIGULA</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_II">34</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">III.</td>
+<td align="left">THE ACCESSION OF CLAUDIUS</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_III">55</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">IV.</td>
+<td align="left">THE FATE OF MESSALINA</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_IV">77</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">V.</td>
+<td align="left">THE CHILDHOOD OF NERO</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_V">105</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">VI.</td>
+<td align="left">NERO AN EMPEROR</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_VI">124</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">VII.</td>
+<td align="left">BRITANNICUS</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_VII">148</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">VIII.</td>
+<td align="left">THE FATE OF AGRIPPINA</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_VIII">172</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">IX.</td>
+<td align="left">EXTREME DEPRAVITY</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_IX">208</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">X.</td>
+<td align="left">PISO'S CONSPIRACY</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_X">228</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XI.</td>
+<td align="left">THE FATE OF THE CONSPIRATORS</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_XI">250</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XII.</td>
+<td align="left">THE EXPEDITION INTO GREECE</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_XII">272</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XIII.</td>
+<td align="left"> NERO'S END</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Chapter_XIII">299</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+<h2><a name="ENGRAVINGS" id="ENGRAVINGS"></a>ENGRAVINGS.</h2>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" summary="ENGRAVINGS">
+
+<tr>
+<td align="left">&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">PAGE</td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="left">MAP&mdash;ENVIRONS OF ROME</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Frontispiece"><i>Frontispiece.</i></a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="left">ENCAMPMENT OF A ROMAN LEGION</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="left">C&AElig;SONIA</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#caesonia">53</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="left">DISCOVERY OF CLAUDIUS</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#discovery">64</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="left">MESSALINA IN THE GARDEN</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="left">THE POISONING OF CLAUDIUS</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#poisoning">132</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="left">THE JEWELRY</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#jewelry">157</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="left">THE ATTEMPT OF ANICETUS</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_197">197</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="left">BURNING OF ROME</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_226">226</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="left">THE KNIFE</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#knife">245</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="left">BRINGING EPICHARIS TO THE TORTURE</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#bringing">254</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="left">PHAON AT THE WALL</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#wall">316</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="NERO" id="NERO"></a>NERO</h2>
+
+<h2><a name="Chapter_I" id="Chapter_I"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter I.</span></h2>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">Nero's Mother.</span></h2>
+
+<h3>A.D. 37</h3>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Roman country seats.</div>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">I</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">n</span> ancient times, when the city of Rome was at the height of its
+power and splendor, it was the custom, as it is in fact now with the
+inhabitants of wealthy capitals, for the principal families to
+possess, in addition to their city residences, rural villas for
+summer retreats, which they built in picturesque situations, at a
+little distance from the city, sometimes in the interior of the
+country, and sometimes upon the sea-shore. There were many
+attractive places of resort of this nature in the neighborhood of
+Rome. Among them was Antium.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Antium.<br />Situation of the promontory of Antium.</div>
+
+<p>Antium was situated on the sea-coast about thirty miles south of the
+Tiber. A bold promontory here projects into the sea, affording <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>from
+its declivities the most extended and magnificent views on every
+side. On the north, looking from the promontory of Antium, the eye
+follows the line of the coast away to the mouth of the Tiber; while,
+on the south, the view is terminated, at about the same distance, by
+the promontory of Circe, which is the second cape, or promontory,
+that marks the shore of Italy in going southward from Rome. Toward
+the interior, from Antium, there extends a broad and beautiful
+plain, bounded by wooded hills toward the shore, and by ranges of
+mountains in the distance beyond. On the southern side of the cape,
+and sheltered by it, was a small harbor where vessels from all the
+neighboring seas had been accustomed to bring in their cargoes, or
+to seek shelter in storms, from time immemorial. In fact, Antium, in
+point of antiquity, takes precedence, probably, even of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>The beauty and the salubrity of Antium made it a very attractive
+place of summer resort for the people of Rome; and in process of
+time, when the city attained to an advanced stage of opulence and
+luxury, the Roman noblemen built villas there, choosing situations,
+in some instances, upon the natural terraces <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>and esplanades of the
+promontory, which looked off over the sea, and in others cool and
+secluded retreats in the valleys, on the land. It was in one of
+these villas that Nero was born.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Account of Nero's parentage.<br />Brazenbeard.</div>
+
+<p>Nero's father belonged to a family which had enjoyed for several
+generations a considerable degree of distinction among the Roman
+nobility, though known by a somewhat whimsical name. The family name
+was Brazenbeard, or, to speak more exactly, it was Ahenobarbus,
+which is the Latin equivalent for that word. It is a question
+somewhat difficult to decide, whether in speaking of Nero's father
+at the present time, and in the English tongue, we should make use
+of the actual Latin name, or translate the word and employ the
+English representative of it; that is, whether we shall call him
+Ahenobarbus or Brazenbeard. The former seems to be more in harmony
+with our ideas of the dignity of Roman history; while the latter,
+though less elegant, conveys probably to our minds a more exact idea
+of the import and expression of the name as it sounded in the ears
+of the Roman community. The name certainly was not an attractive
+one, though the family had contrived <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>to dignify it some degree by
+assigning to it a preternatural origin. There was a tradition that
+in ancient times a prophet appeared to one of the ancestors of the
+line, and after foretelling certain extraordinary events which were
+to occur at some future period, stroked down the beard of his
+auditor with his hand, and changed it to the color of brass, in
+miraculous attestation of the divine authority of the message. The
+man received the name of Brazenbeard in consequence, and he and his
+descendants ever afterward retained it.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero's father.<br />Agrippina his mother.</div>
+
+<p>The family of the Brazenbeards was one of high rank and distinction,
+though at the time of Nero's birth it was, like most of the other
+prominent Roman families, extremely profligate and corrupt. Nero's
+father, especially, was a very bad man. He was accused of the very
+worst of crimes, and he led a life of constant remorse and terror.
+His wife, Agrippina, Nero's mother, was as wicked as he; and it is
+said that when the messenger came to him to announce the birth of
+his child, the hero of this narrative, he uttered some exclamation
+of ill-humor and contempt, and said that whatever came from him and
+Agrippina <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>could not but be fraught with ruin to Rome.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina's brother Caligula.<br />Roman emperors.</div>
+
+<p>The rank and station of Agrippina in Roman society was even higher
+than that of her husband. She was the sister of the emperor. The
+name of the emperor, her brother, was Caligula. He was the third in
+the series of Roman emperors, Augustus C&aelig;sar, the successor of
+Julius C&aelig;sar, having been the first. The term emperor, however, had
+a very different meaning in those days, from its present import. It
+seems to denote now a sovereign ruler, who exercises officially a
+general jurisdiction which extends over the whole government of the
+state. In the days of the Romans it included, in theory at least,
+only <i>military</i> command. The word was <i>imperator</i>, which meant
+<i>commander</i>; and the station which it denoted was simply that of
+general-in-chief over the military forces of the republic.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Regulations in respect to the Roman armies.</div>
+
+<p>In the early periods of the Roman history, every possible precaution
+was taken to keep the military power in a condition of very strict
+subordination to the authority of the civil magistrate and of law.
+Very stringent regulations were adopted to secure this end. No
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>portion of the army, except such small detachments as were required
+for preserving order within the walls, was allowed to approach the
+city. Great commanders, in returning from their victorious
+campaigns, were obliged to halt and encamp at some distance from the
+gates, and there await the orders of the Roman Senate. The <i>Senate</i>
+was, in theory, the great repository of political power. This Senate
+was not, however, as the word might seem in modern times to denote,
+a well-defined and compact body of legislators, designated
+individually to the office, but rather a class of hereditary nobles,
+very numerous, and deriving their power from immemorial usage, and
+from that strange and unaccountable feeling of deference and awe
+with which the mass of mankind always look up to an established, and
+especially an ancient, aristocracy. The Senate were accustomed to
+convene at stated times, in assemblages which were, sometimes,
+conducted with a proper degree of formality and order, and sometimes
+on the other hand, exhibited scenes of great tumult and confusion.
+Their power, however, whether regularly or irregularly exercised,
+was supreme. They issued edicts, they enacted laws, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>they allotted
+provinces, they made peace, and they declared war. The armies, and
+the generals who commanded them, were the <i>agents</i> employed to do
+their bidding.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Description of the Roman armies.<br />Encampments of the legions.</div>
+
+<p>The Roman armies consisted of vast bodies of men which, when not in
+actual service, were established in permanent encampments in various
+parts of the empire, wherever it was deemed necessary that troops
+should be stationed. These great bodies of troops were the
+celebrated Roman legions, and they were renowned throughout the
+world for their discipline, their admirable organization, the
+celerity of their movements, and for the indomitable courage and
+energy of the men. Each legion constituted, in fact, a separate and
+independent community. Its camp was its city. Its general was its
+king. In time of war it moved, of course, from place to place, as
+the exigencies of the service required; but in time of peace it
+established itself with great formality in a spacious and permanent
+encampment, which was laid out with great regularity, and fortified
+with ramparts and fosses. Within the confines of the camp the tents
+were arranged in rows, with broad spaces for streets between them;
+and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>in a central position, before a space which served the purpose
+of a public square, the rich and ornamented pavilions of the
+commander and chief, and of the other generals, rose above the rest,
+like the public edifices of a city. The encampment of a Roman legion
+was, in fact, an extended and populous city, only that the dwellings
+consisted of tents instead of being formed of solid and permanent
+structures of wood or stone.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21-2]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i018.jpg" class="ispace" width="500" height="307" alt="Encampment of a Roman Legion." title="" />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Encampment of a Roman Legion.</span></span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote2">Their stations.<br />Useful functions of the Roman armies.<br />Effects produced.<br />Mode of producing them.<br />Ancient narratives.</div>
+
+<p>Roman legions were encamped in this way in various places throughout
+the empire, wherever the Senate thought proper to station them.
+There were some in Syria and the East; some in Italy; some on the
+banks of the Rhine; and it was through the instrumentality of the
+vast force thus organized, that the Romans held the whole European
+world under their sway. The troops were satisfied to yield
+submission to the orders of their commanders, since they received
+through them in return, an abundant supply of food and clothing, and
+lived, ordinarily, lives of ease and indulgence. In consideration of
+this, they were willing to march from place to place wherever they
+were ordered, and to fight any enemy when brought into the field.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> The commanders obtained food and clothing for them by means of the
+tribute which they exacted from conquered provinces, and from the
+plunder of sacked cities, in times of actual war. These armies were
+naturally interested in preserving order and maintaining in general
+the authority of law, throughout the communities which they
+controlled; for without law and order the industrial pursuits of men
+could not go on, and of course they were well aware that if in any
+country production were to cease, tribute must soon cease too. In
+reading history we find, indeed, it must be confessed, that a
+fearful proportion of the narrative which describes the achievements
+of ancient armies, is occupied with detailing deeds of violence,
+rapine, and crime; but we must not infer from this that the
+influence of these vast organizations was wholly evil. Such extended
+and heterogeneous masses of population as those which were spread
+over Europe and Asia, in the days of the Romans, could be kept
+subject to the necessary restraints of social order only by some
+very powerful instrumentality. The legions organized by the Roman
+Senate, and stationed here and there throughout the extended
+territory,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> constituted this instrumentality. But still, during far
+the greater portion of the time the power which a legion wielded was
+power in repose. It accomplished its end by its simple presence, and
+by the sentiment of awe which its presence inspired; and the nations
+and tribes within the circle of its influence lived in peace, and
+pursued their industrial occupations without molestation, protected
+by the consciousness which everywhere pervaded the minds of men,
+that the Roman power was at hand. The legion hovered, as it were,
+like a dark cloud in their horizon, silent and in repose; but
+containing, as they well knew, the latent elements of thunder, which
+might at any time burst upon their heads. Thus, in its ordinary
+operation, its influence was good. Occasionally and incidentally
+periods of commotion would occur, when its action was violent,
+cruel, and mercilessly evil. Unfortunately, however, for the credit
+of the system in the opinion of mankind in subsequent ages, there
+was in the good which it effected nothing to narrate; while every
+deed of violence and crime which was perpetrated by its agency,
+furnished materials for an entertaining and exciting story. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>The
+good which was accomplished extended perhaps through a long, but
+monotonous period of quiescence and repose. The evil was brief, but
+was attended with a rapid succession of events, and varied by
+innumerable incidents; so that the historian was accustomed to pass
+lightly over the one, with a few indifferent words of cold
+description, while he employed all the force of his genius in
+amplifying and adorning the narratives which commemorated the other.
+Thus, violent and oppressive as the military rulers were, by whom in
+ancient times the world was governed, they were less essentially and
+continuously violent and oppressive than the general tenor of
+history makes them seem; and their crimes were, in some degree at
+least, compensated for and redeemed, by the really useful function
+which they generally fulfilled, of restraining and repressing all
+disorder and violence except their own.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The civil authorities.<br />The progress of the military power.</div>
+
+<p>The Roman legions, in particular, were for many centuries kept in
+tolerable subjection to the civil authorities of the capitol; but
+they were growing stronger and stronger all the time, and becoming
+more and more conscious of their strength. Every new commander<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> who
+acquired renown by his victories, added greatly to the importance
+and influence of the army in its political relations. The great
+Julius C&aelig;sar, in the course of his foreign conquests, and of his
+protracted and terrible wars with Pompey, and with his other rivals,
+made enormous strides in this direction. Every time that he returned
+to Rome at the head of his victorious legions, he overawed the
+capitol more and more. Octavius C&aelig;sar, the successor of Julius,
+known generally in history by the name of Augustus, completed what
+his uncle had begun. He made the military authority, though still
+nominally and in form subordinate, in reality paramount and supreme.
+The Senate, indeed, continued to assemble, and to exercise its usual
+functions. Consuls and other civil magistrates were chosen, and
+invested with the insignia of supreme command; and the customary
+forms and usages of civil administration, in which the subordination
+of the military to the civil power was fully recognized, were all
+continued. Still, the actual authority of the civil government was
+wholly overawed and overpowered; and the haughty <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span><i>imperator</i>
+dictated to the Senate, and directed the administration, just as he
+pleased.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Disposition of men to submit to established power.</div>
+
+<p>It required great genius in the commanders to bring up the army to
+this position of ascendency and power; but once up, it sustained
+itself there, without the necessity of ability of any kind, or of
+any lofty qualities whatever, in those subsequently placed at the
+head. In fact, the reader of history has often occasion to be
+perfectly amazed at the lengths to which human endurance will go,
+when a governmental power of any kind is once established, in
+tolerating imbecility and folly in the individual representatives of
+it. It seems to be immaterial whether the dominant power assumes the
+form of a dynasty of kings, a class of hereditary nobles, or a line
+of military generals. It requires genius and statesmanship to
+instate it, but, once instated, no degree of stupidity, folly or
+crime in those who wield it, seems sufficient to exhaust the spirit
+of submission with which man always bows to established power&mdash;a
+spirit of submission which is so universal, and so patient and
+enduring, and which so transcends all the bounds of expediency and
+of reason, as to seem like a blind instinct implanted in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>very
+soul of man by the Author of his being&mdash;a constituent and essential
+part of his nature as a gregarious animal. In fact, without some
+such instinct, it would seem impossible that those extended
+communities could be formed and sustained, without which man, if he
+could exist at all, could certainly never fully develop his
+capacities and powers.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Great capacity of the early emperors.<br />Roman armies.</div>
+
+<p>However this may be in theory, it is certain in fact, that the work
+of bringing up the military power of ancient Rome to its condition
+of supremacy over all the civil functions of government, was the
+work of men of the most exalted capacities and powers. Marius and
+Sylla, Pompey and C&aelig;sar, Antony and Augustus, evinced, in all their
+deeds, a high degree of sagacity, energy, and greatness of soul.
+Mankind, though they may condemn their vices and crimes, will never
+cease to admire the grandeur of their ambition, and the
+magnificence, comprehensiveness, and efficiency of their plans of
+action. The whole known world was the theater of their contests, and
+the armies which they organized and disciplined, and which they
+succeeded at length in bringing under the control of one central and
+consolidated command, formed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>the most extended and imposing
+military power that the world had ever seen. It was not only vast in
+extent, but permanent and self-sustaining in character. A wide and
+complicated, but most effectual system was adopted for maintaining
+it. Its discipline was perfect. Its organization was complete. It
+was equally trained to remain quietly at home in its city-like
+encampments, in time of peace, or to march, or bivouac, or fight, in
+time of war. Such a system could be formed only by men possessed of
+mental powers of the highest character; but, once formed, it could
+afterward sustain itself; and not only so, but it was found capable
+of holding up, by its own inherent power, the most imbecile and
+incompetent men, as the nominal rulers of it.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Character of Caligula.<br />His desperate malignity.<br />Examples of his cruelty.<br />Feeding wild beasts with men.<br />Branding.</div>
+
+<p>Caligula, for example, the brother of Agrippina, and the reigning
+emperor at the time of Nero's birth, was a man wholly unfit to
+exercise any high command. He was elevated to the post by the
+influence of the army, simply because he was the most prominent man
+among those who had hereditary claims to the succession, and was
+thus the man whom the army could most easily place in the office <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>of
+chieftain, and retain most securely there. His life, however, in the
+lofty station to which accident thus raised him, was one of
+continual folly, vice and crime. He lived generally at Rome, where
+he expended the immense revenues that were at his command in the
+most wanton and senseless extravagance. In the earlier part of his
+career the object of much of his extravagance was the gratification
+of the people; but after a time he began to seek only gratifications
+for himself, and at length he evinced the most wanton spirit of
+malignity and cruelty toward others. He seemed at last actually to
+hate the whole human species, and to take pleasure in teasing and
+tormenting men, whenever an occasion of any kind occurred to afford
+him the opportunity. They were accustomed in those days to have
+spectacles and shows in vast amphitheaters which were covered, when
+the sun was hot, with awnings. Sometimes when an amphitheater was
+crowded with spectators, and the heat of the sun was unusually
+powerful, Caligula would order the awnings to be removed and the
+doors to be kept closed so as to prevent the egress of the people;
+and then he would amuse himself with the indications of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>discomfort
+and suffering which so crowded a concourse in such an exposure would
+necessarily exhibit. He kept wild animals for the combats which took
+place in these amphitheaters, and when it was difficult to procure
+the flesh of sheep and oxen for them, he would feed them with men,
+throwing into their dens for this purpose criminals and captives.
+Some persons who offended him, he ordered to be branded in the face
+with hot irons, by which means they were not only subjected to cruel
+torture at the time, but were frightfully disfigured for life.
+Sometimes when the sons of noble or distinguished men displeased
+him, or when under the influence of his caprice or malignity he
+conceived some feeling of hatred toward them, he would order them to
+be publicly executed, and he would require their parents to be
+present and witness the scene. At one time after such an execution
+he required the wretched father of his victim to come and sup with
+him at his palace; and while at supper he talked with his guest all
+the time, in a light, and jocular, and mirthful manner, in order to
+trifle with and insult the mental anguish of the sufferer. At
+another time when he had commanded a distinguished <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>senator to be
+present at the execution of his son, the senator said that he would
+go, in obedience to the emperor's orders, but humbly asked
+permission to shut his eyes at the moment of the execution, that he
+might be spared the dreadful anguish of witnessing the dying
+struggles of his son. The emperor in reply immediately condemned the
+father to death for daring to make so audacious a proposal.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina is implicated in a conspiracy.<br />She is banished with her sister to Pontia.</div>
+
+<p>Of course the connection of Agrippina, the mother of Nero, with such
+a sovereign as this, while it gave her a very high social position
+in the Roman community, could not contribute much to her happiness.
+In fact all who were connected with Caligula in any way lived in
+continual terror, for so wanton and capricious was his cruelty, that
+all who were liable to come under his notice at all were in constant
+danger. Agrippina herself at one time incurred her brother's
+displeasure, though she was fortunate enough to escape with her
+life. Caligula discovered, or pretended to discover, a conspiracy
+against him, and he accused Agrippina and another of his sisters
+named Livilla of being implicated in it. Caligula sent a soldier to
+the leader of the conspiracy to cut off his head, and then <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>he
+banished his sisters from Rome and shut them up in the island of
+Pontia, telling them when they went away, to beware, for he had
+swords for them as well as islands, in case of need.</p>
+
+<p>At length Caligula's terrible tyranny was brought to a sudden end by
+his assassination; and Agrippina, in consequence of this event was
+not only released from her thraldom but raised to a still higher
+eminence than she had enjoyed before. The circumstances connected
+with these events will be related in the next chapter.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="Chapter_II" id="Chapter_II"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter II.</span></h2>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">The Assassination of Caligula.</span></h2>
+
+<h3>A.D. 40-41</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">he</span> emperor Caligula came to his death in the following manner:</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Plots against Caligula.</div>
+
+<p>Of course his wanton and remorseless tyranny often awakened very
+deep feelings of resentment, and very earnest desires for revenge in
+the hearts of those who suffered by it; but yet so absolute and
+terrible was his power, that none dared to murmur or complain. The
+resentment, however, which the cruelty of the emperor awakened,
+burned the more fiercely for being thus restrained and suppressed,
+and many covert threats were made, and many secret plots were
+formed, from time to time, against the tyrant's life.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Cassius Ch&aelig;rea.<br />Ch&aelig;rea's bravery.<br />His legion mutinies.<br />Ch&aelig;rea escapes the mutineers.</div>
+
+<p>Among others who cherished such designs, there was a man named
+Cassius Ch&aelig;rea, an officer of the army, who, though not of high
+rank, was nevertheless a man of considerable distinction. He was a
+captain, or, as it was styled in those days, a centurion. His
+command, therefore, was small, but it was in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>pr&aelig;torian cohort,
+as it was called, a sort of body-guard of the commander-in-chief,
+and consequently a very honorable corps. Ch&aelig;rea was thus a man of
+considerable distinction on account of the post which he occupied,
+and his duties, as captain in the life-guards, brought him very
+frequently into communication with the emperor. He was a man of
+great personal bravery, too, and was on this account held in high
+consideration by the army. He had performed an exploit at one time,
+some years before, in Germany, which had gained him great fame. It
+was at the time of the death of Augustus, the first emperor. Some of
+the German legions, and among them one in which Ch&aelig;rea was serving,
+had seized upon the occasion to revolt. They alledged many and
+grievous acts of oppression as the grounds of their revolt, and
+demanded redress for what they had suffered, and security for the
+future. One of the first measures which they resorted to in the
+frenzy of the first outbreak of the rebellion, was to seize all the
+centurions in the camp, and to beat them almost to death. They gave
+them sixty blows each, one for each of their number, and then turned
+them, bruised, wounded, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>and dying, out of the camp. Some they threw
+into the Rhine. They revenged themselves thus on all the centurions
+but one. That one was Ch&aelig;rea. Ch&aelig;rea would not suffer himself to be
+taken by them, but seizing his sword he fought his way through the
+midst of them, slaying some and driving others before him, and thus
+made his escape from the camp. This feat gained him great renown.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His appearance.</div>
+
+<p>One might imagine from this account that Ch&aelig;rea was a man of great
+personal superiority in respect to size and strength, inasmuch as
+extraordinary muscular power, as well as undaunted courage, would
+seem to be required to enable a man to make his way against so many
+enemies. But this was not the fact. Ch&aelig;rea was of small stature and
+of a slender and delicate form. He was modest and unassuming in his
+manners, too, and of a very kind and gentle spirit. He was thus not
+only honored and admired for his courage, but he was generally
+beloved for the amiable and excellent qualities of his heart.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His just dealings displease the emperor.</div>
+
+<p>The possession of such qualities, however, could not be expected to
+recommend him particularly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> to the favor of the emperor. In fact, in
+one instance it had the contrary effect. Caligula assigned to the
+centurions of his guard, at one period, some duties connected with
+the collection of taxes. Ch&aelig;rea, instead of practicing the extortion
+and cruelty common on such occasions, was merciful and considerate,
+and governed himself strictly by the rules of law and of justice in
+his collections. The consequence necessarily was that the amount of
+money received was somewhat diminished, and the emperor was
+displeased. The occasion was, however, not one of sufficient
+importance to awaken in the monarch's mind any very serious anger,
+and so, instead of inflicting any heavy punishment upon the
+offender, he contented himself with attempting to tease and torment
+him with sundry vexatious indignities and annoyances.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Passwords given by Caligula to Ch&aelig;rea.</div>
+
+<p>It is the custom sometimes, in camps, and at other military
+stations, for the commander to give every evening, what is called
+the <i>parole</i> or password, which consists usually of some word or
+phrase that is to be communicated to all the officers, and as
+occasion may require to all the soldiers, whom for any reason it may
+be necessary to send to and fro <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>about the precincts of the camp
+during the night. The sentinels, also, all have the password, and
+accordingly, whenever any man approaches the post of a sentinel, he
+is stopped and the parole is demanded. If the stranger gives it
+correctly, it is presumed that all is right, and he is allowed to
+pass on,&mdash;since an enemy or a spy would have no means of knowing it.</p>
+
+<p>Now, whenever it came to Ch&aelig;rea's turn to communicate the parole,
+the emperor was accustomed to give him some ridiculous or indecent
+phrase, intended not only to be offensive to the purity of Ch&aelig;rea's
+mind, but designed, also, to exhibit him in a ridiculous light to
+the subordinate officers and soldiers to whom he would have to
+communicate it. Sometimes the password thus given was some word or
+phrase wholly unfit to be spoken, and sometimes it was the name of
+some notorious and infamous woman; but whatever it was, Ch&aelig;rea was
+compelled by his duty as a soldier to deliver it to all the corps,
+and patiently to submit to the laughter and derision which his
+communication awakened among the vile and wicked soldiery.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Accusation of Propedius.<br />Quintilia's testimony.</div>
+
+<p>If there was any dreadful punishment to be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>inflicted, or cruel deed
+of any kind to be performed, Caligula took great pleasure in
+assigning the duty to Ch&aelig;rea, knowing how abhorrent to his nature it
+must be. At one time a senator of great distinction named Propedius,
+was accused of treason by one of his enemies. His treason consisted,
+as the accuser alledged, of having spoken injurious words against
+the emperor. Propedius denied that he had ever spoken such words.
+The accuser, whose name was Timidius, cited a certain Quintilia, an
+actress, as his witness. Propedius was accordingly brought to trial,
+and Quintilia was called upon before the judges to give her
+testimony. She denied that she had ever heard Propedius utter any
+such sentiment as Timidius attributed to him. Timidius then said
+that Quintilia was testifying falsely: he declared that she had
+heard Propedius utter such words, and demanded that she should be
+put to the torture to compel her to acknowledge it. The emperor
+acceded to this demand, and commanded Ch&aelig;rea to put the actress to
+the torture.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Ch&aelig;rea alarmed.<br />Quintilia's private signal.</div>
+
+<p>It is, of course, always difficult to ascertain the precise truth in
+respect to such transactions as those that are connected with plots
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>and conspiracies against tyrants, since every possible precaution
+is, of course, taken by all concerned to conceal what is done. It is
+probable, however, in this case, that Propedius had cherished some
+hostile designs against Caligula, if he had not uttered injurious
+words, and that Quintilia was in some measure in his confidence. It
+is even possible that Ch&aelig;rea may have been connected with them in
+some secret design, for it is said that when he received the orders
+of Caligula to put Quintilia to the torture he was greatly agitated
+and alarmed. If he should apply the torture severely, he feared that
+the unhappy sufferer might be induced to make confessions or
+statements at least, which would bring destruction on the men whom
+he most relied upon for the overthrow of Caligula. On the other
+hand, if he should attempt to spare her, the effect would be only to
+provoke the anger of Caligula against himself, without at all
+shielding or saving her. As, however, he was proceeding to the place
+of torture, in charge of his victim, with his mind in this state of
+anxiety and indecision, his fears were somewhat relieved by a
+private signal given to him by Quintilia, by which she intimated to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>him that he need feel no concern,&mdash;that she would be faithful and
+true, and would reveal nothing, whatever might be done to her.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Quintilia is put to the torture in vain.</div>
+
+<p>This assurance, while it allayed in some degree Ch&aelig;rea's anxieties
+and fears, must have greatly increased the mental distress which he
+endured at the idea of leading such a woman to the awful suffering
+which awaited her. He could not, however, do otherwise than to
+proceed. Having arrived at the place of execution, the wretched
+Quintilia was put to the rack. She bore the agony which she endured
+while her limbs were stretched on the torturing engine, and her
+bones broken, with patient submission, to the end. She was then
+carried, fainting, helpless, and almost dead, to Caligula, who
+seemed now satisfied. He ordered the unhappy victim of the torture
+to be taken away, and directed that Propedius should be acquitted
+and discharged.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Anger of Ch&aelig;rea.</div>
+
+<p>Of course while passing through this scene the mind of Ch&aelig;rea was in
+a tumult of agitation and excitement,&mdash;the anguish of mind which he
+must have felt in his compassion for the sufferer, mingling and
+contending with the desperate indignation which burned in his bosom
+against the author of all these miseries.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> He was wrought up, in
+fact, to such a state of frenzy by this transaction, that as soon as
+it was over he determined immediately to take measures to put
+Caligula to death. This was a very bold and desperate resolution.
+Caligula was the greatest and most powerful potentate on earth.
+Ch&aelig;rea was only a captain of his guard, without any political
+influence or power, and with no means whatever of screening himself
+from the terrible consequences which might be expected to follow
+from his attempt, whether it should succeed or fail.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His determination to destroy Caligula.<br />Conspiracy formed.</div>
+
+<p>So thoroughly, however, was he now aroused, that he determined to
+brave every danger in the attainment of his end. He immediately
+began to seek out among the officers of the army such men as he
+supposed would be most likely to join him,&mdash;men of courage,
+resolution, and faithfulness, and those who, from their general
+character or from the wrongs which they had individually endured
+from the government, were to be supposed specially hostile to
+Caligula's dominion. From among these men he selected a few, and to
+them he cautiously unfolded his designs. All approved of them. Some,
+it is true, declined taking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>any active part in the conspiracy, but
+they assured Ch&aelig;rea of their good wishes, and promised solemnly not
+to betray him.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The confederates.<br />Various opinions.</div>
+
+<p>The number of the conspirators daily increased. There was, however,
+at their meetings for consultation, some difference of opinion in
+respect to the course to be pursued. Some were in favor of acting
+promptly and at once. The greatest danger which was to be
+apprehended, they thought, was in delay. As the conspiracy became
+extended, some one would at length come to the knowledge of it, they
+said, who would betray them. Others, on the other hand, were for
+proceeding cautiously and slowly. What they most feared was rash and
+inconsiderate action. It would be ruinous to the enterprise, as they
+maintained, for them to attempt to act before their plans were fully
+matured.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Various plans proposed for destroying Caligula.</div>
+
+<p>Ch&aelig;rea was of the former opinion. He was very impatient to have the
+deed performed. He was ready himself, he said, to perform it, at any
+time; his personal duties as an officer of the guard, gave him
+frequent occasions of access to the emperor, and he was ready to
+avail himself of any of them to kill the monster. The emperor went
+often, he said, to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> capitol, to offer sacrifices, and he could
+easily kill him there. Or, if they thought that that was too public
+an occasion, he could have an opportunity in the palace, at certain
+religious ceremonies which the emperor was accustomed to perform
+there, and at which Ch&aelig;rea himself was usually present. Or, he was
+ready to throw him down from a tower where he was accustomed to go
+sometimes for the purpose of scattering money among the populace
+below. Ch&aelig;rea said that he could easily come up behind him on such
+an occasion, and hurl him suddenly over the parapet down to the
+pavement below. All these plans, however, seemed to the conspirators
+too uncertain and dangerous, and Ch&aelig;rea's proposals were accordingly
+not agreed to.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Final determination.<br />The three days festival.</div>
+
+<p>At length, the time drew near when Caligula was to leave Rome to
+proceed to Alexandria in Egypt, and the conspirators perceived that
+they must prepare to act, or else abandon their design altogether.
+It had been arranged that there was to be a grand celebration at
+Rome previous to the emperor's departure. This celebration, which
+was to consist of games, and sports, and dramatic performances of
+various kinds, was to continue<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> for three days, and the conspirators
+determined, after much consultation and debate, that Caligula should
+be assassinated on one of those days.</p>
+
+<p>After coming to this conclusion, however, in general, their hearts
+seemed to fail them in fixing the precise time for the perpetration
+of the deed, and two of the three days passed away accordingly
+without any attempt being made. At length, on the morning of the
+third day, Ch&aelig;rea called the chief conspirators together, and urged
+them very earnestly not to let the present opportunity pass away. He
+represented to them how greatly they increased the danger of their
+attempts by such delays, and he seemed himself so full of
+determination and courage, and addressed them with so much eloquence
+and power, that he inspired them with his own resolution, and they
+decided unanimously to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>The emperor came to the theater that day at an unusually early hour,
+and seemed to be in excellent spirits and in an excellent humor. He
+was very complaisant to all around him, and very lively, affable,
+and gay. After performing certain ceremonies, by which it devolved
+upon him to open the festivities of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>day, he proceeded to his
+place, with his friends and favorites about him, and Ch&aelig;rea, with
+the other officers that day on guard, at a little distance behind
+him.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Brief conversation.</div>
+
+<p>The performances were commenced, and every thing went on as usual
+until toward noon. The conspirators kept their plans profoundly
+secret, except that one of them, when he had taken his seat by the
+side of a distinguished senator, asked him whether he had heard any
+thing new. The senator replied that he had not. "I can then tell you
+something," said he, "which perhaps you have not heard, and that is,
+that in the piece which is to be acted to-day, there is to be
+represented the death of a tyrant." "Hush!" said the senator, and he
+quoted a verse from Homer, which meant, "Be silent, lest some Greek
+should overhear."</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The recess.<br />Ch&aelig;rea's duty.</div>
+
+<p>It had been the usual custom of the emperor, at such entertainments,
+to take a little recess about noon, for rest and refreshments. It
+devolved upon Ch&aelig;rea to wait upon him at this time, and to conduct
+him from his place in the theater to an adjoining apartment in his
+palace which was connected with the theater, where there was
+provided a bath and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>various refreshments. When the time arrived,
+and Ch&aelig;rea perceived, as he thought, that the emperor was about to
+go, he himself went out, and stationed himself in a passage-way
+leading to the bath, intending to intercept and assassinate the
+emperor when he should come along. The emperor, however, delayed his
+departure, having fallen into conversation with his courtiers and
+friends, and finally he said that, on the whole, as it was the last
+day of the festival, he would not go out to the bath, but would
+remain in the theater; and then ordering refreshments to be brought
+to him there, he proceeded to distribute them with great urbanity to
+the officers around him.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The plan seems likely to fail.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time, Ch&aelig;rea was patiently waiting in the passage-way,
+with his sword by his side, all ready for striking the blow the
+moment that his victim should appear. Of course the conspirators who
+remained behind were in a state of great suspense and anxiety, and
+one of them, named Minucianus, determined to go out and inform
+Ch&aelig;rea of the change in Caligula's plans. He accordingly attempted
+to rise, but Caligula put his hand upon his robe, saying, "Sit
+still, my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>friend. You shall go with me presently." Minucianus
+accordingly dissembled his anxiety and agitation of mind still a
+little longer, but presently, watching an opportunity when the
+emperor's attention was otherwise engaged, he rose, and, assuming an
+unconcerned and careless air, he walked out of the theater.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Ch&aelig;rea's ambuscade.<br />Minucianus.</div>
+
+<p>He found Ch&aelig;rea in his ambuscade in the passage-way, and he
+immediately informed him that the emperor had concluded not to come
+out. Ch&aelig;rea and Minucianus were then greatly at a loss what to do.
+Some of the other conspirators, who had followed Minucianus out, now
+joined them, and a brief but very earnest and solemn consultation
+ensued. After a moment's hesitation, Ch&aelig;rea declared that they must
+now go through with their work at all hazards, and he professed
+himself ready, if his comrades would sustain him in it, to go back
+to the theater, and stab the tyrant there in his seat, in the midst
+of his friends. Minucianus and the others concurred in this design,
+and it was resolved immediately to execute it.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Adroit management of the conspirators.</div>
+
+<p>The execution of the plan, however, in the precise form in which it
+had been resolved upon was prevented by a new turn which affairs
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>had taken in the theater. For while Minucianus and the two or three
+conspirators who had accompanied him were debating in the
+passage-way, the others who remained, knowing that Ch&aelig;rea was
+expecting Caligula to go out, conceived the idea of attempting to
+persuade him to go, and thus to lead him into the snare which had
+been set for him. They accordingly gathered around, and without any
+appearance of concert or of eagerness, began to recommend him to go
+and take his bath as usual. He seemed at length disposed to yield to
+these persuasions, and rose from his seat; and then, the whole
+company attending and following him, he proceeded toward the doors
+which conducted to the palace. The conspirators went before him, and
+under pretense of clearing the way for him they contrived to remove
+to a little distance all whom they thought would be most disposed to
+render him any assistance. The consultations of Ch&aelig;rea and those who
+were with him in the inner passage-way were interrupted by the
+coming of this company.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Asiatic boys.</div>
+
+<p>Among those who walked with the emperor at this time were his uncle
+Claudius and other <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>distinguished relatives. Caligula advanced along
+the passage, walking in company with these friends, and wholly
+unconscious of the fate that awaited him, but instead of going
+immediately toward the bath he turned aside first into a gallery or
+corridor which led into another apartment, where there were
+assembled a company of boys and girls, that had been sent to him
+from Asia to act and dance upon the stage, and who had just arrived.
+The emperor took great interest in looking at these performers, and
+seemed desirous of having them go immediately into the theater and
+let him see them perform. While talking on this subject Ch&aelig;rea and
+the other conspirators came into the apartment, determined now to
+strike the blow.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Ch&aelig;rea strikes Caligula down.</div>
+
+<p>Ch&aelig;rea advanced to the emperor, and asked him in the usual manner
+what should be the parole for that night. The emperor gave him in
+reply such an one as he had often chosen before, to insult and
+degrade him. Ch&aelig;rea instead of receiving the insult meekly and
+patiently in his usual manner, uttered words of anger and defiance
+in reply; and drawing his sword at the same instant he struck the
+emperor across the neck and felled him to the floor. Caligula filled
+the apartment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> with his cries of pain and terror; the other
+conspirators rushed in and attacked him on all sides; his
+friends,&mdash;so far as the adherents of such a man can be called
+friends,&mdash;fled in dismay. As for Caligula's uncle Claudius, it was
+not to have been expected that he would have rendered his nephew any
+aid, for he was a man of such extraordinary mental imbecility that
+he was usually considered as not possessed even of common sense; and
+all the others who might have been expected to defend him, either
+fled from the scene, or stood by in consternation and amazement,
+leaving the conspirators to wreak their vengeance on their wretched
+victim, to the full.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">End of a despot.<br />General joy in the palace.<br />Savage exultation of the conspirators.</div>
+
+<p>In fact though while a despot lives and retains his power, thousands
+are ready to defend him and to execute his will, however much in
+heart they may hate and detest him, yet when he is dead, or when it
+is once certain that he is about to die, an instantaneous change
+takes place and every one turns against him. The multitudes in and
+around the theater and the palace who had an hour before trembled
+before this mighty potentate, and seemed to live only to do his
+bidding, were filled with joy to see him brought to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>dust. The
+conspirators, when the success of their plans and the death of their
+oppressor was once certain, abandoned themselves to the most
+extravagant joy. They cut and stabbed the fallen body again and
+again, as if they could never enough wreak their vengeance upon it.
+They cut off pieces of the body and bit them with their teeth in
+their savage exultation and triumph. At length they left the body
+where it lay, and went forth into the city where all was now of
+course tumult and confusion.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">C&aelig;sonia and her child.<br />They are murdered.</div>
+
+<p>The body remained where it had fallen until late at night. Then some
+attendants of the palace came and conveyed it away. They were sent,
+it was said, by C&aelig;sonia, the wife of the murdered man. C&aelig;sonia had
+an infant daughter at this time, and she remained herself with the
+child, in a retired apartment of the palace while these things were
+transpiring. Distracted with grief and terror at the tidings that
+she heard, she clung to her babe, and made the arrangements for the
+interment of the body of her husband without leaving its cradle. She
+imagined perhaps that there was no reason for supposing that she or
+the child were in any immediate danger, and accordingly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> she took no
+measures toward effecting an escape. If so, she did not understand
+the terrible frenzy to which the conspirators had been aroused, and
+for which the long series of cruelties and indignities which they
+had endured from her husband had prepared them. For at midnight one
+of them broke into her apartment, stabbed the mother in her chair,
+and taking the innocent infant from its cradle, killed it by beating
+its head against the wall.</p>
+
+<p><a name="caesonia" id="caesonia"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 336px;">
+<img src="images/i050.jpg" class="ispace" width="336" height="300" alt="C&aelig;sonia." title="" />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">C&aelig;sonia.</span></span></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Supposed necessity for destroying the child.</div>
+
+<p>Atrocious as this deed may seem, it was not altogether wanton and
+malignant cruelty which prompted it. The conspirators intended by
+the assassination of Caligula not merely to wreak their vengeance on
+a single man, but to bring to an end a hated race of tyrants; and
+they justified the murder of the wife and child by the plea that
+stern political necessity required them to exterminate the line, in
+order that no successor might subsequently arise to re-establish the
+power and renew the tyranny which they had brought to an end. The
+history of monarchies is continually presenting us with instances of
+innocent and helpless children sacrificed to such a supposed
+necessity as this.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="Chapter_III" id="Chapter_III"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter III.</span></h2>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">The Accession of Claudius.</span></h2>
+
+<h3>A.D. 41-47</h3>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Ultimate design of the conspirators.</div>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">I</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">n</span> the assassination of Caligula, the conspirators who combined to
+perpetrate the deed, had a much deeper design than that of merely
+gratifying their personal resentment and rage against an individual
+tyrant. They wished to effect a permanent change in the government,
+by putting down the army from the position of supreme and despotic
+authority which it had assumed, and restoring the dominion to the
+Roman Senate, and to the other civil authorities of the city, as it
+had been exercised by them in former years. Of course, the death of
+Caligula was the commencement, not the end, of the great struggle.
+The whole country was immediately divided into two parties. There
+was the party of the Senate, and the party of the army; and a long
+and bitter conflict ensued. It was for some time doubtful which
+would win the day.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Effect produced by the tidings of Caligula's death.</div>
+
+<p>In fact, immediately after Caligula was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>killed, and the tidings of
+his death began to spread about the palace and into the streets of
+the city, a considerable tumult arose, the precursor and earnest of
+the dissensions that were to follow. Upon the first alarm, a body of
+the emperor's guards that had been accustomed to attend upon his
+person, and whom he had strongly attached to himself by his lavish
+generosity in bestowing presents and rewards upon them, rushed
+forward to defend him, or if it should prove too late to defend him,
+to avenge his death. These soldiers ran toward the palace, and when
+they found that the emperor had been killed, they were furious with
+rage, and fell upon all whom they met, and actually slew several
+men. Tidings came to the theater, and the word was spread from rank
+to rank among the people that the emperor was slain. The people did
+not, however, at first, believe the story. They supposed that the
+report was a cunning contrivance of the emperor himself, intended to
+entrap them into some expression of pleasure and gratification, on
+their part, at his death, in order to give him an excuse for
+inflicting some cruel punishment upon them. The noise and tumult in
+the streets soon convinced them, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>however, that something
+extraordinary had occurred; they learned that the news of the
+emperor's death was really true, and almost immediately afterward
+they found, to their consternation, that the furious guards were
+thundering at the gates of the theater, and endeavoring to force
+their way in, in order to wreak their vengeance on the assembly, as
+if the spectators at the show were accomplices of the crime.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Ch&aelig;rea and the conspirators secrete themselves.<br />The senate is convened.<br />Two parties formed.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time Ch&aelig;rea and the other chief conspirators had fled to
+a secret place of retreat, where they now lay concealed. As soon as
+they had found that the object of their vengeance was really dead,
+and when they had satisfied themselves with the pleasure of cutting
+and stabbing the lifeless body, they stole away to the house of one
+of their friends in the neighborhood, where they could lie for a
+time secreted in safety. The life-guards sought for them everywhere,
+but could not find them. The streets were filled with tumult and
+confusion. Rumors of every kind, false and true, spread in all
+directions, and increased the excitement. At length, however, the
+consuls, who were the chief magistrates of the republic, succeeded
+in organizing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> a force and in restoring order. They took possession
+of the forum and of the capitol and posted sentinels and guards
+along the streets. They compelled the emperor's guards to desist
+from their violence, and retire. They sent a herald clothed in
+mourning into the theater, to announce officially to the people the
+event which had occurred, and to direct them to repair quietly to
+their homes. Having taken these preliminary measures they
+immediately called the Senate together, to deliberate on the
+emergency which had occurred, and to decide what should next be
+done. In the mean time the emperor's guards, having withdrawn from
+the streets of the city, retired to their camp and joined their
+comrades. Thus there were two vast powers organized&mdash;that of the
+army in the camp, and that of the Senate in the city&mdash;each jealous
+of the other, and resolute in its determination not to yield, in the
+approaching conflict.</p>
+
+<p>In times of sudden and violent revolution like that which attended
+the death of Caligula, the course which public affairs are to take,
+and the question who is to rise and who is to fall, seem often to be
+decided by utter accident. It was strikingly so in this instance, in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>respect to the selection, on the part of the army, of the man who
+was to take the post of supreme command in the place of the murdered
+emperor. The choice fell on Claudius, Agrippina's uncle. It fell
+upon him, too, as it would seem, by the merest chance, in the
+following very extraordinary manner.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Account of Claudius.<br />His apparent imbecility.<br />Every one against him.<br />Mode of teasing him.</div>
+
+<p>Claudius, as has already been said, was Caligula's uncle; and as
+Caligula and Agrippina were brother and sister, he was, of course,
+Agrippina's uncle too. He was at this time about fifty years of age,
+and he was universally ridiculed and contemned on account of his
+great mental and personal inferiority. He was weak and ill-formed at
+his birth, so that even his mother despised him. She called him "an
+unfinished little monster," and whenever she wished to express her
+contempt for any one in respect to his understanding, she used to
+say, "You are as stupid as my son Claudius." In a word, Claudius was
+extremely unfortunate in every respect, so far as natural endowments
+are concerned. His countenance was very repulsive, his figure was
+ungainly, his manners were awkward, his voice was disagreeable, and
+he had an impediment in his speech. In fact, he was considered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> in
+his youth as almost an idiot. He was not allowed to associate with
+the other Roman boys of his age, but was kept apart, in some
+secluded portion of the palace, with women and slaves, where he was
+treated with so much cruelty and neglect that what little spirit
+nature had given him was crushed and destroyed. In fact, by common
+consent all seemed to take pleasure in teasing and tormenting him.
+Sometimes, when he was coming to the table at an entertainment, the
+other guests would combine to exclude him from the seats, in order
+to enjoy his distress as he ran about from one part of the table to
+another, endeavoring to find a place. If they found him asleep they
+would pelt him with olives and dates, or awaken him with the blow of
+a rod or a whip; and sometimes they would stealthily put his sandals
+upon his hands while he was asleep, in order that when he awoke
+suddenly they might amuse themselves with seeing him rub his face
+and eyes with them.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His situation and position at court.<br />The wives of Claudius.<br />His son strangled by a pear.</div>
+
+<p>After all, however, the inferiority of Claudius was not really so
+great as it seemed. He was awkward and ungainly, no doubt, to the
+last degree; but he possessed some considerable capacity for
+intellectual pursuits and attainments,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> and as he was pretty
+effectually driven away from society by the jests and ridicule to
+which he was subjected, he devoted a great deal of time in his
+retirement to study, and to other useful pursuits. He made
+considerable progress in the efforts which he thus made to cultivate
+his mind. He, however, failed to acquire the respect of those around
+him; and as he grew up he seemed to be considered utterly incapable
+of performing any useful function; and during the time when his
+nephew Caligula was emperor, he remained at court, among the other
+nobles, but still neglected and despised by all of them. It is said
+that he probably owed the preservation of his life to his
+insignificance, as Caligula would probably have found some pretext
+for destroying him, if he had not thought him too spiritless and
+imbecile to form any ambitious plans. In fact, Claudius said himself
+afterward, when he became emperor, that a great part of his apparent
+simplicity was feigned, as a measure of prudence, to protect himself
+from injury. When Claudius grew up he was married several times. The
+wife who was living with him at the time of Caligula's death was his
+third wife; her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>name was Valeria Messalina. She was his cousin.
+Claudius and Messalina had one child&mdash;a daughter, named Octavia.
+Claudius had been extremely unhappy in his connection with the wives
+preceding Messalina. He had quarreled with them and been divorced
+from them both. He had had a daughter by one of these wives and a
+son by the other. The son was suddenly killed by getting choked with
+a small pear. He had been throwing it into the air and attempting to
+catch it in his mouth as it came down, when at last it slipped down
+into his throat and strangled him. As for the daughter, Claudius was
+so exasperated with her mother at the time of his divorce from her,
+that he determined to disown and reject the child; so he ordered the
+terrified girl to be stripped naked, and to be sent and laid down in
+that condition at her wretched mother's door.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Claudius terrified.<br />His hiding place.</div>
+
+<p>Claudius, as has already been stated, was present with Caligula at
+the theater, on the last day of the spectacle, and followed him into
+the palace when he went to look at the Asiatic captives; so that he
+was present, or at least very near, at the time of his nephew's
+assassination. As might have been expected <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>from what has been said
+of his character, he was overwhelmed with consternation and terror
+at the scene, and was utterly incapacitated from taking any part,
+either for or against the conspirators. He stole away in great
+fright and hid himself behind the hangings in a dark recess in the
+palace. Here he remained for some time, listening in an agony of
+anxiety and suspense to the sounds which he heard around him. He
+could hear the cries and the tumult in the streets, and in the
+passages of the palace. Parties of the guards, in going to and fro,
+passed by the place of his retreat from time to time, alarming him
+with the clangor of their weapons, and their furious exclamations
+and outcries. At one time peeping stealthily out, he saw a group of
+soldiers hurrying along with a bleeding head on the point of a pike.
+It was the head of a prominent citizen of Rome whom the guards had
+intercepted and killed, supposing him to be one of the conspirators.
+This spectacle greatly increased Claudius's terror. He was wholly in
+the dark in respect to the motives and the designs of the men who
+had thus revolted against his nephew, and it was of course
+impossible for him to know how he himself <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>would be regarded by
+either party. He did not dare, therefore, to surrender himself to
+either, but remained in his concealment, suffering great anxiety,
+and utterly unable to decide what to do.</p>
+
+<p><a name="discovery" id="discovery"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 338px;">
+<img src="images/i061.jpg" class="ispace" width="338" height="300" alt="Discovery of Claudius." title="" />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Discovery of Claudius.</span></span></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote2">He is discovered by a soldier.<br />Claudius proclaimed emperor.<br />His surprise.</div>
+
+<p>At length, while he was in this situation of uncertainty and terror,
+a common soldier of the guards, named Epirius, who happened to pass
+that way, accidentally saw his feet beneath the hangings, and
+immediately, pulling <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>the hangings aside, dragged him out to view.
+Claudius supposed now, of course, that his hour was come. He fell on
+his knees in an agony of terror, and begged the soldier to spare his
+life. The soldier, when he found that his prisoner was Claudius, the
+uncle of Caligula, raised him from the ground and saluted him
+emperor. As Caligula left no son, Epirius considered Claudius as his
+nearest relative, and consequently as the heir. Epirius immediately
+summoned others of the guard to the place, saying that he had found
+the new emperor, and calling upon them to assist in conveying him to
+the camp. The soldiers thus summoned procured a chair, and having
+placed the astonished Claudius in it, they raised the chair upon
+their shoulders, and began to convey it away. As they bore him thus
+along the streets, the people who saw them supposed that they were
+taking him to execution, and they lamented his unhappy fate.
+Claudius himself knew not what to believe. He could not but hope
+that his life was to be saved, but then he could not wholly dispel
+his fears.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">He is borne to the camp and proclaimed emperor.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time, the soldiers went steadily forward with their
+burden. When one set of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>bearers became fatigued, they set down the
+chair, and others relieved them. No one molested them, or attempted
+to intercept them in their progress, and at length they reached the
+camp. Claudius was well received by the whole body of the army. The
+officers held a consultation that night, and determined to make him
+emperor. At first he was extremely unwilling to accept the proffered
+honor, but they urged it upon him, and he was at length induced to
+accept it. Thus the army was once more provided with a head, and
+prepared to engage anew in its conflict with the civil authorities
+of the city.</p>
+
+<p>The particulars of the conflict that ensued we can not here
+describe. It is sufficient to say that the army prevailed, and that
+Claudius soon found himself in full possession of the power from
+which his nephew had been so suddenly deposed.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina recalled.</div>
+
+<p>One of the first measures which the new emperor adopted, was to
+recall Agrippina from her banishment at Pontia, where Caligula had
+confined her, and restore her to her former position in Rome. Her
+husband, Brazenbeard, died about this time, and young Brazenbeard,
+her son, afterward called Nero, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>the subject of this history, was
+three years old. Octavia, the daughter of Claudius and Messalina,
+was a little younger.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Messalina.</div>
+
+<p>Messalina, the wife of Claudius, hated Agrippina, considering her,
+as she did, her rival and enemy. The favor which Claudius showed to
+Agrippina, in recalling her from her banishment, and treating her
+with consideration and favor at Rome, only inflamed still more
+Messalina's hatred. She could not, however, succeed in inducing
+Claudius to withdraw his protection from his niece; for Claudius,
+though almost entirely subject to the influence and control of his
+wife in most things, seemed fully determined not to yield to her
+wishes in this. Agrippina continued, therefore, to live at Rome, in
+high favor with the court, for several years,&mdash;her little son
+advancing all the time in age and in maturity, until at length he
+became twelve years old. At this time, another great change took
+place in his own and his mother's condition. Messalina became
+herself, by her wickedness and infatuation, the means of raising her
+rival into her own place as wife of the emperor. The result was
+accomplished in the following manner.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Messalina's intrigues.<br />Her hatred of Silanus.</div>
+
+<p>Messalina had long been a very dissolute and wicked woman, having
+been accustomed to give herself up to criminal indulgences and
+pleasures of every kind, in company with favorites whom she selected
+from time to time among the courtiers around her. For a time she
+managed these intrigues with some degree of caution and secrecy, in
+order to conceal her conduct from her husband. She gradually,
+however, became more and more open and bold. She possessed a great
+ascendency over the mind of her husband, and could easily deceive
+him, or induce him to do whatever she pleased. She persuaded him to
+confer honors and rewards in a very liberal manner upon those whom
+she favored, and to degrade, and sometimes even to destroy, those
+who displeased her. She would occasionally resort to very cunning
+artifices to accomplish her ends. For example, she conceived at one
+time a violent hatred against the husband of her mother. His name
+was Silanus. He was not the father of Messalina, but a second
+husband of Messalina's mother; and, being young and attractive in
+person, Messalina at first loved him, and intended to make him one
+of her favorites and companions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> Silanus, however, would not accede
+to her wishes, and her love for him was then changed into hatred and
+thirst for revenge. She accordingly determined on his destruction;
+but as she knew that it would be difficult to induce Claudius to
+proceed to extremities against him, on account of his intimate
+relationship to the family, she contrived a very artful plot to
+accomplish her ends. It was this:</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Plan for destroying Silanus.</div>
+
+<p>She sent word to Silanus, on a certain evening, that the emperor
+wished him to come to the palace, to his private apartment, the next
+morning, at a very early hour. The emperor wished to see him, the
+messenger said, on business of importance.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Narcissus's pretended dream.<br />Messalina's confirmation of it.</div>
+
+<p>Just before the time which had been appointed for Silanus to appear,
+a certain officer of the household, named Narcissus, whom Messalina
+had engaged to assist her in her plot, came into the emperor's
+apartment, with an anxious countenance, and in a very hurried
+manner, and said to Claudius, whom he waked out of sleep by his
+coming, that he had had a very frightful dream&mdash;one which he deemed
+it his duty to make known to his master without any delay. He
+dreamed, he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>said, that a plot had been formed for assassinating the
+emperor; that Silanus was the contriver of it, and that he was
+coming early that morning to carry his design into effect.
+Messalina, who was present with her husband at the time, listened to
+this story with well-feigned anxiety and agitation, and then
+declared, with a countenance of great mysteriousness and solemnity,
+that she had had precisely the same dream for two or three nights in
+succession, but that, not being willing to do Silanus an injury, or
+to raise any unjust suspicions against him, she had thus far
+forborne to speak of the subject to her husband. She was, however,
+now convinced, she said, that Silanus was really entertaining some
+treasonable designs, and that the dreams were tokens sent from
+heaven to warn the emperor of his danger.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Claudius alarmed.<br />Silanus is executed.</div>
+
+<p>Claudius, who was of an extremely timid and nervous temperament, was
+very much alarmed by these communications; and his terrors were
+greatly increased by the appearance of a servant who announced to
+him at that moment that Silanus was then coming in. The coming of
+Silanus to the palace at that unseasonable hour was considered by
+the emperor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> as full confirmation of the dreams which had been
+related to him, and as proof of the guilt of the accused; and under
+the impulse of the sudden passion and fear which this conviction
+awakened in his mind, he ordered Silanus to be seized and led away
+to immediate execution. These commands were obeyed. Silanus was
+hurried away and dispatched by the swords of the soldiers, without
+ever knowing what the accusation was that had been made against him.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Unbounded influence of Messalina.</div>
+
+<p>Thus Messalina succeeded by artifice and cunning in accomplishing
+her ends, in cases where she could not rely on her direct influence
+upon the mind of the emperor. In one way or the other she almost
+always effected whatever she undertook, and gradually came to
+exercise almost supreme control. Whom she would she raised up, and
+whom she would she put down. In the mean time she lived herself, a
+life of the most guilty indulgence and pleasure. For a long time she
+concealed her wickedness from the emperor. He was very easily
+deceived, and though Messalina's character was perfectly well known
+to others, he himself continued blind to her guilt. At length,
+however, she began to grow more and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>more bold. She became satiated,
+as one of her historians says of her, with the common and ordinary
+forms of vice, and wished for something new and unusual to give
+piquancy and life to her sensations. At length, however, she went
+one step too far, and brought upon herself in consequence of it a
+terrible destruction.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Caius Silius.<br />Messalina's attachment to him.<br />Hesitation of Silius.<br />His decision.</div>
+
+<p>It was about seven years after the accession of Claudius that the
+event occurred. The favorite of Messalina at this time was a young
+Roman senator named Caius Silius. Silius was a very distinguished
+young nobleman, and a man of handsome person and of very graceful
+and accomplished manners and address. He was in fact a very general
+favorite, and Messalina, when she first saw him, conceived a very
+strong affection for him. He was, however, already married to a
+beautiful Roman lady named Junia Silana. Silana had been, and was
+still at this time, an intimate friend of Agrippina, Nero's mother;
+though in subsequent times they became bitter enemies. Messalina
+made no secret of her love for Silius. She visited him freely at his
+house, and received his visits in return; she accompanied him to
+public places, evincing everywhere her strong regard for him in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>the
+most undisguised and open manner. At length she proposed to him to
+divorce his wife, in order that she herself might enjoy his society
+without any limitation or restraint. Silius hesitated for a time
+about complying with these proposals. He was well aware that he must
+necessarily incur great danger, either by complying or by refusing
+to comply with them. To accede to the empress's proposals, would be
+of course to place himself in a position of extreme peril; and the
+fate of Silanus was a warning to him of what he had to fear from her
+wrath, in case of a refusal. He concluded that the former danger was
+on the whole the least to be apprehended, and he accordingly
+divorced his wife, and gave himself up wholly to Messalina's will.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Claudius.<br />Public works at Ostia.<br />The obelisk.<br />Immense ship.</div>
+
+<p>This arrangement being made, all things for a time went on smoothly
+and well. Claudius himself lived a very secluded life, and paid very
+little attention to his wife's pursuits or pleasures. He lived
+sometimes in retirement in his palace, devoting his time to his
+studies, or to the plans and measures of government. He seems to
+have honestly desired to promote the welfare and prosperity of the
+republic, and he made many useful regulations and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>laws which
+promised to be conducive to this end. Sometimes he was absent for a
+season from the city,&mdash;visiting fortresses and encampments, or
+inspecting the public works, such as aqueducts and canals, which
+were in progress of construction. He was particularly interested in
+certain operations which he planned and conducted at the mouths of
+the Tiber for forming a harbor there. The place was called Ostia,
+that word in the Latin tongue denoting <i>mouths</i>. To form a port
+there he built two long piers, extending them in a curvilinear form
+into the sea, so as to inclose a large area of water between them,
+where ships could lie at anchor in safety. Light-houses were built
+at the extremities of these piers. It is a curious circumstance that
+in forming the foundation of one of these piers, the engineers whom
+Claudius employed sunk an immense ship which Caligula had formerly
+caused to be built for the purpose of transporting an obelisk from
+Egypt to Rome,&mdash;the obelisk which now stands in front of St. Peter's
+Church, and is the admiration and wonder of all visitors to Rome. As
+the obelisk was formed of a single stone, a vessel of a very large
+size and of an unusual construction was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>necessary for the
+conveyance of it; and when this ship had once delivered its
+monstrous burden, it had no longer any useful function to perform on
+the surface of the sea, and the engineers accordingly filled it with
+stones and gravel, and sunk it at the mouth of the Tiber, to form
+part of the foundation of one of Claudius's piers. As it is found
+that there is no perceptible decay, even for centuries, in timber
+that is kept constantly submerged in the water of the sea, it is not
+impossible that the vast hulk, unless marine insects have devoured
+it and carried it away, lies imbedded where Claudius placed it,
+still.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Messalina continues her wicked career.<br />Silius intoxicated with his elevation.</div>
+
+<p>While the emperor was engaged in these and similar pursuits and
+occupations, Messalina went on in her career of dissipation and
+indulgence from bad to worse, growing more and more bold and open
+every day. She lived in a constant round of entertainments and of
+gayety&mdash;sometimes receiving companies of guests at her own palace,
+and sometimes making visits with a large retinue of attendants and
+friends, at the house of Silius. Of course, every one paid court to
+Silius, and assumed, in their intercourse with him, every appearance
+that they entertained for him the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>most friendly regard. It is
+always so with the favorites of the great. While in heart they are
+hated and despised, in form and appearance they are caressed and
+applauded. Silius was intoxicated with the emotions that the giddy
+elevation to which he had arrived so naturally inspired. He was not,
+however, wholly at his ease. He could not but be aware that lofty as
+his position was, it was the brink of a precipice that he stood
+upon. Still he shut his eyes in a great measure to his danger and
+went blindly on. The catastrophe, which came very suddenly at last,
+will form the subject of the next chapter.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="Chapter_IV" id="Chapter_IV"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter IV.</span></h2>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">The Fate of Messalina.</span></h2>
+
+<h3>A.D. 48</h3>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Silius forms a scheme for making himself emperor.</div>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">s</span> might naturally have been expected, there were two very different
+emotions awakened in the mind of Silius by the situation in which he
+found himself placed with Messalina,&mdash;one was ambition, and the
+other was fear. Finding himself suddenly raised to the possession of
+so high a degree of consideration and influence, it was natural that
+he should look still higher, and begin to wish for actual and
+official power. And then, on the other hand, his uneasiness at the
+dangers that he was exposed to by remaining as he was, increased
+every day. At length a plan occurred to him which both these
+considerations urged him to adopt. The plan was to murder Claudius,
+and then to marry Messalina, and make himself emperor in Claudius's
+place. By the accomplishment of this design he would effect, he
+thought, a double object. He would at once raise himself to a post
+of real and substantial power, and also, at the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>same time place
+himself in a position of security. He resolved to propose this
+scheme to Messalina.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">He proposes his plan to Messalina.</div>
+
+<p>Accordingly, on the first favorable opportunity, he addressed the
+empress on the subject, and cautiously made known his design. "I
+wish to have you wholly mine," said he "and although the emperor is
+growing old, we can not safely wait for his death. We are, in fact,
+continually exposed to danger. We have gone quite too far to be safe
+where we are, and by taking the remaining steps necessary to
+accomplish fully our ends we shall only be completing what we have
+begun, and by so doing, far from incurring any new penalties, we
+shall be taking the only effectual method to protect ourselves from
+the dangers which impend over us and threaten us now. Let us,
+therefore, devise some means to remove the emperor out of our way. I
+will then be proclaimed emperor in his place, and be married to you.
+The power which you now enjoy will then come back to you again,
+undiminished, and under such circumstances as will render it
+permanently secure to you. To accomplish this will be very easy; for
+the emperor, superannuated, infirm, and stupid <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>as he is, can not
+protect himself against any well-planned and vigorous attempt which
+we may make to remove him; though, if we remain as we are, and any
+accidental cause should arouse him from his lethargy, we may expect
+to find him vindictive and furious against us to the last degree."</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Messalina's reply.<br />Her motives.<br />Her proposal.</div>
+
+<p>Messalina listened to this proposal with great attention and
+interest, but so far as related to the proposed assassination of the
+emperor she did not seem inclined to assent to it. Her historian
+says that she was not influenced in this decision by any remaining
+sentiments of conjugal affection, or by conscientious principle of
+any kind, but by her distrust of Silius, and her unwillingness to
+commit herself so entirely into his power. She preferred to keep him
+dependent upon her, rather than to make herself dependent upon him.
+She liked the plan, however, of being married to him, she said, and
+would consent to that, even while the emperor remained alive. And so
+if Silius would agree to it, she was ready, she added, the next time
+that the emperor went to Ostia, to have the ceremony performed.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Audacity of Messalina in this proposal.</div>
+
+<p>That a wife and a mother, however unprincipled and corrupt, should
+make, under such <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>circumstances, a proposal like this of
+Messalina's, is certainly very extraordinary; and to those who do
+not know to what extremes of recklessness and infatuation, the
+irresponsible despots that have arisen from time to time to rule
+mankind, have often pushed their wickedness and crime, it must seem
+wholly incredible. The Roman historian who has recorded this
+narrative, assures us, that it was the very audacity of this guilt
+that constituted its charm in Messalina's eyes. She had become weary
+of, and satiated with, all the ordinary forms of criminal indulgence
+and pleasure. The work of deceiving and imposing upon her husband,
+in order to secure for herself the gratifications which she sought,
+was for a time sufficient to give zest and piquancy to her
+pleasures. But he was so easily deceived, and she had been
+accustomed to deceive him so long, that it now no longer afforded to
+her mind any stimulus or excitement to do it in any common way. But
+the idea of being actually married to another man while he was
+absent at a short distance from the city, would be something
+striking and new, which would vary, she thought, the dull monotony
+of the common course of sin.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">The false marriage is celebrated.</div>
+
+<p>The proposed marriage was finally determined upon, and the mock
+ceremony, for such a ceremony could, of course, have no legal force,
+was duly performed at a time when Claudius was absent at Ostia,
+inspecting the works which were in progress there. How far the
+pretended marriage was open and public in the actual celebration of
+it, is not very certain; but the historians say that it was
+conducted with all the usual ceremonies, and was attended by the
+usual witnesses. The service was performed by the <i>augur</i>, a sort of
+sacerdotal officer, on whom the duty of conducting such solemnities
+properly devolved. Messalina and Silius, each in their turn,
+repeated the words pertaining respectively to the bridegroom and the
+bride. The usual sacrifice to the gods was then made, and a nuptial
+banquet followed, at which there passed between the new married pair
+the caresses and endearments usual on such occasions. All things in
+a word were conducted, from the beginning to the end, as in a real
+and honest wedding, and whether the scene thus enacted was performed
+in public as a serious transaction, or at some private entertainment
+as a species of sport, it created <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>a strong sensation among all who
+witnessed it, and the news of it soon spread abroad and became very
+generally known.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Indignation of the emperor's friends.</div>
+
+<p>The more immediate friends of Claudius were very indignant at such a
+proceeding. They conferred together, uttering to each other many
+murmurings and complaints, and anticipating the worst results and
+consequences from what had occurred. Silius, they said, was an
+ambitious and dangerous man, and the audacious deed which he had
+performed was the prelude, they believed, to some deep ulterior
+design. They feared for the safety of Claudius; and as they knew
+very well that the downfall of the emperor would involve them too in
+ruin, they were naturally much alarmed. It was, however, very
+difficult for them to decide what to do.</p>
+
+<p>If they were to inform the emperor of Messalina's proceedings, they
+considered it wholly uncertain what effect the communication would
+have upon him. Like almost all weak-minded men, he was impulsive and
+capricious in the extreme; and whether, on a communication being
+made to him, he would receive it with indifference and unconcern,
+or, in case his anger should be aroused, whether it would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>expend
+itself upon Messalina or upon those who informed him against her, it
+was wholly impossible to foresee.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Plot formed for Messalina's destruction.</div>
+
+<p>At length, after various consultations and debates, a small number
+of the courtiers who were most determined in their detestation of
+Messalina and her practices, leagued themselves together, and
+resolved upon a course of procedure by which they hoped, if
+possible, to effect her destruction. The leader of this company was
+Callistus, one of the officers of Claudius's household. He was one
+of the men who had been engaged with Ch&aelig;rea in the assassination of
+Caligula. Narcissus was another. This was the same Narcissus that is
+mentioned in the last chapter, as the artful contriver, with
+Messalina, of the death of Silanus. Pallas was the name of a third
+conspirator. He was a confidential friend and favorite of Claudius,
+and was very jealous, like the rest, of the influence which Silius,
+through Messalina, exercised over his master. These were the
+principal confederates, though there were some others joined with
+them.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Plans and arrangements of the conspirators.</div>
+
+<p>The great object of the hostility of these men, seems to have been
+Silius, rather than Messalina. This, in fact, would naturally be
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>supposed to be the case, since it was Silius rather than Messalina
+who was their rival. Some of them appear to have hated Messalina on
+her own account, but with the others there was apparently no wish to
+harm the empress, if any other way could be found of reaching
+Silius. In fact, in the consultations which were held, one plan
+which was proposed was to go to Messalina, and without evincing any
+feelings of unkindness or hostility toward her, to endeavor to
+persuade her to break off her connection with her favorite. This
+plan was, however, soon overruled. The plotters thought that it
+would be extremely improbable that Messalina would listen to any
+such proposition, and in case of her rejection of it, if it were
+made, her anger would be aroused strongly against them for making
+it: and then, even if she should not attempt to take vengeance upon
+them for their presumption, she would at any rate put herself
+effectually upon her guard against any thing else which they should
+attempt to do. The plan of separating Messalina and Silius was,
+therefore, abandoned, and the determination resolved upon to take
+measures for destroying them both together.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Their hesitation.<br />Calpurnia.<br />Motives addressed to her.</div>
+
+<p>The course which the confederates decided to pursue in order to
+effect their object, was to proceed to Ostia, where Claudius still
+remained, and there make known to him what Messalina and Silius had
+done, and endeavor to convince him that this audacious conduct on
+their part was only the prelude to open violence against the life of
+the emperor. It would seem, however, that no one of them was quite
+willing to take upon himself the office of making such a
+communication as this, in the first instance, to such a man. They
+did not know how he would receive it,&mdash;or against whom the first
+weight of his resentment and rage would fall. Finally, after much
+hesitation and debate, they concluded to employ a certain female for
+the purpose,&mdash;a courtesan named Calpurnia. Calpurnia was a favorite
+and companion of Claudius, and as such they thought she might
+perhaps have an opportunity to approach him with the subject under
+such circumstances as to diminish the danger. At any rate, Calpurnia
+was easily led by such inducements as the conspirators laid before
+her, to undertake the commission. They not only promised her
+suitable rewards, but they appealed also to the jealousy and hatred
+which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>such a woman would naturally feel toward Messalina, who,
+being a wife, while Calpurnia was only a companion and favorite,
+would of course be regarded as a rival and enemy. They represented
+to Calpurnia how entirely changed for the better her situation would
+be, if Messalina could once be put out of the way. There would then,
+they said, be none to interfere with her; but her influence and
+ascendency over the emperor's mind would be established on a
+permanent and lasting footing.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Calpurnia and Cleopatra undertake their task.</div>
+
+<p>Calpurnia was very easily led by these inducements to undertake the
+commission. There was another courtesan named Cleopatra, who, it was
+arranged, should be at hand when Calpurnia made her communication,
+to confirm the truth of it, should any confirmation seem to be
+required. The other conspirators, also, were to be near, ready to be
+called in and to act as occasion might require, in case Calpurnia
+and Cleopatra should find that their statement was making the right
+impression. Things being all thus arranged the party proceeded to
+Ostia to carry their plans into execution.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Messalina's festival in the palace gardens.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time Messalina and Silius, wholly unconscious of the
+danger, gave themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> up with greater and greater boldness and
+unconcern to their guilty pleasures. On the day when Callistus and
+his party went to Ostia she was celebrating a festival at her palace
+with great gayety and splendor. It was in the autumn of the year,
+and the festival was in honor of the season. In the countries on the
+Mediterranean the gathering of grapes and the pressing of the juice
+for wine, is the great subject of autumnal rejoicings; and Messalina
+had arranged a festival in accordance with the usual customs, in the
+gardens of the palace. A wine-press had been erected, and grapes
+were gathered and brought to it. The guests whom Messalina had
+invited were assembled around; some were dancing about the
+wine-press, some were walking in the alleys, and some were seated in
+the neighboring bowers. They were dressed in fancy costumes, and
+their heads were adorned with garlands of flowers. There was a group
+of dancing girls who were engaged as performers on the occasion, to
+dance for the amusement of the company, in honor of Bacchus, the god
+of wine. These girls were dressed, so far as they were clothed at
+all, in robes made of the skins of tigers, and their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>heads were
+crowned with flowers. Messalina herself, however, was the most
+conspicuous object among the gay throng. She was robed in a manner
+to display most fully the graces of her person; her long hair waving
+loosely in the wind. She had in her hand a symbol, or badge, called
+the <i>thyrsus</i>, which was an ornamented staff, or pole, surmounted
+with a carved representation of a bunch of grapes, and with other
+ornaments and emblems. The thyrsus was always used in the rites and
+festivities celebrated in honor of Bacchus. Silius himself, dressed
+like the rest in a fantastic and theatrical costume, danced by the
+side of Messalina, in the center of a ring of dancing girls which
+was formed around them.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89-90]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i086.jpg" class="ispace" width="500" height="307" alt="Messalina in the Garden." title="" />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Messalina in the Garden.</span></span></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote2">Calpurnia's interview with Claudius at Ostia.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time, while this gay party were thus enjoying themselves
+in the palace gardens at Rome, a very different scene was enacting
+at Ostia. Calpurnia, in her secret interview with Claudius, seizing
+upon a moment which seemed to her favorable for her purpose, kneeled
+down before him and made the communication with which she had been
+charged. She told him of Messalina's conduct, and informed him
+particularly how she had at last crowned the dishonor of her husband<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> by openly marrying Silius, or at least pretending to do so. "Your
+friends believe," she added, "that she and Silius entertain still
+more criminal designs, and that your life will be sacrificed unless
+you immediately adopt vigorous and decided measures to avert the
+danger."</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Claudius is exceedingly terrified.</div>
+
+<p>Claudius was very much amazed, and was also exceedingly terrified at
+this communication. He trembled and turned pale, then looked wild
+and excited, and began to make inquiries in an incoherent and
+distracted manner. Calpurnia called in Cleopatra to confirm her
+story. Cleopatra did confirm it, of course, in the fullest and most
+unqualified manner. The effect which was produced upon the mind of
+the emperor seemed to be exactly what the conspirators had desired.
+He evinced no disposition to justify or to defend Messalina, or to
+be angry with Calpurnia and Cleopatra for making such charges
+against her. His mind seemed to be wholly absorbed with a sense of
+the dangers of his situation, and Narcissus was accordingly sent for
+to come in.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The statement of Narcissus.</div>
+
+<p>Narcissus, when appealed to, acknowledged, though with well-feigned
+reluctance and hesitation, the truth of what Calpurnia had
+declared,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> and he immediately began to apologize for his own
+remissness in not having before made the case known. He spoke with
+great moderation of Messalina, and also of Silius, as if his object
+were to appease rather than to inflame the anger of the emperor. He
+however admitted, he said, that it was absolutely necessary that
+something decisive should be done. "Your wife is taken from you,"
+said he, "and Silius is master of her. The next thing will be that
+he will be master of the republic. He may even already have gained
+the Pr&aelig;torian guards over to his side, in which case all is lost. It
+is absolutely necessary that some immediate and decisive action
+should be taken."</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Council called.<br />Measures adopted by Claudius and the conspirators.</div>
+
+<p>Claudius, in great trepidation, immediately called together such of
+his prominent councillors and friends as were at hand at Ostia, to
+consult on what was to be done. Of course, it was principally the
+conspirators themselves that appeared at this council. They crowded
+around the emperor and urged him immediately to take the most
+decisive measures to save himself from the impending danger, and
+they succeeded so well in working upon his fears that he stood
+before them in stupid <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>amazement, wholly incapable of deciding what
+to say or do. The conspirators urged upon the emperor the necessity
+of first securing the guard. This body was commanded by an officer
+named Geta, on whom Narcissus said no reliance could be placed, and
+he begged that Claudius would immediately authorize him, Narcissus,
+to take the command. The object of the confederates in thus wishing
+to get command of the guard was, perhaps, to make sure of the prompt
+and immediate execution of any sentence which they might succeed in
+inducing the emperor to pronounce upon Silius or Messalina, before
+he should have the opportunity of changing his mind. The emperor
+turned from one adviser to another, listening to their various
+suggestions and plans, but he seemed bewildered and undecided, as if
+he knew not what to do. It was, however, at length, determined to
+proceed immediately to Rome. The whole party accordingly mounted
+into their carriages, Narcissus taking his seat by the side of the
+emperor in the imperial chariot, in order that he might keep up the
+excitement and agitation in his master's mind by his conversation on
+the way.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Messalina receives warning.<br />Scene in the garden.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time there were among those who witnessed these
+proceedings at Ostia, some who were disposed to take sides with
+Messalina and Silius, in the approaching struggle; and they
+immediately dispatched a special messenger to Rome to warn the
+empress of the impending danger. This messenger rode up along the
+banks of the Tiber with all speed, and in advance of the emperor's
+party. On his arrival in the city he immediately repaired to the
+palace gardens and communicated his errand to Messalina and her
+company in the midst of their festivities. Claudius had been
+informed, he said, against her and Silius, and was almost beside
+himself with resentment and anger. He was already on his way to
+Rome, the messenger added, coming to wreak vengeance upon them, and
+he warned them to escape for their lives. This communication was
+made, of course, in the first instance, somewhat privately to the
+parties principally concerned. It, however, put a sudden stop to all
+the hilarity and joy, and the tidings were rapidly circulated around
+the gardens. One man climbed into a tree and looked off in the
+direction of Ostia. The others asked him what <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>he saw. "I see a
+great storm arising from the sea at Ostia," said he, "and coming
+hither, and it is time for us to save ourselves." In a word the
+bacchanalian games and sports were all soon broken up in confusion,
+and the company made their escape from the scene, each by a
+different way.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Silius withdraws.<br />Messalina's anxiety.<br />Messalina's course of action.<br />Her two children.</div>
+
+<p>Silius immediately resumed his ordinary dress, and went forth into
+the city, where, under an assumed appearance of indifference and
+unconcern, he walked about in the forum, as if nothing unusual had
+occurred. Messalina herself fled to the house of a friend, named
+Lucullus, and, passing immediately through the house, sought a
+hiding-place in the gardens. Here her mind began to be overwhelmed
+with anguish, remorse, and terror. Her sins, now that a terrible
+retribution for them seemed to be impending, rose before her in all
+their enormity, and she knew not what to do. She soon reflected that
+there could be no permanent safety for her where she was, for the
+advanced guards of Claudius, which were even then entering the city
+and commencing their arrests, would be sure soon to discover the
+place of her retreat, and bring her before her exasperated husband.
+She <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>concluded that, rather than wait for this, it would be better
+for her to go before him herself voluntarily; and, by throwing
+herself upon his mercy, endeavor to soften and appease him. She
+accordingly, in her distraction, determined to pursue this course.
+She came forth from her hiding-place in Lucullus's gardens, and went
+to seek her children, intending to take them with her, that the
+sight of them might help to move the heart of their father. Her
+children were two in number. Octavia, who has already been
+mentioned, was the eldest, being now about ten or twelve years of
+age. The other was a boy several years younger; his name was
+Britannicus.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">She proceeds to meet the emperor.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time, the city was thrown quite into a state of
+commotion, by the approach of Claudius, and by the tidings which had
+spread rapidly through the streets, of what had occurred. The
+soldiers whom Claudius had sent forward, were making arrests in the
+streets, and searching the houses. In the midst of this excitement,
+Messalina, with her children, attended by one of the vestal virgins,
+named Vibidia, whom she had prevailed upon to accompany her and
+plead her cause, came forth from her palace on foot, and proceeded
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>through the streets, her hair disheveled, her dress in disorder, and
+her whole appearance marked by every characteristic of humiliation,
+abasement, and woe. When she reached the gate of the city, she
+mounted into a common cart which she found there, and in that manner
+proceeded to meet her angry husband, leaving her children with
+Vibidia, the vestal, to follow behind.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Her entreaties.<br />Claudius will not hear her.<br />Vibidia repulsed.</div>
+
+<p>She had not proceeded very far, before she met the emperor's train
+approaching. As soon as she came near enough to the carriage of
+Claudius to be heard, she began to utter loud entreaties and
+lamentations, begging her husband to hear before he condemned her.
+"Hear your unhappy wife," said she, "hear the mother of Britannicus
+and Octavia." Narcissus and the others who were near, interposed to
+prevent her from being heard. They talked continually to the
+emperor, and produced a written memorial and other papers for him to
+read, which contained, they said, a full account of the whole
+transaction. Claudius, taking very little notice of his wife,
+pursued his way toward the city. She followed in his train. When
+they drew near to the gates, they met Vibidia and the children.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>Vibidia attempted to speak, but Claudius would not listen. She
+complained, in a mournful tone, that for him to condemn his wife
+unheard, would be unjust and cruel; but Claudius was unmoved. He
+told Vibidia that Messalina would in due time have a suitable
+opportunity to make her defense, and that, in the mean time, the
+proper duty of a vestal virgin was to confine herself to the
+functions of her sacred office. Thus he sent both her and the
+children away.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Executions.</div>
+
+<p>As soon as the party arrived in the city Narcissus conducted the
+emperor to the house of Silius, and entering it he showed to the
+emperor there a great number of proofs of the guilty favoritism
+which the owner of it had enjoyed with Messalina. The house was
+filled with valuable presents, the tokens of Messalina's love,
+consisting, many of them, of costly household treasures which had
+descended to Claudius in the imperial line, and which were of such a
+character that the alienation of them by Messalina, in such a way,
+was calculated to fill the heart of Claudius with indignation and
+anger. The emperor then proceeded to the camp. Silius and several of
+his leading friends were arrested and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>brought together before a
+sort of military tribunal summoned on the spot to try them. The
+trial was of course very brief and very summary. They were all
+condemned to death and were led out to instant execution.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Claudius at supper.<br />Messalina's letter.<br />Claudius relents.</div>
+
+<p>This being done the emperor returned with his friends to the city
+and repaired to his palace. His mind seemed greatly relieved. He
+felt that the crisis of danger was past. He ordered supper to be
+prepared, and when it was ready he seated himself at table. He
+congratulated himself and his friends on the escape from the perils
+that had surrounded them, which they had so happily accomplished.
+Narcissus and the others began to tremble lest after all Messalina
+should be spared; and they knew full well that if she should be
+allowed to live, she would soon, by her artful management, regain
+her ascendency over the emperor's mind, and that in that case she
+would give herself no rest until she had destroyed all those who had
+taken any part in effecting the destruction of Silius. They began to
+be greatly alarmed therefore for their own safety. In the mean time
+messages came in from Messalina, who, when the emperor entered the
+city, had returned to her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>former place of refuge in the gardens of
+Lucullus. At length a letter, or memorial, came. On reading what was
+written it was found that Messalina was assuming a bolder tone. Her
+letter was a remonstrance rather than a petition, as if she were
+designing to try the effect of bravery and assurance, and to see if
+she could not openly reassume the ascendency and control which she
+had long exercised over the mind of her husband. Claudius seemed
+inclined to hesitate and waver. His anger appeared to be subsiding
+with his fears, and the wine which he drank freely at the table
+seemed to conspire with the other influences of the occasion to
+restore his wonted good-humor. He ordered that in reply to
+Messalina's letter a messenger should go and inform her that she
+should be admitted the next day to see him and to make her defense.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Alarm of Narcissus.<br />Narcissus orders Messalina to be slain.</div>
+
+<p>Narcissus and his confederates were greatly alarmed, and determined
+immediately that this must not be. Narcissus had been placed, it
+would seem, according to the wish of the conspirators at the outset,
+in command of the guard; and he accordingly had power to prevent the
+emperor's determination from being carried into effect, provided
+that he should <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>dare to take the responsibility of acting. It was a
+moment of great anxiety and suspense. He soon, however, came
+strongly to the conclusion that though it would be very dangerous
+for him to act, yet that not to act would be certain destruction;
+since if Messalina were allowed to live it would be absolutely
+certain that they all must die. Accordingly, summoning all his
+resolution he hurried out of the banqueting room, and gave orders to
+the officers on duty there, in the emperor's name, to proceed to the
+gardens of Lucullus and execute sentence of death on Messalina
+without any delay.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Interview between Messalina and her mother in the
+garden.</div>
+
+<p>Messalina was with her mother Lepida, in the gardens, awaiting her
+answer from the emperor, when the band of soldiers came. Messalina
+and her mother had never been agreed, and now for a long time had
+had no intercourse with each other. The daughter's danger had,
+however, reawakened the instinct of maternal love in the mother's
+heart, and Lepida had come to see her child in this the hour of her
+extremity. She came, however, not to console or comfort her child,
+or to aid her in her efforts to save her life, but to provide her
+with the means of putting an end to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>her own existence as the only
+way now left to her, of escape from the greater disgrace of public
+execution.</p>
+
+<p>She accordingly offered a poniard to Messalina in the gardens, and
+urged her to take it. "Death by your own hand," said she, "is now
+your only refuge. You <i>must</i> die; it is impossible that this tragedy
+can have any other termination; and to wait quietly here for the
+stroke of the executioner is base and ignoble. You <i>must die</i>;&mdash;and
+all that now remains to you is the power to close the scene with
+dignity and with becoming spirit."</p>
+
+<p>Messalina manifested the greatest agitation and distress, but she
+could not summon resolution to receive the poniard. In the midst of
+this scene the band of soldiers appeared, entering the garden. The
+mother pressed the poniard upon her daughter, saying, "Now is the
+time." Messalina took the weapon, and pointed it toward her breast,
+but had not firmness enough to strike it home. The officer
+approached her at the head of his men, with his sword drawn in his
+hand. Messalina, still irresolute, made a feeble and ineffectual
+effort to give herself a wound, but failed of inflicting it; and
+then the officer <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>who had by this time advanced to the spot where
+she was standing, put an end to her dreadful mental struggles by
+cutting her down and killing her at a single blow.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Indifference of Claudius in respect to Messalina's fate.</div>
+
+<p>When tidings were brought back to Narcissus that his commands had
+been obeyed, he went again to the presence of Claudius, and reported
+to him simply that Messalina was no more. He made no explanations,
+and the emperor asked for none; but went on with his supper as if
+nothing had occurred, and never afterward expressed any curiosity or
+interest in respect to Messalina's fate.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Claudius marries Agrippina.</div>
+
+<p>As soon as the excitement produced by these transactions had in some
+degree subsided, various plans and intrigues were commenced for
+providing the emperor with another wife. There were many competitors
+for the station, all of whom were eager to occupy it; for, though
+Claudius was old, imbecile, and ugly, still he was the emperor; and
+all those ladies of his court who thought that they had any prospect
+of success, aspired to the possession of his hand, as the summit of
+earthly ambition. Among the rest, Agrippina appeared. She was
+Claudius's niece. This relationship was in one respect a bar to her
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>success, since the laws prohibited marriage within that degree of
+consanguinity. In another respect, however, the relationship was
+greatly in Agrippina's favor, for under the plea of it she had
+constant access to the emperor, and was extremely assiduous in her
+attentions to him. She succeeded, at length, in inspiring him with
+some sentiment of love, and he determined to make her his wife. The
+Senate were easily induced to alter the laws in order to enable him
+to do this, and Claudius and Agrippina were married.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Adoption of her son.</div>
+
+<p>Claudius not only thus made the mother of our hero his wife, but he
+adopted her son as his son and heir&mdash;changing, at the same time, the
+name of the boy. In place of his former plebeian appellation of
+Ahenobarbus, he gave him now the imposing title of Nero Claudius
+C&aelig;sar Drusus Germanicus. He has since generally been known in
+history, however, by the simple prenomen, Nero.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="Chapter_V" id="Chapter_V"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter V.</span></h2>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">The Childhood of Nero.</span></h2>
+
+<h3>A.D. 39-53</h3>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Early history of Nero.<br />Character of his father.<br />Brutal character of Brazenbeard.</div>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">D</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">uring</span> the time that Agrippina had been passing through the strange
+and eventful vicissitudes of her history, described in the preceding
+chapters, young Nero himself, as we shall henceforth call him, had
+been growing up an active and intelligent, but an indulged and
+ungoverned boy. His own father died when he was about three years
+old. This, however, was an advantage probably, rather than a loss to
+the boy, as Brazenbeard was an extremely coarse, cruel, and
+unprincipled man. He once killed one of his slaves for not drinking
+as much as he ordered him. Riding one day in his chariot through a
+village, he drove wantonly and purposely over a boy, and killed him
+on the spot. He defrauded all who dealt with him, and was repeatedly
+prosecuted for the worst of crimes. He treated his wife with great
+brutality. As has already been said, he received the announcement of
+the birth of his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>son with derision, saying that nothing but what
+was detestable could come from him and Agrippina; and when they
+asked him what name they should give the child, he recommended to
+them to name him Claudius. This was said in contempt, for Claudius
+was at that time despised by every one, as a deformed and stupid
+idiot, though he was subsequently made emperor in the manner that
+has been already explained. The manifestation of such a spirit, at
+such a time, on the part of her husband, pained Agrippina
+exceedingly,&mdash;but the more it pained her, the more Brazenbeard was
+gratified and amused. The death of such a father could, of course,
+be no calamity.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero neglected.</div>
+
+<p>When Agrippina, Nero's mother, was banished from Rome by the order
+of Caligula, Nero himself did not accompany her, but remained behind
+under the care of his aunt Lepida, with whom he lived for a time in
+comparative neglect and obscurity. Though he belonged to one of the
+most aristocratic families of Rome, his mother being a descendant
+and heir of the C&aelig;sars, he spent some years in a situation of
+poverty and disgrace. His education was neglected, as he received
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>no instruction at this time except from a dancing-master and a
+barber, who were his only tutors. Of course, the formation of his
+moral character was wholly neglected,&mdash;nor, in fact, considering the
+character of those by whom he was surrounded, would it have been
+possible that any favorable influence should have been exerted upon
+him, if the attempt had been made.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero reappears at court.<br />Britannicus.</div>
+
+<p>At length when Caligula died and Agrippina was recalled from her
+banishment by Claudius, and reinstated in her former position at
+Rome, Nero emerged from his obscurity, and thenceforth lived with
+his mother in luxury and splendor in the capital. Nero was a
+handsome boy, and he soon became an object of great popular favor
+and regard. He often appeared in public at entertainments and
+celebrations, and when he did so he was always specially noticed and
+caressed. His companion, and in some respects his rival and
+competitor, at such times, was Britannicus, the son of Claudius and
+Messalina. Britannicus was two or three years younger than Nero, and
+being the son of the emperor was of course a very prominent and
+conspicuous object of attention whenever he appeared. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>But the rank
+of Nero was scarcely less high, since his mother was descended
+directly from the imperial family, while in age and personal
+appearance and bearing he was superior to his cousin.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The secular or centennial games.</div>
+
+<p>One instance is specially noticed by the historians of those days,
+in which young Nero was honored with an extraordinary degree of
+public attention and regard. It was on the occasion of celebrating
+what might be called the centennial games. These games were
+generally supposed to be celebrated at each recurrence of a certain
+astronomical period, of about one hundred years' duration, called an
+age; but in reality it was at irregular though very distant
+intervals that they were observed. Claudius instituted a celebration
+of them early in his reign. There had been a celebration of them in
+the reign of Augustus, not many years before,&mdash;but Claudius, wishing
+to signalize his own reign by some great entertainment and display,
+pretended that Augustus had made a miscalculation, and had observed
+the festival at the wrong time; and he ordained, accordingly, that
+the celebration should take place again.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Mode of celebrating them.<br />Nero and Britannicus.</div>
+
+<p>The games and shows connected with this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>festival extended through
+three successive days. They consisted of sacrifices and other
+religious rites, dramatic spectacles, athletic games, and military
+and gladiatorial shows. In the course of these diversions there was
+celebrated on one of the days what was called the Trojan game, in
+which young boys of leading and distinguished families appeared on
+horseback in a circus or ring, where they performed certain
+evolutions and feats of horsemanship, and mock conflicts, in the
+midst of the tens of thousands of spectators who thronged the seats
+around. Of course Britannicus and Nero were the most prominent and
+conspicuous of the boys on this occasion. Nero, however, in the
+estimation of the populace, bore off the palm. He was received with
+the loudest acclamations by the whole assembly, while Britannicus
+attracted far less attention. This triumph filled Agrippina's heart
+with pride and pleasure, while it occasioned to Messalina the
+greatest vexation and chagrin. It made Agrippina more than ever
+before the object of Messalina's hatred and hostility, and the
+empress would very probably before long have found some means of
+destroying her rival had she not soon after this become involved
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>herself in the difficulties arising out of her connection with
+Silius, which resulted so soon in her own destruction.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero applauded.<br />The story of the serpents.</div>
+
+<p>The people, however, were filled with admiration of Nero, and they
+applauded his performance with the utmost enthusiasm. He was for a
+time a subject of conversation in every circle throughout the city,
+and many tales were told of his history and his doings. Among other
+things which were related of him, the story was circulated that
+Messalina became so excited against him in her jealousy and envy,
+that she sent two assassins to murder him in his sleep; and that the
+assassins, coming to him in a garden where he was lying asleep upon
+a pillow, were just putting their cruel orders into execution when
+they were driven away by a serpent that appeared miraculously at the
+moment to defend the child&mdash;darting out at the assassins from
+beneath the pillow. Others said that it was in his infancy that this
+occurrence took place, and that there were two serpents instead of
+one, and that they guarded the life of their charge lying with him
+in his cradle. One of the historians of the time states that neither
+of these stories was really true, but that they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>both originated in
+the fact that Nero was accustomed to wear, when a boy, a bracelet
+made of a serpent's skin, small and of beautiful colors,&mdash;and
+fastened, as they said, around the wearer's wrist with a clasp of
+gold.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Advancement of Nero after the death of Messalina.<br />Agrippina's treatment of Britannicus.</div>
+
+<p>However the fact may be in respect to Messalina's allowing her
+jealousy of Agrippina to carry her so far as to make direct attempts
+upon his life, there is no doubt that she lived in continual fear of
+the influence both of Nero and of his mother, on the mind of the
+emperor; and Agrippina was consequently compelled to submit to many
+indignities which the position and the power of Messalina enabled
+her to impose upon her enemies and rivals. At length, however, the
+fall of Messalina, and the entire revolution in the situation and
+prospects of Agrippina which was consequent upon it, changed
+altogether the position of Nero. It might have been expected, it is
+true, even after the marriage of Claudius with Agrippina, that
+Britannicus would have still maintained altogether the highest place
+in the emperor's regard, since Britannicus was his own son, while
+Nero was only the son of his wife. But Agrippina was artful enough
+to manage her indolent and stupid husband <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>just as she pleased; and
+she soon found means to displace Britannicus, and to raise Nero in
+his stead, to the highest place, in precedence and honor. She
+persuaded Claudius to adopt Nero as his own son, as was stated in
+the last chapter. She obtained a decree of the Senate, approving and
+confirming this act. She then removed Britannicus from the court and
+shut him up in seclusion, in a nursery, under pretense of tender
+regard for his health and safety. In a word, she treated Britannicus
+in all respects like a little child, and kept him wholly in the
+background; while she brought her own son, though he was but little
+older than the other, very prominently forward, as a young man.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero assumes the toga.</div>
+
+<p>In those ancient days as now, there was an appropriate dress for
+youth, which was changed for that of a man when the subject arrived
+at maturity. The garment which was most distinctively characteristic
+of adult age among the Romans was called the toga; and it was
+assumed by the Roman youth, not as the dress of a man is by young
+persons now, in a private and informal manner, according as the
+convenience or fancy of the individual may dictate,&mdash;but publicly
+and with much <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>ceremony, and always at the time when the party
+arrived at the period of legal majority; so that assuming the toga
+marked always a very important era of life. This distinction
+Agrippina caused to be conferred upon Nero by a special edict when
+he was only fourteen years of age, which was at a very much earlier
+period than usual. On the occasion of thus advancing him to the
+dress and to the legal capabilities of manhood, Agrippina brought
+him out in a special manner before the people of Rome at a great
+public celebration, and the more effectually to call public
+attention to him as a young prince of the highest distinction in the
+imperial family, she induced Claudius to bestow a largess upon the
+people, and a donative upon the army, that is a public distribution
+of money, to the citizens and to the soldiers, in Nero's name.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Britannicus secluded.</div>
+
+<p>All this time Britannicus was kept shut up in the private apartments
+of the palace with nurses and children. The tutors and attendants
+whom Messalina his mother provided for him were one by one removed,
+and their places supplied by others whom Agrippina selected for the
+purpose, and whom she could rely upon to second her views. When
+inquired<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> of in respect to Britannicus by those who had known him
+before, during his mother's lifetime, she replied that he was a weak
+and feeble child, subject to fits, and thus necessarily kept
+secluded from society.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina's treatment of the two boys.</div>
+
+<p>Sometimes, indeed, on great public occasions, both Nero and
+Britannicus appeared together, but even in these cases the
+arrangements were so made as to impress the public mind more
+forcibly than ever with an idea of the vast superiority of Nero, in
+respect to rank and position. On one such occasion, while
+Britannicus was carried about clothed in the dress of a child, and
+with attendants characteristic of the nursery, Nero rode on
+horseback, richly appareled in the triumphal robes of a general
+returning from a foreign campaign.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Britannicus offends Nero.<br />Agrippina's anger.</div>
+
+<p>Agrippina was one day made very angry with Britannicus, for what
+might seem a very trifling cause. It seems that Britannicus, though
+young, was a very intelligent boy, and that he understood perfectly
+the policy which his step-mother was pursuing toward him, and was
+very unwilling to submit to be thus supplanted. One day, when he and
+Nero were both abroad, attending some public<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> spectacle or
+celebration, they met, and Nero accosted his cousin, calling him
+Britannicus. Britannicus, in returning the salutation, addressed
+Nero familiarly by the name Domitius;&mdash;Domitius Ahenobarbus having
+been his name before he was adopted by Claudius. Agrippina was very
+indignant when she heard of this. She considered the using of this
+name by Britannicus, as denoting, on his part, a refusal to
+acknowledge his cousin as the adopted son of his father. She
+immediately went to Claudius with earnest and angry complainings.
+"Your own edict," said she, "sanctioned and confirmed by the Senate,
+is disavowed and annulled, and my son is subjected to public insult
+by the impertinence of this child." Agrippina farther represented to
+Claudius, that Britannicus never would have thought of addressing
+her son in such a manner, of his own accord. His doing it must have
+arisen from the influence of some of the persons around him who were
+hostile to her; and she made use of the occasion to induce Claudius
+to give her authority to remove all that remained of the child's
+instructors and governors, who could be suspected of a friendly
+interest in his cause, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>to subject him to new and more rigorous
+restrictions than ever.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Fucine lake.<br />Plan for draining it.<br />The canal.</div>
+
+<p>One of the most imposing of all the spectacles and celebrations
+which Claudius instituted during his reign, was the one which
+signalized the opening of the canal by which the Fucine lake was
+drained. The Fucine lake was a large but shallow body of water, at
+the foot of the Appenines, near the sources of the Tiber.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> It was
+subject to periodic inundations, by which the surrounding lands were
+submerged. An engineer had offered to drain the lake, in
+consideration of receiving for his pay the lands which would be laid
+dry by the operation. But Claudius, who seemed to have quite a taste
+for such undertakings, preferred to accomplish the work himself. The
+canal by which the water should be conveyed away, was to be formed
+in part by a deep cut, and partly by a tunnel through a mountain;
+and inasmuch as in those days the power now chiefly relied upon for
+making such excavations, namely, the explosive force of gunpowder,
+was not known, any extensive working in solid rock was an operation
+of immense labor. When the canal <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>was finished, Claudius determined
+to institute a grand celebration to signalize the opening of it for
+drawing off the water; and as he could not safely rely on the
+hydraulic interest of the spectacle for drawing such a concourse to
+the spot as he wished to see there, he concluded to add to the
+entertainment a show more suited to the taste and habits of the
+times. He made arrangements accordingly for having a naval battle
+fought upon the lake, for the amusement of the spectators, just
+before the opening of the canal, which was to draw off the water.
+Thus the battle was to be the closing scene, in which the history
+and existence of the lake were to be terminated forever.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Grand celebration at the opening of the canal.<br />Naval conflict to take place on the lake.</div>
+
+<p>Ships were accordingly built, and an immense number of men were
+designated and set apart for fighting the battle. These men
+consisted of convicts and prisoners of war&mdash;men whom it was, in
+those days, considered perfectly just and right to employ in killing
+one another for the amusement of the emperor and his guests. A sort
+of bulwark was built all around the shore, and the emperor's guards
+were stationed upon it, to prevent the escape of the combatants, and
+to turn them <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>back to their duty if any of them should attempt, when
+pressed hard in the battle, to escape to the land. The fleet of
+galleys was divided into two antagonistic portions, and the men in
+each were armed completely, as in a case of actual war. At the
+appointed time, hundreds of thousands of people assembled from all
+the surrounding country to see the sight. They lined the shores on
+every side, and crowned all the neighboring heights. The contest, of
+course, might be waged with all the fury and fatal effect of a real
+battle without endangering the spectators at all, as there were in
+those days no flying bullets, or other swift-winged missiles, like
+those which in modern times take so wide a range beyond the limits
+of the battle. The deadly effect of all that was done in an ancient
+combat was confined of course to those immediately engaged. Then
+there was, besides, nothing to intercept the vision. No smoke was
+raised to obscure the view, but the atmosphere above and around the
+combatants remained as pure and transparent at the end of the combat
+as at the beginning.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">End of the naval battle.</div>
+
+<p>A real battle was accordingly regarded by the Romans as the most
+sublime and imposing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>of spectacles, and hundreds of thousands of
+spectators flocked to witness the one which Claudius arranged for
+them on the Fucine lake. He himself presided, dressed in a coat of
+mail; and Agrippina sat by his side, clothed in a magnificent robe,
+which the historian states was woven from threads of gold, without
+the admixture of any other material. The signal was given, and the
+battle was commenced. There was some difficulty experienced, as
+usual in such cases, in getting the men to engage, but they became
+sufficiently ferocious at last to satisfy all the spectators, and
+thousands were slain. At length the emperor gave orders that the
+battle should cease, and the survivors were informed that their
+lives were spared.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The water will not flow.</div>
+
+<p>It was fortunate, on the whole, for Claudius, that he did not rely
+wholly on the simple drawing off of the water from the lake for the
+amusement of the immense assemblage that he had convened, for it was
+found, when, after the close of the battle, the canal was opened,
+that the water would not run. The engineers had made some mistake in
+their measurements or their calculations, and had left the bed of
+the canal in some part of its <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>course too high, so that the water,
+when the sluices were opened, instead of flowing off into the river
+to which the canal was intended to conduct it, remained quietly in
+the lake as before.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Deepening the canal.<br />New celebrations.</div>
+
+<p>The assembly dispersed, and the work on the canal was resumed with a
+view of making it deeper. In the course of a year the excavation was
+completed, and all was made ready for a new trial. Claudius summoned
+a new assembly to witness the operation, and at this time, instead
+of a naval conflict, he made provision for a great combat of
+gladiators, to be fought on immense floating platforms which were
+built upon the lake near the outlet which the engineers had made. In
+the end, however, the second attempt to make the water flow, proved
+more unfortunate than the first. The channel had been made very deep
+and wide, so that the water was inclined to move, when once put in
+motion, with the utmost impetuosity and force; and it so happened,
+that in some way or other, the means which the engineer had relied
+upon for controlling it were insufficient, and when the gates were
+opened every thing suddenly gave way. The water rushed out in an
+overwhelming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> torrent, as in an inundation&mdash;and undermined and
+carried away the platforms and stagings which had been erected for
+the seats of the spectators. A scene of indescribable tumult and
+confusion ensued. The emperor and empress, with the guests and
+spectators, fled precipitously together, and all narrowly escaped
+being carried down into the canal.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Influences under which Nero's character was formed.</div>
+
+<p>It is by no means difficult to imagine what sort of a character a
+boy must necessarily form, brought up under such influences and
+surrounded by such scenes as those which thus prevailed at the court
+of Claudius. It proved in the end that Nero experienced the full
+effect of them. He became proud, vain, self-willed, cruel, and
+accustomed to yield himself without restraint to all those wicked
+propensities and passions which, under such circumstances, always
+gain dominion over the human soul.</p>
+
+<hr class="medium" />
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina's plan in respect to Octavia.</div>
+
+<p>Besides Britannicus, it will be recollected that Messalina had left
+another child,&mdash;a daughter named Octavia, who was two or three years
+younger than her brother, and of course about five years younger
+than Nero. Agrippina did not pursue the same course of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>opposition
+and hostility toward her which she had adopted in regard to
+Britannicus. She determined, at the outset, upon a very different
+plan. Britannicus was necessarily a rival and competitor for Nero;
+and every step in advance which he should make, could not operate
+otherwise than as an impediment and obstacle to Nero's success. But
+Octavia, as Agrippina thought, might be employed to further and aid
+her designs, by being betrothed, and in due time married, to her
+son.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Tragical end of Silanus.</div>
+
+<p>The advantages of such a scheme were very obvious,&mdash;so obvious in
+fact that the design was formed by Agrippina at the very
+beginning,&mdash;even before her own marriage with the emperor was fully
+effected. There was one serious obstacle in the way, and that was
+that Octavia was already betrothed to a very distinguished young
+nobleman named Lucius Silanus. Agrippina, after having, by various
+skillful man&oelig;uvers, succeeded in enlisting the public officers
+who would act as judges in his case, caused Silanus to be accused of
+infamous crimes. The historians say that the evidence which was
+adduced against him was of the most trivial character. Still he was
+condemned. He seems to have understood <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>the nature and the cause of
+the hostility which had suddenly developed itself against him, and
+to have felt at once all the hopelessness of his condition. He
+killed himself in his despair on the very night of the marriage of
+Claudius with Agrippina.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Marriage of Nero.</div>
+
+<p>The empress found afterward no serious difficulty in accomplishing
+her design. She obtained the emperor's consent to a betrothal of
+Nero to Octavia; but as they were yet too young to be married, the
+ceremony was postponed for a short time. At length in about five
+years after the marriage of Agrippina herself, Nero and Octavia were
+married. Nero was at that time about sixteen years of age. His bride
+of course was only eleven.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="Chapter_VI" id="Chapter_VI"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter VI.</span></h2>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">Nero an Emperor.</span></h2>
+
+<h3>A.D. 54</h3>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Claudius is sick.<br />Agrippina's joy.</div>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">bout</span> one year after Nero's marriage to Octavia the emperor Claudius
+was suddenly taken sick. On learning this, Agrippina was very much
+excited and very much pleased. If the sickness should result in the
+emperor's death, her son she thought would immediately succeed him.
+Every thing had been long since fully arranged for such a result,
+and all was now ready, she imagined, for the change.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Her schemes.<br />Estimation in which Nero was held.</div>
+
+<p>It is true that Nero was still very young, but then he was
+uncommonly mature both in mind and in person, for one of his years;
+and the people had been accustomed for some time to look upon him as
+a man. Among other means which Agrippina had resorted to for giving
+an appearance of manliness and maturity to the character of her son,
+she had brought him forward in the Roman Forum as a public advocate,
+and he had made orations there in several instances, with great
+success. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>He had been well instructed in those studies which were
+connected with the art of oratory, and as his person and manners
+were agreeable, and his countenance intelligent and prepossessing,
+and especially as the confidence which he felt in his powers gave
+him an air of great self-possession and composure, the impression
+which he made was very favorable. The people were in fact
+predisposed to be pleased with and to applaud the efforts of a young
+orator so illustrious in rank and station&mdash;and the ability which he
+displayed, although he was so young, was such as to justify,
+unquestionably, in some degree, the honors that they paid him.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina considers herself in danger.</div>
+
+<p>Agrippina, therefore, supposing that her son was now far enough
+advanced in public consideration to make it in some degree certain
+that he would be the emperor's successor, was ready at any time for
+her husband to die. His sickness therefore filled her mind with
+excitement and hope. There was another motive too, besides her
+ambitious desires for the advancement of her son, that made her
+desirous that Claudius should not live. She had been now for several
+months somewhat solicitous and anxious about her own safety. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>Her
+influence over Claudius, which was at first so absolute and supreme,
+had afterward greatly declined, and within a few months she had
+begun to fear that she might be losing it entirely. In fact she had
+some reason for believing that Claudius regarded her with concealed
+hostility and hate, and was secretly revolving plans for deposing
+both her and her son from the high ascendency to which they had
+raised themselves, and for bringing back his own son to his proper
+prominence, in Nero's place. Agrippina, too, in the midst of her
+ambitious projects and plans, led a life of secret vice and crime,
+and feeling guilty and self-condemned, every trivial indication of
+danger excited her fears. Some one informed her that Claudius one
+day when speaking of a woman who had been convicted of crime, said
+that it had always been <i>his</i> misfortune to have profligate wives,
+but that he always brought them in the end to the punishment that
+they deserved. Agrippina was greatly terrified at this report. She
+considered it a warning that Claudius was meditating some fatal
+proceedings in respect to her.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Reasons for her fears.<br />Claudius and Britannicus.</div>
+
+<p>Agrippina observed, too, as she thought, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>various indications that
+Claudius was beginning to repent of having adopted Nero and thus
+displaced his own son from the line of inheritance; and that he was
+secretly intending to restore Britannicus to his true position. He
+treated the boy with greater and greater attention every day, and at
+one time, after having been conversing with him and expressing an
+unusual interest in his health and welfare, he ended by saying, "Go
+on improving, my son, and grow up as fast as you can to be a man. I
+shall be able to give a good account of all that I have done in
+regard to you in due time. Trust to me, and you will find that all
+will come out right in the end." At another time he told Britannicus
+that pretty soon he should give him the <i>toga</i>, and bring him
+forward before the people as a man,&mdash;"and then at last," said he,
+"the Romans will have a prince that is <i>genuine</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Agrippina was not present, it is true, when these things were said
+and done, but every thing was minutely reported to her, and she was
+filled with anxiety and alarm. She began to be afraid that unless
+something should speedily occur to enable her to realize her hopes
+and expectations, they would end in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>nothing but bitter and cruel
+disappointment after all.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">She forms plans for hastening her husband's death.</div>
+
+<p>Such being the state of things, Agrippina was greatly pleased at the
+news, when she heard that her husband was sick. She most earnestly
+hoped that he would die, and immediately began to consider what she
+could do to insure or to hasten such a result. She thought of
+poison, and began to debate the question in her mind whether she
+should dare to administer it. Then if she were to decide to give her
+husband poison, it was a very serious question what kind of poison
+she should employ. If she were to administer one that was sudden and
+violent in its operation, the effect which it would produce might
+attract attention, and her crime be discovered. On the other hand,
+if she were to choose one that was more moderate and gradual in its
+power, so as to produce a slow and lingering death, time would be
+allowed for Claudius to carry into effect any secret designs that he
+might be forming for disavowing Nero as his son, and fixing the
+succession upon Britannicus; and Agrippina well knew that if
+Claudius were to die, leaving things in such a state that
+Britannicus should succeed him, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>downfall and ruin both of
+herself and her son would immediately and inevitably follow.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Locusta.<br />Agrippina determines to consult her.</div>
+
+<p>There was at that time in Rome a celebrated mistress of the art of
+poisoning, named Locusta. She was in prison, having been condemned
+to death for her crimes. Though condemned she had been kept back
+from execution by the influence of Agrippina, on account of the
+skill which she possessed in her art, and which Agrippina thought it
+possible that she might have occasion at some time to make use of.
+This Locusta she now determined to consult. She accordingly went to
+her, and asked her if she did not know of any poison which would
+immediately take effect upon the brain and mind, so as to
+incapacitate the patient at once from all mental action, while yet
+it should be gradual and slow in its operations on the vital
+functions of the body. Locusta answered in the affirmative. Such
+characters were always prepared to furnish any species of
+medicaments that their customers might call for. She compounded a
+potion which she said possessed the properties which Agrippina
+required, and Agrippina, receiving it from her hands, went away.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Locusta's poison is administered to Claudius.</div>
+
+<p>Agrippina then went to Halotus, the servant <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>who waited upon the
+emperor and gave him his food,&mdash;and contrived some means to induce
+him to administer the dose. Halotus was the emperor's "taster," as
+it was termed:&mdash;that is, it was his duty to taste first, himself,
+every article of food or drink which he offered to his master, for
+the express purpose of making it sure that nothing was poisoned. It
+is obvious, however, that many ways might be devised for evading
+such a precaution as this, and Halotus and Agrippina arranged it,
+that the poison, in this case, should be put upon a dish of
+mushrooms, and served to the emperor at his supper. The taster was
+to avoid, by means of some dextrous management, the taking of any
+portion of the fatal ingredients himself. The plan thus arranged was
+put into execution. The emperor ate the mushrooms, and Agrippina
+tremblingly awaited the result.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The poison ineffectual.<br />A new plan.<br />The feather.<br />Poison administered by the physician.<br />Claudius dies.</div>
+
+<p>She was, however, disappointed in the effect that was produced.
+Whether the mixture that Locusta had prepared was not sufficiently
+powerful, or whether Halotus in his extreme anxiety not to get any
+of the poisonous ingredients himself failed to administer them
+effectually to his intended victim, the emperor <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>seemed to continue
+afterward much as he had been before,&mdash;still sick, but without any
+new or more dangerous symptoms. Of course, Agrippina was in a state
+of great solicitude and apprehension. Having incurred the terrible
+guilt and danger necessarily involved in an attempt to poison her
+husband, she could not draw back. The work that was begun must be
+carried through now, she thought, at all hazards, to its
+termination; and she immediately set herself at work to devise some
+means of reaching her victim with poison, which would avoid the
+taster altogether, and thus not be liable to any interference on his
+part, dictated either by his fidelity to his master or his fears for
+himself. She went, accordingly, to the emperor's physician and found
+means to enlist him in her cause; and a plan was formed between them
+which proved effectual in accomplishing her designs. The manner in
+which they contrived it was this. The physician, at a time when the
+emperor was lying sick and in distress upon his couch, came to him
+and proposed that he should open his mouth and allow the physician
+to touch his throat with the tip of a feather, to promote vomiting,
+which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>he said he thought would relieve him. The emperor yielded to
+this treatment, and the feather was applied. It had previously been
+dipped in a very virulent and fatal poison. The poison thus
+administered took effect, and Claudius, after passing the night in
+agony, died early in the morning.</p>
+
+<p><a name="poisoning" id="poisoning"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 330px;">
+<img src="images/i129.jpg" class="ispace" width="330" height="300" alt="The Poisoning of Claudius." title="" />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">The Poisoning of Claudius.</span></span></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote2">Agrippina conceals her husband's death.</div>
+
+<p>Of course, Agrippina, when her husband's dying struggles were over,
+and she was satisfied that life was extinct, experienced for the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>moment a feeling of gratification and relief. It might have been
+expected, however, that the pangs of remorse, after the deed was
+perpetrated, would have followed very hard upon the termination of
+her suspense and anxiety. But it was not so. Much still remained to
+be done, and Agrippina was fully prepared to meet all the
+responsibilities of the crisis. The death of her husband took place
+very early in the morning, the poisoning operations having been
+performed in the night, and having accomplished their final effect
+about the break of day. Agrippina immediately perceived that the
+most effectual means of accomplishing the end which she had in view,
+was not to allow of any interval to elapse between the announcement
+of the emperor's death and the bringing forward of her son for
+induction into office as his successor; since during such an
+interval, if one were allowed, the Roman people would, of course,
+discuss the question, whether Britannicus or Nero should succeed to
+power, and a strong party might possibly organize itself to enforce
+the claims of the former. She determined, therefore, to conceal the
+death of her husband until noon, the hour most favorable for
+publicly proclaiming <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>any great event, and then to announce the
+death of the father and the accession of the adopted son together.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina's measures.<br />Her disimulation.</div>
+
+<p>She accordingly took prompt and decisive measures to prevent its
+being known that the emperor was dead. The immediate attendants
+at his bedside could not indeed be easily deceived, but they were
+required to be silent in respect to what had occurred, and to go on
+with all their services and ministrations just as if their patient
+were still alive. Visitors were excluded from the room, and
+messengers were kept coming to and fro with baths, medicaments, and
+other appliances, such as a desperate crisis in a sick chamber might
+be supposed to require. The Senate was convened, too, in the course
+of the morning, and Agrippina, as if in great distress, sent a
+message to them, informing them of her husband's dangerous
+condition, and entreating them to join with the chief civil
+and religious functionaries of the city, in offering vows,
+supplications, and sacrifices for his recovery. She herself, in the
+mean time, went from room to room about the palace, overwhelmed to
+all appearance, with anxiety and grief. She kept Britannicus and his
+sisters all the time <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>with her, folding the boy in her arms with an
+appearance of the fondest affection, and telling him how
+heart-broken she was at the dangerous condition of his father. She
+kept Britannicus thus constantly near to her, in order to prevent
+the possibility of his being seized and carried away to the camp by
+any party that might be disposed to make him emperor rather than
+Nero, when it should be known that Claudius had ceased to reign. As
+an additional defense against this danger, Agrippina brought up a
+cohort of the life-guards around the palace, and caused them to be
+stationed in such a manner that every avenue of approach to the
+edifice was completely secured. The cohort which she selected was
+one that she thought she could most safely rely upon, not only
+for guarding the palace while she remained within it, but for
+proclaiming Nero as emperor when she should at last be ready to come
+forth and announce the death of her husband.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina's plans for proclaiming Nero.<br />Seneca and Burrus.</div>
+
+<p>At length, about noon, she deemed that the hour had arrived, and
+after placing Britannicus and his sisters in some safe custody
+within the palace, she ordered the gates to be thrown open, and
+prepared to come forth to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>announce the death of Claudius, and to
+present Nero to the army and to the people of Rome, as his rightful
+successor. She was aided and supported in these preparations by a
+number of officers and attendants, among whom were the two whom she
+had determined upon as the two principal ministers of her son's
+government. These were Seneca and Burrus. Seneca was to be minister
+of state, and Burrus the chief military commander.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">History of Seneca.</div>
+
+<p>Both these men had long been in the service of Agrippina and of
+Nero. Seneca was now over fifty years of age. He was very highly
+distinguished as a scholar and rhetorician while he lived, and his
+numerous writings have given him great celebrity since, in every
+age. He commenced his career in Rome as a public advocate in the
+Forum, during the reign of Caligula. After Caligula's death he
+incurred the displeasure of Claudius in the first year of that
+emperor's reign, and he was banished to the island of Corsica, where
+he remained in neglect and obscurity for about eight years. When at
+length Messalina was put to death, and the emperor married
+Agrippina, Seneca was pardoned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> and recalled through Agrippina's
+influence, and after that he devoted himself very faithfully to the
+service of the empress and of her son. Agrippina appointed him
+Nero's preceptor, and gave him the direction of all the studies
+which her son pursued in qualifying himself for the duties of a
+public orator; and now that she was about attempting to advance her
+son to the supreme command, she intended to make the philosopher his
+principal secretary and minister of state.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Account of Burrus.<br />His military rank.<br />The Pr&aelig;torian cohorts.</div>
+
+<p>Burrus was the commander of the life-guards, or as the office was
+called in those days, prefect of the pr&aelig;torium. The life-guards, or
+body-guards, whose duty consisted exclusively in attending upon,
+escorting and protecting the emperor, consisted of ten cohorts, each
+containing about a thousand men. The soldiers designated for this
+service were of course selected from the whole army, and as no
+expense was spared in providing them with arms, accoutrements and
+other appointments, they formed the finest body of troops in the
+world. They received double pay, and enjoyed special privileges; and
+every arrangement was made to secure their entire subserviency to
+the will, and attachment to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>the person, of the reigning emperor. Of
+course such a corps would be regarded by all the other divisions of
+the army as entirely superior in rank and consideration, to the
+ordinary service; and the general who commanded them would take
+precedence of every other military commander, being second only
+to the emperor himself. Agrippina had contrived to raise Burrus
+to this post through her influence with Claudius. He was a friend
+to her interests before, and he became still more devoted to
+her after receiving such an appointment through her
+instrumentality,&mdash;Agrippina now depended upon Burrus to carry
+the Pr&aelig;torian cohorts in favor of her son.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina's plans.<br />Nero brought forward.</div>
+
+<p>Accordingly at noon of the day on which Claudius died, when all
+things were ready, the palace gates were thrown open and Agrippina
+came forth with her son, accompanied by Burrus and by other
+attendants. The cohort on duty was drawn up under arms at the palace
+gates. Burrus presented Nero to them as the successor of Claudius,
+and at a signal from him they all responded with shouts and
+acclamations. Some few of the soldiers did not join in this
+cheering, but looked on in silence,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> and then inquired of one
+another what had become of Britannicus. But there were none to
+answer this question, and as no one appeared to proclaim Britannicus
+or to speak in his name, the whole cohort finally acquiesced in the
+decision to which the majority, at the instigation of Burrus, seemed
+inclined. A sort of chair or open palanquin was provided, and Nero
+was mounted upon it. He was borne in this way by the soldiers
+through the streets of the city, escorted by the cohort on the way,
+till he reached the camp. As the procession moved along, the air was
+filled with the shouts and acclamations of the soldiers and of the
+people.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His promises to the army.<br />He is proclaimed.<br />General acquiescence in his elevation.</div>
+
+<p>When the party arrived at the camp Nero was presented to the army,
+and the officers and soldiers being drawn up before him he delivered
+a brief speech which Seneca had prepared for the occasion. The
+principal point in this speech, and the one on which its effect was
+expected to depend, was a promise of a large distribution of money.
+The soldiers always expected such a donative on the accession of any
+new emperor,&mdash;but Nero, in order to suppress any latent opposition
+which might be felt against his claims, made his proposed
+distribution<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> unusually large. The soldiers readily yielded to the
+influence of this promise, and with one accord proclaimed Nero
+emperor. The Senate was soon afterward convened, and partly through
+the influence of certain prominent members whom Agrippina had taken
+measures to secure in her interest, and partly through the general
+conviction that as things were the claims of Britannicus could not
+be successfully maintained, the choice of the army was confirmed.
+And as the tidings of what had taken place at the capital gradually
+spread through Italy and to the remoter portions of the empire, the
+provinces, and the various legions at their encampments, one after
+another acquiesced in the result, both because on the one hand they
+had no strong motive for dissenting, and on the other, they had
+individually no power to make any effectual resistance. Thus Nero,
+at the age of seventeen became emperor of Rome, and as such the
+almost absolute monarch of nearly half the world.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina's real designs in the elevation of her son.</div>
+
+<p>It was, however, by no means the design of Agrippina that her son
+should actually wield, himself, all this power. Her motive, in all
+her man&oelig;uvers for bringing Nero to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>this lofty position, was a
+personal, not a maternal ambition. She was herself to reign, not he;
+and she had brought him forward as the nominal sovereign only, in
+order that she might herself exercise the power by acting in his
+name. Her plan was to secure her own ascendency, by so arranging and
+directing the course of affairs that the young emperor himself
+should have as little as possible to do with the duties of his
+office; and that instead of direct action on his part, all the
+functions of the government should be fulfilled by officers of
+various grades, whom she was herself to appoint and to sustain, and
+who, since they would know that they were dependent on Agrippina's
+influence for their elevation, would naturally be subservient to her
+will. Nero being so young, she thought that he could easily be led
+to acquiesce in such management as this, especially if he were
+indulged in the full enjoyment of the luxuries and pleasures,
+innocent or otherwise, which his high station would enable him to
+command, and which are usually so tempting to one of his character
+and years.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The funeral solemnities.<br />Nero's oration.<br />The panegyric.</div>
+
+<p>The first of Agrippina's measures was to make arrangement for a most
+imposing and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>magnificent funeral, as the testimonial of the deep
+conjugal affection which she entertained for her husband, and the
+profound grief with which she was affected by his death! The most
+extensive preparations were made for this funeral; and the pomp and
+parade which were displayed in Rome on the day of the ceremony, had
+never been surpassed, it was said, by any similar spectacle on any
+former occasion. In the course of the services that were performed,
+a funeral oration was delivered by Nero to the immense concourse of
+people that were convened. The oration was written by Seneca. It was
+a high panegyric upon the virtues and the renown of the deceased,
+and it represented in the brightest colors, and with great
+magnificence of diction, his illustrious birth, the high offices to
+which he had attained, his taste for the liberal arts, and the peace
+and tranquillity which had prevailed throughout the empire during
+his reign. To write a panegyric upon such a man as Claudius had
+been, must surely have proved a somewhat difficult task; but Seneca
+accomplished it very adroitly, and the people, aided by the
+solemnity of the occasion, listened with proper gravity, until at
+length the orator began<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> to speak of the judgment and the political
+wisdom of Claudius, and then the listeners found that they could
+preserve their decorum no longer. The audience looked at each other,
+and there was a general laugh. The young orator, though for the
+moment somewhat disconcerted at this interruption, soon recovered
+himself, and went on to the end of his discourse.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The senate is convened.<br />Nero's inaugural address.<br />Nero's excellent promises.<br />Satisfaction of the Senate.</div>
+
+<p>After these funeral ceremonies had been performed, the Senate was
+convened, and Nero appeared before them to make his inaugural
+address. This address also, was of course prepared for him by
+Seneca, under directions from Agrippina, who, after revolving the
+subject fully in her mind, had determined what it would be most
+politic to say. She knew very well that until the power of her son
+became consolidated and settled, it became him to be modest in his
+pretensions and claims, and to profess great deference and respect
+for the powers and prerogatives of the Senate. In the speech,
+therefore, which Nero delivered in the senate-chamber, he said that
+in assuming the imperial dignity, which he had consented to do in
+obedience to the will of his father the late emperor, to the general
+voice <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>of the army, and the universal suffrages of the people, he
+did not intend to usurp the civil powers of the state, but to leave
+to the Senate, and to the various civil functionaries of the city,
+their rightful and proper jurisdiction. He considered himself as
+merely the commander-in-chief of the armies of the commonwealth, and
+as such, his duty would be simply to execute the national will. He
+promised, moreover, a great variety of reforms in the
+administration, all tending to diminish the authority of the prince,
+and to protect the people from danger of oppression by military
+power. In a word, it was his settled purpose, he said, to restore
+the government to its pristine simplicity and purity, and to
+administer it in strict accordance with the true principles of the
+Roman Constitution, as originally established by the founders of the
+commonwealth. The professions and promises which Nero thus made to
+the Senate, or rather which he recited to them at the dictation of
+his mother and of Seneca, gave great satisfaction to all who heard
+them. All opposition to the claims which he advanced, disappeared,
+and the heart of Agrippina was filled with gladness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> and joy at
+finding that all her plans had been so fully and successfully
+realized.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina assumes the real power.<br />Discontent of the ministers.<br />An incident.<br />Reception of Agrippina in the hall of audience.</div>
+
+<p>The official authority of Nero being thus generally acknowledged,
+Agrippina began immediately to pursue a system of policy designed to
+secure the possession of all real power for herself, leaving only
+the name and semblance of it to her son. She appeared in all public
+places with him, sharing with him the pomp, and parade, and insignia
+of office, as if she were associated with him in official power. She
+received and opened the dispatches and sent answers to them. She
+considered and decided questions of state, and issued her orders.
+She caused several influential persons whom she supposed likely to
+take part with Britannicus, or at least secretly to favor his
+claims, to be put to death, either by violence or by poison; and she
+would have caused the death of many others in this way, if Burrus
+and Seneca had not interposed their influence to prevent it. She did
+all these things in a somewhat covert and cautious manner, acting
+generally in Nero's name, so as not to attract too much attention at
+first to her measures. There was danger, she knew, of awakening
+resistance and opposition, as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>public sentiment among the Romans had
+always been entirely averse to the idea of the submission of men, in
+any form, to the government of women. Agrippina accordingly did not
+attempt openly to preside in the senate-chamber, but she made
+arrangements for having the meetings of the Senate sometimes held in
+an apartment of the palace where she could attend, during the
+sitting, in an adjoining cabinet, concealed from view by a screen or
+arras, and thus listen to the debate. Even this, however, was
+strongly objected to by some of the senators. They considered this
+arrangement of Agrippina's to be present at their debates as
+intended to intimidate them into the support of such measures as she
+might recommend, or be supposed to favor, and thus as seriously
+interfering with the freedom of their discussions. On one occasion
+Agrippina made a bolder experiment still, by coming into the hall
+where a company of foreign embassadors were to have audience, as if
+it were a part of her official duty to join in receiving them. Her
+son, the emperor, and the government officers around him, were
+confounded when they saw her coming, and at first did not know what
+to do. Seneca <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>however, with great presence of mind, said to Nero,
+"Your mother is entering, go and receive her." Hereupon, Nero left
+his chair of state, and accompanied by his ministers, went to meet
+his mother, and received her with great deference and respect; and
+the attention of all present was wholly devoted to Agrippina while
+she remained, as to a very distinguished and highly honored
+guest,&mdash;the business which had called them together being suspended
+on her account until she withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding some occasional difficulties and embarrassments of
+this kind, every thing went on for a time very prosperously, in
+accordance with Agrippina's wishes and plans. Nero was very young,
+and little disposed at first to thwart or to resist his mother's
+measures. He was, however, all the time growing older, and he soon
+began to grow restive under the domination which Agrippina exercised
+over him, and to form plans and determinations of his own. There
+followed, as might have been expected, a terrible conflict for the
+possession of power between him and his mother. The history and the
+termination of this struggle will form the subject of the two
+following chapters.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="Chapter_VII" id="Chapter_VII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter VII.</span></h2>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">Britannicus.</span></h2>
+
+<h3>A.D. 54-55</h3>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Britannicus and Acte.<br />Indignation of Agrippina.</div>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">he</span> occasion which led to the first open outbreak between Agrippina
+and her son was the discovery on her part of a secret and guilty
+attachment which had been formed between Nero and a young girl of
+the palace whose name was Acte. Acte was originally a slave from
+Asia Minor, having been purchased there and sent to Rome, very
+probably on account of her personal beauty. She had been
+subsequently enfranchised, but she remained still in the palace,
+forming a part of the household of Agrippina. Nero had never felt
+any strong attachment for Octavia. His marriage he had always
+regarded as merely one of his mother's political man&oelig;uvers, and
+he did not consider himself as really bound to his wife by any tie.
+He was, besides, still but a boy, though unusually precocious and
+mature; and he had always been accustomed to the most unlimited
+indulgence of the propensities and passions of youth.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Otho and Senecio.</div>
+
+<p>The young prince, as is usual in such cases, was led on and
+encouraged in the vicious course of life that he was now beginning
+to pursue, by certain dissolute companions whose society he fell
+into about this time. There were two young men in particular whose
+influence over him was of the worst character. Their names were Otho
+and Senecio. Otho was descended from a very distinguished family,
+and his rank and social position in Roman society were very high.
+Senecio, on the other hand, was of a very humble extraction&mdash;his
+father being an emancipated slave. The three young men were,
+however, nearly of the same age, and being equally unprincipled and
+dissolute, they banded themselves together in the pursuit and
+enjoyment of vicious indulgences. Nero made Otho and Senecio his
+confidants in his connection with Acte, and it was in a great
+measure through their assistance and co-operation that he
+accomplished his ends.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Perplexity of Nero's ministers.<br />They determine to connive at Nero's new connection.</div>
+
+<p>When Seneca and Burrus were informed of Nero's attachment to Acte,
+and of the connection which had been established between them, they
+were at first much perplexed to know what to do. They were men of
+strict <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>moral principle themselves, and as Nero had been their
+pupil, and was still, while they continued his ministers, in some
+sense under their charge, they thought it might be their duty to
+remonstrate with him on the course which he was pursuing, and
+endeavor to separate him from his vicious companions, and bring him
+back, if possible, to his duty to Octavia. But then, on the other
+hand, they said to each other that any attempt on their part really
+to control the ungovernable and lawless propensities of such a soul
+as Nero's must be utterly unavailing, and since he must necessarily,
+as they thought, be expected to addict himself to vicious
+indulgences in some form, the connection with Acte might perhaps be
+as little to be dreaded as any. On the whole, they concluded not to
+interfere.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina is greatly enraged.</div>
+
+<p>Not so, however, with Agrippina. When she came to learn of this new
+attachment which her son had formed, she was very much disturbed and
+alarmed. Her distress, however, did not arise from any of those
+feelings of solicitude which, as a mother, she might have been
+expected to feel for the moral purity of her boy, but from fears
+that, through the influence and ascendency which such a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>favorite as
+Acte might acquire, she should lose her own power. She knew very
+well how absolute and complete the domination of such a favorite
+sometimes became, and she trembled at the danger which threatened
+her of being supplanted by Acte, and thus losing her control.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Her furious invectives.</div>
+
+<p>Agrippina was very violent and imperious in her temper, and had long
+been accustomed to rule those around her with a very high hand; and
+now, without properly considering that Nero had passed beyond the
+age in which he could be treated as a mere boy, she attacked him at
+once with the bitterest reproaches and invectives, and insisted that
+his connection with Acte should be immediately abandoned. Nero
+resisted her, and stoutly refused to comply with her demands.
+Agrippina was fired with indignation and rage. She filled the palace
+with her complaints and criminations. She accused Nero of the basest
+ingratitude toward her, in repaying the long-continued and faithful
+exertions and sacrifices which she had made to promote his
+interests, by thus displacing her from his confidence and regard, to
+make room for this wretched favorite, and of falseness <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>and
+faithlessness to Octavia, in abandoning her, his lawful wife, for
+the society of an enfranchised slave. Agrippina was extremely
+violent in these denunciations. She scolded, she stormed, she
+raved&mdash;acting manifestly under the impulse of blind and
+uncontrollable passion. Her passion was obviously blind, for the
+course to which it impelled her was plainly very far from tending to
+accomplish any object which she could be supposed to have in view.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">She becomes calm again.</div>
+
+<p>At length, when the first fury of her vexation and anger had spent
+itself, she began to reflect, as people generally do when recovering
+from a passion, that she was spending her strength in working
+mischief to her own cause. This reflection helped to promote the
+subsiding of her anger. Her loud denunciations gradually died away,
+and were succeeded by mutterings and murmurings. At length she
+became silent altogether, and after an interval of reflection, she
+concluded no longer to give way to her clamorous and useless anger,
+but calmly to consider what it was best to <i>do</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina changes her policy.</div>
+
+<p>She soon determined that the wisest and most politic plan after all,
+would be for her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>to acquiesce in the fancy of her son, and endeavor
+to retain her ascendency over him by aiding and countenancing him in
+his pleasures. She accordingly changed by degrees the tone which she
+had assumed toward him, and began to address him in words of favor
+and indulgence. She said that it was natural, after all, at his time
+of life, to love, and that his superior rank and station entitled
+him to some degree of immunity from the restrictions imposed upon
+ordinary men. Acte was indeed a beautiful girl, and she was not
+surprised, she said, that he had conceived an affection for her. The
+indulgence of his love was indeed attended with difficulty and
+danger, but, if he would submit the affair to her care and
+management, she could take such precautions that all would be well.
+She apologized for the warmth with which she had at first spoken,
+and attributed it to the jealous and watchful interest which a
+mother must always feel in all that relates to the prosperity and
+happiness of her son. She said, moreover, that she was now ready and
+willing to enter into and promote his views, and she offered him the
+use of certain private apartments of her own in the palace, to meet
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>Acte in, saying that, by such an arrangement, and with the
+precautions that she could use, he could enjoy the society of his
+favorite whenever he pleased, without interruption and without
+danger.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero rejects his mother's advances.</div>
+
+<p>Nero very naturally reported all this to his companions. They of
+course advised him not to believe any thing that his mother said,
+nor to trust to her in any way. "It is all," said they, "an artful
+device on her part to get you into her power; and no young man of
+pride and spirit will submit to the disgrace of being under his
+mother's management and control." The young profligate listened to
+the counsels of his associates, and rejected the overtures which his
+mother had made him. He continued his attachment to Acte, but kept
+as much as possible aloof from Agrippina.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His treatment of her.</div>
+
+<p>He desired, however, if possible, to avoid an open quarrel with his
+mother, and so he made some effort to treat her with attention and
+respect, in his general bearing toward her, while he persisted in
+refusing to admit her to his confidence in respect to Acte. These
+general attentions were, however, by no means sufficient to satisfy
+Agrippina. The influence of Acte was what she feared, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>she well
+knew that her own power was in imminent danger of being undermined
+and overthrown, unless she could find some means of bringing her
+son's connection with his favorite under her own control. Thus the
+calm that seemed for a short time to reign between Nero and his
+mother was an armistice rather than a peace, and this armistice was
+brought at length to a sudden termination by an act of Nero's which
+he intended as an act of conciliation and kindness, but which proved
+to be in effect the means of awakening his mother's anger anew, and
+of exciting her even to a more violent exasperation than she had
+felt before.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">He makes her a present of jewelry.<br />Agrippina is enraged.</div>
+
+<p>It seems that among the other treasures of the imperial palace at
+Rome there was an extensive wardrobe of very costly female dresses
+and decorations, which was appropriated to the use of the wives and
+mothers of the emperors. Nero conceived the idea of making a present
+to his mother, from this collection. He accordingly selected a
+magnificent dress, and a considerable quantity of jewelry, and sent
+them to Agrippina. Instead of being gratified with this gift,
+however, Agrippina received it as an affront. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>She had been so long
+accustomed to consider herself as the first personage in the
+imperial household, that she regarded all such things as rightfully
+her own; and she consequently looked upon the act of Nero in
+formally presenting her with a small portion of these treasures, as
+a simple impertinence, and as intended to notify her that he
+considered all that remained of the collection as his property, and
+thenceforth as such subject to his exclusive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> control. Instead
+therefore of being appeased by Nero's offering she was greatly
+enraged by it. The angry invectives which she uttered were duly
+reported to the emperor, and his indignation and resentment were
+aroused by them anew, and thus the breach between the mother and the
+son became wider than ever.</p>
+
+<p><a name="jewelry" id="jewelry"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 331px;">
+<img src="images/i153.jpg" class="ispace" width="331" height="300" alt="The Jewelry." title="" />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">The Jewelry.</span></span></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote2">Nero resolves to subdue his mother.<br />His plan.</div>
+
+<p>In fact Nero began to perceive very clearly that if he intended to
+secure for himself any thing more than the empty semblance of power,
+he must at once do something effectual to curb the domineering and
+ambitious spirit of his mother. After revolving this subject in his
+mind, he finally concluded that the measure which promised to be
+most decisive was to dismiss a certain public officer named Pallas,
+who had been brought forward into public life many years before by
+Agrippina, and was now the chief instrument of her political power.
+Pallas was the public treasurer, and he had amassed such enormous
+wealth by his management of the public finances, that at one time
+when Claudius was complaining of the impoverished condition of his
+exchequer, some one replied that he would soon be rich enough if he
+could but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>induce his treasurer to receive him into partnership.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Pallas dismissed.<br />His withdrawal.</div>
+
+<p>Pallas, as has already been said, had been originally brought
+forward into public life by the influence of Agrippina, and he had
+always been Agrippina's chief reliance in all her political schemes.
+He had aided very effectually in promoting her marriage with
+Claudius; and had co-operated with her in all her subsequent
+measures; and Nero considered him now as his mother's chief
+supporter and ally. Nero resolved, accordingly, to dismiss him from
+office; and in order to induce him to retire peaceably, it was
+agreed that no inquiry or investigation should be made into the
+state of his accounts, but every thing should be considered as
+balanced and settled. Pallas acceded to this proposal. During the
+whole course of his official career, he had lived in great
+magnificence and splendor, and now in laying down his office, he
+withdrew from the imperial palaces, at the head of a long train of
+attendants, and with a degree of pomp and parade which attracted
+universal attention. The event was regarded by the public as a
+declaration on the part of Nero, that thenceforth he himself and not
+his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>mother was to rule; and Agrippina, of course, fell at once,
+many degrees, from the high position which she had held in the
+public estimation.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina's bitter reproaches.</div>
+
+<p>She was, of course, greatly enraged, and though utterly helpless in
+respect to resistance, she stormed about the palace, uttering the
+loudest and most violent expressions of resentment and anger.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Her threats.<br />She declares that she will cause Nero to be deposed.</div>
+
+<p>During the continuance of this paroxysm Agrippina bitterly
+reproached her son for what she termed his cruel ingratitude. It was
+altogether to her, she said, that he owed his elevation. For a long
+course of years she had been making ceaseless exertions, had
+submitted to the greatest sacrifices, and had even committed the
+most atrocious crimes, to raise him to the high position to which he
+had attained; and now, so soon as he had attained it, and had made
+himself sure, as he fancied, of his foothold, his first act was to
+turn basely and ungratefully against the hand that had raised him.
+But notwithstanding his fancied security, she would teach him, she
+said, that her power was still to be feared. Britannicus was still
+alive, and he was after all the rightful heir, and since her son had
+proved himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> so unworthy of the efforts and sacrifices that she
+had made for him, she would forthwith take measures to restore to
+Britannicus what she had so unjustly taken from him. She would
+immediately divulge all the dreadful secrets which were connected
+with Nero's elevation. She would make known the arts by means of
+which her marriage with Claudius had been effected, and the adoption
+of Nero as Claudius's son and heir had been secured. She would
+confess the murder of Claudius, and the usurpation on her part of
+the imperial power for Nero her son. Nero would, in consequence, be
+deposed, and Britannicus would succeed him, and thus the base
+ingratitude and treachery toward his mother which Nero had displayed
+would be avenged. This plan, she declared, she would immediately
+carry into effect. She would take Britannicus to the camp, and
+appeal to the army in his name. Both Burrus and Seneca would join
+her, and her undutiful and treacherous son would be stripped
+forthwith of his ill-gotten power.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Probable character and meaning of these threats.</div>
+
+<p>These words of Agrippina were not, however, the expressions of sober
+purpose, really and honestly entertained. They were the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>wild and
+unthinking threats and denunciations which are prompted in such
+cases by the frenzy of helpless and impotent rage. It is not at all
+probable that she had any serious intention of attempting such
+desperate measures as she threatened; for if she had really
+entertained such a design, she would have carefully kept it secret
+while making her arrangements for carrying it into execution.</p>
+
+<p>Still these threats and denunciations, though they were obviously
+prompted by a blind and temporary rage, which it might be reasonably
+supposed would soon subside, made a deep impression upon Nero's
+mind. In the first place, he was angry with his mother for daring to
+utter them. Then there was at least a possibility that she might
+really undertake to put them in execution, as no one could foresee
+what her desperate frenzy might lead her to do. Then besides, even
+if Agrippina's resentment were to subside, and she should seem
+entirely to abandon all idea of ever executing her threats, Nero was
+extremely unwilling to remain thus in his mother's power&mdash;exposed
+continually to fresh outbreaks of her hostility, whenever her anger
+or her caprice might arouse her again. The threats <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>which his mother
+uttered made him, therefore, extremely restless and uneasy.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The game of "who shall be king?"</div>
+
+<p>A circumstance occurred about this time which, though very trifling
+in itself, had the effect greatly to increase the jealousy and fear
+in respect to Britannicus, which Nero was inclined to feel. It seems
+that among the other amusements with which the company were
+accustomed to entertain themselves in the social gatherings that
+took place, from time to time, in the imperial palace, there was a
+certain game which they used to play, called, "<span class="smcap">Who shall be king?</span>"
+The game consisted of choosing one of the party by lot to be king,
+and then of requiring all the others to obey the commands, whatever
+they might be, which the king so chosen might issue. Of course, the
+success of the game depended upon the art and ingenuity of the king
+in prescribing such things to be done by his various subjects, as
+would most entertain and amuse the company. What the forfeit or
+penalty was, that the rules of the game required, in case of
+disobedience, is not stated; but every one was considered bound to
+obey the commands that were laid upon him,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>&mdash;provided, of course,
+that the thing required was within his power.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero's orders to Britannicus.</div>
+
+<p>Nero himself, it appears, was accustomed to join in these sports,
+and one evening, when a party were all playing it together in his
+palace, it fell to <i>his</i> lot to be king. When it came to be the turn
+of Britannicus to receive orders, Nero directed him to go out into
+the middle of the room, and sing a song to the company. This was a
+very severe requirement for one so young as Britannicus, and so
+little accustomed to take an active part in the festivities of so
+gay a company; and the motive of Nero in making it, was supposed to
+be a feeling of ill-will, and a desire to tease his brother, by
+placing him in an awkward and embarrassing situation&mdash;one in which
+he would be compelled either to interrupt the game by refusing to
+obey the orders of the king, or to expose himself to ridicule by
+making a fruitless attempt to sing a song.</p>
+
+<p>To the surprise of all, however, Britannicus rose from his seat
+without any apparent hesitation or embarrassment, walked out upon
+the floor, and took his position. The attention of the whole company
+was fixed upon him. All sounds were hushed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">The song which Britannicus sung.</div>
+
+<p>He began to sing. The song was a lament, describing in plaintive
+words and in mournful music, the situation and the sorrows of a
+young prince, excluded wrongfully from the throne of his
+ancestors.<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> The whole company listened with profound attention,
+charmed at first by the artless simplicity of the music, and the
+grace and beauty of the boy. As Britannicus proceeded in his song,
+and the meaning of it, in its application to his own case, began to
+be perceived, a universal sympathy for him was felt, by the whole
+assembly, and when he concluded and resumed his seat, the apartment
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>was filled with suppressed murmurs of applause. The effect of this
+scene upon the mind of Nero, was of course only to awaken feelings
+of vexation and anger. He looked on in moody silence, uttering
+mentally the fiercest threats and denunciations against the object
+of his jealousy, whom he was now compelled to look upon, more than
+ever before, as a dangerous and formidable rival. He determined, in
+fact, that Britannicus should die.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero resolves to resort to poison.</div>
+
+<p>In considering by what means he should undertake to effect his
+purpose, it seemed to Nero most prudent to employ poison. There was
+no pretext whatever for any criminal charge against the young
+prince, and Nero did not dare to resort to open violence. He
+determined, therefore, to resort to poison, and to employ Locusta to
+prepare it.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Pollio and Locusta.<br />The plan at first fails.</div>
+
+<p>Locusta, the reader will remember, was the woman whom Agrippina had
+employed for the murder of her husband, Claudius. She was still in
+custody as a convict, being under sentence of death for her crimes.
+She was in the charge of a certain captain named Pollio, an officer
+of the Pr&aelig;torian guard. Nero sent for Pollio, and directed him to
+procure from his prisoner a poisonous potion suitable for the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>purpose intended. The potion was prepared, and soon afterward it
+was administered. At least it was given to certain attendants that
+were employed about the person of Britannicus, with orders that they
+should administer it. The expected effect, however, was not
+produced. Whether it was because the potion which Locusta had
+prepared was too weak, or because it was not really administered by
+those who received it in charge, no result followed, and Nero was
+greatly enraged. He sent for Pollio, and assailed him with
+reproaches and threats, and as for Locusta, he declared that she
+should be immediately put to death. They were both miserable
+cowards, he said, who had not the firmness to do their duty. Pollio,
+in reply, made the most earnest protestations of his readiness to do
+whatever his master should command. He assured Nero that the failure
+of their attempt was owing entirely to some accidental cause, and
+that if he would give Locusta one more opportunity to make the
+trial, he would guarantee that she would prepare a mixture that
+would kill Britannicus as quick as a dagger would do it.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A second attempt.<br />A second preparation.</div>
+
+<p>Nero ordered that this should immediately <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>be done. Locusta was sent
+for, and was shut up with Pollio in an apartment adjoining that of
+the emperor, with directions to make the mixture there, and then to
+administer it forthwith. Their lives were to depend upon the result.
+The poison was soon prepared. There was, however, a serious
+difficulty in the way of administering it, since a potion so sudden
+and violent in its character as this was intended to be, might be
+expected to take immediate effect upon the taster, and so produce an
+alarm which would prevent Britannicus from receiving it. To obviate
+this difficulty, Pollio and Locusta cunningly contrived the
+following plan.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Mode of administering the poison.<br />Britannicus dies.</div>
+
+<p>They mixed the poison when it was prepared, with cold water, and put
+it in the pitcher in which cold water was customarily kept in the
+apartment where Britannicus was to take his supper. When the time
+arrived Nero himself came in and took his place upon a couch which
+was standing in the room, with a view of watching the proceedings.
+Some broth was brought in for the prince's supper. The attendant
+whose duty it was, tasted it as usual, and then passed it into the
+prince's hand. Britannicus tasted it, and found it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>too hot. It had
+been purposely made so. He gave it back to the attendant to be
+cooled. The attendant took it to the pitcher, and cooled it with the
+poisoned water, and then gave it back again to Britannicus without
+asking the taster to taste it again. Britannicus drank the broth. In
+a few minutes the fatal consequences ensued. The unhappy victim sank
+suddenly down in a fainting fit. His eyes became fixed, his limbs
+were paralyzed, his breathing was short and convulsive. The
+attendants rushed toward him to render him assistance, but his life
+was fast ebbing away, and before they could recover from the shock
+which his sudden illness occasioned them, they found that he had
+ceased to breathe.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina's agitation and distress.</div>
+
+<p>The event produced, of course, great excitement and commotion
+throughout the palace. Agrippina was immediately summoned, and as
+she stood over the dying child she was overwhelmed with terror and
+distress. Nero, on the other hand, appeared wholly unmoved. "It is
+only one of his epileptic fits," said he. "Britannicus has been
+accustomed to them from infancy. He will soon recover."</p>
+
+<p>As soon, however, as there was no longer <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>any room to question that
+Britannicus was dead, Nero began immediately to make preparations
+for the burial of the body. The remorse which, notwithstanding his
+depravity, he could not but feel at having perpetrated such a crime,
+made him impatient to remove all traces and memorials of it from his
+sight; and, besides, he was afraid to wait the usual period and then
+to make arrangements for a public funeral, lest the truth in respect
+to the death of Britannicus might be suspected by the Romans, and a
+party be formed to revenge his wrongs. Any tendency of this kind
+which might exist would be greatly favored, he knew, by the
+excitement of a public funeral. He determined, therefore, that the
+body should be immediately buried.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Effect produced by the poison.<br />Remedy.</div>
+
+<p>There was another reason still for this dispatch. It seems that one
+of the effects of the species of poison which Locusta had
+administered was that the body of the victim was turned black by it
+soon after death. This discoloration, in fact, began to appear in
+the face of the corpse of Britannicus before the time for the
+interment arrived; and Nero, in order to guard against the exposure
+which this phenomenon threatened, ordered the face to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>be painted of
+the natural color, by means of cosmetics, such as the ladies of the
+court were accustomed to use in those days. By doing this the
+countenance of the dead was restored to its proper color, and
+afterward underwent no further change. Still the emperor was
+naturally impatient to have the body interred.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The interment of Britannicus.<br />The storm.</div>
+
+<p>The preparations were accordingly made that same evening, and in the
+middle of the night the body of Britannicus was buried in the Field
+of Mars, a vast parade-ground in the precincts of the city. In
+addition to the darkness of the night, a violent storm arose, and
+the rain fell in torrents while the interment proceeded. Very few,
+therefore, of the people of the city knew what had occurred until
+the following day. The violence of the storm, however, which
+promoted in one respect the accomplishment of Nero's designs by
+favoring the secrecy of the interment, in another respect operated
+strongly against him, for the face of the corpse became so wet with
+the fallen rain, that the cosmetic was washed away and the blackened
+skin was brought to view. The attendants who had the body in charge
+learned thus that the boy had been poisoned.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Nero's proclamation.</div>
+
+<p>On the morning after the funeral the emperor issued a proclamation
+announcing the death and burial of his brother, and calling upon the
+Roman Senate and the Roman people for their sympathy and support in
+the bereavement which he had sustained.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of his death Britannicus was fourteen years old.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="Chapter_VIII" id="Chapter_VIII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter VIII.</span></h2>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">The Fate of Agrippina.</span></h2>
+
+<h3>A.D. 55-60</h3>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Situation of Agrippina.<br />Her state of mind.</div>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">H</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">owever</span> it may have been with others, Agrippina herself was not
+deceived by the false pretenses which Nero offered in explanation
+of his brother's death. She understood the case too well, and the
+event filled her mind with a tumult of conflicting emotions.
+Notwithstanding the terrible quarrels which had disturbed her
+intercourse with the emperor, he was still her son,&mdash;her first-born
+son,&mdash;and she loved him as such, even in the midst of the resentment
+and hostility which her disappointed ambition from time to time
+awakened in her mind. Her ambition was now more bitterly
+disappointed than ever. In the death of Britannicus the last link of
+her power over Nero seemed to be forever sundered. The hand by which
+he had fallen was still that of her son,&mdash;a son to whom she could
+not but cling with maternal affection, while she felt deeply wounded
+at what she <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>considered his cruel ingratitude toward her, and vexed
+and maddened at finding herself so hopelessly circumvented in all
+her schemes.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero's views in respect to his mother.</div>
+
+<p>As for Nero himself, he had no longer any hope or expectation of
+being on good terms with his mother again. He saw clearly that her
+schemes and plans were wholly incompatible with his, and that in
+order to secure the prosperous accomplishment of his own designs he
+must now finish the work that he had begun, and curtail and restrict
+his mother's influence by every means in his power. Other persons he
+attempted to conciliate. He made splendid presents to the leading
+men of Rome, as bribes to prevent their instituting inquiries in
+respect to the death of Britannicus. To some he gave landed estates,
+to others sums of money, and others still he advanced to high
+offices of civil or military command. Those whom he most feared he
+removed from Rome, by giving them honorable and lucrative
+appointments in distant provinces.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Plans and measures adopted by Agrippina.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time Agrippina herself was not idle. As soon as she
+recovered from the first shock which the death of Britannicus had
+occasioned her, she began to think of revenge. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>Within the limits
+and restrictions which the suspicion and vigilance of Nero imposed
+upon her, she formed a small circle of friends and adherents, and
+sought out, diligently, though secretly, all whom she supposed to be
+disaffected to the government of Nero. She attached herself
+particularly to Octavia, who, being the daughter of Claudius,
+succeeded now, on the death of Britannicus, to whatever hereditary
+rights had been vested in him. She collected money, so far as she
+had power to do so, from all the resources which remained to her,
+and she availed herself of every opportunity to cultivate the
+acquaintance, and court the favor, of all such officers of the army
+as were accessible to her influence. In a word, she seemed to be
+meditating some secret scheme for retrieving her fallen
+fortunes,&mdash;and Nero, who watched all her motions with a jealous and
+suspicious eye, began to be alarmed, not knowing to what desperate
+extremes her resentment and ambition might urge her.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero establishes his mother as a private lady.</div>
+
+<p>Up to this time Agrippina had lived in the imperial palace with
+Nero, forming, with her retinue, a part of his household, and
+sharing of course, in some sense, the official honors <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>paid to him.
+Nero now concluded, however, that he would remove her from this
+position and give her a separate establishment of her own,&mdash;making
+it correspond in its appointments with the secondary and subordinate
+station to which he intended thenceforth to confine her. He
+accordingly assigned to her a certain mansion in the city which had
+formerly been occupied by some branch of the imperial family, and
+removed her to it, with all her attendants. He dismissed, however,
+from her service, under various pretexts, such officers and
+adherents as he supposed were most devoted to her interests and most
+disposed to join with her in plots and conspiracies against him. The
+places of those whom he thus superseded were supplied by men on whom
+he could rely for subserviency to him. He diminished too the number
+of Agrippina's attendants and guards; he withdrew the sentinels that
+had been accustomed to guard the gates of her apartments, and
+dismissed a certain corps of German soldiers that had hitherto
+served under her command, as a sort of life-guard. In a word he
+removed her from the scenes of imperial pomp and splendor in which
+she had been accustomed to move, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>established her instead in the
+position of a private Roman lady.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina finds herself forsaken and friendless.</div>
+
+<p>The unhappy Agrippina soon found that this change in her position
+made a great change in respect to the degree of consideration and
+regard which was bestowed upon her by the public. The circle of her
+adherents and friends was gradually diminished. Her visitors were
+few. The emperor himself went sometimes to see his mother, but he
+came always attended with a retinue, and after a brief and formal
+interview, he retired as ceremoniously as he came,&mdash;thus giving to
+his visit the character simply of a duty of state etiquette. In a
+word, Agrippina found herself forsaken and friendless, and her mind
+gradually sank into a condition of hopeless despondency, vexation
+and chagrin.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A plot discovered.</div>
+
+<p>Things continued in this state for some time until at length one
+night when Nero had been drinking and carousing at a banquet in his
+palace, a well-known courtier named Paris, one of the principal of
+Nero's companions and favorites, came into the apartment and
+informed the emperor with a countenance expressive of great concern,
+that he had tidings of the most serious moment to communicate <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>to
+him. Nero withdrew from the scene of festivity to receive the
+communication, and was informed by Paris, that a discovery had been
+made of a deep-laid and dangerous plot, which Agrippina and certain
+accomplices of hers had formed. The object of the conspirators, as
+Paris alledged, was to depose Nero, and raise a certain descendant
+of Augustus C&aelig;sar, named Plautus, to the supreme command, in his
+stead. This revolution being effected, Agrippina was to marry the
+new emperor, and thus be restored to her former power.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Statement of Paris.</div>
+
+<p>The statement which Paris made was very full in all its details. The
+names of the chief conspirators were given, and all the plans
+explained. The chief witness on whose authority the charge was made,
+was a celebrated woman of the court, an intimate acquaintance and
+visitor of Agrippina, named Silana. Silana and Agrippina had been
+very warm friends, but a terrible quarrel had recently broken out
+between them, in consequence of some interference on the part of
+Agrippina, to prevent a marriage, which had been partially arranged
+between Silana and a distinguished Roman citizen, from being carried
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>into effect. Silana had been exasperated by this ill office, and
+the revelation which she had made had been the result. Whether such
+a conspiracy had really been formed, and Silana had been induced to
+betray the secret in consequence of the injury which Agrippina had
+inflicted upon her in preventing her marriage, or whether she wholly
+invented the story under the impulse of a desperate revenge, was
+never fully known. The historians of the time incline to the latter
+opinion.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero is greatly alarmed.<br />A council called.<br />Burrus defends Agrippina.</div>
+
+<p>However this may be, Nero was greatly alarmed at the communication
+which Paris made to him. He immediately abandoned his festivities
+and carousals, dismissed his guests, and called a council of his
+most confidential advisers, to consider what was to be done. He
+stated the case to this council, and announced it as his
+determination immediately to pronounce sentence of death upon his
+mother and upon Plautus, and to send officers at once to execute the
+decree, as the first step to be taken. Burrus, however, strongly
+dissuaded him from so rash a proceeding. "These are only charges,"
+said he, "at present. We have yet no proofs. An informer <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>has come
+to you at dead of night with this wild and improbable story, and if
+we take it for granted at once that it is true, and allow ourselves
+to act under the influence of excitement and alarm, we should
+afterward regret our rashness when the consequences could not be
+retrieved. Besides, Agrippina is your mother; and as it is the right
+of the humblest person in the commonwealth, when accused of crime,
+to be heard in answer to the accusation, it would be an atrocious
+crime to deprive the mother of the emperor of that privilege.
+Postpone, therefore, pronouncing judgment in this case until we can
+learn the facts more certainly. I pledge myself to execute sentence
+of death on Agrippina, if after a fair hearing, this charge is
+proved against her."</p>
+
+<p>By such arguments and remonstrances as these Nero was in some degree
+appeased, and it was determined to postpone taking any decisive
+action in the emergency until the morning. As soon as it was day,
+Burrus and Seneca, accompanied by several attendants, who were to
+act as witnesses of the interview, were dispatched to the house of
+Agrippina to lay the charge before her and to hear what she had to
+say.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina's indignant answer to the charge.</div>
+
+<p>Agrippina was at first somewhat astonished at being summoned at so
+early an hour to give audience to so formidable a commission; but
+her proud spirit had become so fierce and desperate under the
+treatment which she had received from her son, that she was very
+slightly sensible to fear. She listened, therefore, to the heavy
+charge which Burrus brought against her, undismayed; and when he
+paused to hear her reply, instead of excusing and defending herself,
+and deprecating the emperor's displeasure, she commenced the most
+severe and angry invectives against her son, for listening for a
+moment to calumnies against her so wild and improbable. That Silana,
+who was, as she said, a dissolute and unprincipled woman, and who,
+consequently, could have no idea of the strength and the fidelity of
+maternal affection, should think it possible that a mother could
+form plots and conspiracies against an only son, was not strange;
+but that Nero himself, for whom she had made such exertions and
+incurred such dangers, and to whose interests she had surrendered
+and sacrificed every thing that could be dear to the heart of a
+woman&mdash;could believe such tales, and actually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> conceive the design
+of murdering his mother on the faith of them, was not to be endured.
+"Does not he know well," said she, in a voice almost inarticulate
+with excitement and indignation, "that, if by any means,
+Britannicus, or Plautus, or any other man were to be raised to
+power, my life would be immediately forfeited in consequence of what
+I have already done for him? Can he imagine, after the deep and
+desperate crimes which I have committed for his sake, in order that
+I might raise him to his present power, that I could seal my own
+destruction by bringing forward any one of his rivals and enemies to
+his place? Go back and tell him this, and say, moreover, that I
+demand an audience of him. I am his mother; and I have a right to
+expect that he shall see me himself, and hear what I have to say."</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Return of the commissioners to Nero.</div>
+
+<p>The commissioners whom Nero had sent with the accusations, were
+somewhat astonished at receiving these angry denunciations and
+invectives in reply, instead of the meek and faltering defense which
+they had expected. They were overawed, too, by the lofty and
+passionate energy with which Agrippina had spoken. They answered her
+with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>soothing and conciliatory words, and then went back to Nero,
+and reported the result of their interview.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero is convinced of his mother's innocence.</div>
+
+<p>Nero consented to see his mother. In his presence she assumed the
+same tone of proud and injured innocence, that had characterized her
+interview with the messengers. She scorned to enter into any
+vindication of herself; but <i>assumed</i> that she was innocent, and
+demanded that her accusers should be punished as persons guilty of
+the most atrocious calumny. Nero was convinced of her innocence, and
+yielded to her demands. Silana and two others of her accusers, were
+banished from Rome. Another still was punished with death.</p>
+
+<p>Thus a sort of temporary and imperfect peace was once more
+established between Nero and his mother.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero's course of life.<br />Riots in the street.</div>
+
+<p>This state of things continued for about the space of three years.
+During this time, the public affairs of the empire, as conducted by
+the ministers of state and the military generals, to whom Nero
+intrusted them, went on with tolerable prosperity and success, while
+in every thing that related to personal conduct and character, the
+condition of the emperor <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>was becoming every day more and more
+deplorable. He spent his days in sloth and sensual stupor, and his
+nights in the wildest riot and debauchery. He used to disguise
+himself as a slave, and sally forth at midnight with a party of his
+companions similarly attired, into the streets of the city,
+disturbing the night with riot and noise. Sometimes they would go
+out at an earlier hour,&mdash;while the people were in the streets and
+the shops were open,&mdash;and amuse themselves with seizing the goods
+and merchandise that they found offered for sale, and assaulting all
+that came in their way. In these frolics, the emperor and his party
+were met sometimes by other parties; and in the brawls which ensued
+Nero was frequently handled very roughly&mdash;his opponents not knowing
+who he was. At one time he was knocked down and very seriously
+wounded; and in consequence of this adventure, his face was for a
+long time disfigured with a scar.</p>
+
+<p>Although in these orgies Nero went generally in disguise, yet as he
+and his companions were accustomed afterward to boast of their
+exploits, it soon became generally known to the people of the city
+that their young emperor <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>was in the habit of mingling in these
+midnight brawls. Of course every wild and dissolute young man in
+Rome was fired with an ambition to imitate the example set him by so
+exalted an authority. Midnight riots became the fashion. As the
+parties grew larger, the brawls which occurred in the streets became
+more and more serious, until at last Nero was accustomed to take
+with him a gang of soldiers and gladiators in disguise, who were
+instructed to follow him within call, so as to be ready to come up
+instantly to his aid whenever he should require their assistance.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina lives in seclusion.</div>
+
+<p>Year after year passed away in this manner, Nero abandoning himself
+all the time to the grossest sensual pleasures, and growing more and
+more reckless and desperate every day. His mother lived during this
+period in comparative seclusion. She attempted to exercise some
+little restraint over her son, but without success. She attached
+herself strongly to Octavia, the wife of Nero, and would have
+defended her, if she could, from the injuries and wrongs which the
+conduct of Nero as a husband heaped upon her.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Popp&aelig;a.<br />Her influence over Nero.<br />Her taunts and reproaches.</div>
+
+<p>At length the young emperor, in following his round of vicious
+indulgence, formed an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>intimacy with a certain lady of the court
+named Popp&aelig;a, the wife of Otho, one of Nero's companions in
+pleasure. Nero sent Otho away on some distant appointment, in order
+that he might enjoy the society of Popp&aelig;a without restraint. At
+length Popp&aelig;a gained so great an ascendency over the mind of the
+emperor as to seduce him entirely away from his duty to his wife,
+and she proposed that they should both be divorced and then marry
+one another. Nero was inclined to accede to this proposal, but
+Agrippina strongly opposed it. For a time Nero hesitated between the
+influence of Agrippina and the sentiment of duty, on the one hand,
+and the enticements of Popp&aelig;a on the other. In addition to the
+influence of her blandishments and smiles, she attempted to act upon
+Nero's boyish pride by taunting him with what she called his
+degrading and unmanly subjection to his mother. How long, she asked,
+was he to remain like a child under maternal tutelage? She wondered
+how he could endure so ignoble a bondage. He was in name and
+position, she said, a mighty monarch, reigning absolutely over half
+the world,&mdash;but in actual fact he was a mere nursery boy, who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>could
+do nothing without his mother's leave. She was ashamed, she said, to
+see him in so humiliating a condition; and unless he would take some
+vigorous measures to free himself from his chains, she declared that
+she would leave him forever, and go with her husband to some distant
+quarter of the world where she could no longer be a witness of his
+disgrace.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Effect of them on Nero's mind.</div>
+
+<p>The effect of these taunts upon the mind of Nero was very much
+heightened by the proud and imperious spirit which his mother
+manifested toward him, and which seemed to become more and more
+stern and severe, through the growing desperation which the conduct
+of her son and her own hopeless condition seemed to awaken in her
+mind. The quarrel, in a word, between the emperor and his mother
+grew more and more inveterate and hopeless every day. At length he
+shunned her entirely, and finally, every remaining spark of filial
+duty having become extinguished, he began to meditate some secret
+plan of removing her out of his way.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero begins to desire the death of his mother.</div>
+
+<p>He revolved various projects for accomplishing this purpose, in his
+mind. He did not dare to employ open violence, as he had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>no charge
+against his mother to justify a criminal sentence against her; and
+he dreaded the effect upon the public mind which would be produced
+by the spectacle of so unnatural a deed as the execution of a mother
+by command of her son. He could not trust to poison. Agrippina was
+perfectly familiar with every thing relating to the poisoning art,
+and would doubtless be fully on her guard against any attempt of
+that kind that he might make. Besides, he supposed, that by means of
+certain antidotes which she was accustomed to use, her system was
+permanently fortified against the action of every species of poison.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Great naval celebration at Misenum.</div>
+
+<p>While Nero was revolving these things in his mind, the occasion
+occurred for a great naval celebration at Bai&aelig;, a beautiful bay
+south of Rome, near what is now the bay of Naples. Bai&aelig; was
+celebrated in ancient times, as it is in fact now, for the beauty of
+its situation, and it was a place of great resort for the Roman
+nobility. There was a small, but well-built town at the head of the
+bay, and the hills and valleys in the vicinity, as well as every
+headland and promontory along the shore, were ornamented with villas
+and country-seats, which were occupied as summer <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>residences by the
+wealthy people of the city. Bai&aelig; was also a great naval station, and
+there was at this time a fleet stationed there,&mdash;or rather at the
+promontory of Misenum, a few miles beyond,&mdash;under the command of one
+of Nero's confidential servants, named Anicetus. The naval
+celebration was to take place in connection with this fleet. It was
+an annual festival, and was to continue five days.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Anicetus.<br />Proposal of Anicetus.</div>
+
+<p>Anicetus had been a personal attendant upon Nero in his infancy, and
+had lived always in habits of great intimacy with him. For some
+reason or other, too, he was a great enemy to Agrippina, having been
+always accustomed, when Nero was a child, to take his part in the
+little contests which had arisen, from time to time, between him and
+his mother. Anicetus was of course prepared to sympathize very
+readily with Nero in the hatred which he now cherished toward
+Agrippina, and when he learned that Nero was desirous of devising
+some means of accomplishing her death, he formed a plan which he
+said would effect the purpose very safely. He proposed to invite
+Agrippina to Bai&aelig;, and then, in the course of the ceremonies and
+man&oelig;uvers connected with the naval spectacle,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> to take her out
+upon the bay in a barge or galley. He would have the barge so
+constructed, he said, that it should go to pieces at sea, making
+arrangements beforehand for saving the lives of the others, but
+leaving Agrippina to be drowned.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero is pleased with it.</div>
+
+<p>Nero was greatly pleased with this device, and determined at once to
+adopt the plan. In order to open the way for carrying it into
+effect, he pretended, when the time for the festival drew nigh, that
+he desired to be reconciled to his mother, and that he was ready now
+to fall in with her wishes and plans. He begged her to forget all
+his past unkindness to her, and assuring her that his feelings
+toward her were now wholly changed, he lavished upon her expressions
+of the tenderest regard. A mother is always very easily deceived by
+such protestations on the part of a wayward son, and Agrippina
+believed all that Nero said to her. In a word, the reconciliation
+seemed to be complete.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Arrangements for carrying it into effect.</div>
+
+<p>At length, when the time for the naval festival drew nigh, Nero, who
+was then at Bai&aelig;, sent an invitation to his mother to come and join
+him in witnessing the spectacle. Agrippina readily consented to
+accept the invitation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> She was at this time at Antium, the place,
+it will be recollected, where Nero was born. She accordingly set
+sail from this place in her own galley, and proceeded to the
+southward. She landed at one of the villas in the neighborhood of
+Bai&aelig;. Nero was ready upon the shore to meet her. He received her
+with every demonstration of respect and affection. He had provided
+quarters for her at Bai&aelig;, and there was a splendid barge ready to
+convey her thither; the plan being that she should embark on board
+this barge, and leave her own galley,&mdash;that is the one by which she
+had come in from sea,&mdash;at anchor at the villa where she landed. The
+barge in which Agrippina was thus invited to embark, was the
+treacherous trap that Anicetus had contrived for her destruction. It
+was, however, to all appearance, a very splendid vessel, being very
+richly and beautifully decorated, as if expressly intended to do
+honor to the distinguished passenger whom it was designed to convey.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina goes to Bai&aelig;.</div>
+
+<p>Agrippina, however, did not seem inclined to go in the barge. She
+preferred proceeding to Bai&aelig; by land. Perhaps, notwithstanding
+Nero's apparent friendliness she felt still <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>some misgivings, and
+was afraid to trust herself entirely to his power,&mdash;or perhaps she
+preferred to finish her journey by land only because, in making the
+passage from Antium, she had become tired of the sea. However this
+may have been, Nero acquiesced at once in her decision, and provided
+a sort of sedan for conveying her to Bai&aelig; by land. In this sedan she
+was carried accordingly, by bearers to Bai&aelig;, and there lodged in the
+apartments provided for her.</p>
+
+<p>No favorable opportunity occurred for taking Agrippina out upon the
+water until the time arrived for her return to Antium. During the
+time of her stay at Bai&aelig;, Nero devoted himself to her with the most
+assiduous attention. He prepared magnificent banquets for her, and
+entertained her with a great variety of amusements and diversions.
+In his conversation he sometimes addressed her with a familiar
+playfulness and gayety, and at other times he sought occasions to
+discourse with her seriously on public affairs, in a private and
+confidential manner. Agrippina was completely deceived by these
+indications, and her heart was filled with pride <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>and joy at the
+thought that she had regained the affection and confidence of her
+son.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Preparations for destroying Agrippina.</div>
+
+<p>Nero and Anicetus determined finally to put their plan into
+execution by inducing Agrippina to embark on board their barge in
+returning to Antium, when the time should arrive, instead of going
+back in her own vessel. Their other attempts to induce her to go out
+upon the water had failed, and this was the only opportunity that
+now remained. It was desirable that this embarkation should take
+place in the night, as the deed which they were contemplating could
+be more effectually accomplished under the cover of the darkness.
+Accordingly, on the afternoon of the day on which Agrippina was to
+return, Nero prepared a banquet for her, and he protracted the
+festivities and entertainments which attended it until late in the
+evening, so that it was wholly dark before his mother could take her
+leave. Anicetus then contrived to have one of the vessels of his
+fleet run against the galley in which Agrippina had come from
+Antium, as it lay at anchor near the shore at the place where she
+had landed. The galley was broken down and disabled by the
+collision. Anicetus came to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>Agrippina to report the accident, with
+a countenance expressive of much concern; but added that the barge
+which the emperor had prepared for her was at her service, and
+proposed to substitute that in the place of the one which had been
+injured. There seemed to be no other alternative, and Agrippina,
+after taking a very affectionate leave of her son, went gayly, and
+wholly unconscious of danger, on board the beautiful but treacherous
+vessel.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero bids his mother an affectionate farewell.</div>
+
+<p>It was observed that Nero exhibited an extreme degree of tender
+regard for his mother in bidding her farewell on this occasion. He
+hung upon her neck a long time, and kissed her again and again,
+detaining her by these endearments on the shore, as if reluctant to
+let her go. After Agrippina's death this scene was remembered by
+those who witnessed it, but in reflecting upon it they could not
+decide whether these tokens of affection were all assumed, as
+belonging to the part which he was so hypocritically acting, or
+whether he really felt at the last moment some filial relentings,
+which led him to detain his mother for a time on the brink of the
+pit which he had been preparing for her destruction. From <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>all,
+however, that we now know in respect to the personal character which
+Nero had formed at this period, it is probable that the former is
+the correct supposition.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina and her attendant on board the barge.</div>
+
+<p>The plot, dextrous as the contrivance of it had been, was not
+destined to succeed. The vessel moved gently from the shore, rowed
+by the mariners. It was a clear starlight night. The sea was smooth,
+and the air was calm. Agrippina took her place upon a couch which
+had been arranged for her, under a sort of canopy or awning, the
+frame-work of which, above, had been secretly loaded with lead. She
+was attended here by one of her ladies named Aceronia Polla, who lay
+at her mistress's feet, and entertained her with conversation as the
+boat glided along on its way. They talked of Nero&mdash;of the kind
+attentions which he had been paying to Agrippina, and of the various
+advantages which were to follow from the reconciliation which had
+been so happily effected. In this manner the hours passed away, and
+the barge went on until it reached the place which had been
+determined upon for breaking it down and casting Agrippina into the
+sea. The spot which had been chosen was so near the land as to allow
+of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>escape of the mariners by swimming, but yet remote enough,
+as was supposed, to make Agrippina's destruction sure. A few of the
+mariners were in the secret, and were in some degree prepared for
+what was to come. Others knew nothing, and were expected to save
+themselves as they best could, when they should find themselves cast
+into the sea.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The result of the attempt.<br />Narrow escape of Agrippina.</div>
+
+<p>At a given signal the fastenings of the canopy were loosened, and
+the loaded structure came down suddenly with a heavy crash, carrying
+away with it other parts of the vessel. One man was crushed under
+the weight of the falling ruins, and instantly killed. Agrippina and
+the lady in waiting upon her were saved by the posts of the bed or
+couch on which Agrippina was reclining, which happened to be in such
+a position that they held up the impending mass sufficiently to
+allow the ladies to creep out from beneath it. The breaking down,
+too, of the deck and bulwarks of the barge was less extensive than
+had been intended, so that Agrippina not only escaped being crushed
+by the ruins but she also saved herself at first from being thrown
+into the sea. The men then who were in the secret of the plot
+immediately raised a great cry and confusion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> and attempted to
+upset the barge by climbing up upon one side of it&mdash;while the
+others, who did not understand the case, did all they could to save
+it. In the mean time the noise of the outcries reached the shore,
+and fishermen's boats began to put off with a view of coming to the
+rescue of the distressed vessel. Before they arrived, however, the
+boat had been overturned, Agrippina and Aceronia had been thrown
+into the sea, and the men who were in the secret of the plot, taking
+advantage of the darkness and confusion, were endeavoring to seal
+the fate of their victims, by beating them down with poles and oars
+as they struggled in the water.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197-8]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i194.jpg" class="ispace" width="500" height="312" alt="The Attempt of Anicetus." title="" />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">The Attempt of Anicetus.</span></span></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote2">Agrippina and Aceronia in the sea.<br />Agrippina escapes.</div>
+
+<p>These efforts succeeded in the case of Aceronia, for she uttered
+loud and continual outcries in her terror, and thus drew upon
+herself the blows of the assassins. Agrippina, on the other hand,
+had the presence of mind to keep silence. She received one heavy
+blow upon the shoulder, which inflicted a serious wound. In other
+respects she escaped uninjured, and succeeded, partly through the
+buoyancy of her dress, and partly by the efforts that she made to
+swim, in keeping herself afloat until she was taken up by the
+fishermen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> and conveyed to the shore. She was taken to a villa belonging to
+her, which was situated not far from the place where the disaster
+had occurred.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Her message to Nero.</div>
+
+<p>As soon as Agrippina had recovered a little from the terror and
+excitement of this scene, and had time to reflect upon the
+circumstances of it, she was convinced that what had occurred was no
+accident, but the result of a deep-laid design to destroy her life.
+She, however, thought it most prudent to dissemble her opinion for a
+time. As soon therefore as she had safely reached her villa, and her
+wound had been dressed, she dispatched a messenger to Bai&aelig; to inform
+Nero of what had occurred. The vessel in which she had embarked had
+been wrecked at sea, she said, and she had narrowly escaped
+destruction. She had received a severe hurt, by some falling spar,
+but had at length safely reached her home at Antium. She begged,
+however, that her son would not come to see her, as what she needed
+most was repose. She had sent the messenger, she said, to inform him
+of what had occurred only that he might rejoice with her in the
+signal interposition of divine <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>providence by which she had been
+rescued from so imminent a danger.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero's alarm on bearing of his mother's escape.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time Nero was waiting impatiently and anxiously in his
+palace at Bai&aelig;, for the arrival of a messenger from Anicetus to
+inform him that his plot had been successful, and that his mother
+was drowned. Instead of this a rumor of her escape reached him some
+time before Agrippina's messenger arrived, and threw him into
+consternation. People came from the coast and informed him that the
+barge in which his mother had sailed had been wrecked, and that
+Agrippina had narrowly escaped with her life. The particulars were
+not fully given to him, but he presumed that Agrippina must have
+learned that the occurrence was the result of a deliberate attempt
+to destroy her, and he was consequently very much alarmed. He
+dreaded the desperate spirit of resentment and revenge which he
+presumed had been aroused in his mother's mind.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Consultation with Seneca and Burrus.</div>
+
+<p>He forthwith sent for Burrus and Seneca, and revealed to them all
+the circumstances of the case. He made the most bitter accusations
+against his mother, in justification of his attempt to destroy her.
+He had long been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>convinced, he said, that there could be no peace
+or safety for him as long as she lived, and now, at all events,
+since he had undertaken the work of destroying her and made the
+attempt, no alternative was left to him but to go on and finish what
+he had begun. "She must die now," said he, "or she will most
+assuredly contrive some means to destroy me."</p>
+
+<p>Seneca and Burrus were silent. They knew not what to say. They saw
+very clearly that a crisis had arrived, the end of which would be,
+that one or the other must perish, and consequently the only
+question for them to decide was, whether the victim should be the
+mother or the son. At length, after a long and solemn pause, Seneca
+looked to Burrus, and inquired whether the soldiers under his
+command could be relied upon to execute death upon Agrippina. Burrus
+shook his head. The soldiers, he said, felt such a veneration for
+the family of Germanicus, which was the family from which Agrippina
+had sprung, that they would perform no such bloody work upon any
+representative of it. "Besides," said he, "Anicetus has undertaken
+this duty. It devolves on him to finish what he has begun."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Anicetus undertakes to finish his work.</div>
+
+<p>Anicetus readily undertook the task. He had, in fact, a personal
+interest in it, for, after what had passed, he knew well that there
+could be no safety for him while Agrippina lived. Nero seemed
+overjoyed at finding Anicetus so ready to meet his wishes. "Be
+prompt," said he, "in doing what you have to do. Take with you whom
+you please to assist you. If you accomplish the work, I shall
+consider that I owe my empire to your fidelity."</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Anicetus goes to Agrippina's villa.</div>
+
+<p>Anicetus, having thus received his commission, ordered a small
+detachment from the fleet to accompany him, and proceeded to the
+villa where Agrippina had taken refuge. He found a crowd of country
+people assembled around the gates of the villa. They had been drawn
+thither by the tidings of the disaster which had happened to
+Agrippina, curious to learn all the particulars of the occurrence,
+or desirous, perhaps, to congratulate Agrippina on her escape. When
+these peasantry saw the armed band of Anicetus approaching, they
+know not what it meant, but were greatly alarmed, and fled in all
+directions.</p>
+
+<p>The guards at the gates of Agrippina's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>villa made some resistance
+to the entrance of the soldiers, but they were soon knocked down and
+overpowered; the gates were burst open, and Anicetus entered at the
+head of his party of marines. Agrippina, who was upon her bed in an
+inner chamber at the time, heard the noise and tumult, and was
+greatly alarmed. A number of friends who were with her, hearing the
+footsteps of the armed men on the stairs, fled from the chamber in
+dismay, by a private door, leaving Agrippina alone with her maid.
+The maid, after a moment's pause, fled too, Agrippina saying to her
+as she disappeared, "Are you, too, going to forsake me?" At the same
+moment, Anicetus forced open the door of entrance, and came in
+accompanied by two of his officers. The three armed men, with an
+expression of fierce and relentless determination upon their
+countenances, advanced to Agrippina's bedside.</p>
+
+<p>Agrippina was greatly terrified, but she preserved some degree of
+outward composure, and raising herself in her bed, she looked
+steadily upon her assassins.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you come from my son?" said she.</p>
+
+<p>They did not answer.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Conversation.</div>
+
+<p>"If you came to inquire how I am," said she, "tell him that I am
+better, and shall soon be entirely well. I can not believe that he
+can possibly have sent you to do me any violence or harm."</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Agrippina is murdered.</div>
+
+<p>At this instant one of the assassins struck at the wretched mother
+with his club. The arm, however, of the most hardened and
+unrelenting monster, usually falters somewhat at the beginning, in
+doing such work as this, and the blow gave Agrippina only an
+inconsiderable wound. She saw at once, however, that all was
+lost&mdash;that the bitter moment of death had come,&mdash;but instead of
+yielding to the emotions of terror and despair which might have been
+expected to overwhelm the heart of a woman in such a scene, her
+fierce and indomitable spirit aroused itself to new life and vigor
+in the terrible emergency. As the assassins approached her with
+their swords brandished in the air, preparing to strike her, she
+threw the bed-clothes off, so as to uncover her person, and called
+upon her murderers to strike her in the womb. "It is there," said
+she, "that the stab should be given when a mother is to be murdered
+by her son." She was instantly thrust through <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>with a multitude of
+wounds in every part of her body, and died weltering in the blood
+that flowed out upon the couch on which she lay.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero is overwhelmed with remorse and horror.</div>
+
+<p>Anicetus and his comrades, when the deed was done, gazed for a
+moment on the lifeless body, and then gathering together again the
+soldiers that they had left at the gates, they went back to Bai&aelig;
+with the tidings. The first emotion which Nero experienced, on
+hearing that all was over, was that of relief. He soon found,
+however, that monster as he was, his conscience was not yet so
+stupefied, that he could perpetrate such a deed as this without
+bringing out her scourge. As soon as he began to reflect upon what
+he had done, his soul was overwhelmed with remorse and horror. He
+passed the remainder of the night in dreadful agony, sometimes
+sitting silent and motionless&mdash;gazing into vacancy, as if his
+faculties were bewildered and lost, and then suddenly starting up,
+amazed and trembling, and staring wildly about, as if seized with a
+sudden frenzy. His wild and ghastly looks, his convulsive
+gesticulations, and his incoherent ravings and groans, indicated the
+horror that he endured, and were so frightful <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>that his officers and
+attendants shrunk away from his presence, and knew not what to do.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">He becomes more calm.</div>
+
+<p>At length they sent in one after another to attempt to calm and
+console him. Their efforts, however, were attended with little
+success. When the morning came, it brought with it some degree of
+composure; but the dreadful burden of guilt which pressed upon
+Nero's mind made him still unutterably wretched. He said that he
+could not endure any longer to remain on the spot, as every thing
+that he saw, the villas, the ships, the sea, the shore, and all the
+other objects around him, were so associated in his mind with the
+thought of his mother, and with the remembrance of his dreadful
+crime, that he could not endure them.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The dead body.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time, as soon as the servants and attendants at
+Agrippina's villa found that Anicetus and his troop had gone, they
+returned to the chamber of their mistress and gazed upon the
+spectacle which awaited them there, with inexpressible horror.
+Anicetus had left some of his men behind to attend to the disposal
+of the body, as it was important that it should be removed from
+sight without delay, since it might be expected that all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>who should
+look upon it would be excited to a high pitch of indignation against
+the perpetrators of such a crime. The countenance, in the condition
+of repose which it assumed after death, appeared extremely
+beautiful, and seemed to address a mute but touching appeal to the
+commiseration of every beholder. It was necessary, therefore, to
+hurry it away. Besides, the soldiers themselves were impatient. They
+wished to get through with their horrid work and be gone.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Burning of the body of Agrippina.</div>
+
+<p>They accordingly built a funeral pile in the garden of the
+villa,&mdash;using such materials for the purpose as came most readily to
+hand&mdash;and then took up the body of Agrippina on the bed upon which
+it lay, and placed all together upon the pile. The fires were
+lighted. The soldiers watched by the side of it until the pile was
+nearly consumed, and then went away, leaving the heart-broken
+domestics of Agrippina around the smoldering embers.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="Chapter_IX" id="Chapter_IX"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter IX.</span></h2>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">Extreme Depravity.</span></h2>
+
+<h3>A.D. 62-64</h3>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The atrocity of Nero's crime in murdering Agrippina.</div>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">here</span> was nothing in the attendant circumstances that were connected
+with the act of Nero in murdering his mother, which could palliate
+or extenuate the deed in the slightest degree. It was not an act of
+self-defense. Agrippina was not doing him, or intending to do him
+any injury. It was not an act of hasty violence, prompted by sudden
+passion. It was not required by any political necessity as a means
+for accomplishing some great and desirable public end. It was a
+cool, deliberate, and well-considered crime, performed solely for
+the purpose of removing from the path of the perpetrator of it an
+obstacle to the commission of another crime. Nero murdered his
+mother in cool blood, simply because she was in the way of his plans
+for divorcing his innocent wife, and marrying adulterously another
+woman.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero's messages to the senate.<br />Action of the senate.</div>
+
+<p>For some time after the commission of this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>great crime, the mind of
+Nero was haunted by dreadful fears, and he suffered continually, by
+day and by night, all the pangs of remorse and horror. He did not
+dare to return to Rome, not knowing to what height the popular
+indignation, that would be naturally excited by so atrocious a deed,
+might rise; or what might be the consequences to him if he were to
+appear in the city. He accordingly remained for a time on the coast
+at Neapolis, the town to which he had retired from Bai&aelig;. From this
+place he sent various communications to the Roman Senate, explaining
+and justifying what he called the execution of his mother. He
+pretended that he had found her guilty of treasonable conspiracies
+against him and against the state, and that her death had been
+imperiously demanded, as the only means of securing the public
+safety. The senators hated Nero and abhorred his crimes; but they
+were overawed by the terrible power which he exercised over them
+through the army, which they knew was entirely subservient to his
+will, and by their dread of his ruthless and desperate character.
+They passed resolves approving of what he had done. His officers and
+favorites at Rome sent him <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>word that the memory of Agrippina was
+abhorred at the capital, and that in destroying her, he was
+considered as having rendered a great service to the state. These
+representations in some measure reassured his mind, and at length he
+returned to the city.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero divorces Octavia and marries Popp&aelig;a.</div>
+
+<p>In due time he divorced Octavia, and married Popp&aelig;a. Octavia,
+however, still remained at Rome, residing in apartments assigned her
+in one of the imperial palaces. Her high birth and distinguished
+position, and, more than all, the sympathy that was felt for her in
+her misfortunes, made her an object of great attention. The people
+put garlands upon her statues in the public places in the city, and
+pulled down those which were placed at Nero's command upon those of
+Popp&aelig;a. These and other indications of the popular feeling, inflamed
+Popp&aelig;a's hatred and jealousy to such a degree, that she suborned one
+of Octavia's domestics to accuse her mistress of an ignominious
+crime. When thus accused, other women in Octavia's service were put
+to the rack to compel them to testify against her. They, however,
+persevered, in the midst of their tortures, in asserting her
+innocence. Popp&aelig;a, nevertheless, insisted that she should <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>be
+condemned, and at last, by way of compromising the case, Nero
+consented to banish her from the city.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Octavia banished from Rome.<br />Anicetus.</div>
+
+<p>She was sent to a villa on the sea-coast, in the neighborhood of the
+place where Anicetus was stationed with his fleet. But Popp&aelig;a would
+not allow her to live in peace even as an exile. She soon brought a
+charge against her of having formed a conspiracy against the
+government of Nero, and of having corrupted Anicetus, with a view of
+obtaining the co-operation of the fleet in the execution of
+treasonable designs. Anicetus himself testified to the truth of this
+charge. He said that Octavia had formed such a plan, and that she
+had given herself up, in person, wholly to him, in order to induce
+him to join in it. Octavia was accordingly condemned to die.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the testimony of Anicetus, Octavia was not at the
+time generally believed to be guilty of the charge on which she was
+condemned. It was supposed that Anicetus was induced, by promises
+and bribes from Nero and Popp&aelig;a, to fabricate the story, in order
+that they might have a pretext for putting Octavia to death. However
+this may be, the unhappy princess was condemned, and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>sentence
+pronounced upon her was, that she must die.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Octavia's unhappy destiny.<br />Charges against her.</div>
+
+<p>The life of Octavia, lofty as her position was in respect to earthly
+grandeur, had been one of uninterrupted suffering and sorrow. She
+had been married to Nero when a mere child, and during the whole
+period of her connection with her husband he had treated her with
+continual unkindness and neglect. She had at length been cruelly
+divorced from him, and banished from her native city on charges of
+the most ignominious nature, though wholly false&mdash;and before this
+last accusation was made against her there seemed to be nothing
+before her but the prospect of spending the remainder of her days in
+a miserable and hopeless exile. Still she clung to life, and when
+the messengers of Nero came to tell her that she must die, she was
+overwhelmed with agitation and terror.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">She is put to death.</div>
+
+<p>She begged and implored them with tears and agony, to spare her
+life. She would never, she said, give the emperor any trouble, or
+interfere in any way with any of his plans. She gave up willingly
+all claims to being his wife, and would always consider herself as
+only his sister. She would live in retirement <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>and seclusion in any
+place where Nero might appoint her abode, and would never occasion
+him the slightest uneasiness whatever. The executioners cut short
+these entreaties by seizing the unhappy princess in the midst of
+them, binding her limbs with thongs, and opening her veins. She
+fainted, however, under this treatment, and when the veins were
+opened the wretched victim lay passive and insensible in the hands
+of her executioners, and the blood would not flow. So they carried
+her to a steam-bath which happened to be in readiness near at hand,
+and shutting her up in it, left her to be suffocated by the vapor.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Extreme depravity.</div>
+
+<p>Thus the great crowning crime of Nero's life,&mdash;for the murder of
+Agrippina, the adulterous marriage with Popp&aelig;a, and the subsequent
+murder of Octavia, are to be regarded as constituting one single
+though complicated crime,&mdash;was consummate and complete. It was a
+crime of the highest possible atrocity. To open the way to an
+adulterous marriage by the deliberate and cruel murder of a mother,
+and then to seal and secure it by murdering an innocent
+wife,&mdash;blackening her memory at the same time with an ignominy
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>wholly undeserved, constitute a crime which for unnatural and
+monstrous enormity must be considered as standing at the head of all
+that human depravity has ever achieved.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero recovers from his remorse.<br />His various crimes.</div>
+
+<p>Nero gradually recovered from the remorse and horror with which the
+commission of these atrocities at first overwhelmed him; and in
+order to hasten his relief he plunged recklessly into every species
+of riot and excess, and in the end hardened himself so completely in
+crime, that during the remainder of his life he perpetrated the most
+abominable deeds without any apparent compunction whatever. He
+killed Popp&aelig;a herself at last with a kick, which he gave her in a
+fit of passion at a time when circumstances were such with her that
+the violence brought on a premature and unnatural sickness. He
+afterward ordered her son to be drowned in the sea, by his slaves,
+when he was a-fishing, because he understood that the boy, in
+playing with the other children, often acted the part of an emperor.
+His general Burrus he poisoned. He sent him the poison under
+pretense that it was a medical remedy for a swelling of the throat
+under which Burrus was suffering. Burrus drank the draught <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>under
+that impression and died. He destroyed by similar means in the
+course of his life great numbers of his relatives and officers of
+state, so that there was scarcely a person who was brought into any
+degree of intimate connection with him that did not sooner or later
+come to a violent end.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Public affairs neglected.</div>
+
+<p>During his whole reign Nero neglected the public affairs of the
+empire almost altogether,&mdash;apparently regarding the vast power, and
+the immense resources that were at his command, as only means for
+the more complete gratification of his own personal propensities and
+passions. The only ambition which ever appeared to animate him was a
+desire for fame as a singer and actor on the stage.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His performances on the stage.<br />Musical training.<br />Nero's success.<br />His trained applauders.<br />Rules and regulations at the theater.</div>
+
+<p>At the time when he commenced his career it was considered wholly
+beneath the dignity of any Roman of rank to appear in any public
+performance of that nature; but Nero, having conceived in his youth
+a high idea of his merit as a singer, devoted himself with great
+assiduity to the cultivation of his voice, and, as he was encouraged
+in what he did by the flatterers that of course were always around
+him, his interest in the musical art became at length an extravagant
+passion. He <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>submitted with the greatest patience to the rigorous
+training customary in those times for the development and
+improvement of the voice; such as lying for long periods upon his
+back, with a weight of lead upon his breast, in order to force the
+muscles of the chest to extraordinary exertion, for the purpose of
+strengthening them&mdash;and taking medicines of various kinds to clear
+the voice and reduce the system. He was so much pleased with the
+success of these efforts, that he began to feel a great desire to
+perform in public upon the stage. He accordingly began to make
+arrangements for doing this. He first appeared in private
+exhibitions, in the imperial palaces and gardens, where only the
+nobility of Rome and invited guests were present. He, however,
+gradually extended his audiences, and at length came out upon the
+public stage,&mdash;first, however, in order to prepare the public mind
+for what they would have otherwise considered a great degradation,
+inducing the sons of some of the principal nobility to come forward
+in similar entertainments. He was so pleased with the success which
+he imagined that he met with in this career that he devoted a large
+part of his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>time during his whole life to such performances. Of
+course, his love of applause in his theatrical career, increased
+much too fast to be satisfied with the natural and ordinary means of
+gratifying it, and he accordingly made arrangements, most absurdly,
+to create for his performances a fictitious and counterfeit
+celebrity. At one time he had a corps of five thousand men under pay
+to applaud him, in the immense circuses and amphitheaters where he
+performed. These men were regularly trained to the work of
+applauding, as if it were an art to be acquired by study and
+instruction. It <i>was</i> an art, in fact, as they practiced
+it,&mdash;different modes of applause being designated for different
+species of merit, and the utmost precision being required on the
+part of the performers, in the concert of their action, and in their
+obedience to the signals. He used also to require on the days when
+he was to perform, that the doors of the theater should be closed
+when the audience had assembled, and no egress allowed on any
+pretext whatever. Such regulations of course excited great
+complaint, and much ridicule; especially as the sessions at these
+spectacles were sometimes protracted <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>and tiresome to the last
+degree. Even sudden sickness was not a sufficient reason for
+allowing a spectator to depart, and so it was said that the people
+used sometimes to feign death, in order to be carried out to their
+burial. In some cases, it was said, births took place in the
+theaters, the mothers having come incautiously with the crowd to
+witness the spectacles, without properly considering what might be
+the effect of the excitement, and then afterward not being permitted
+to retire.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Races and games.<br />Nero generally the victor.</div>
+
+<p>Besides singing and acting on the stage, Nero took part in every
+other species of public amusement. He entered as a competitor for
+the prize in races and games of every kind. Of course he always came
+off victor. This end was accomplished sometimes by the secret
+connivance of the other competitors, and sometimes by open bribery
+of the judges. Nero's ridiculous vanity and self-conceit seemed to
+be fully gratified by receiving the prize, without any regard
+whatever to the question of deserving it. He used to come back
+sometimes from journeys to foreign cities, where he had been
+performing on the stage at great public festivals, and enter Rome in
+triumph, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>with the garlands, and crowns, and other decorations which
+he had won, paraded before him in the procession, in the manner in
+which distinguished commanders had been accustomed to display the
+trophies of their military victories, when returning from foreign
+campaigns.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His private conduct and character.<br />His midnight brawls.</div>
+
+<p>In fact it was only in the perpetration of such miserable follies as
+these that Nero appeared before the public at all, and in his
+private conduct and character he sank very rapidly, after he came
+into power, to the very lowest degree of profligacy and vice. After
+having spent the evening in drinking and debauchery, he would sally
+forth into the streets at midnight, as has already been stated, to
+mingle there with the vilest men and women of the town in brawls and
+riots. On these excursions he would attack such peaceable parties as
+he chanced to meet in the streets, and if they made resistance, he
+and his companions would beat them down and throw them into canals
+or open sewers. Sometimes in these combats he was beaten himself,
+and on one occasion he came very near losing his life, having been
+almost killed by the blows dealt upon him by a certain Roman
+senator, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>whose wife he insulted as she was walking with her husband
+in the street. The senator, of course, did not know him. He used to
+go to the theater in disguise, in company with a gang of companions
+of similar character to himself, and watch for opportunities to
+excite or encourage riots or tumults there. Whenever he could
+succeed in urging these tumults on to actual violence he would
+mingle in the fray, and throw stones and fragments of broken benches
+and furniture among the people.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Rioting and excess.<br />His great feasts.<br />The artificial lake.</div>
+
+<p>After a while, when he had grown more bold and desperate in his
+wickedness, he began to lay aside all disguise, and at last he
+actually seemed to take a pride and pleasure in exhibiting the
+scenes of riot and excess in which he engaged, in the most impudent
+manner before the public gaze. He used to celebrate great feasts in
+the public amphitheaters, and on the arena of the circus, and
+carouse there in company with the most dissolute men and women of
+the city&mdash;a spectacle to the whole population. There was a large
+artificial lake or reservoir in one part of the city, built for the
+purpose of exhibiting mimic representations of the man&oelig;uvers of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>fleets, and naval battles, for the amusement of the people at great
+public celebrations. There were, of course, numerous ranges of seats
+around the margin of this lake for the accommodation of the
+spectators. Nero took possession of this structure for some of his
+carousals, in order to obtain greater scope for ostentation and
+display. The water was drawn off on such occasions and the gates
+shut, and then the bottom of the reservoir was floored over to make
+space for the tables.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Immense sums of money expended by Nero.<br />His favorites.<br />His excursions to Ostia.</div>
+
+<p>The sums of money which Nero spent in the pursuit of sensual
+pleasures were incalculable. In fact there were no bounds to his
+extravagance and profusion. He had command, of course, of all the
+treasure of the empire, and he procured immense sums besides, by
+fines, confiscations, and despotic exactions of various kinds; and
+as he undertook no public enterprises&mdash;being seldom engaged in
+foreign wars, and seldom attempting any useful constructions in the
+city&mdash;the vast resources at his command were wholly devoted to the
+purposes of ostentatious personal display, and sensual
+gratifications. The pomp and splendor of his feasts, his
+processions, his journeys of pleasure, and the sums that he is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>said
+to have lavished sometimes in money and jewels, and sometimes in
+villas, gardens, and equipages, upon his favorites, both male and
+female, are almost incredible. On some of the pleasure excursions
+which he took to the mouth of the Tiber, he would have the banks of
+the river lined with booths and costly tents all the way from the
+river to the sea. These tents were provided with sumptuous
+entertainments, and with beds and couches for repose; and they were
+all attended by beautiful girls who stood at the doors of them
+inviting Nero and his party to land, as they passed along the river
+in their barges. He used to fish with a golden net, which was drawn
+by silken cords of a rich scarlet color. Occasionally he made grand
+excursions of pleasure through Italy or into Greece, in the style of
+royal progresses. In these expeditions he sometimes had no less than
+a thousand carts to convey his baggage&mdash;the mules that drew them
+being all shod with silver, and their drivers dressed in scarlet
+clothes of the most costly character. He was attended, also, on
+these excursions, by a numerous train of footmen, and of African
+servants, who wore rich <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>bracelets upon their arms, and were mounted
+on horses splendidly caparisoned.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The burning of Rome.<br />Nero accused of being the incendiary.<br />His probable motives.<br />He comes to see the fire.<br />He celebrates the occasion by a song.</div>
+
+<p>One of the most remarkable of the events which occurred during
+Nero's reign was what was called the burning of Rome,&mdash;a great
+conflagration, by which a large part of the city was destroyed. It
+was very generally believed at the time that this destruction was
+the work of Nero himself,&mdash;the fruit of his reckless and willful
+depravity. There is, it is true, no very positive proof that the
+fire was set by Nero's orders, though one of the historians of the
+time states that confidential servants belonging to Nero's household
+were seen, when the fire commenced, going from house to house with
+combustibles and torches, spreading the flames. He was himself at
+Antium at the time, and did not come to Rome until the fire had been
+raging for many days. If it is true that the fire was Nero's work,
+it is not supposed that he designed to cause so extensive a
+conflagration. He intended, perhaps, only to destroy a few buildings
+that covered ground which he wished to occupy for the enlargement of
+his palaces; though it was said by some writers that he really
+designed to destroy a great part of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>city, with a view to
+immortalize his name by rebuilding it in a new and more splendid
+form. With these motives, if these indeed were his motives, there
+was doubtless mingled a feeling of malicious gratification at any
+thing that would terrify and torment the miserable subjects of his
+power. When he came to Rome from Antium at the time that the
+conflagration was at its height, he found the whole city a scene of
+indescribable terror and distress. Thousands of the people had been
+burned to death or crushed beneath the ruins of the fallen houses.
+The streets were filled with piles of goods and furniture burnt and
+broken. Multitudes of men, though nearly exhausted with fatigue,
+were desperately toiling on, in hopeless endeavors to extinguish the
+flames, or to save some small remnant of their property,&mdash;and
+distracted mothers, wild and haggard from terror and despair, were
+roaming to and fro, seeking their children,&mdash;some moaning in
+anguish, and some piercing the air with loud and frantic outcries.
+Nero was entertained by the scene as if it had been a great dramatic
+spectacle. He went to one of the theaters, and taking his place upon
+the stage he amused himself there with singing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> and playing a celebrated composition on the subject of the burning
+of Troy. At least it was said and generally believed in the city
+that he did so, and the minds of the people were excited against the
+inhuman monster to the highest pitch of indignation. In fact, Nero
+seems to have thought at last that he had gone too far, and he began
+to make efforts in earnest to relieve the people from some portion
+of their distress. He caused great numbers of tents to be erected in
+the parade-ground for temporary shelter, and brought fresh supplies
+of corn into the city to save the people from famine. These measures
+of mercy, however, came too late to retrieve his character. The
+people attributed the miseries of this dreadful calamity to his
+desperate maliciousness, and he became the object of universal
+execration.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226-7]</a></span></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i222.jpg" class="ispace" width="500" height="309" alt="Burning of Rome." title="" />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Burning of Rome.</span></span></div>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="Chapter_X" id="Chapter_X"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter X.</span></h2>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">Piso's Conspiracy.</span></h2>
+
+<h3>A.D. 65</h3>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Origin and nature of Piso's conspiracy.</div>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">lthough</span> the people of Rome were generally so overawed by the terror
+of Nero's power, that for a long period no one dared to make any
+open resistance to his will, still his excesses and cruelties
+excited in the minds of men a great many secret feelings of
+resentment and detestation. At one period in the course of his reign
+a very desperate conspiracy was formed by some of the leading men of
+the state, to dethrone and destroy the tyrant. This plot was a very
+extensive and a very formidable one. It was, however, accidentally
+discovered before it was fully mature, and thus was unsuccessful. It
+is known in history as Piso's Conspiracy&mdash;deriving its name from
+that of the principal leader of it, Caius Calpurnius Piso.</p>
+
+<p>It is not supposed, however, that Piso was absolutely the originator
+of the conspiracy, nor is it known, in fact, who the originator of
+it was. A great number of prominent men <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>were involved in the
+plot&mdash;men who, possessing very different characters, and occupying
+very different stations in life, were probably induced by various
+motives to take part in the conspiracy. A conspiracy, however, of
+this kind, against so merciless a tyrant as Nero, is an enterprise
+of such frightful danger, and is attended, if unsuccessful, with
+such awful consequences to all concerned in it, that men will seldom
+engage in such a scheme until goaded to desperation, and almost
+maddened, by the wrongs which they have endured.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Lucan, the Latin poet.<br />His quarrel with Nero.</div>
+
+<p>And yet the exasperation which these conspirators felt against Nero,
+seems to have been produced, in some instances at least, by what we
+should now consider rather inadequate causes. For example, one of
+the men most active in this secret league, was the celebrated Latin
+poet Lucan. In the early part of his life, Lucan had been one of
+Nero's principal flatterers, having written hymns and sonnets in his
+praise. At length, as it was said, some public occasion occurred in
+which verses were to be recited in public, for a prize. Nero, who
+imagined himself to excel in every human art or attainment, offered
+some of his own verses in the competition. The prize, however,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> was
+adjudged to Lucan. Nero's mind was accordingly filled with envy and
+hate toward his rival, and he soon found some pretext for forbidding
+Lucan ever to recite any verses in public again. This of course
+exasperated Lucan in his turn, and was the cause of his joining in
+the conspiracy.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Lateranus.<br />Celebrity of his name.<br />The church of St. John Lateran.</div>
+
+<p>Another of the conspirators was a certain Roman nobleman, whose
+family name has since become very widely known in all parts of the
+civilized world, through an estate in the city with which it was
+associated,&mdash;which estate, and certain buildings erected upon it,
+became subsequently greatly celebrated in the ecclesiastical history
+of Rome. The name of this nobleman was Plautius Lateranus. When
+Lateranus was put to death at the detection of the conspiracy, in
+the manner to be presently described, his estate was confiscated.
+The palace and grounds thus became the property of the Roman
+emperors. In process of time, the emperor Constantine gave the place
+to the pope, and from that period it continued to be the residence
+of the successive pontiffs for a thousand years. A church was built
+upon the ground, called the Basilica of St. John of Lateran, where
+many ancient councils were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>held, known in ecclesiastical history as
+the councils of the Lateran. This church is still used for some of
+the ceremonies connected with the inauguration of the pope, but the
+palace is now uninhabited. It presents, however, in its ruins, a
+vast and imposing, though desolate aspect.</p>
+
+<p>Lateranus was an unprincipled and dissolute man, and in consequence
+of certain crimes which he committed in connection with Messalina,
+during the reign of Claudius, he had been condemned to death. The
+sentence of death was not executed, though Lateranus was deprived of
+his rank, and doomed to live in retirement and disgrace. At the
+death of Claudius, and the accession of Nero, Lateranus was fully
+pardoned and restored to his former rank and position, through
+Nero's instrumentality. It might have been supposed that gratitude
+for these favors would have prevented Lateranus from joining such a
+conspiracy as this against his benefactor, but gratitude has very
+little place in the hearts of those who dwell in the courts and
+palaces of such tyrants as Nero.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Fenius Rufus.</div>
+
+<p>The man on whom the conspirators relied most for efficient military
+aid, so far as such <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>aid should be needed in their enterprise, was a
+certain Fenius Rufus, a captain of the imperial guards. He was a man
+of very resolute and decided character, and was very highly esteemed
+by the people of Rome. He was not one of the originators of the
+plot, but joined it at a later period; and when the news of his
+accession to it was communicated to the rest, it gave them great
+encouragement, as they attached great importance to the adhesion of
+such a man to their cause. They now immediately began to take
+measures for executing their plans.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A woman in the secret.</div>
+
+<p>There was a woman in the secret of this conspiracy, though how she
+obtained a knowledge of it no one seemed to know. Her name was
+Epicharis. While the execution of the plans of the confederates was
+delayed, Epicharis came to the principal conspirators privately,
+first to one and then to another, and urged them to action. None of
+the members of the plot would admit that they had given her any
+information on the subject, and how she obtained her information no
+one could tell. She was a woman of bad character, and as such women
+often are, she was violent and implacable in her hatred. She hated
+Nero, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>and was so impatient at the delay of the conspirators that
+she made repeated and earnest efforts to urge them on.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Plans and arrangements of the conspirators.</div>
+
+<p>The conspirators in the mean time held various secret meetings to
+mature their plans, and to complete the preparation for the
+execution of them. They designed to destroy Nero by some violent
+means, and then to cause Piso to be proclaimed emperor in his place.
+Piso was a man well suited for their purpose in this respect. He was
+tall and graceful in form, and his personal appearance was in every
+respect prepossessing. His rank was very high, and he was held in
+great estimation by all the people of the city for the many generous
+and noble qualities that he possessed. He was allied, too, to the
+most illustrious families of Rome, and he occupied in all respects
+so conspicuous a position, and was so much an object of popular
+favor, that the conspirators believed that his elevation to the
+empire could easily be effected, if Nero himself could once be put
+out of the way. To effect the assassination of Nero, therefore, was
+the first step.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Bold proposals of Flavius.<br />The palace to be set on fire.</div>
+
+<p>After much debate, and many consultations in respect to the best
+course to be pursued, it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>was decided to accept the offer of a
+certain Subrius Flavius, who undertook to kill the emperor in the
+streets, at night, at some time when he was roaming about in his
+carousals. Flavius, in fact, was very daring and resolute in his
+proposals, though wanting, as it proved in the end, in the
+fulfillment of them. He offered to stab Nero in the theater, when he
+was singing on the stage, in the midst of all the thousands of
+spectators convened there. This the conspirators thought, it seems,
+an unnecessarily bold and desperate mode of accomplishing the end in
+view, and the plan was accordingly overruled. Flavius then proposed
+to set the palace on fire some night when Nero was out in the city,
+and then, in the confusion that would ensue, and while the attention
+of the guards who had accompanied Nero should be drawn toward the
+fire, to assassinate the emperor in the streets. This plan was
+acceded to by the conspirators, and it was left to Flavius to select
+a favorable time for the execution of it.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Epicharis impatient.</div>
+
+<p>Time passed on, however, and nothing was done. The favorable time
+which Flavius looked for did not appear. In the meanwhile Epicharis
+became more and more impatient<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> of the delay. She urged the
+conspirators to do their work, and chided in the strongest terms
+their irresolution and pusillanimity. At length finding that her
+invectives and reproaches were of no avail, she determined to leave
+them, and to see what she could do herself toward the attainment of
+the end.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">She goes to the fleet.</div>
+
+<p>She accordingly left Rome and proceeded southwardly along the coast
+till she came to Misenum, which, as has already been said, was the
+great naval station of the empire at this time. Epicharis went to
+some of the officers of the fleet, many of whom she knew,&mdash;and in a
+very secret and cautious manner made known to them the nature of the
+plot which had been formed at Rome for the destruction of Nero and
+the elevation of Piso to the empire in his stead. Before, however,
+communicating intelligence of the conspiracy to any persons
+whatever, Epicharis would converse with them secretly and
+confidentially to learn how they were affected toward Nero and his
+government. If she found them well disposed she said nothing. If on
+the other hand any one appeared discontented with the government, or
+hostile to it in any way, she <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>would cautiously make known to him
+the plans which were concocting at Rome for the overthrow of it. She
+took care, however, in these conversations to have never more than
+one person present with her at a time, and she revealed none of the
+names of the conspirators.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">She communicates with Proculus at Misenum.</div>
+
+<p>Among the other officers of the fleet was a certain Proculus, who
+was one of the first with whom Epicharis communicated. Proculus was
+one of the men who had been employed by Nero in his attempts to
+assassinate Agrippina his mother, and for his services on that
+occasion had been promoted to the command of a certain number of
+ships, a number containing in all one thousand men. This promotion,
+however, as Epicharis found when she came to converse with him,
+Proculus did not consider as great a reward as his services had
+deserved. The perpetration of so horrible a crime as the murder of
+the emperor's mother, merited, in his opinion, as he said to
+Epicharis, a much higher recompense than the command of a thousand
+men. Epicharis thought so too. She talked with Proculus about his
+wrongs, and the injuries which he suffered from Nero's ingratitude
+and neglect, until she <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>fancied that he was in a state of mind which
+would prepare him to join in the plans of the conspirators, and then
+she cautiously unfolded them to him.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Proculus reveals the plot to Nero.</div>
+
+<p>Proculus listened with great apparent interest to Epicharis's
+communication, and pretended to enter very cordially into the plan
+of the conspiracy; but as soon as the interview was ended he
+immediately left Misenum, and proceeded immediately to Rome, where
+he divulged the whole design to Nero.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero perplexed.<br />Epicharis imprisoned.</div>
+
+<p>Nero was exceedingly alarmed, and sent officers off at once to seize
+Epicharis and bring her before him. Epicharis, when questioned and
+confronted with Proculus, resolutely denied that she had ever held
+any such conversation with Proculus as he alledged, and feigned the
+utmost astonishment at what she termed the impudence of his
+accusation. She called for witnesses and proofs. Proculus of course
+could produce none, for Epicharis had taken care that there should
+be no third person present at their interviews. Proculus could not
+even give the names of any of the conspirators at Rome. He could
+only persist in his declaration that Epicharis had really disclosed
+to him the existence of the conspiracy,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> and had proposed to him to
+join in it; while she on the contrary as strenuously and positively
+denied it. Nero was perplexed. He found it impossible to determine
+what to believe. He finally dismissed Proculus, and sent Epicharis
+to prison, intending that she should remain there until he could
+make a more full examination into the case, and determine what to
+do.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time the conspirators became considerably alarmed when
+they heard of the arrest of Epicharis, and though they knew that
+thus far she had revealed nothing, they could not tell how soon her
+fidelity and firmness might yield under the tortures to which she
+was every day liable to be subjected; and as there appeared to be
+now no prospect that Flavius would ever undertake to execute his
+plan, they began to devise some other means of attaining the end.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A new plan.<br />Piso's objections.</div>
+
+<p>It seems that Piso possessed at this time a villa and country-seat
+at Bai&aelig;, on the coast south of Rome, and near to Misenum, and that
+Nero was accustomed sometimes to visit Piso here. It was now
+proposed by some of the conspirators that Piso should invite Nero to
+visit him at this villa, as if to witness some <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>spectacles or shows
+which should be arranged for his entertainment there, and that then
+persons employed for the purpose should suddenly assassinate him,
+when off his guard, in the midst of some scene of convivial
+pleasure. Piso, however, objected to this plan. He conceived, he
+said, that it would be dishonorable in him to commit an act of
+violence upon a guest whom he had invited under his roof, as his
+friend. He was willing to take his full share of the responsibility
+of destroying the tyrant in any fair and manly way, but he would not
+violate the sacred rites of hospitality to accomplish the end.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Reasons.</div>
+
+<p>So this plan was abandoned. It was supposed, however, that Piso had
+another and a deeper reason for his unwillingness that Nero should
+be assassinated at Bai&aelig; than his regard for his honor as a host. He
+thought, it was said, that it would not be safe for him to be away
+from Rome when the death of Nero should be proclaimed in the
+capitol, lest some other Roman nobleman or great officer of state
+should suddenly arise in the emergency and assume the empire. There
+were, in fact, one or two men in Rome of great power and influence,
+of whom Piso was specially jealous <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>and he was naturally very much
+disposed to be on his guard against opening any door of opportunity
+for them to rise to power. To commit a great crime in order to
+secure his own aggrandizement, and yet to manage the commission of
+it in such a way as not only to shut himself off from the expected
+benefit, but to secure that benefit to a hated rival, would have
+been a very fatal misstep. So the plan of destroying Nero at Bai&aelig;
+was overruled.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Final arrangements agreed upon.<br />Nero to be slain in the theatre.</div>
+
+<p>At length one more, and as it proved a final scheme, was formed for
+accomplishing the purpose of the conspiracy. It was determined to
+execute Nero in Rome, at a great public celebration which was then
+about to take place. It seems that it was sometimes customary in
+ancient times for persons who had any request or petition to make to
+an emperor or king, to avail themselves of the occasion of such
+celebrations to present them. Accordingly it was determined that
+Lateranus should approach Nero at a certain time during the
+celebration of the games, as if to offer a petition,&mdash;the other
+conspirators being close at hand, and ready to act at a moment's
+warning. Lateranus, as soon as he was near enough, was to kneel down
+and suddenly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>draw the emperor's robes about his feet, and then
+clasp the feet thus enveloped, in his arms, so as to render Nero
+helpless. The other conspirators were then to rush forward and kill
+their victim with their daggers. In the mean time while Lateranus
+and his associates were perpetrating this deed in the circus where
+the games were to be exhibited, Piso was to station himself in a
+certain temple not far distant, to await the result; while Fenius,
+the officer of the guard, who has already been mentioned as the
+chief military reliance of the conspirators, was to be posted in
+another part of the city, with a military cavalcade in array, ready
+to proceed through the streets and bring Piso forth to be proclaimed
+emperor as soon as he should receive the tidings that Nero had been
+slain. It is said that in order to give additional &eacute;clat and
+popularity to the proceeding, it was arranged that Octavia, a
+daughter of Claudius, the former emperor, was to be brought forward
+with Piso in the cavalcade, as if to combine the influence of her
+hereditary claims, whatever they might be, with the personal
+popularity of Piso in favor of the new government about to be
+established.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The several parts assigned.<br />Scevinus.</div>
+
+<p>Thus every thing was arranged. To each conspirator, his own
+particular duty was assigned, and, as the day approached for the
+execution of the scheme, every thing seemed to promise success. It
+is obvious, however, that, as the affair had been arranged, all
+would depend upon the resolution and fidelity of those who had been
+designated to stab the emperor with their daggers, when Lateranus
+should have grasped his feet. The slightest faltering or fear at
+this point, would be fatal to the whole scheme. The man on whom the
+conspirators chiefly relied for this part of their work, was a
+certain desperate profligate, named Scevinus, who had been one of
+the earliest originators of the conspiracy, and one of the most
+dauntless and determined of the promoters of it, so far as words and
+professions could go. He particularly desired that the privilege of
+plunging the first dagger into Nero's heart should be granted to
+him. He had a knife, he said, which he had found in a certain temple
+a long time before, and which he had preserved and carried about his
+person constantly ever since, for some such deed. So it was arranged
+that Scevinus should strike the fatal blow.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Excitement of Scevinus.</div>
+
+<p>As the time drew nigh, Scevinus seemed to grow more and more excited
+with the thoughts of what was before him. He attracted the attention
+of the domestics at his house, by his strange and mysterious
+demeanor. He held a long and secret consultation with Natalis,
+another conspirator, on the day before the one appointed for the
+execution of the plot, under such circumstances as to increase still
+more the wonder and curiosity of his servants. He formally executed
+his will, as if he were approaching some dangerous crisis. He made
+presents to his servants, and actually emancipated one or two of his
+favorite slaves. He talked with all he met, in a rapid and
+incoherent manner, on various subjects, and with an air of gayety
+and cheerfulness which it was obvious to those who observed him was
+all assumed; for, in the intervals of these conversations, and at
+every pause, he relapsed into a thoughtful and absent mood, as if he
+were meditating some deep and dangerous design.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His knife.<br />He gives his knife to Milichus to be ground.<br />Milichus confers with his wife.</div>
+
+<p>That night, too, he took out his knife from its sheath, and gave it
+to one of his servants, named Milichus, to be ground. He directed
+Milichus to be particularly attentive to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>sharpening of the
+point. Before Milichus brought back the knife, Scevinus directed him
+to prepare bandages such as would be suitable for binding up wounds
+to stop the effusion of blood. Milichus observed all these
+directions, and, having made all the preparations required,
+according to the orders which Scevinus had given him&mdash;keeping the
+knife, however, still in his possession&mdash;he went to report the whole
+case to his wife, in order to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>consult with her in respect to the
+meaning of all these mysterious indications.</p>
+
+<p><a name="knife" id="knife"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 334px;">
+<img src="images/i241.jpg" class="ispace" width="334" height="300" alt="The Knife." title="" />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">The Knife.</span></span></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote2">Their suspicions.</div>
+
+<p>The wife of Milichus soon came to the conclusion, that these strange
+proceedings could denote nothing less than a plot against the life
+of the emperor; and she urged her husband to go early the next
+morning, and make known his discovery. She told him that it was
+impossible that such a conspiracy should succeed, for it must be
+known to a great many persons, some one of whom would be sure to
+divulge it in hope of a reward. "If you divulge it," she added, "you
+will secure the reward for yourself; and if you do not, you will be
+supposed to be privy to it, when it is made known by others, and so
+will be sacrificed with the rest to Nero's anger."</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Revelations made by Milichus.</div>
+
+<p>Milichus was convinced by his wife's reasonings, and on the
+following morning, as soon as the day dawned, he rose and repaired
+to the palace. At first he was refused admittance, but on sending
+word to the officer of the household, that he had intelligence of
+the most urgent importance to communicate to Nero, they allowed him
+to come in. When brought into Nero's presence, he told his story,
+describing particularly all the circumstances<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> that he had observed,
+which had led him to suppose that a conspiracy was formed. He spoke
+of the long and mysterious consultation which Scevinus and Natalis
+had held together on the preceding day; he described the singular
+conduct and demeanor which Scevinus had subsequently manifested, the
+execution of his will, his wild and incoherent conversation, his
+directions in respect to the sharpening of the knife and the
+preparation of the bandages; and, to crown his proofs, he produced
+the knife itself, which he had kept for this purpose, and which thus
+furnished, in some sense, an ocular demonstration of the truth of
+what he had declared.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Scevinus's defense.<br />He denies the allegations of his accuser.</div>
+
+<p>Officers were immediately sent to seize Scevinus, and to bring him
+into the presence of the emperor. Scevinus knew, of course, that the
+only possible hope for him was in a bold and resolute denial of the
+charge made against him. He accordingly denied, in the most solemn
+manner, that there was any plot or conspiracy whatever, and he
+attempted to explain all the circumstances which had awakened his
+servant's suspicions. The knife or dagger which Milichus had
+produced, was an ancient family relic, he said,&mdash;one which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>he had
+kept for a long time in his chamber, and which his servant had
+obtained surreptitiously, for the purpose of sustaining his false
+and malicious charge against his master. As to his will, he often
+made and signed a will anew, he said, as many other persons were
+accustomed to do, and no just inference against him could be drawn
+from the circumstance that he had done this on the preceding day;
+and in respect to the bandages and other preparation for the
+dressing of wounds which Milichus alledged that he had ordered, he
+denied the statement altogether. He had not given any such orders.
+The whole story was the fabrication of a vile slave, attempting, by
+these infamous means, to compass his master's destruction. Scevinus
+said all this with so bold and intrepid a tone of voice, and with
+such an air of injured innocence, that Nero and his friends were
+half disposed to believe that he was unjustly accused, and to
+dismiss him from custody. This might very probably have been the
+result, and Milichus himself might have been punished for making a
+false and malicious accusation, had not the sagacity of his wife,
+who was all the time watching these proceedings with the most
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>anxious interest, furnished a clew which, in the end, brought the
+whole truth to light.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero perplexed.</div>
+
+<p>She called attention to the long conference which Scevinus had held
+with Natalis on the preceding day. Scevinus was accordingly
+questioned concerning it. He declared that his interview was nothing
+but an innocent consultation about his own private affairs. He was
+questioned then about the particulars of the conversation. Of course
+he was compelled to fabricate a statement in reply. Natalis himself
+was then sent for, and examined, apart from Scevinus, in regard to
+the conversation they had held together. Natalis, of course,
+fabricated a story too,&mdash;but, as usual with such fabrications, the
+two accounts having been invented independently, were inconsistent
+with each other. Nero was immediately convinced that the men were
+guilty, and that some sort of plot or conspiracy had been formed. He
+ordered that they should both be put to the torture in order to
+compel them to confess their crime, and disclose the names of their
+accomplices. In the mean time they were sent to prison, and loaded
+with irons, to be kept in that condition until the instruments of
+torture could be prepared.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The truth at last discovered.<br />Scevinus and Natalis make a full confession.</div>
+
+<p>When at length they were brought to the rack, the sight of the
+horrid machinery unmanned them. They begged to be spared, and
+promised to reveal the whole. They acknowledged that a conspiracy
+had been formed, and gave the names of all who had participated in
+it. They explained fully, too, the plans which had been devised, and
+as in this case, though they were examined separately, their
+statements agreed, Nero and his friends were convinced of the truth
+of their declarations, and thus at last the plot was fully brought
+to light. Nero himself was struck with consternation and terror at
+discovering the formidable danger to which he had been exposed.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="Chapter_XI" id="Chapter_XI"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XI.</span></h2>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">The Fate of the Conspirators.</span></h2>
+
+<h3>A.D. 65</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">s</span> soon as Nero had obtained all the information which he and his
+officers could draw from Scevinus and Natalis, and had sent to all
+parts of the city to arrest those whom the forced disclosures of
+these witnesses accused, he thought of Epicharis, who, it will be
+recollected, had been sent to prison, and who was still in
+confinement there. He ordered Epicharis to be told that concealment
+was no longer possible,&mdash;that Scevinus and Natalis had divulged the
+plot in full, and that her only hope lay in amply confessing all
+that she knew.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Epicharis denies all knowledge of the conspiracy.</div>
+
+<p>This announcement had no effect upon Epicharis. She refused to admit
+that she knew any thing of any conspiracy.</p>
+
+<p>Nero then ordered that she should be put to the torture. The engines
+were prepared and she was brought before them. The sight of them
+produced no change. She was then placed upon the wheel, and her
+frail and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>delicate limbs were stretched, dislocated, and broken,
+until she had endured every form of agony which such engines could
+produce. Her constancy remained unshaken to the end. At length, when
+she was so much exhausted by her sufferings that she could no longer
+feel the pain, she was taken away to be restored by medicaments,
+cordials, and rest, in order that she might recover strength to
+endure new tortures on the following day.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Seizures and executions.<br />General panic.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time, panic and excitement reigned throughout the city.
+Nero doubled his guards; he garrisoned his palace; he brought out
+bodies of armed men, and stationed them on the walls of the city and
+in the public squares, or marched them to and fro about the streets.
+As fast as men were accused they were put to the question, and as
+each one saw that the only hope for safety to himself was in freely
+denouncing others, the names of supposed confederates were revealed
+in great numbers, and as fast as these names were obtained the men
+were seized and imprisoned or executed&mdash;the innocent and the guilty
+together.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Death of Piso.</div>
+
+<p>On the very first announcement that the plot had been discovered,
+those of the conspirators<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> who were still at large made all haste to
+the house of Piso. They found him prostrate in consternation and
+despair. They urged him immediately to come forth, and to put
+himself at the head of an armed force, and fight for his life.
+Desperate as such an undertaking might be, no other alternative,
+they said, was now left to him. But all was of no avail. The
+conspirators could not arouse him to action. They were obliged to
+retire and leave him to his fate. He opened the veins in his arm,
+and bled to death while the soldiers whom Nero had sent were
+breaking into his house to arrest him.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The conspirators discouraged.</div>
+
+<p>Being thus deprived of their leader, the conspirators gave up all
+hope of effecting the revolution, and thought only of the means of
+screening themselves from Nero's vengeance.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Epicharis at the torture.<br />Her death.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time, Epicharis had so far recovered during the night,
+that on the following morning it was determined to bring her again
+to the torture. She was utterly helpless,&mdash;her limbs having been
+broken by the execution of the day before. The officers accordingly
+put her into a sort of sedan chair, or covered litter, in order that
+she might be carried by bearers to the place of torture. She was
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>borne in this way to the spot, but when the executioners opened the
+door of the chair to take her out, they beheld a shocking spectacle.
+Their wretched victim had escaped from their power. She was hanging
+by the neck, dead. She had contrived to make a noose in one end of
+the cincture with which she was girded, and fastening the other end
+to some part of the chair within, she had succeeded in bringing the
+weight of her body upon the noose around <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>her neck, and had died
+without disturbing her bearers as they walked along.</p>
+
+<p><a name="bringing" id="bringing"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 355px;">
+<img src="images/i250.jpg" class="ispace" width="355" height="300" alt="Bringing Epicharis to the Torture." title="" />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Bringing Epicharis to the Torture.</span></span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote2">The conspirators tried before Nero.<br />Flavius.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time the various parties that were accused were seized
+in great numbers, and were brought in for trial before a sort of
+court-martial which Nero himself, with some of his principal
+officers, held for this purpose in the gardens of the palace. The
+number of those accused was so large that the avenues to the garden
+were blocked up with them, and with the parties of soldiers that
+conducted them, and multitudes were detained together at the gates,
+in a state, of course, of awful suspense and agitation, waiting
+their turns. It happened singularly enough that among those whom
+Nero summoned to serve on the tribunal for the trial of the
+prisoners were two of the principal conspirators, who had not yet
+been accused. These were Subrius Flavius and Fenius Rufus, whom the
+reader will perhaps recollect as prominent members of the plot.
+Flavius was the man who had once undertaken to kill the emperor in
+the streets, and while standing near him at the tribunal, he made
+signs to the other conspirators that he was ready to stab him to the
+heart now, if they would but say the word. But Rufus <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>restrained
+him, anxiously signifying to him that he was by no means to attempt
+it. Rufus in fact seems to have been as weak-minded and irresolute
+as Flavius was desperate and bold.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Demeanor of Rufus in the garden.</div>
+
+<p>In fact although Rufus, when summoned to attend in the garden, for
+the trial of the conspirators, did not dare to disobey, he yet found
+it very difficult to summon resolution to face the appalling dangers
+of his position. He took his place at last among the others, and
+with a forced external composure which ill concealed the desperate
+agitation and anxiety which reigned in his soul, he gave himself to
+the work of trying and condemning his confederates and companions.
+For a time no one of them betrayed him. But at length during the
+examination of Scevinus, in his solicitude to appear zealous in
+Nero's cause he overacted his part, so far as to press Scevinus too
+earnestly with his inquiries, until at length Scevinus turned
+indignantly toward him saying&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">He is accused.</div>
+
+<p>"Why do <i>you</i> ask these questions? No person in Rome knows more
+about this conspiracy than you, and if you feel so devoted to this
+humane and virtuous prince of yours, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>show your gratitude by telling
+him, yourself, the whole story."</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Rufus begs for his life.<br />His execution.</div>
+
+<p>Rufus was perfectly overwhelmed at this sudden charge, and could not
+say a word. He attempted to speak, but he faltered and stammered,
+and then sank down into his seat, pale and trembling, and covered
+with confusion. Nero and the other members of the tribunal were
+convinced of his guilt. He was seized and put in irons, and after
+the same summary trial to which the rest were subjected, condemned
+to die. He begged for his life with the most earnest and piteous
+lamentations, but Nero was relentless, and he was immediately
+beheaded.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Flavius is accused.</div>
+
+<p>The conspirator Flavius displayed a very different temper. When he
+came to be accused, at first he denied the charge, and he appealed
+to his whole past character and course of life as proof of his
+innocence. Those who had informed against him, however, soon
+furnished incontestable evidence of his guilt, and then changing his
+ground, he openly acknowledged his share in the conspiracy and
+gloried in it even in the presence of Nero himself. When Nero asked
+him how he could so violate his oath of allegiance and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>fidelity as
+to conspire against the life of his sovereign, he turned to him with
+looks of open and angry defiance and said&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His desperation.</div>
+
+<p>"It was because I hated and detested you, unnatural monster as you
+are. There was a time when there was not a soldier in your service
+who was more devoted to you than I. But that time has passed. You
+have drawn upon yourself the detestation and abhorrence of all
+mankind by your cruelties and your crimes. You have murdered your
+mother. You have murdered your wife. You are an incendiary. And not
+content with perpetrating these enormous atrocities, you have
+degraded yourself in the eyes of all Rome to the level of the lowest
+mountebank and buffoon, so as to make yourself the object of
+contempt as well as abhorrence. I hate and defy you."</p>
+
+<p>Nero was of course astonished and almost confounded at hearing such
+words. He had never listened to language like this before. His
+astonishment was succeeded by violent rage, and he ordered Flavius
+to be led out to immediate execution.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The execution of Flavius.<br />The executioner's fears.</div>
+
+<p>The centurion to whom the execution was committed conducted Flavius
+without the city to a field, and then set the soldiers at work to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>dig the grave, as was customary at military executions, while he
+made the other necessary preparations. The soldiers, in their haste,
+shaped the excavation rudely and imperfectly. Flavius ridiculed
+their work, asking them, in a tone of contempt, if they considered
+that the proper way to dig a military grave. And when at length,
+after all the preparations had been made, and the fatal moment had
+arrived, the tribune who was in command called upon him to uncover
+his neck and stand forth courageously to meet his fate&mdash;he replied
+by exhorting the officer himself to be resolute and firm. "See,"
+said he, "if you can show as much nerve in striking the blow,
+as I can in meeting it." To cut down such a man, under such
+circumstances, was of course a very dreadful duty, even for a Roman
+soldier, and the executioner faltered greatly in the performance of
+it. The decapitation should have been effected by a single blow; but
+the officer found his strength failing him when he came to strike,
+so that a second blow was necessary to complete the severance of the
+head from the body. The tribune was afraid that this, when
+represented to Nero, might bring him under suspicion, as if it
+indicated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> some shrinking on his part from a prompt and vigorous
+action in putting down the conspiracy; and so on his return to Nero
+he boasted of his performance as if it had been just as he intended.
+"I made the traitor die twice," said he, "by taking two blows to
+dispatch him."</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Seneca.<br />His character and public position.</div>
+
+<p>But perhaps the most melancholy of all the results of this most
+unfortunate conspiracy, was the fate of Seneca. Seneca, it will be
+remembered, had been Nero's instructor and guardian in former years,
+and subsequently one of his chief ministers of state. He was now
+almost seventy years of age, and besides the veneration in which he
+was held on this account, and the respect that was paid to the
+exalted position which he had occupied for so long a period, he was
+very highly esteemed for his intellectual endowments and for his
+private character. His numerous writings, in fact, had acquired for
+him an extensive literary fame.</p>
+
+<p>But Nero hated him. He had long wished him out of the way. It was
+currently reported, and generally believed, that he had attempted to
+poison him. However this may be, he certainly desired to find some
+occasion of proceeding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> against him, and such an occasion was
+furnished by the developments connected with this conspiracy.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Evidence against Seneca.</div>
+
+<p>Natalis, in the course of his testimony, said that he supposed that
+Seneca was concerned in the plot, for he recollected that he was
+once sent to him, while he was confined to his house by illness,
+with a message from Piso. The message was, that Piso had repeatedly
+called at his, that is, Seneca's house, but had been unable to
+obtain admittance. The answer which Seneca had returned was, that
+the reason why he had not received visitors was, that the state of
+his health was very infirm, but that he entertained none but
+friendly feelings toward Piso, and wished him prosperity and
+success.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His journey to Rome.</div>
+
+<p>Nero determined to consider this as proof that Seneca was privy to
+the conspiracy, and that he secretly abetted it. At least he
+determined, for a first step, to send an officer with a band of
+armed men to arrest him, and to lay the crime to his charge. Seneca
+was not in the city at this time. He had been absent in Campania,
+which was a beautiful rural region, south of Rome, back from
+Misenum. He was, however, that very day on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>his return to Rome, and
+Silvanus, the officer whom Nero sent to him, met him on the way, at
+a villa which he possessed a few miles from Rome. The name of this
+villa was Nomentanum.<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> Seneca had stopped at the villa to spend
+the night, and was seated at the table with Paulina his wife, when
+Silvanus and his troop arrived.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Seneca arrested.<br />His defence.</div>
+
+<p>The soldiers surrounded the house, so as to prevent all possibility
+of escape, and posted sentinels at the doors. Silvanus and some of
+his associates then went in, and entering the hall where Seneca was
+at supper, they informed him for what purpose they were come.
+Silvanus repeated what Natalis had testified in respect to the
+messages which had passed between Seneca and Piso. Seneca admitted
+that the statement was true, but he declared that the word which he
+had sent to Piso was only an ordinary message of civility and
+friendliness; it meant nothing more. Finding that no farther
+explanation could be obtained, Silvanus left Seneca in his villa,
+with a strong guard posted around the house, and returned to Rome to
+report to Nero.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The officer's report.</div>
+
+<p>When Nero had heard the report, he asked <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>Silvanus whether Seneca
+appeared sufficiently terrified by the accusation to make it
+probable that he would destroy himself that night.<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a> Silvanus
+answered no. "He displayed," said he, "no marks of fear. There was
+no agitation, no sign of regret, no token of sorrow. His words and
+looks bespoke a mind calm, confident and firm."</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero decides that Seneca must die.</div>
+
+<p>"Go to him," rejoined Nero, "and tell him that he must make up his
+mind to die."</p>
+
+<p>Silvanus was thunderstruck at receiving this order. He could not
+believe it possible that Nero would really put to death a man so
+venerable in years and wisdom, who had been to him all his life, in
+the place of a father. Instead of proceeding directly to Seneca's
+house he went to consult with the captain of the guard, who, though
+really one of the conspirators, had not yet been accused, and was
+still at liberty, though trembling with apprehension<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> at the
+imminence of his danger. The captain, after hearing the case, said
+that nothing was to be done but to deliver the message. Silvanus
+then went to Seneca's villa, but not being able to endure the
+thought of being himself the bearer of such tidings, sent in a
+centurion with the message.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The death of Seneca.<br />Grief and despair of Paulina.<br />They save Paulina's life.</div>
+
+<p>Seneca received it with calm composure, and immediately made
+preparations for terminating his life. His wife Paulina insisted on
+sharing his fate. He gathered his friends around him to give them
+his parting counsels and bid them farewell, and ordered his servants
+to make the necessary preparations for opening his veins. Then
+ensued one of those sad and awful scenes of mourning and death, with
+which the page of ancient history is so often darkened&mdash;forming
+pictures, as they do, too shocking to be exhibited in full detail.
+The calm composure of Seneca, was contrasted on the one hand with
+the bitter anguish and loud lamentations of his domestics and
+friends, and on the other with Paulina's mute despair. When the
+veins were opened, the blood at first would not flow, and various
+artificial means were resorted to, to accelerate the extinction of
+life; at last, however, Seneca<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> ceased to breathe. The domestics of
+the family then begged and entreated the soldiers with many tears,
+that they might be allowed to save Paulina if it were not too late.
+The soldiers consented; so the women bound up her wounds, as she lay
+insensible and helpless before them, and thus stopping the farther
+effusion of blood, they watched over her with assiduous care, in
+hopes to restore her. They succeeded. They brought her back to life,
+or rather to a semblance of life; for she never really recovered so
+as to be herself again, during the few lonely and desolate years
+through which she afterward lingered.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The consul Vestinus.</div>
+
+<p>There was another Roman citizen of the highest rank who fell an
+innocent victim to the angry passions which the discovery of this
+plot awakened in Nero's mind. It was the consul Vestinus. Vestinus
+was a man of great loftiness of character, and had never evinced
+that pliancy of temper, and that submissiveness to the imperial
+will, which Nero required. His position, too, as consul, which was
+the highest civil office in the commonwealth, gave him a vast
+influence over the people of Rome, so that Nero feared as well as
+hated him. In fact, so great was his independence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> of character, and
+his intractability, as it was sometimes called, that the
+conspirators, after mature deliberation, had concluded not to
+propose to him to engage in the plot. But, though he was thus
+innocent, Nero did not certainly know the fact, and, at any rate,
+such an opportunity to effect the destruction of a hated rival, was
+too good to be lost. Very soon, therefore, after the disclosure of
+the conspiracy had been made, Nero sent a tribune, at the head of
+five hundred men, to arrest the consul.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Large force sent to arrest Vestinus.</div>
+
+<p>This large force was designated for the service, partly because,&mdash;on
+account of the high rank and office of the accused,&mdash;Nero did not
+know what means of resistance the consul might be able to command,
+and partly because his house, which was situated in the most public
+part of the city, overlooking the Forum, was in itself a sort of
+citadel, of which the various officers of Vestinus's household, and
+his numerous retainers, constituted a sort of garrison. It happened
+that, at the time when Nero sent his troop to make the arrest,
+Vestinus was entertaining a large party of friends at supper. The
+festivities were suddenly interrupted, and the whole <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>company were
+thrown into a state of the most frightful excitement and confusion,
+by the sudden onset of this large body of armed men, who besieged
+the doors, blocked up all the avenues of approach, and, surrounding
+and guarding the house on every side, shut all the inmates in, as if
+they were investing the castle of an enemy. Certain soldiers of the
+guard were then sent in to Vestinus in the banqueting-room, to
+inform him that the tribune wished to speak with him on important
+business.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Vestinus arrested.<br />His extraordinary fate.</div>
+
+<p>The consul knew the character of Nero, and the feelings which the
+tyrant entertained toward him too well, and saw too clearly the
+advantage which the discovery of the conspiracy gave to Nero, not to
+perceive at once that his fate was sealed; and the action which he
+took in this frightful emergency comported well with his
+insubmissive and intractable character. Instead of obeying the
+summons of the tribune, he repaired immediately to a private
+apartment, summoned his physician, directed a bath to be prepared,
+ordered the physician to open his veins, lay down in the bath to
+promote the flowing of the blood, and in a few minutes ceased to
+breathe.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero is pleased.<br />The guests at Vestinus's supper.</div>
+
+<p>The announcement of the consul's death, when it came to be reported
+to Nero, of course gave him great satisfaction. He continued the
+guards, however, still about the house, keeping the guests
+imprisoned in the banqueting-room for many hours. Of course, during
+all this time, the minds of these guests were in a state of extreme
+distress and apprehension, inasmuch as every one of them must
+necessarily have felt in immediate danger. When the anxiety and
+agitation which they felt, was reported to Nero, he was greatly
+entertained by it, and said that they were paying for their consular
+supper. He kept them in this state of suspense until nearly morning,
+and then ordered the guards to be withdrawn.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Appearances of public rejoicing.</div>
+
+<p>The number of victims who were sacrificed to Nero's resentment in
+consequence of this conspiracy, was very large; so that the streets
+were filled with executions and with funeral processions for many
+days. Universal grief and panic prevailed, and yet no one dared to
+manifest the slightest indications of sorrow or of fear. The people
+supposed that pity for the sufferers, or anxiety for themselves,
+would be interpreted as proofs that they had been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>concerned in the
+conspiracy; for multitudes of those who had been put to death, were
+condemned on pretexts and pretended proofs of the most frivolous
+character. Every one, therefore, even of those whose nearest and
+dearest friends had been killed, was compelled to assume all the
+appearances of extravagant joy that so wicked a plot against the
+life of so wise and excellent a prince, had been exposed, and the
+guilty devisers of it brought to punishment. Parents whose sons had
+been slain, and wives and children who had lost their husbands and
+fathers, were thus compelled to unite in the congratulations and
+expressions of joy which were everywhere addressed to the emperor.
+Processions were formed, addresses were made, sacrifices were
+offered, games, spectacles, and illuminations without number were
+celebrated, to testify to the general rejoicing; and thus the city
+presented all the outward appearances of universal gladness and joy,
+while, in truth, the hearts of men were everywhere overwhelmed with
+anxiety, grief, and fear.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero grants gifts to the army.<br />Nature of despotic government.<br />Secret of their power.</div>
+
+<p>When at length a sufficient number of the citizens of Rome had been
+destroyed, Nero assembled the army, and after making an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>address to
+the troops on the subject of the conspiracy, and on his happy escape
+from the danger, he divided an immense sum of money from the public
+treasury among the soldiers, so as to give a very considerable
+largess to each man. He also distributed among them a vast amount of
+provisions from the public granaries. This act, and the connection
+between Nero and the troops which it illustrates, explain what would
+otherwise seem an inscrutable mystery, namely, how it can be
+possible for one man to bring the immense population of such an
+empire as that of ancient Rome so entirely under his power, that any
+number of the most prominent and influential of the citizens shall
+be seized and beheaded, or thrust through the heart with swords and
+daggers at a word or a nod from him. The explanation is, <i>the army</i>.
+Give to the single tyrant one or two hundred thousand desperadoes,
+well banded together, and completely armed, under a compact between
+them by which he says, "Help me to control, to domineer over, and to
+plunder the industrial classes of society, and I will give you a
+large share of the spoil," and the work is very easy. The
+governments that have existed in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>world have generally been
+formed on this plan. They have been simply vast armies authorized to
+collect their own pay by the systematic plunder of the millions
+whose peaceful industry feeds and clothes the world. The remedy
+which mankind is now beginning to discover and apply is equally
+simple. The millions who do the work are learning to keep the arms
+in their own hands, and to forbid the banding together of masses of
+troops for the purpose of exalting pride and cruelty to a position
+of absolute and irresponsible power.</p>
+
+<p>In Nero's case, so great was the awe which the terrible power of the
+Roman legions inspired, that even the Senate bowed humbly before it,
+and joined in the general adulation of the hated tyrant. They
+decreed oblations and public thanksgivings; they erected new temples
+to express their gratitude to the gods for so signal a deliverance;
+they instituted new games and festivities to express the general
+joy, and erected statues and monuments in honor of those who had
+contributed to the discovery of the plot. The knife or dagger which
+Milichus had produced as the one by which Nero was to have been
+slain, was preserved as a sacred relic. A suitable inscription<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> was
+placed upon it, and it was deposited, with all solemnity, in one of
+the temples of the city, there to remain a memorial of the event for
+all future generations. In a word, the tyrant's escape from death
+called forth all the outward manifestations of joy which could have
+been deserved by the greatest public benefactor.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Doubt in respect to Piso's conspiracy.</div>
+
+<p>And yet, notwithstanding all this, such was the estimate which
+public sentiment really entertained of the true character of Nero,
+that it was considered extremely doubtful at the time, and has, in
+fact, been so considered ever since, whether there ever was any
+conspiracy at all. It was very extensively believed that the whole
+pretended discovery of the plot was an ingenious device on the part
+of Nero, to furnish him with plausible pretexts for destroying a
+great number of men who were personally obnoxious to him. And were
+it not almost impossible to believe that such monstrous wickedness
+and tyranny as that of Nero could riot so long over Romans without
+arousing them to some desperate attempts to destroy him, we might
+ourselves adopt this view, and suppose that this celebrated plot was
+wholly a fabrication.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="Chapter_XII" id="Chapter_XII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XII.</span></h2>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">The Expedition into Greece.</span></h2>
+
+<h3>A.D. 65</h3>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero becomes more depraved and abandoned than ever.</div>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">s</span> the excitement which had been produced by the discovery, real or
+pretended, of Piso's conspiracy, and by the innumerable executions
+which were attendant upon it, passed away, Nero returned to his
+usual mode of life, and in fact abandoned himself to the indulgence
+of his brutal propensities and passions more recklessly than ever.
+He spent his days in sloth, and his nights in rioting and carousals,
+and was rapidly becoming an object of general contempt and
+detestation. The only ambition which seemed to animate him was to
+excel, or rather to have the credit of excelling, as a player and
+singer on the public stage.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero appears on the public stage.</div>
+
+<p>Not long after the period of the conspiracy described in the last
+two chapters, and when the excitement connected with it had in some
+measure subsided, the attention of the public began to be turned
+toward a great festival, the time for which was then approaching.
+This <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>festival was celebrated with spectacles and games of various
+kinds, which were called the quinquennial games, from the
+circumstance that the period for the celebration of them recurred
+once in five years. A principal part of the performances on these
+occasions consisted of contests for prizes, which were offered for
+those who chose to compete for them. Some of these prizes were for
+those who excelled in athletic exercises, and in feats of strength
+and dexterity, while others were for singers and dancers, and other
+performers on the public stage. Nero could not resist the temptation
+to avail himself of this grand occasion for the display of his
+powers, and he prepared to appear among the other actors and
+mountebanks as a competitor for the theatrical prizes.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Estimation in which players were held.</div>
+
+<p>Performers on the public stage were regarded in ancient days much as
+they are now. They were applauded, flattered, caressed, and most
+extravagantly paid; but after all they formed a social class
+distinct from all others, and of a very low grade. Just as now great
+public singers are rewarded sometimes with the most princely
+revenues,&mdash;not twice or three times, but <i>ten</i> times perhaps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> the
+amount ever paid to the highest ministers of state,&mdash;and receive the
+most flattering attentions from the highest classes of society, and
+are followed by crowds in the public streets, and enter cities
+escorted by grand processions, while yet there is scarce a
+respectable citizen of the better class who would not feel himself
+demeaned at seeing his son or his daughter on the stage by their
+side.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Action of the Senate.</div>
+
+<p>In the same manner public sentiment was such in the city of Rome, in
+Nero's day, that to see the chief military magistrate of the
+commonwealth publicly performing on the stage, and entering into an
+eager competition with the singing men and women, the low comedians,
+the dancers, the buffoons, and other such characters, that figured
+there, was a very humiliating spectacle. In fact, when the time for
+the quinquennial celebration approached, the government attempted to
+prevent the necessity of the emperor's actual appearing upon the
+stage, by passing in the Senate, among other decrees relating to the
+celebrations, certain votes awarding honorary crowns and prizes to
+Nero, by anticipation,&mdash;thus acknowledging him to be the first
+without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> requiring the test of actual competition. But this did not
+satisfy Nero. In fact, the honor of being publicly proclaimed victor
+was not probably the chief allurement which attracted him. He wished
+to enjoy the excitement and the pleasure of the contest,&mdash;to see the
+vast audience assembled before him, and held in charmed and
+enraptured attention by his performance; and to listen to and enjoy
+the triumphant grandeur of the applause which rolled and
+reverberated in the great Roman amphitheaters on such occasions with
+the sound of thunder. In a word it was the vanity of personal
+display, rather than ambition for an honorable distinction, that
+constituted the motive which actuated him.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Theatrical excitements.<br />Humiliating demeanor of the emperor.</div>
+
+<p>He consequently disregarded the honorary awards which the Senate had
+decreed him, and insisted on actually appearing on the stage. His
+first performance was the reciting of a poem which he had composed.
+The poem was received, of course, with unbounded applause. Afterward
+he appeared on the stage in competition with the harpers and other
+musical performers. The populace applauded his efforts with the
+greatest enthusiasm, while the more respectable citizens <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>were
+silent, or spoke to each other in secret murmurs of discontent and
+disapproval. There were a great many rules and restrictions which
+the candidates in these contests were required to observe; and
+though they were all proper enough for the class of men for whom
+they were intended, were yet such that the emperor, in subjecting
+himself to them, placed himself in a very low and degraded position,
+so as to become an object of ridicule and contempt. For example,
+after coming to the end of a performance on the harp, he would
+advance to the front of the stage, and there, after the manner
+customary among the players of that day, would kneel down in an
+imploring attitude, with his hands raised, as if humbly soliciting a
+favorable sentence from the audience, as his judges, and tremblingly
+waiting their decision. This, considering that the suppliant
+performer was the greatest potentate on earth, officially
+responsible for the government of half the world, and the audience
+before whom he was kneeling was mainly composed of the lowest rabble
+of the city, seemed to every respectable Roman, absurd and
+ridiculous to the last degree.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Rewards and honors conferred upon Nero.</div>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, the fame of these exploits <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>performed by Nero as a
+public actor, spread gradually throughout the empire, and the
+subject attracted special attention in the cities of Greece, where
+games and public spectacles of every kind were celebrated with the
+greatest pomp and splendor. Several of these cities sent deputations
+to Rome, with crowns and garlands for the emperor, which they had
+decreed to him in honor of the skill and superiority which he had
+displayed in the histrionic art. Nero was extremely gratified at
+having such honors conferred upon him. He received the deputations
+which brought these tokens, with great pomp and parade, as if they
+had been embassadors from sovereign princes or states, sent to
+transact business of the most momentous concern. He gave them
+audience, in fact, before all others, and entertained them with
+feasts and spectacles, and conferred upon them every other mark of
+public consideration and honor. On one occasion, at a feast to which
+he had invited such a company of embassadors, one of them asked him
+to favor them with a song. The emperor at once complied, and sang a
+song for the entertainment of the company at the table. He was
+rapturously applauded, and was so delighted <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>with the enthusiasm
+which his performance awakened, as to exclaim that the Greeks were,
+after all, the only people that really had a taste for music; none
+but they, he said, could understand or appreciate a good song.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Olympic games.<br />The plain.<br />Rules.</div>
+
+<p>The most renowned of all the celebrations of the ancient Greeks were
+the Olympic games. These games constituted a grand national
+festival, which was held once in four years on a plain in the
+western part of the Peloponnesus, called the Olympian Plain. This
+plain was but little more than a mile in extent, and was bordered on
+one side by rocky hills, and on the other by the waters of a river.
+Here suitable structures were erected for the exhibition of the
+spectacles and games, and for the accommodation of the spectators,
+and when the period for the celebrations arrived, immense multitudes
+assembled from every part of Greece to witness the solemnities. The
+spectators, however, were all men; for with the exception of a few
+priestesses who had certain official duties to perform, no females
+were allowed to be present. The punishment for an attempt to evade
+this law was death; for if any woman attempted to witness the scene
+in disguise, the law was that she <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>was to be seized, if detected,
+and hurled down a neighboring precipice, to be killed by the fall.
+It is said, however, that only one case of such detection ever
+occurred, and in that case the woman was pardoned in consideration
+of the fact that her father, her brothers, and her son had all been
+victors in the games.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Preliminary arrangements of the Olympic games.</div>
+
+<p>The games continued for five days. The general arrangements were
+made, and the umpires were appointed, by the government of Elis,
+which was the state in which the Olympian plain was situated. There
+was a gymnasium in the vicinity, where those who intended to enter
+the lists as competitors were accustomed to put themselves in
+training. This training occupied nearly a year, and for thirty days
+previous to the public exhibition the exercises were conducted at
+this gymnasium in the same manner and form as at the games
+themselves. There was a large and regularly organized police
+provided to preserve order, and umpires appointed with great
+formality, to decide the contests and make the awards. These umpires
+were inducted into office by the most solemn oaths. They bound
+themselves by these oaths to give just and true decisions without
+fear or favor.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p><div class="sidenote">Various contests and spectacles at the Olympic games.</div>
+
+<p>The festival was opened, when the time arrived, in the evening, by
+the offering of sacrifices,&mdash;the services being conducted in the
+most imposing and solemn manner. On the following morning at
+daybreak the games and contests began. These consisted of races&mdash;in
+chariots, on horseback, and on foot,&mdash;the runners being in the
+latter case sometimes dressed lightly, and sometimes loaded with
+heavy armor;&mdash;of matches in leaping, wrestling, boxing, and throwing
+the discus;&mdash;and finally, of musical and poetical performances of
+various kinds. To obtain the prize in any of these contests was
+considered throughout the whole Grecian world as an honor of the
+highest degree.</p>
+
+<p>The period for the celebration of these games began to draw nigh, as
+it happened, not long after the time when the deputations from
+Greece came to Nero with the compliments and crowns decreed to him
+in token of their admiration of his public performances at
+Rome,&mdash;and it is not at all surprising that his attention and
+interest were strongly awakened by the approach of so renowned a
+festival. In short he resolved to go to Greece, and display his
+powers before the immense and distinguished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> audiences that were to
+assemble on the Olympic plains.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero sets out for Greece.<br />His retinue.</div>
+
+<p>He accordingly organized a very large retinue of attendants and
+followers, and prepared to set out on his journey. This retinue was
+in numbers quite an army; but in character it was a mere troop of
+actors, musicians and buffoons. It was made up almost wholly of
+people connected in various ways with the stage, so that the baggage
+which followed in its train, instead of being formed of arms and
+munitions of war, as was usual when a great Roman commander had
+occasion to pass out of Italy, consisted of harps, fiddles, masks,
+buskins, and such other stage property as was in use in those
+times,&mdash;while the company itself was formed almost entirely of
+comedians, singers, dancers, and wrestlers, with an immense retinue
+of gay and dissipated men and women, who exemplified every possible
+stage of moral debasement and degradation. With this company Nero
+crossed to the eastern shore of Italy, and there, embarking on board
+the vessels which had been prepared for the voyage, he sailed over
+the Adriatic sea to the shores of Greece.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero's progress through Greece.<br />Crowds of auditors.<br />Nero is received with great applause.</div>
+
+<p>He landed at Cassiope, a town in the northern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> part of the island of
+Corcyra. Here there was a temple to Jupiter, and the first of Nero's
+exploits was to go there and sing, being impatient, it would seem,
+to give the people of Greece a specimen of his powers immediately on
+landing. After this he passed over to the continent, and thence
+advanced into the heart of Greece, playing, singing, and acting in
+all the cities through which he passed. As there were yet some
+months to elapse before the period for celebrating the Olympic
+games, Nero had ample time for making this tour. He was of course
+everywhere received with the most unbounded applause, for of course
+those only, in general, who were most pleased with such amusements,
+and were most inclined to approve of Nero's exhibiting himself as a
+performer, came together in the assemblies which convened to hear
+him. Thus it happened that the virtuous, the cultivated, and the
+refined, remained at their homes; while all the idle, reckless,
+and dissolute spirits of the land flocked in crowds to the
+entertainments which their imperial visitor offered them. These men,
+of course, considered it quite a triumph for them that so
+distinguished a potentate should take an active part in ministering
+to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>their pleasures; and thus wherever Nero went he was sure to be
+attended by crowds, and his performances, whether skillful or not,
+could not fail of being extravagantly extolled in conversation, and
+of eliciting in the theaters thunders of applause. The consequence
+was that Nero was delighted with the enthusiasm which his
+performances seemed everywhere to awaken. To be thus received and
+thus applauded in the cities of Greece, seemed to satisfy his
+highest ambition.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The crown of olive leaves.<br />Ceremonies.<br />Sacrifices and festivities.</div>
+
+<p>It has always been considered a very extraordinary proof of mental
+and moral degradation on the part of Nero, that he could thus
+descend from the exalted sphere of responsibility and duty to which
+his high official station properly consigned him, in order to mingle
+in such scenes and engage in such contests as were exhibited in the
+ordinary theaters and circuses in Greece. It is however not so
+surprising that he should have been willing to appear as a
+competitor at the Olympic games: so prominent were these games above
+all the other athletic and military celebrations of that age, and so
+great was the value attached to the honor of a victory obtained in
+them. There was, it is true, no value in the prize itself, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>that was
+bestowed upon the victors. There was no silver cup, or golden crown,
+or sum of money staked upon the issue. The only direct award was a
+crown of olive leaves, which, at the close of the contest, was
+placed upon the head of the victor. Everything pertaining to this
+crown was connected with the most imposing and peculiar ceremonies.
+The leaves from which the garland was made were obtained from a
+certain sacred olive-tree, which grew in a consecrated grove in
+Olympia. The tree itself had been originally brought, it was said,
+from the country of the Hyperboreans, by Hercules, and planted in
+Olympia, where it was sacredly preserved to furnish garlands for the
+victors in the games. The leaves were cut from the tree by a boy
+chosen for the purpose. He gathered the leaves by means of a golden
+sickle, which was set apart expressly to this use. When the time
+arrived for the crowning of the victor, the candidate was brought
+forward in presence of a vast concourse of spectators, and placed
+upon a tripod, which was originally formed of bronze, but in
+subsequent ages was wrought in ivory and gold. Branches of
+palm-trees, the usual symbols of victory, were placed in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>his hands.
+His name and that of his father and of the country whence he came,
+were proclaimed with great ceremony by the heralds. The crown was
+then placed upon his head, and the festival ended with processions
+and sacrifices and a public banquet given in honor of the occasion.
+On his return to his own country, the victor entered the capital by
+a triumphal procession, and was usually rewarded there by immunities
+and privileges of the most important character.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero at Olympia.<br />His chariot race.<br />Nero receives the prizes.</div>
+
+<p>At length the time arrived for the celebration of the Olympic games,
+and Nero repaired to the spot, following the vast throngs that were
+proceeding thither from every part of Greece, and there entered into
+competition with all the common singers and players of the time. The
+prize for excellence in music was awarded to him. It was, however,
+generally understood that the judges were bribed to decide in his
+favor. Nero entered as a competitor, too, in the chariot race; and
+here he was successful in winning the prize; though in this case it
+was decreed to him in plain and open violation of all rule. He
+undertook to drive ten horses in this race; but he found the team
+too much for him to control.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> The horses became unmanageable; Nero
+was thrown out of his carriage and was so much hurt that he could
+not finish the race at all. He, however, insisted that accidents and
+casualties were not to be taken into the account, and that inasmuch
+as he should certainly have outran his competitors if he had not
+been prevented by misfortune, he claimed that the judges should
+award him the prize. Greatly to his delight the judges did so. It is
+true they were bound by the most solemn oaths to make just and true
+decisions; but it has been seldom found in the history of the world
+that official oaths constitute any serious barrier against the
+demands or encroachments of emperors or kings.</p>
+
+<p>When the games were ended Nero conferred very rich rewards upon all
+the judges.</p>
+
+<p>These successes at the Olympic games, nominal and empty as they
+really were, seemed to have inflamed the emperor's vanity and
+ambition more than ever. Instead of returning to Rome he commenced
+another tour through the heart of Greece, singing and playing in all
+the cities where he went, and challenging all the most distinguished
+actors <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>and performers to meet him and contend with him for prizes.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero sends despatches to Rome.</div>
+
+<p>Of course the prizes were always awarded to Nero on this tour, as
+they had been at the Olympic games. Nero sent home regular
+despatches after each of his performances, to inform the Roman
+Senate of his victories, just as former emperors had been accustomed
+to send military bulletins to announce the progress of their armies,
+and the conquests which they had gained in battle; and with a degree
+of vanity and folly which seems almost incredible, he called upon
+the Senate to institute religious celebrations and sacrifices in
+Rome, and great public processions, in order to signalize and
+commemorate these great successes, and to express the gratitude of
+the people to the gods for having vouchsafed them. Not satisfied
+with expecting this parade of public rejoicing in Rome, he called
+upon the Senate to ordain that similar services should be held in
+all the cities and towns throughout the empire.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His plan for cutting through the Isthmus of Corinth.</div>
+
+<p>During the visit of Nero to Greece, he engaged in one undertaking
+which might be denominated a useful enterprise, though he managed it
+with such characteristic imbecility<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> and folly, that it ended, as
+might have been foreseen, in a miserable failure. The plan which he
+conceived, was to cut through the Isthmus of Corinth, so as to open
+a ship communication between the Ionian and the &AElig;gean seas. Such a
+canal, he thought, would save for many vessels the long and
+dangerous voyage around the Peloponnesus, and thus prevent many of
+the wrecks which then annually took place on the shores of the
+Peninsula, and which were often attended with the destruction of
+much property and of many lives.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Breaking ground.<br />The golden pick-axe.</div>
+
+<p>The plan might thus have been a very good one, had any proper and
+efficient means been adopted for carrying it into execution; but in
+all that he did in this respect, Nero seems to have looked no
+farther than to the performance of pompous and empty ceremonies in
+commencing the work. He convened a great public assembly on the
+ground. He entertained this assembly with spectacles and shows. He
+then placed himself at the head of his life-guards, and, after a
+speech of great promise and pretension, he advanced at the head of a
+procession, singing and dancing by the way, to the place where the
+first ground <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>was to be broken. Here he made three strokes with a
+golden pick-axe, which had been provided for the occasion, and
+putting the earth which he had loosened into a basket, he carried it
+away to a short distance, and threw it out upon the ground. This
+ceremony was meant for the commencement of the canal; and when it
+was over, the company dispersed, and Nero was escorted by his guards
+back to the city of Corinth, which lay at a few miles' distance from
+the scene.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing more was ever done. Nero issued orders, it is true, that all
+the criminals, convicts, and prisoners in Greece, should be
+transported to the Isthmus, and set to work upon this canal; and
+some Jewish captives were actually employed there for a time; but,
+for some reason or other, nothing was done. The actual work was
+never seriously undertaken.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Helius calls upon Nero to return to Rome.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time, Nero had left the government at Rome in the hands
+of a certain ignoble favorite, named Helius, who, being placed in
+command of the army during his master's absence, held the lives and
+fortunes of all the inhabitants at his supreme disposal, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>and, as
+might have been expected, he pursued such a career of cruelty and
+oppression, in his attempts to overawe and subject those who were
+under his power, that a universal feeling of hostility and hatred
+was awakened against him. Things at last assumed so alarming an
+attitude, that Helius was terrified in his turn, and at length he
+began to send for Nero to come home. Nero at first paid no attention
+to these requests. The danger, however, increased; the crisis became
+extremely imminent, so that a general insurrection was anticipated.
+Helius sent messengers after messengers to Nero, imploring him to
+return, if he wished to save himself from ruin;&mdash;but all the answer
+that he could obtain from Nero was, that, if Helius truly loved him,
+he would not envy him the glory that he was acquiring in Greece;
+but, instead of hastening his return, would rather wish that he
+should come back worthy of himself, after having fully accomplished
+his victories. At last Helius, growing desperate in view of the
+impending danger, left Rome, and, traveling with all possible
+dispatch, night and day, came to Nero in Greece, and there made such
+statements and disclosures <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>in respect to the condition of things at
+Rome, that Nero at length reluctantly concluded to return.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero returns.<br />His train.<br />His prizes.</div>
+
+<p>He accordingly set out in grand state on his journey westward,
+escorted by his body-guard, and with his motley and innumerable
+horde of singers, dancers, poets, actors, and mountebanks in his
+train. He brought with him the prizes which he had won in the
+various cities of Greece. The number of these prizes, it was said,
+was more than eighteen hundred. On his way through Greece, when
+about to return to Rome, he went to Delphi, to consult the sacred
+oracle there, in respect to his future fortunes. The reply of the
+Pythoness was, "<i>Beware of seventy-three.</i>" This answer gave Nero
+great satisfaction and pleasure. It meant, he had no doubt, that he
+had no danger to fear until he should have attained to the age of
+seventy-three; and as he was yet not quite thirty, the response of
+the oracle seemed to put so far away the evil day, that he thought
+he might dismiss it from his mind altogether. So he repaid the
+oracle for the flattering prediction with most magnificent presents,
+and pursued his journey toward Rome with a mind quite at ease.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His voyage.<br />Danger of shipwreck.</div>
+
+<p>The ships in which he embarked to cross the Adriatic on his return
+to Italy encountered a terrible storm, by which they were dispersed,
+and many of them were destroyed. Nero himself had a very narrow
+escape, as the ship which he was in came very near being lost. To
+see him in this danger seems greatly to have pleased some of his
+attendants, for so imperious and cruel was his temper, that he was
+generally hated by all who came under his power. These men hated him
+so intensely that they were willing, as it would appear, to perish
+themselves, for the pleasure of witnessing his destruction; and in
+the extreme moments of danger they openly manifested this feeling.
+The vessel, however, was saved, and Nero, as soon as he landed,
+ordered these persons all to be slain.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Journey to Rome.<br />His triumphal entry into Rome.</div>
+
+<p>On landing he gathered together the scattered remnants of his
+company, and organizing a new escort, he advanced toward Rome, in a
+grand triumphal march, displaying his prizes and crowns in all the
+great cities through which he passed, and claiming universal homage.
+When he arrived at the gates of Rome, he made preparations for a
+grand triumphal entry to the city, in the manner<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> of great military
+conquerors. A breach was made in the walls for the admission of the
+procession. Nero rode in the triumphal chariot of Augustus, with a
+distinguished Greek harpist by his side, who wore an Olympic crown
+upon his head, and carried another crown in his hand. Before this
+chariot marched a company of eighteen hundred men, each of them
+carrying one of the crowns which Nero had won, with an inscription
+for the spectators to read, signifying where the crown had been won,
+the name of the emperor's competitor, the title of the song which he
+had sung, and other similar particulars. In this way he traversed
+the principal streets, exhibiting himself and his trophies to the
+populace, and finally when he arrived at his house, he entered it
+with great pomp and parade, and caused the crowns to be hung up upon
+the innumerable statues of himself which had been erected in the
+courts and halls of the building. Those which he valued most highly
+he placed conspicuously around his bed in his bedchamber, in order
+that they might be the last objects for his eyes to rest upon at
+night, and the first to greet his view in the morning.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His proceedings.<br />He continues the training of his voice.<br />The <i>Phonascus</i>.<br />Public performances.</div>
+
+<p>As soon as he became established in Rome again, he began to form new
+plans for developing his powers and capacities as a musician, in the
+hope of gaining still higher triumphs than those to which he had
+already attained. Far from giving his time and attention to the
+public business of the empire, he devoted himself with new zeal and
+enthusiasm to the cultivation of his art. In doing this it was
+necessary, according to the customs and usages in respect to the
+training of musicians that prevailed in those days, that he should
+submit to rules and exercises most absurd and degrading to one
+holding such a station as his; and as accounts of his mode of life
+circulated among the community, he became an object of general
+ridicule and contempt. In order to strengthen his lungs and improve
+his voice he used to lie on his back with a plate of lead upon his
+chest, that the lungs, working under such a burden, might acquire
+strength by the effort. He took powerful medicines, such as were
+supposed in those days to act upon the system in such a manner as to
+produce clearness and resonance in the tones of the voice. He
+subjected himself to the most rigid rules of diet,&mdash;and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>gave up the
+practice of addressing the senate and the army, which the Roman
+emperors often had occasion to do, for fear that speaking so loud
+might strain his voice and injure the sweetness of its tones. He had
+a special officer in his household, called his <i>Phonascus</i>, meaning
+his voice-keeper. This officer was to watch him at all times,
+caution him against speaking too loud or too fast,&mdash;prescribe for
+him, and in every way take care that his voice received no
+detriment. During all this time Nero was continually performing in
+public, and though his performances were protracted and tedious to
+the last degree, all the Roman nobility were compelled always to
+attend them, under pain of his horrible displeasure.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Pecuniary embarassments.<br />Bessus's story.</div>
+
+<p>As Nero went on thus in the career which he had chosen,&mdash;neglecting
+altogether the affairs of government, and giving himself up more and
+more every year to the most expensive dissipation, his finances
+became at length greatly involved, and he was compelled to resort to
+every possible form of extortion, in order to raise the money that
+he required. His pecuniary embarrassments became, at length, very
+perplexing, and they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>were finally very much increased by the
+extraordinary folly which he displayed in giving credence to the
+dreams and promises of a certain adventurer who came to him from
+Africa. The name of this man was Bessus. He was a native of
+Carthage. He came, at one time, to Rome, and having contrived, by
+means of presents and bribes which he offered to the officers of
+Nero's household, to obtain an audience of the emperor, he informed
+him that he had intelligence of the highest importance to
+communicate, which was, that on his estate in Africa, there was a
+large cavern, in which was stored an immense treasure. This treasure
+consisted, he said, of vast heaps of golden ingots, rude and
+shapeless in form, but composed of pure and precious metal. The
+cavern, he said, which contained these stores, was very spacious,
+and the gold lay piled in it in heaps, and sometimes in solid
+columns, towering to a prodigious height. These treasures had been
+deposited there, he said, by Dido, the ancient Carthaginian queen,
+and they had remained there so long, that all knowledge of them had
+been lost. They had been reserved, in a word, for Nero, and were all
+now at his disposal,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> ready to be brought out and employed in
+promoting the glory and magnificence of his reign.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero sends to Egypt for the treasure.</div>
+
+<p>Nero readily gave credit to this story, and inasmuch as in the
+exuberance of his exultation he made known this wonderful discovery
+to those around him, the tidings of it soon spread throughout the
+city, and produced the most intense excitement among all classes.
+Nero immediately began to fit out an expedition to proceed to
+Africa, and bring the treasure home. Galleys were equipped to convey
+it, and a body of troops was designated to escort it, and suitable
+officers appointed to proceed with Bessus to Carthage, and
+superintend the transportation of the metal. These preparations
+necessarily required some time, and during the interval Bessus was
+of course the object at Rome of universal attention and regard. Nero
+himself, finding that he was about to enter upon the possession of
+such inexhaustible treasures, dismissed all concern in respect to
+his finances, and launched out into wilder extravagance than ever.
+He raised money for the present moment, by assigning shares in the
+treasure at exorbitant rates of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>discount, and thus borrowed and
+expended with the most unbounded profusion.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His disappointment.<br />The dream.</div>
+
+<p>At length the expedition sailed for Carthage, taking Bessus with
+them,&mdash;but all search for the cavern, when they arrived, was
+unavailing. It proved that all the evidence which Bessus had of the
+existence of the cave, and of the heaps of gold contained in it, was
+derived from certain remarkable dreams which he had had,&mdash;and though
+Nero's commissioners dug into the ground most faithfully in every
+place on the estate which the dreams had indicated, no treasure, and
+not even the cavern, could ever be found.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="Chapter_XIII" id="Chapter_XIII"></a><span class="smcap">Chapter XIII.</span></h2>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">Nero's End.</span></h2>
+
+<h3>A.D. 66.</h3>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Galba.</div>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:50px;line-height:32px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span><span style="margin-left:0%;">he</span> successor of Nero in the line of Roman emperors, was Galba.
+Galba, though a son of one of the most illustrious Roman families,
+was born in Spain, and he was about forty years older than Nero,
+being now over seventy, while Nero was yet but thirty years of age.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His history.<br />His province.</div>
+
+<p>During the whole course of his life, Galba had been a very
+distinguished commander, and had risen from one post of influence
+and honor to another, until he became one of the most considerable
+personages in the state. Nero at length appointed him to the command
+of a very large and important province in Spain. At this station
+Galba remained some years, and he was here, attending regularly to
+the duties of his government, at the time when Nero returned from
+his expedition into Greece. Galba himself, and all the other
+governors around him, felt the same indignation at Nero's cruelties
+and crimes, and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>same contempt for his low and degrading vanity
+and folly, that prevailed so generally at Rome. In fact, feelings of
+exasperation and hatred against the tyrant, began to extend
+universally throughout the empire. The people in every quarter, in
+fact, seemed ripe for insurrection.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Revolt of Vindex.<br />Embassadors sent to Galba.</div>
+
+<p>While things were in this state, a messenger arrived one day at
+Galba's court, from a certain chieftain of the Gauls, named Julius
+Vindex. This messenger came to announce to Galba that Vindex had
+revolted against the Roman government in Gaul. He declared, however,
+that it was only <i>Nero's</i> power that Vindex intended to resist, and
+promised that if Galba would himself assume the supreme command,
+Vindex would acknowledge allegiance to him, and would do all in his
+power to promote his cause. He said, moreover, that such was the
+detestation in which Nero was universally held, that there was no
+doubt that the whole empire would sustain Galba in effecting such a
+revolution, if he would once raise his standard. At the same time
+that this messenger came from Vindex, another came from the Roman
+governor of the province of Gaul, where Vindex resided, to inform
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>Galba of the revolt, and asking for a detachment of troops to
+assist him in putting it down. Galba called a council, and laid the
+subject before them.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Debates in the council.</div>
+
+<p>After some debate one of the councillors rose and said that there
+was no more danger in openly joining Vindex in his rebellion, than
+there was in debating, in such a council, what they should do. "It
+is just as treasonable," said he, "to doubt and hesitate whether to
+send troops to put down the revolt, as it would be openly to rebel;
+and Nero will so regard it. My counsel therefore is that, unless you
+choose to be considered as aiding the revolution, you should
+instantly send off troops to put it down."</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Galba joins Vindex.</div>
+
+<p>Galba was much impressed with the wisdom of this advice. He felt
+strongly inclined to favor the cause of Vindex and the rebels, and
+on further reflection he secretly determined to join them, and to
+take measures for raising a general insurrection. He did not,
+however, make known his determination to any one, but dismissed the
+council without declaring what he had concluded to do. Soon
+afterward he sent out to all parts of the province, and ordered a
+general mustering of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>forces under his command, and of all that
+could be raised throughout the province, requiring them to meet at a
+certain appointed rendezvous. The army, though not openly informed
+of it, suspected what the object of this movement was to be, and
+came forward to the work, with the utmost alacrity and joy.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">News of the rebellion meets Nero at Naples.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time the tidings of Vindex's revolt traveled rapidly to
+Rome, and thence to Naples, where Nero was at this time performing
+on the public stage. Nero seemed to be very much delighted to hear
+the news. He supposed that the rebellion would of course be very
+easily suppressed, and that when it was suppressed he could make it
+an excuse for subjecting the province in which it had occurred to
+fines and confiscations that would greatly enrich his treasury. He
+was extremely pleased therefore at the tidings of the revolt, and
+abandoned himself to the theatrical pursuits and pleasures in which
+he was engaged, more absolutely and recklessly than ever.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The proclamation of Vindex.<br />Nero's ire.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time fresh messengers arrived at short intervals from
+Rome, to inform Nero of the progress of the rebellion. The news was
+that Vindex was gaining strength every <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>day, and was issuing
+proclamations to the people calling upon them everywhere to rise and
+throw off the ignoble yoke of oppression which they were enduring.
+In these proclamations the emperor was called Brazenbeard, and
+designated as a "wretched fiddler." These taunts excited Nero's ire.
+He wrote to the Senate at Rome calling upon them to adopt some
+measures for putting down this insolent rebel, and having dispatched
+this letter, he seemed to dismiss the subject from his mind, and
+turned his attention anew to his dancing and acting.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero plans new performances.<br />The new instruments.</div>
+
+<p>His mind was, however, soon disturbed again, for fresh messengers
+continued to come, each bringing reports more alarming than those of
+his predecessor. The rebellion was evidently gaining ground. Nero
+was convinced that something must be done. He accordingly broke
+away, though with great reluctance, from his amusements at Naples,
+and proceeded to Rome. On his arrival at the capital he called a
+council of some of his principal ministers of state, and after a
+short consultation on the subject of the rebellion&mdash;in which,
+however, nothing was determined upon&mdash;he proceeded to produce some
+newly-invented<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> musical instruments which he had brought with him
+from Naples, and in which he was greatly interested. After showing
+and explaining these instruments to the councilors, he promised them
+that he would give them the pleasure before long of hearing a
+performance upon them, on the stage,&mdash;"provided," he added jocosely,
+"that this Vindex will give me leave."</p>
+
+<p>The councilors at length withdrew, and Nero remained in his
+apartment. On retiring to rest, however, he found that he could not
+sleep. His thoughts were running on the musical instruments which he
+had been showing, and on the pleasure which he anticipated in a
+public performance with them. At length, at a very late hour, he
+sent for his councilors to come again to his apartment. They came,
+full of excitement and wonder, supposing that they were thus
+suddenly summoned on account of some new and very momentous tidings
+which had been received from Gaul. They found, however, that Nero
+only wished to give some further account of the instruments which he
+had shown them, and to ask their opinions of certain improvements
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>which had occurred to him since they went away.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Galba joins the insurrection.</div>
+
+<p>Nero did not, however, remain very long in this state of insane and
+stupid unconcern; for on the evening of the following day a courier
+arrived from the north with the appalling intelligence that Vindex
+had made himself master of Gaul, and that Galba, the most powerful
+general in the Roman army, had joined the insurrection with all the
+legions under his command, and that he was now advancing toward Rome
+at the head of his armies with the avowed purpose of deposing Nero,
+and making himself emperor in his stead.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero appalled.</div>
+
+<p>Nero was at first absolutely stupefied at hearing these tidings. He
+remained for some time silent and motionless, as if made completely
+senseless with consternation. When at length he came to himself
+again, he fell into a perfect frenzy of rage and terror. He
+overturned the supper table, tore his garments, threw down two
+valuable cups to the floor and broke them to pieces, and then began
+to dash his head against the wall, as if he were perfectly insane.
+He said he was undone. No man had ever been so wretched. His
+dominions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> were to be seized from him while he yet lived, and held
+by an usurper; he was utterly ruined and undone.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His plans for vengeance.<br />He is restrained.</div>
+
+<p>After a little time had elapsed the agitation and excitement of his
+mind took another direction, that of furious anger against the
+generals and officers of his army,&mdash;not only those who had actually
+rebelled, but all others, for he was jealous and suspicious of all,
+and said that he believed that the whole army was engaged in the
+conspiracy. He was going to send out orders to the various provinces
+and encampments, for the assassination of great numbers of the
+officers,&mdash;such as he imagined might be inclined to turn against
+him,&mdash;and he would probably have done so if he had not been
+restrained by the influence of his ministers of state. He also
+proposed to seize and kill all the Gauls then in Rome, as a mode of
+taking vengeance on their countrymen for joining Vindex in his
+rebellion, and could scarcely be prevented from doing this by the
+urgent remonstrances of all his friends.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">He attempts to raise an army.<br />Slaves.</div>
+
+<p>After a time Nero so far recovered his self-possession that he began
+to make preparations for organizing an army, with the design of
+marching against the rebels. He accordingly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>ordered troops to be
+enlisted and arms and ammunition to be provided,&mdash;assessing at the
+same time heavy taxes upon the people of Rome to defray the expense.
+All these arrangements, however, only increased the general
+discontent. The people saw that the preparations which the emperor
+was making were wholly inadequate to the crisis, and that no
+efficient military operations could ever come from them. In the
+first place, he could obtain no troops, for no men fit for soldiers
+were willing to enlist,&mdash;and so he undertook to supply the
+deficiency by requiring every master of slaves to send him a certain
+number of his bondmen, and these bondmen he freed and then enrolled
+them in his army, in lieu of soldiers. Moreover, in making provision
+for the wants of his army, instead of devoting his chief attention
+to securing a sufficiency of arms, ammunition, military stores, and
+other such supplies as were required in preparing for an efficient
+campaign, he seemed only interested in getting together actors,
+dancers, musical instruments, and dresses for performers on the
+public stage. In excuse for this course of procedure, Nero said
+frankly that he did not expect that his expedition would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>lead to
+any important military operations. As soon as he reached the rebel
+armies his intention was, he said, to throw himself upon their sense
+of justice and their loyalty. He would acknowledge whatever had been
+wrong in his past government, and promise solemnly that his sway in
+future should be more mild and beneficent; and he had no doubt that
+thus the whole disturbance would be quelled. The revolted troops
+would at once return to their duty, and the musical and theatrical
+preparations which he was making were intended for a series of grand
+festivities to celebrate the reconciliation.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero's hopeless condition.<br />His plans for escape.<br />The arrival of the cargoes of sand from Egypt.</div>
+
+<p>Of course such insane and hopeless folly as this awakened a
+sentiment of universal contempt and indignation among the people of
+Rome. The greatest excitement and confusion prevailed throughout the
+city; and, as is usual in times of public panic, money and
+provisions were hid away by those who possessed them, in secret
+hoards; and this soon occasioned a great scarcity of food. The
+city, in fact, was threatened with famine. In the midst of the
+alarm and anxiety which this state of things occasioned, two ships
+arrived from Egypt, at Ostia, and the news produced <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>a general
+rejoicing,&mdash;it being supposed, of course, that the ships were laden
+with corn. It proved, however, that there was no corn on board.
+Instead of food for the metropolis, the cargo consisted of <i>sand</i>,
+intended to form the <i>arena</i> of some of the emperor's amphitheaters,
+for the gladiators and wrestlers to stand upon, in contending. This
+incident seemed to fill the cup of public indignation to the brim;
+and, as news arrived just at this time that the rebellion had
+extended into Germany, and that all the legions in the German
+provinces had gone over to Galba, Nero's power began to be
+considered at an end. Tumults prevailed everywhere throughout the
+city, and assemblies were held, threatening open defiance to the
+authority of the emperor, and declaring the readiness of the people
+to acknowledge Galba so soon as he should arrive.</p>
+
+<p>Nero was now more terrified than ever. He knew not what to do. He
+fled from his palace, and sought a retreat in certain gardens
+near&mdash;acting in this, however, under the influence of a blind and
+instinctive fear, rather than from any rational hope of securing his
+safety by seeking such a place of refuge.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">His distraction and terror.<br />Nero proposes to fly to Egypt.</div>
+
+<p>In fact, he was now perfectly distracted with terror. He procured
+some poison before he left his palace, and carried it in a small
+golden box with him to the gardens; but he had not strength or
+resolution to take it. He then conceived of the plan of flying from
+Rome altogether. He would go at once to Ostia, he said, and there
+embark on board a ship and sail for Egypt, where, it might be
+supposed, he would be out of the reach of his enemies. He asked his
+officers and attendants if they would accompany him in this flight.
+But they refused to go.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">He sinks into hopeless despair.</div>
+
+<p>Then he began to talk of another plan. He would go and meet Galba as
+a suppliant, and, falling upon his knees before the conqueror, would
+implore him to spare his life. Or he would go into the Roman Forum,
+and make a humble and supplicatory address to the people there,
+imploring their forgiveness for his cruelties and crimes, and
+solemnly promising never to be guilty of such excesses again, if
+they would pardon and protect him. The by-standers told him that
+such a proceeding was wholly out of the question; for if he were to
+go forth for such a purpose from his retreat, the people were in
+such a frenzy of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>excitement against him, that they would tear him
+to pieces before he could reach the Rostra. In a word, the
+distracted thoughts of the wretched criminal turned this way and
+that, in the wild agitation with which remorse and terror filled his
+mind, vainly seeking some way of escape from the awful dangers which
+were circling and narrowing so rapidly around him. There was, in
+fact, no hope now left for him&mdash;no refuge, no protection, no
+possibility of escape; and so, after suddenly seizing, and as
+suddenly abandoning, one impracticable scheme after another, his
+mind became wholly bewildered, and he sank down, at length, into a
+condition of blank and hopeless despair.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The night.<br />He is deserted by his guards.</div>
+
+<p>Although the insurrection had become very general in the provinces,
+the troops in the city, consisting chiefly of the emperor's guards,
+yet remained faithful; and now as the night was coming on, they were
+stationed as usual at their respective posts in various parts of the
+city and at the palace gates. Nero retired to rest. He found,
+however, that he could not sleep. At midnight he rose, and came
+forth from his apartment. He was surprised to find that there was no
+sentinel at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>the door. On farther examination he found to his
+amazement that the palace guards had been wholly withdrawn. He was
+thunderstruck at making this discovery. He returned into the palace
+and aroused some of the domestics, and then went forth with them to
+the residences of some of his chief ministers, who resided near, to
+ask for help. He could, however, nowhere gain admission. He found
+the houses all closely shut up, and by all his knocking at the doors
+he could get no answer from any persons within. He then came back in
+great distress and alarm to his own apartment. He found that it had
+been broken into during the short time that he had been gone, and
+rifled of every thing valuable that it contained. Even his golden
+box of poison had been carried away. In a word the great sovereign
+of half the world found that he had been abandoned by all his
+adherents, and left in a condition of utter and absolute exposure.
+The guards had concluded to declare for Galba, and had accordingly
+gone away, leaving the fallen tyrant to his fate.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">He calls for a gladiator.</div>
+
+<p>Nero called desperately to his servants to send for a gladiator to
+thrust him through with a sword, but no one would go. "Alas!" <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>he
+exclaimed, "has it come to this? Am I so utterly abandoned that I
+have not even enemies left who are willing to kill me?"</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Phaon proposes a place of retreat.</div>
+
+<p>After a little time he began to be a little more composed, and
+expressed a wish that he knew of some place in the environs of the
+city where he could go and conceal himself for a little time until
+he could determine what to do. One of the servants of his household
+named Phaon, told him that he had a country-house near the city,
+where, perhaps, Nero might hide. Nero immediately resolved to go
+there. The better to conceal his flight he disguised himself in mean
+apparel, and tied a handkerchief about his face; and then, mounting
+on horseback in company with two or three attendants, he proceeded
+out of the city. As he went, it thundered and lightened from time to
+time, and Nero was greatly terrified. He supposed that the commotion
+of the elements was occasioned by the spirits of those whom he had
+murdered coming now to persecute and torment him in the hour of his
+extremity.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero's flight from the city.<br />Incidents.</div>
+
+<p>He passed, during his ride, a station of the guard which happened to
+be on his way, and heard the soldiers cursing him as he went by,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>and expressing joy at his downfall. Soon after this he overheard a
+passenger whom his party met on the road, say to his companion, when
+he saw Nero and his attendants riding by, "These men no doubt are
+going in pursuit of the emperor." Another man whom they met on the
+way stopped them to ask what news there was in town about the
+emperor. In these occurrences, though they of course tended to
+increase the agitation and excitement of Nero's mind, there was
+nothing particularly alarming; but at length an incident happened
+which frightened the fugitive extremely. He was passing a place
+where a carcass lay by the side of the road. Some soldiers of the
+guard were standing near. The horse that Nero rode was startled at
+the sight of the carcass, and springing suddenly shook down the
+handkerchief from Nero's face. One of the soldiers by this means
+obtained a view of his countenance, and exclaimed that that was the
+emperor. Nero was so much alarmed at this that he hastened on, and
+as soon as he was out of the view of the men who had seen him, he
+leaped from his horse, and calling upon his attendants to dismount
+too and follow him, he ran into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>an adjoining thicket, among bushes
+and briers, and thence the whole party made their way circuitously
+round to the rear of Phaon's grounds. Here they stopped and hid
+themselves till they could contrive some way to get through or over
+the wall.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">He refuses to be buried before he is dead.</div>
+
+<p>There was a pit near by, which had been made by digging for sand.
+Phaon proposed that Nero should hide in this pit until an opening
+could be made in the wall. But Nero refused to do this, saying that
+he would not be buried before he was dead. So he remained hid in the
+thickets while Phaon went to work to make an opening in the wall.</p>
+
+<p>The wall was not of a very substantial character; if it had been, it
+would not have been possible for Phaon, with the means at his
+command, to have effected a passage. As it was, he succeeded, though
+with difficulty, in loosening some of the stones, so as gradually to
+make an opening.</p>
+
+<p>Nero was engaged, while this work was going on, in pulling the
+briers out of his clothes and flesh, and being thirsty, he went down
+to a ditch that was near, and drank, taking up the water in his
+hands. As he drank, he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>groaned out, "Oh, can it be that I have come
+to this!"</p>
+
+<p><a name="wall" id="wall"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 332px;">
+<img src="images/i313.jpg" class="ispace" width="332" height="300" alt="Phaon at the Wall." title="" />
+<span class="caption"><span class="smcap">Phaon at the Wall.</span></span></div>
+
+<div class="sidenote2">He gets through the wall.<br />He is concealed.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time, Phaon went on with his work, and soon succeeded in
+making a hole in the wall sufficient for his purpose, and then the
+men dragged Nero through. They brought him into the house, and shut
+him up in a small and secret apartment there.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Phaon counsels Nero to kill himself.</div>
+
+<p>Nero now felt relieved from the extreme terror which he had suffered
+during his flight; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>but the feelings of terror subsided in his mind,
+only to give place to the still more dreadful pangs of remorse and
+horror. He moaned continually in his anguish, and incessantly
+repeated the words, "My father, my mother, and my wife doom me to
+destruction." These were indeed the words of one of the tragedies
+which he had been accustomed to act upon the stage, but they
+expressed the remorse and anguish of his mind so truly, that they
+recurred continually to his lips. Phaon and the men who had brought
+him to the house, finding it impossible to calm him, and seeing no
+hope of his final escape from death, and perhaps, moreover, wishing
+to relieve themselves of what was now fast becoming a serious
+burthen to them, recommended to him to kill himself,&mdash;and thus, as
+they said, since he must die, die like a man. Finally, Nero seemed
+to yield to their urgings. He said that he would kill himself as
+they desired. They might go out and dig a grave for him, and prepare
+wood and water for washing the body. While giving these orders he
+moaned and groaned continually, as if in a state of delirium.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Nero is condemned by the Senate.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time the morning had come, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>and at Rome all was
+excitement and commotion. The Senate came together and proclaimed
+Galba emperor. They also passed a decree pronouncing Nero an enemy
+to the state, and sentencing him to be punished as such in the
+ancient manner. When this news transpired, a friend of Phaon wrote a
+letter to him, giving an account of what the Senate had done, and
+sent it off with the utmost haste by a trusty messenger. The
+messenger arrived at Phaon's house, and brought the letter in. Nero
+seized it from Phaon's hands, and read it. "What is the ancient
+manner?" he asked, in a tone of great anxiety and terror. They told
+him that it was to be stripped naked, and then to be secured by
+having his head fastened in a pillory, and in that position to be
+whipped to death. At hearing this, Nero broke forth in fresh groans
+and lamentations. He could not endure such a death as that, he said,
+and he would kill himself, therefore, at once, if they would give
+him a dagger.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The daggers.</div>
+
+<p>There were daggers at hand. Nero took them, examined the points of
+them with a trembling touch, seemed undecided, and finally put them
+away again, saying that his hour was not yet quite come. Presently
+he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span>took one of the daggers again, and made a new attempt to awaken
+in himself sufficient resolution to strike the blow, but his courage
+failed him. He moaned and raved all this time in the most incoherent
+and distracted manner. He even begged that one of the attendants who
+were with him would take the dagger and kill himself first, in order
+to encourage Nero by letting him see that it was not after all so
+dreadful a thing to die. But no one of the attendants seemed
+sufficiently devoted to his master to be willing to render him such
+a service as this.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Armed men come to arrest Nero at Phaon's home.</div>
+
+<p>In the midst of this perplexity and delay a noise was heard as of
+horsemen riding up to the door. Nero was terrified anew at the
+sound. They were coming, he said, to seize him. He immediately drew
+one of the daggers, and putting it to his throat, attempted
+desperately to nerve himself to the work of driving it home. But he
+could not do it. The noise at the door in the mean time increased.
+Nero then gave the dagger to one of the men standing by, and begged
+that he would kill him. The man took the dagger with great
+reluctance, but presently gave the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>fatal stab, and Nero sank down
+upon the ground mortally wounded.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The soldiers attempt to save Nero.<br />He dies.</div>
+
+<p>At this moment the door was suddenly opened, and the soldiers that
+had just arrived came in. They had been sent by the Senate to search
+for the fugitive and bring him back to Rome. The centurion who
+commanded these men, advanced into the room, and looked at the
+fallen emperor, as he lay upon the floor, weltering in his blood. He
+had been commanded to bring the prisoner to the city, if possible,
+alive; and he accordingly ordered the soldiers to come to the dying
+man and endeavor to stanch his wounds and save him. But it was too
+late. Nero stared at them as they advanced to take hold of him, with
+a wild and frightful expression of countenance, which shocked all
+who saw him, and in the midst of this agony of terror, he sank down
+and died.</p>
+
+<p>The news of the tyrant's death spread with the utmost rapidity in
+all directions. A courier immediately set off for the north to carry
+tidings of the event to Galba. People flocked from all quarters to
+the house of Phaon to gaze on the lifeless body, and to exult in the
+monster's death. The people of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span>city gave themselves up to the
+wildest and most extravagant joy. They put on caps such as were worn
+by manumitted slaves when first obtaining their freedom, and roamed
+about the city expressing in every possible way the exultation they
+felt at their deliverance, and breaking down and destroying the
+statues of Nero wherever they could find them.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Galba's march to Rome.<br />Seventy-three.</div>
+
+<p>In the mean time Galba was steadily advancing on the way to Rome. In
+due time he made his entry into the city, and embassadors came to
+him there from all parts of the Roman world to acknowledge him as
+the reigning emperor. At this time he was seventy-three years old.
+So that the number seventy-three of which the oracle had warned Nero
+to beware, denoted the age of his rival and enemy,&mdash;not his own.</p>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The End.</span></h3>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+<h2><span class="smcap">Footnotes</span></h2>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> See <a href="#Frontispiece">map</a>. Frontispiece.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> By some it has been thought that the song which
+Britannicus sung on this occasion was one which he had learned
+before&mdash;one perhaps which he had accidentally seen or heard, and
+which had attracted his attention on account of its adaptedness to
+his own case; and there is a song of Ennius, an ancient writer,
+which is sometimes cited as the one he sang on this occasion. Others
+say that the performance was original and extemporaneous; that the
+young prince, excited by his wrongs, and by the peculiar
+circumstances of the occasion, gave utterance to his own feelings in
+words which suggested themselves to him on the spot. To do this
+would require, of course great intellectual readiness and
+ability,&mdash;but the difficulty of such a performance would be somewhat
+diminished by the fact, that the ancient poetry was wholly different
+from that of modern times, being marked only by a measured cadence,
+unconnected with rhyme.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> See <a href="#Frontispiece">map</a>. Frontispiece.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> It seems to have been considered by public men in those
+days, that to resolve on self-destruction was a much more honorable
+course to pursue in an extreme emergency like this, than to wait to
+be condemned and executed by the officers of the law. The attempt to
+frighten a man into the act of killing himself was accordingly <i>one</i>
+of the various modes which a tyrant might resort to, to remove those
+who were obnoxious to him.</p></div>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+<h3><span class="smcap">Transcriber's Notes</span></h3>
+
+<p>1. Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors, and to ensure consistent spelling and punctuation in this etext; otherwise,
+every effort has been made to remain true to the original book.</p>
+
+<p>2. The sidenotes used in this text were originally published as banners in the page headers, and have been moved to the relevant paragraph
+for the reader's convenience.</p>
+
+<p>3. Page numbers for many of the illustrations in this book have been changed in the Table of Engravings to reflect their final placement.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Nero, by Jacob Abbott
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+</body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,6481 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nero, by Jacob Abbott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Nero
+       Makers of History Series
+
+Author: Jacob Abbott
+
+Release Date: November 22, 2008 [EBook #27312]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NERO ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D. Alexander and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Makers of History
+
+ Nero
+
+ BY JACOB ABBOTT
+
+ WITH ENGRAVINGS
+
+ NEW YORK AND LONDON
+ HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
+ 1901
+
+
+
+
+ Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand
+ eight hundred and fifty-three, by
+
+ HARPER & BROTHERS,
+
+ in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District
+ of New York.
+
+ Copyright, 1881, by BENJAMIN VAUGHAN ABBOTT, AUSTIN ABBOTT, LYMAN
+ ABBOTT, and EDWARD ABBOTT.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: ENVIRONS OF ROME.]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In writing the series of historical narratives to which the present
+work pertains, it has been the object of the author to furnish to
+the reading community of this country an accurate and faithful
+account of the lives and actions of the several personages that are
+made successively the subjects of the volumes, following precisely
+the story which has come down to us from ancient times. The writer
+has spared no pains to gain access in all cases to the original
+sources of information, and has confined himself strictly to them.
+The reader may, therefore, feel assured in perusing any one of these
+works, that the interest of it is in no degree indebted to the
+invention of the author. No incident, however trivial, is ever added
+to the original account, nor are any words even, in any case,
+attributed to a speaker without express authority. Whatever of
+interest, therefore, these stories may possess, is due solely to the
+facts themselves which are recorded in them, and to their being
+brought together in a plain, simple, and connected narrative.
+
+
+
+
+ CONTENTS.
+
+
+ CHAPTER                                                    PAGE
+
+    I. NERO'S MOTHER                                          13
+
+   II. THE ASSASSINATION OF CALIGULA                          34
+
+  III. THE ACCESSION OF CLAUDIUS                              55
+
+   IV. THE FATE OF MESSALINA                                  77
+
+    V. THE CHILDHOOD OF NERO                                 105
+
+   VI. NERO AN EMPEROR                                       124
+
+  VII. BRITANNICUS                                           148
+
+ VIII. THE FATE OF AGRIPPINA                                 172
+
+   IX. EXTREME DEPRAVITY                                     208
+
+    X. PISO'S CONSPIRACY                                     228
+
+   XI. THE FATE OF THE CONSPIRATORS                          250
+
+  XII. THE EXPEDITION INTO GREECE                            272
+
+ XIII. NERO'S END                                            299
+
+
+
+
+ ENGRAVINGS.
+
+
+                                                            PAGE
+
+ MAP--ENVIRONS OF ROME                           _Frontispiece._
+
+ ENCAMPMENT OF A ROMAN LEGION                                 21
+
+ CAESONIA                                                      53
+
+ DISCOVERY OF CLAUDIUS                                        64
+
+ MESSALINA IN THE GARDEN                                      89
+
+ THE POISONING OF CLAUDIUS                                   132
+
+ THE JEWELRY                                                 156
+
+ THE ATTEMPT OF ANICETUS                                     197
+
+ BURNING OF ROME                                             225
+
+ THE KNIFE                                                   244
+
+ BRINGING EPICHARIS TO THE TORTURE                           253
+
+ PHAON AT THE WALL                                           316
+
+
+
+
+NERO
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+NERO'S MOTHER.
+
+A.D. 37
+
+Roman country seats.--Antium.--Situation of the promontory of
+Antium.--Account of Nero's parentage.--Brazenbeard.--Nero's
+father.--Agrippina his mother.--Agrippina's brother Caligula.--Roman
+emperors.--Regulations in respect to the Roman armies.--Description
+of the Roman armies.--Encampments of the legions.--Their
+stations.--Useful functions of the Roman armies.--Effects
+produced.--Mode of producing them.--The civil authorities.--The
+progress of the military power.--Disposition of men to submit to
+established power.--Great capacity of the early emperors.--Roman
+armies.--Character of Caligula.--His desperate malignity.--Examples
+of his cruelty.--Feeding wild beasts with men.--Branding.--Agrippina
+is implicated in a conspiracy.--She is banished with her sister to
+Pontia.
+
+
+In ancient times, when the city of Rome was at the height of its
+power and splendor, it was the custom, as it is in fact now with the
+inhabitants of wealthy capitals, for the principal families to
+possess, in addition to their city residences, rural villas for
+summer retreats, which they built in picturesque situations, at a
+little distance from the city, sometimes in the interior of the
+country, and sometimes upon the sea-shore. There were many
+attractive places of resort of this nature in the neighborhood of
+Rome. Among them was Antium.
+
+Antium was situated on the sea-coast about thirty miles south of the
+Tiber. A bold promontory here projects into the sea, affording from
+its declivities the most extended and magnificent views on every
+side. On the north, looking from the promontory of Antium, the eye
+follows the line of the coast away to the mouth of the Tiber; while,
+on the south, the view is terminated, at about the same distance, by
+the promontory of Circe, which is the second cape, or promontory,
+that marks the shore of Italy in going southward from Rome. Toward
+the interior, from Antium, there extends a broad and beautiful
+plain, bounded by wooded hills toward the shore, and by ranges of
+mountains in the distance beyond. On the southern side of the cape,
+and sheltered by it, was a small harbor where vessels from all the
+neighboring seas had been accustomed to bring in their cargoes, or
+to seek shelter in storms, from time immemorial. In fact, Antium, in
+point of antiquity, takes precedence, probably, even of Rome.
+
+The beauty and the salubrity of Antium made it a very attractive
+place of summer resort for the people of Rome; and in process of
+time, when the city attained to an advanced stage of opulence and
+luxury, the Roman noblemen built villas there, choosing situations,
+in some instances, upon the natural terraces and esplanades of the
+promontory, which looked off over the sea, and in others cool and
+secluded retreats in the valleys, on the land. It was in one of
+these villas that Nero was born.
+
+Nero's father belonged to a family which had enjoyed for several
+generations a considerable degree of distinction among the Roman
+nobility, though known by a somewhat whimsical name. The family name
+was Brazenbeard, or, to speak more exactly, it was Ahenobarbus,
+which is the Latin equivalent for that word. It is a question
+somewhat difficult to decide, whether in speaking of Nero's father
+at the present time, and in the English tongue, we should make use
+of the actual Latin name, or translate the word and employ the
+English representative of it; that is, whether we shall call him
+Ahenobarbus or Brazenbeard. The former seems to be more in harmony
+with our ideas of the dignity of Roman history; while the latter,
+though less elegant, conveys probably to our minds a more exact idea
+of the import and expression of the name as it sounded in the ears
+of the Roman community. The name certainly was not an attractive
+one, though the family had contrived to dignify it some degree by
+assigning to it a preternatural origin. There was a tradition that
+in ancient times a prophet appeared to one of the ancestors of the
+line, and after foretelling certain extraordinary events which were
+to occur at some future period, stroked down the beard of his
+auditor with his hand, and changed it to the color of brass, in
+miraculous attestation of the divine authority of the message. The
+man received the name of Brazenbeard in consequence, and he and his
+descendants ever afterward retained it.
+
+The family of the Brazenbeards was one of high rank and distinction,
+though at the time of Nero's birth it was, like most of the other
+prominent Roman families, extremely profligate and corrupt. Nero's
+father, especially, was a very bad man. He was accused of the very
+worst of crimes, and he led a life of constant remorse and terror.
+His wife, Agrippina, Nero's mother, was as wicked as he; and it is
+said that when the messenger came to him to announce the birth of
+his child, the hero of this narrative, he uttered some exclamation
+of ill-humor and contempt, and said that whatever came from him and
+Agrippina could not but be fraught with ruin to Rome.
+
+The rank and station of Agrippina in Roman society was even higher
+than that of her husband. She was the sister of the emperor. The
+name of the emperor, her brother, was Caligula. He was the third in
+the series of Roman emperors, Augustus Caesar, the successor of
+Julius Caesar, having been the first. The term emperor, however, had
+a very different meaning in those days, from its present import. It
+seems to denote now a sovereign ruler, who exercises officially a
+general jurisdiction which extends over the whole government of the
+state. In the days of the Romans it included, in theory at least,
+only _military_ command. The word was _imperator_, which meant
+_commander_; and the station which it denoted was simply that of
+general-in-chief over the military forces of the republic.
+
+In the early periods of the Roman history, every possible precaution
+was taken to keep the military power in a condition of very strict
+subordination to the authority of the civil magistrate and of law.
+Very stringent regulations were adopted to secure this end. No
+portion of the army, except such small detachments as were required
+for preserving order within the walls, was allowed to approach the
+city. Great commanders, in returning from their victorious
+campaigns, were obliged to halt and encamp at some distance from the
+gates, and there await the orders of the Roman Senate. The _Senate_
+was, in theory, the great repository of political power. This Senate
+was not, however, as the word might seem in modern times to denote,
+a well-defined and compact body of legislators, designated
+individually to the office, but rather a class of hereditary nobles,
+very numerous, and deriving their power from immemorial usage, and
+from that strange and unaccountable feeling of deference and awe
+with which the mass of mankind always look up to an established, and
+especially an ancient, aristocracy. The Senate were accustomed to
+convene at stated times, in assemblages which were, sometimes,
+conducted with a proper degree of formality and order, and sometimes
+on the other hand, exhibited scenes of great tumult and confusion.
+Their power, however, whether regularly or irregularly exercised,
+was supreme. They issued edicts, they enacted laws, they allotted
+provinces, they made peace, and they declared war. The armies, and
+the generals who commanded them, were the _agents_ employed to do
+their bidding.
+
+The Roman armies consisted of vast bodies of men which, when not in
+actual service, were established in permanent encampments in various
+parts of the empire, wherever it was deemed necessary that troops
+should be stationed. These great bodies of troops were the
+celebrated Roman legions, and they were renowned throughout the
+world for their discipline, their admirable organization, the
+celerity of their movements, and for the indomitable courage and
+energy of the men. Each legion constituted, in fact, a separate and
+independent community. Its camp was its city. Its general was its
+king. In time of war it moved, of course, from place to place, as
+the exigencies of the service required; but in time of peace it
+established itself with great formality in a spacious and permanent
+encampment, which was laid out with great regularity, and fortified
+with ramparts and fosses. Within the confines of the camp the tents
+were arranged in rows, with broad spaces for streets between them;
+and in a central position, before a space which served the purpose
+of a public square, the rich and ornamented pavilions of the
+commander and chief, and of the other generals, rose above the rest,
+like the public edifices of a city. The encampment of a Roman legion
+was, in fact, an extended and populous city, only that the dwellings
+consisted of tents instead of being formed of solid and permanent
+structures of wood or stone.
+
+[Illustration: ENCAMPMENT OF A ROMAN LEGION.]
+
+Roman legions were encamped in this way in various places throughout
+the empire, wherever the Senate thought proper to station them.
+There were some in Syria and the East; some in Italy; some on the
+banks of the Rhine; and it was through the instrumentality of the
+vast force thus organized, that the Romans held the whole European
+world under their sway. The troops were satisfied to yield
+submission to the orders of their commanders, since they received
+through them in return, an abundant supply of food and clothing, and
+lived, ordinarily, lives of ease and indulgence. In consideration of
+this, they were willing to march from place to place wherever they
+were ordered, and to fight any enemy when brought into the field.
+The commanders obtained food and clothing for them by means of the
+tribute which they exacted from conquered provinces, and from the
+plunder of sacked cities, in times of actual war. These armies were
+naturally interested in preserving order and maintaining in general
+the authority of law, throughout the communities which they
+controlled; for without law and order the industrial pursuits of men
+could not go on, and of course they were well aware that if in any
+country production were to cease, tribute must soon cease too. In
+reading history we find, indeed, it must be confessed, that a
+fearful proportion of the narrative which describes the achievements
+of ancient armies, is occupied with detailing deeds of violence,
+rapine, and crime; but we must not infer from this that the
+influence of these vast organizations was wholly evil. Such extended
+and heterogeneous masses of population as those which were spread
+over Europe and Asia, in the days of the Romans, could be kept
+subject to the necessary restraints of social order only by some
+very powerful instrumentality. The legions organized by the Roman
+Senate, and stationed here and there throughout the extended
+territory, constituted this instrumentality. But still, during far
+the greater portion of the time the power which a legion wielded was
+power in repose. It accomplished its end by its simple presence, and
+by the sentiment of awe which its presence inspired; and the nations
+and tribes within the circle of its influence lived in peace, and
+pursued their industrial occupations without molestation, protected
+by the consciousness which everywhere pervaded the minds of men,
+that the Roman power was at hand. The legion hovered, as it were,
+like a dark cloud in their horizon, silent and in repose; but
+containing, as they well knew, the latent elements of thunder, which
+might at any time burst upon their heads. Thus, in its ordinary
+operation, its influence was good. Occasionally and incidentally
+periods of commotion would occur, when its action was violent,
+cruel, and mercilessly evil. Unfortunately, however, for the credit
+of the system in the opinion of mankind in subsequent ages, there
+was in the good which it effected nothing to narrate; while every
+deed of violence and crime which was perpetrated by its agency,
+furnished materials for an entertaining and exciting story. The
+good which was accomplished extended perhaps through a long, but
+monotonous period of quiescence and repose. The evil was brief, but
+was attended with a rapid succession of events, and varied by
+innumerable incidents; so that the historian was accustomed to pass
+lightly over the one, with a few indifferent words of cold
+description, while he employed all the force of his genius in
+amplifying and adorning the narratives which commemorated the other.
+Thus, violent and oppressive as the military rulers were, by whom in
+ancient times the world was governed, they were less essentially and
+continuously violent and oppressive than the general tenor of
+history makes them seem; and their crimes were, in some degree at
+least, compensated for and redeemed, by the really useful function
+which they generally fulfilled, of restraining and repressing all
+disorder and violence except their own.
+
+The Roman legions, in particular, were for many centuries kept in
+tolerable subjection to the civil authorities of the capitol; but
+they were growing stronger and stronger all the time, and becoming
+more and more conscious of their strength. Every new commander who
+acquired renown by his victories, added greatly to the importance
+and influence of the army in its political relations. The great
+Julius Caesar, in the course of his foreign conquests, and of his
+protracted and terrible wars with Pompey, and with his other rivals,
+made enormous strides in this direction. Every time that he returned
+to Rome at the head of his victorious legions, he overawed the
+capitol more and more. Octavius Caesar, the successor of Julius,
+known generally in history by the name of Augustus, completed what
+his uncle had begun. He made the military authority, though still
+nominally and in form subordinate, in reality paramount and supreme.
+The Senate, indeed, continued to assemble, and to exercise its usual
+functions. Consuls and other civil magistrates were chosen, and
+invested with the insignia of supreme command; and the customary
+forms and usages of civil administration, in which the subordination
+of the military to the civil power was fully recognized, were all
+continued. Still, the actual authority of the civil government was
+wholly overawed and overpowered; and the haughty _imperator_
+dictated to the Senate, and directed the administration, just as he
+pleased.
+
+It required great genius in the commanders to bring up the army to
+this position of ascendency and power; but once up, it sustained
+itself there, without the necessity of ability of any kind, or of
+any lofty qualities whatever, in those subsequently placed at the
+head. In fact, the reader of history has often occasion to be
+perfectly amazed at the lengths to which human endurance will go,
+when a governmental power of any kind is once established, in
+tolerating imbecility and folly in the individual representatives of
+it. It seems to be immaterial whether the dominant power assumes the
+form of a dynasty of kings, a class of hereditary nobles, or a line
+of military generals. It requires genius and statesmanship to
+instate it, but, once instated, no degree of stupidity, folly or
+crime in those who wield it, seems sufficient to exhaust the spirit
+of submission with which man always bows to established power--a
+spirit of submission which is so universal, and so patient and
+enduring, and which so transcends all the bounds of expediency and
+of reason, as to seem like a blind instinct implanted in the very
+soul of man by the Author of his being--a constituent and essential
+part of his nature as a gregarious animal. In fact, without some
+such instinct, it would seem impossible that those extended
+communities could be formed and sustained, without which man, if he
+could exist at all, could certainly never fully develop his
+capacities and powers.
+
+However this may be in theory, it is certain in fact, that the work
+of bringing up the military power of ancient Rome to its condition
+of supremacy over all the civil functions of government, was the
+work of men of the most exalted capacities and powers. Marius and
+Sylla, Pompey and Caesar, Antony and Augustus, evinced, in all their
+deeds, a high degree of sagacity, energy, and greatness of soul.
+Mankind, though they may condemn their vices and crimes, will never
+cease to admire the grandeur of their ambition, and the
+magnificence, comprehensiveness, and efficiency of their plans of
+action. The whole known world was the theater of their contests, and
+the armies which they organized and disciplined, and which they
+succeeded at length in bringing under the control of one central and
+consolidated command, formed the most extended and imposing
+military power that the world had ever seen. It was not only vast in
+extent, but permanent and self-sustaining in character. A wide and
+complicated, but most effectual system was adopted for maintaining
+it. Its discipline was perfect. Its organization was complete. It
+was equally trained to remain quietly at home in its city-like
+encampments, in time of peace, or to march, or bivouac, or fight, in
+time of war. Such a system could be formed only by men possessed of
+mental powers of the highest character; but, once formed, it could
+afterward sustain itself; and not only so, but it was found capable
+of holding up, by its own inherent power, the most imbecile and
+incompetent men, as the nominal rulers of it.
+
+Caligula, for example, the brother of Agrippina, and the reigning
+emperor at the time of Nero's birth, was a man wholly unfit to
+exercise any high command. He was elevated to the post by the
+influence of the army, simply because he was the most prominent man
+among those who had hereditary claims to the succession, and was
+thus the man whom the army could most easily place in the office of
+chieftain, and retain most securely there. His life, however, in the
+lofty station to which accident thus raised him, was one of
+continual folly, vice and crime. He lived generally at Rome, where
+he expended the immense revenues that were at his command in the
+most wanton and senseless extravagance. In the earlier part of his
+career the object of much of his extravagance was the gratification
+of the people; but after a time he began to seek only gratifications
+for himself, and at length he evinced the most wanton spirit of
+malignity and cruelty toward others. He seemed at last actually to
+hate the whole human species, and to take pleasure in teasing and
+tormenting men, whenever an occasion of any kind occurred to afford
+him the opportunity. They were accustomed in those days to have
+spectacles and shows in vast amphitheaters which were covered, when
+the sun was hot, with awnings. Sometimes when an amphitheater was
+crowded with spectators, and the heat of the sun was unusually
+powerful, Caligula would order the awnings to be removed and the
+doors to be kept closed so as to prevent the egress of the people;
+and then he would amuse himself with the indications of discomfort
+and suffering which so crowded a concourse in such an exposure would
+necessarily exhibit. He kept wild animals for the combats which took
+place in these amphitheaters, and when it was difficult to procure
+the flesh of sheep and oxen for them, he would feed them with men,
+throwing into their dens for this purpose criminals and captives.
+Some persons who offended him, he ordered to be branded in the face
+with hot irons, by which means they were not only subjected to cruel
+torture at the time, but were frightfully disfigured for life.
+Sometimes when the sons of noble or distinguished men displeased
+him, or when under the influence of his caprice or malignity he
+conceived some feeling of hatred toward them, he would order them to
+be publicly executed, and he would require their parents to be
+present and witness the scene. At one time after such an execution
+he required the wretched father of his victim to come and sup with
+him at his palace; and while at supper he talked with his guest all
+the time, in a light, and jocular, and mirthful manner, in order to
+trifle with and insult the mental anguish of the sufferer. At
+another time when he had commanded a distinguished senator to be
+present at the execution of his son, the senator said that he would
+go, in obedience to the emperor's orders, but humbly asked
+permission to shut his eyes at the moment of the execution, that he
+might be spared the dreadful anguish of witnessing the dying
+struggles of his son. The emperor in reply immediately condemned the
+father to death for daring to make so audacious a proposal.
+
+Of course the connection of Agrippina, the mother of Nero, with such
+a sovereign as this, while it gave her a very high social position
+in the Roman community, could not contribute much to her happiness.
+In fact all who were connected with Caligula in any way lived in
+continual terror, for so wanton and capricious was his cruelty, that
+all who were liable to come under his notice at all were in constant
+danger. Agrippina herself at one time incurred her brother's
+displeasure, though she was fortunate enough to escape with her
+life. Caligula discovered, or pretended to discover, a conspiracy
+against him, and he accused Agrippina and another of his sisters
+named Livilla of being implicated in it. Caligula sent a soldier to
+the leader of the conspiracy to cut off his head, and then he
+banished his sisters from Rome and shut them up in the island of
+Pontia, telling them when they went away, to beware, for he had
+swords for them as well as islands, in case of need.
+
+At length Caligula's terrible tyranny was brought to a sudden end by
+his assassination; and Agrippina, in consequence of this event was
+not only released from her thraldom but raised to a still higher
+eminence than she had enjoyed before. The circumstances connected
+with these events will be related in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE ASSASSINATION OF CALIGULA.
+
+A.D. 40-41
+
+Plots against Caligula.--Cassius Chaerea.--Chaerea's bravery.--His legion
+mutinies.--Chaerea escapes the mutineers.--His appearance.--His just
+dealings displease the emperor.--Passwords given by Caligula to
+Chaerea.--Accusation of Propedius.--Quintilia's testimony.--Chaerea
+alarmed.--Quintilia's private signal.--Quintilia is put to the
+torture in vain.--Anger of Chaerea.--His determination to destroy
+Caligula.--Conspiracy formed.--The confederates.--Various
+opinions.--Various plans proposed for destroying Caligula.--Final
+determination.--The three days festival.--Brief conversation.--The
+recess.--Chaerea's duty.--The plan seems likely to fail.--Chaerea's
+ambuscade.--Minucianus.--Adroit management of the conspirators.--The
+Asiatic boys.--Chaerea strikes Caligula down.--End of a despot.--General
+joy in the palace.--Savage exultation of the conspirators.--Caesonia and
+her child.--They are murdered.--Supposed necessity for destroying the
+child.
+
+
+The emperor Caligula came to his death in the following manner:
+
+Of course his wanton and remorseless tyranny often awakened very
+deep feelings of resentment, and very earnest desires for revenge in
+the hearts of those who suffered by it; but yet so absolute and
+terrible was his power, that none dared to murmur or complain. The
+resentment, however, which the cruelty of the emperor awakened,
+burned the more fiercely for being thus restrained and suppressed,
+and many covert threats were made, and many secret plots were
+formed, from time to time, against the tyrant's life.
+
+Among others who cherished such designs, there was a man named
+Cassius Chaerea, an officer of the army, who, though not of high
+rank, was nevertheless a man of considerable distinction. He was a
+captain, or, as it was styled in those days, a centurion. His
+command, therefore, was small, but it was in the praetorian cohort,
+as it was called, a sort of body-guard of the commander-in-chief,
+and consequently a very honorable corps. Chaerea was thus a man of
+considerable distinction on account of the post which he occupied,
+and his duties, as captain in the life-guards, brought him very
+frequently into communication with the emperor. He was a man of
+great personal bravery, too, and was on this account held in high
+consideration by the army. He had performed an exploit at one time,
+some years before, in Germany, which had gained him great fame. It
+was at the time of the death of Augustus, the first emperor. Some of
+the German legions, and among them one in which Chaerea was serving,
+had seized upon the occasion to revolt. They alledged many and
+grievous acts of oppression as the grounds of their revolt, and
+demanded redress for what they had suffered, and security for the
+future. One of the first measures which they resorted to in the
+frenzy of the first outbreak of the rebellion, was to seize all the
+centurions in the camp, and to beat them almost to death. They gave
+them sixty blows each, one for each of their number, and then turned
+them, bruised, wounded, and dying, out of the camp. Some they threw
+into the Rhine. They revenged themselves thus on all the centurions
+but one. That one was Chaerea. Chaerea would not suffer himself to be
+taken by them, but seizing his sword he fought his way through the
+midst of them, slaying some and driving others before him, and thus
+made his escape from the camp. This feat gained him great renown.
+
+One might imagine from this account that Chaerea was a man of great
+personal superiority in respect to size and strength, inasmuch as
+extraordinary muscular power, as well as undaunted courage, would
+seem to be required to enable a man to make his way against so many
+enemies. But this was not the fact. Chaerea was of small stature and
+of a slender and delicate form. He was modest and unassuming in his
+manners, too, and of a very kind and gentle spirit. He was thus not
+only honored and admired for his courage, but he was generally
+beloved for the amiable and excellent qualities of his heart.
+
+The possession of such qualities, however, could not be expected to
+recommend him particularly to the favor of the emperor. In fact, in
+one instance it had the contrary effect. Caligula assigned to the
+centurions of his guard, at one period, some duties connected with
+the collection of taxes. Chaerea, instead of practicing the extortion
+and cruelty common on such occasions, was merciful and considerate,
+and governed himself strictly by the rules of law and of justice in
+his collections. The consequence necessarily was that the amount of
+money received was somewhat diminished, and the emperor was
+displeased. The occasion was, however, not one of sufficient
+importance to awaken in the monarch's mind any very serious anger,
+and so, instead of inflicting any heavy punishment upon the
+offender, he contented himself with attempting to tease and torment
+him with sundry vexatious indignities and annoyances.
+
+It is the custom sometimes, in camps, and at other military
+stations, for the commander to give every evening, what is called
+the _parole_ or password, which consists usually of some word or
+phrase that is to be communicated to all the officers, and as
+occasion may require to all the soldiers, whom for any reason it may
+be necessary to send to and fro about the precincts of the camp
+during the night. The sentinels, also, all have the password, and
+accordingly, whenever any man approaches the post of a sentinel, he
+is stopped and the parole is demanded. If the stranger gives it
+correctly, it is presumed that all is right, and he is allowed to
+pass on,--since an enemy or a spy would have no means of knowing it.
+
+Now, whenever it came to Chaerea's turn to communicate the parole,
+the emperor was accustomed to give him some ridiculous or indecent
+phrase, intended not only to be offensive to the purity of Chaerea's
+mind, but designed, also, to exhibit him in a ridiculous light to
+the subordinate officers and soldiers to whom he would have to
+communicate it. Sometimes the password thus given was some word or
+phrase wholly unfit to be spoken, and sometimes it was the name of
+some notorious and infamous woman; but whatever it was, Chaerea was
+compelled by his duty as a soldier to deliver it to all the corps,
+and patiently to submit to the laughter and derision which his
+communication awakened among the vile and wicked soldiery.
+
+If there was any dreadful punishment to be inflicted, or cruel deed
+of any kind to be performed, Caligula took great pleasure in
+assigning the duty to Chaerea, knowing how abhorrent to his nature it
+must be. At one time a senator of great distinction named Propedius,
+was accused of treason by one of his enemies. His treason consisted,
+as the accuser alledged, of having spoken injurious words against
+the emperor. Propedius denied that he had ever spoken such words.
+The accuser, whose name was Timidius, cited a certain Quintilia, an
+actress, as his witness. Propedius was accordingly brought to trial,
+and Quintilia was called upon before the judges to give her
+testimony. She denied that she had ever heard Propedius utter any
+such sentiment as Timidius attributed to him. Timidius then said
+that Quintilia was testifying falsely: he declared that she had
+heard Propedius utter such words, and demanded that she should be
+put to the torture to compel her to acknowledge it. The emperor
+acceded to this demand, and commanded Chaerea to put the actress to
+the torture.
+
+It is, of course, always difficult to ascertain the precise truth in
+respect to such transactions as those that are connected with plots
+and conspiracies against tyrants, since every possible precaution
+is, of course, taken by all concerned to conceal what is done. It is
+probable, however, in this case, that Propedius had cherished some
+hostile designs against Caligula, if he had not uttered injurious
+words, and that Quintilia was in some measure in his confidence. It
+is even possible that Chaerea may have been connected with them in
+some secret design, for it is said that when he received the orders
+of Caligula to put Quintilia to the torture he was greatly agitated
+and alarmed. If he should apply the torture severely, he feared that
+the unhappy sufferer might be induced to make confessions or
+statements at least, which would bring destruction on the men whom
+he most relied upon for the overthrow of Caligula. On the other
+hand, if he should attempt to spare her, the effect would be only to
+provoke the anger of Caligula against himself, without at all
+shielding or saving her. As, however, he was proceeding to the place
+of torture, in charge of his victim, with his mind in this state of
+anxiety and indecision, his fears were somewhat relieved by a
+private signal given to him by Quintilia, by which she intimated to
+him that he need feel no concern,--that she would be faithful and
+true, and would reveal nothing, whatever might be done to her.
+
+This assurance, while it allayed in some degree Chaerea's anxieties
+and fears, must have greatly increased the mental distress which he
+endured at the idea of leading such a woman to the awful suffering
+which awaited her. He could not, however, do otherwise than to
+proceed. Having arrived at the place of execution, the wretched
+Quintilia was put to the rack. She bore the agony which she endured
+while her limbs were stretched on the torturing engine, and her
+bones broken, with patient submission, to the end. She was then
+carried, fainting, helpless, and almost dead, to Caligula, who
+seemed now satisfied. He ordered the unhappy victim of the torture
+to be taken away, and directed that Propedius should be acquitted
+and discharged.
+
+Of course while passing through this scene the mind of Chaerea was in
+a tumult of agitation and excitement,--the anguish of mind which he
+must have felt in his compassion for the sufferer, mingling and
+contending with the desperate indignation which burned in his bosom
+against the author of all these miseries. He was wrought up, in
+fact, to such a state of frenzy by this transaction, that as soon as
+it was over he determined immediately to take measures to put
+Caligula to death. This was a very bold and desperate resolution.
+Caligula was the greatest and most powerful potentate on earth.
+Chaerea was only a captain of his guard, without any political
+influence or power, and with no means whatever of screening himself
+from the terrible consequences which might be expected to follow
+from his attempt, whether it should succeed or fail.
+
+So thoroughly, however, was he now aroused, that he determined to
+brave every danger in the attainment of his end. He immediately
+began to seek out among the officers of the army such men as he
+supposed would be most likely to join him,--men of courage,
+resolution, and faithfulness, and those who, from their general
+character or from the wrongs which they had individually endured
+from the government, were to be supposed specially hostile to
+Caligula's dominion. From among these men he selected a few, and to
+them he cautiously unfolded his designs. All approved of them. Some,
+it is true, declined taking any active part in the conspiracy, but
+they assured Chaerea of their good wishes, and promised solemnly not
+to betray him.
+
+The number of the conspirators daily increased. There was, however,
+at their meetings for consultation, some difference of opinion in
+respect to the course to be pursued. Some were in favor of acting
+promptly and at once. The greatest danger which was to be
+apprehended, they thought, was in delay. As the conspiracy became
+extended, some one would at length come to the knowledge of it, they
+said, who would betray them. Others, on the other hand, were for
+proceeding cautiously and slowly. What they most feared was rash and
+inconsiderate action. It would be ruinous to the enterprise, as they
+maintained, for them to attempt to act before their plans were fully
+matured.
+
+Chaerea was of the former opinion. He was very impatient to have the
+deed performed. He was ready himself, he said, to perform it, at any
+time; his personal duties as an officer of the guard, gave him
+frequent occasions of access to the emperor, and he was ready to
+avail himself of any of them to kill the monster. The emperor went
+often, he said, to the capitol, to offer sacrifices, and he could
+easily kill him there. Or, if they thought that that was too public
+an occasion, he could have an opportunity in the palace, at certain
+religious ceremonies which the emperor was accustomed to perform
+there, and at which Chaerea himself was usually present. Or, he was
+ready to throw him down from a tower where he was accustomed to go
+sometimes for the purpose of scattering money among the populace
+below. Chaerea said that he could easily come up behind him on such
+an occasion, and hurl him suddenly over the parapet down to the
+pavement below. All these plans, however, seemed to the conspirators
+too uncertain and dangerous, and Chaerea's proposals were accordingly
+not agreed to.
+
+At length, the time drew near when Caligula was to leave Rome to
+proceed to Alexandria in Egypt, and the conspirators perceived that
+they must prepare to act, or else abandon their design altogether.
+It had been arranged that there was to be a grand celebration at
+Rome previous to the emperor's departure. This celebration, which
+was to consist of games, and sports, and dramatic performances of
+various kinds, was to continue for three days, and the conspirators
+determined, after much consultation and debate, that Caligula should
+be assassinated on one of those days.
+
+After coming to this conclusion, however, in general, their hearts
+seemed to fail them in fixing the precise time for the perpetration
+of the deed, and two of the three days passed away accordingly
+without any attempt being made. At length, on the morning of the
+third day, Chaerea called the chief conspirators together, and urged
+them very earnestly not to let the present opportunity pass away. He
+represented to them how greatly they increased the danger of their
+attempts by such delays, and he seemed himself so full of
+determination and courage, and addressed them with so much eloquence
+and power, that he inspired them with his own resolution, and they
+decided unanimously to proceed.
+
+The emperor came to the theater that day at an unusually early hour,
+and seemed to be in excellent spirits and in an excellent humor. He
+was very complaisant to all around him, and very lively, affable,
+and gay. After performing certain ceremonies, by which it devolved
+upon him to open the festivities of the day, he proceeded to his
+place, with his friends and favorites about him, and Chaerea, with
+the other officers that day on guard, at a little distance behind
+him.
+
+The performances were commenced, and every thing went on as usual
+until toward noon. The conspirators kept their plans profoundly
+secret, except that one of them, when he had taken his seat by the
+side of a distinguished senator, asked him whether he had heard any
+thing new. The senator replied that he had not. "I can then tell you
+something," said he, "which perhaps you have not heard, and that is,
+that in the piece which is to be acted to-day, there is to be
+represented the death of a tyrant." "Hush!" said the senator, and he
+quoted a verse from Homer, which meant, "Be silent, lest some Greek
+should overhear."
+
+It had been the usual custom of the emperor, at such entertainments,
+to take a little recess about noon, for rest and refreshments. It
+devolved upon Chaerea to wait upon him at this time, and to conduct
+him from his place in the theater to an adjoining apartment in his
+palace which was connected with the theater, where there was
+provided a bath and various refreshments. When the time arrived,
+and Chaerea perceived, as he thought, that the emperor was about to
+go, he himself went out, and stationed himself in a passage-way
+leading to the bath, intending to intercept and assassinate the
+emperor when he should come along. The emperor, however, delayed his
+departure, having fallen into conversation with his courtiers and
+friends, and finally he said that, on the whole, as it was the last
+day of the festival, he would not go out to the bath, but would
+remain in the theater; and then ordering refreshments to be brought
+to him there, he proceeded to distribute them with great urbanity to
+the officers around him.
+
+In the mean time, Chaerea was patiently waiting in the passage-way,
+with his sword by his side, all ready for striking the blow the
+moment that his victim should appear. Of course the conspirators who
+remained behind were in a state of great suspense and anxiety, and
+one of them, named Minucianus, determined to go out and inform
+Chaerea of the change in Caligula's plans. He accordingly attempted
+to rise, but Caligula put his hand upon his robe, saying, "Sit
+still, my friend. You shall go with me presently." Minucianus
+accordingly dissembled his anxiety and agitation of mind still a
+little longer, but presently, watching an opportunity when the
+emperor's attention was otherwise engaged, he rose, and, assuming an
+unconcerned and careless air, he walked out of the theater.
+
+He found Chaerea in his ambuscade in the passage-way, and he
+immediately informed him that the emperor had concluded not to come
+out. Chaerea and Minucianus were then greatly at a loss what to do.
+Some of the other conspirators, who had followed Minucianus out, now
+joined them, and a brief but very earnest and solemn consultation
+ensued. After a moment's hesitation, Chaerea declared that they must
+now go through with their work at all hazards, and he professed
+himself ready, if his comrades would sustain him in it, to go back
+to the theater, and stab the tyrant there in his seat, in the midst
+of his friends. Minucianus and the others concurred in this design,
+and it was resolved immediately to execute it.
+
+The execution of the plan, however, in the precise form in which it
+had been resolved upon was prevented by a new turn which affairs
+had taken in the theater. For while Minucianus and the two or three
+conspirators who had accompanied him were debating in the
+passage-way, the others who remained, knowing that Chaerea was
+expecting Caligula to go out, conceived the idea of attempting to
+persuade him to go, and thus to lead him into the snare which had
+been set for him. They accordingly gathered around, and without any
+appearance of concert or of eagerness, began to recommend him to go
+and take his bath as usual. He seemed at length disposed to yield to
+these persuasions, and rose from his seat; and then, the whole
+company attending and following him, he proceeded toward the doors
+which conducted to the palace. The conspirators went before him, and
+under pretense of clearing the way for him they contrived to remove
+to a little distance all whom they thought would be most disposed to
+render him any assistance. The consultations of Chaerea and those who
+were with him in the inner passage-way were interrupted by the
+coming of this company.
+
+Among those who walked with the emperor at this time were his uncle
+Claudius and other distinguished relatives. Caligula advanced along
+the passage, walking in company with these friends, and wholly
+unconscious of the fate that awaited him, but instead of going
+immediately toward the bath he turned aside first into a gallery or
+corridor which led into another apartment, where there were
+assembled a company of boys and girls, that had been sent to him
+from Asia to act and dance upon the stage, and who had just arrived.
+The emperor took great interest in looking at these performers, and
+seemed desirous of having them go immediately into the theater and
+let him see them perform. While talking on this subject Chaerea and
+the other conspirators came into the apartment, determined now to
+strike the blow.
+
+Chaerea advanced to the emperor, and asked him in the usual manner
+what should be the parole for that night. The emperor gave him in
+reply such an one as he had often chosen before, to insult and
+degrade him. Chaerea instead of receiving the insult meekly and
+patiently in his usual manner, uttered words of anger and defiance
+in reply; and drawing his sword at the same instant he struck the
+emperor across the neck and felled him to the floor. Caligula filled
+the apartment with his cries of pain and terror; the other
+conspirators rushed in and attacked him on all sides; his
+friends,--so far as the adherents of such a man can be called
+friends,--fled in dismay. As for Caligula's uncle Claudius, it was
+not to have been expected that he would have rendered his nephew any
+aid, for he was a man of such extraordinary mental imbecility that
+he was usually considered as not possessed even of common sense; and
+all the others who might have been expected to defend him, either
+fled from the scene, or stood by in consternation and amazement,
+leaving the conspirators to wreak their vengeance on their wretched
+victim, to the full.
+
+In fact though while a despot lives and retains his power, thousands
+are ready to defend him and to execute his will, however much in
+heart they may hate and detest him, yet when he is dead, or when it
+is once certain that he is about to die, an instantaneous change
+takes place and every one turns against him. The multitudes in and
+around the theater and the palace who had an hour before trembled
+before this mighty potentate, and seemed to live only to do his
+bidding, were filled with joy to see him brought to the dust. The
+conspirators, when the success of their plans and the death of their
+oppressor was once certain, abandoned themselves to the most
+extravagant joy. They cut and stabbed the fallen body again and
+again, as if they could never enough wreak their vengeance upon it.
+They cut off pieces of the body and bit them with their teeth in
+their savage exultation and triumph. At length they left the body
+where it lay, and went forth into the city where all was now of
+course tumult and confusion.
+
+The body remained where it had fallen until late at night. Then some
+attendants of the palace came and conveyed it away. They were sent,
+it was said, by Caesonia, the wife of the murdered man. Caesonia had
+an infant daughter at this time, and she remained herself with the
+child, in a retired apartment of the palace while these things were
+transpiring. Distracted with grief and terror at the tidings that
+she heard, she clung to her babe, and made the arrangements for the
+interment of the body of her husband without leaving its cradle. She
+imagined perhaps that there was no reason for supposing that she or
+the child were in any immediate danger, and accordingly she took no
+measures toward effecting an escape. If so, she did not understand
+the terrible frenzy to which the conspirators had been aroused, and
+for which the long series of cruelties and indignities which they
+had endured from her husband had prepared them. For at midnight one
+of them broke into her apartment, stabbed the mother in her chair,
+and taking the innocent infant from its cradle, killed it by beating
+its head against the wall.
+
+[Illustration: CAESONIA.]
+
+Atrocious as this deed may seem, it was not altogether wanton and
+malignant cruelty which prompted it. The conspirators intended by
+the assassination of Caligula not merely to wreak their vengeance on
+a single man, but to bring to an end a hated race of tyrants; and
+they justified the murder of the wife and child by the plea that
+stern political necessity required them to exterminate the line, in
+order that no successor might subsequently arise to re-establish the
+power and renew the tyranny which they had brought to an end. The
+history of monarchies is continually presenting us with instances of
+innocent and helpless children sacrificed to such a supposed
+necessity as this.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE ACCESSION OF CLAUDIUS.
+
+A.D. 41-47
+
+Ultimate design of the conspirators.--Effect produced by the tidings of
+Caligula's death.--Chaerea and the conspirators secrete themselves.--The
+senate is convened.--Two parties formed.--Account of Claudius.--His
+apparent imbecility.--Every one against him.--Mode of teasing him.--His
+situation and position at court.--The wives of Claudius.--His son
+strangled by a pear.--Claudius terrified.--His hiding place.--He
+is discovered by a soldier.--Claudius proclaimed emperor.--His
+surprise.--He is borne to the camp and proclaimed emperor.--Agrippina
+recalled.--Messalina.--Messalina's intrigues.--Her hatred of
+Silanus.--Plan for destroying Silanus.--Narcissus's pretended
+dream.--Messalina's confirmation of it.--Claudius alarmed.--Silanus
+is executed.--Unbounded influence of Messalina.--Caius
+Silius.--Messalina's attachment to him.--Hesitation of Silius.--His
+decision.--Claudius.--Public works at Ostia.--The obelisk.--Immense
+ship.--Messalina continues her wicked career.--Silius intoxicated
+with his elevation.
+
+
+In the assassination of Caligula, the conspirators who combined to
+perpetrate the deed, had a much deeper design than that of merely
+gratifying their personal resentment and rage against an individual
+tyrant. They wished to effect a permanent change in the government,
+by putting down the army from the position of supreme and despotic
+authority which it had assumed, and restoring the dominion to the
+Roman Senate, and to the other civil authorities of the city, as it
+had been exercised by them in former years. Of course, the death of
+Caligula was the commencement, not the end, of the great struggle.
+The whole country was immediately divided into two parties. There
+was the party of the Senate, and the party of the army; and a long
+and bitter conflict ensued. It was for some time doubtful which
+would win the day.
+
+In fact, immediately after Caligula was killed, and the tidings of
+his death began to spread about the palace and into the streets of
+the city, a considerable tumult arose, the precursor and earnest of
+the dissensions that were to follow. Upon the first alarm, a body of
+the emperor's guards that had been accustomed to attend upon his
+person, and whom he had strongly attached to himself by his lavish
+generosity in bestowing presents and rewards upon them, rushed
+forward to defend him, or if it should prove too late to defend him,
+to avenge his death. These soldiers ran toward the palace, and when
+they found that the emperor had been killed, they were furious with
+rage, and fell upon all whom they met, and actually slew several
+men. Tidings came to the theater, and the word was spread from rank
+to rank among the people that the emperor was slain. The people did
+not, however, at first, believe the story. They supposed that the
+report was a cunning contrivance of the emperor himself, intended to
+entrap them into some expression of pleasure and gratification, on
+their part, at his death, in order to give him an excuse for
+inflicting some cruel punishment upon them. The noise and tumult in
+the streets soon convinced them, however, that something
+extraordinary had occurred; they learned that the news of the
+emperor's death was really true, and almost immediately afterward
+they found, to their consternation, that the furious guards were
+thundering at the gates of the theater, and endeavoring to force
+their way in, in order to wreak their vengeance on the assembly, as
+if the spectators at the show were accomplices of the crime.
+
+In the mean time Chaerea and the other chief conspirators had fled to
+a secret place of retreat, where they now lay concealed. As soon as
+they had found that the object of their vengeance was really dead,
+and when they had satisfied themselves with the pleasure of cutting
+and stabbing the lifeless body, they stole away to the house of one
+of their friends in the neighborhood, where they could lie for a
+time secreted in safety. The life-guards sought for them everywhere,
+but could not find them. The streets were filled with tumult and
+confusion. Rumors of every kind, false and true, spread in all
+directions, and increased the excitement. At length, however, the
+consuls, who were the chief magistrates of the republic, succeeded
+in organizing a force and in restoring order. They took possession
+of the forum and of the capitol and posted sentinels and guards
+along the streets. They compelled the emperor's guards to desist
+from their violence, and retire. They sent a herald clothed in
+mourning into the theater, to announce officially to the people the
+event which had occurred, and to direct them to repair quietly to
+their homes. Having taken these preliminary measures they
+immediately called the Senate together, to deliberate on the
+emergency which had occurred, and to decide what should next be
+done. In the mean time the emperor's guards, having withdrawn from
+the streets of the city, retired to their camp and joined their
+comrades. Thus there were two vast powers organized--that of the
+army in the camp, and that of the Senate in the city--each jealous
+of the other, and resolute in its determination not to yield, in the
+approaching conflict.
+
+In times of sudden and violent revolution like that which attended
+the death of Caligula, the course which public affairs are to take,
+and the question who is to rise and who is to fall, seem often to be
+decided by utter accident. It was strikingly so in this instance, in
+respect to the selection, on the part of the army, of the man who
+was to take the post of supreme command in the place of the murdered
+emperor. The choice fell on Claudius, Agrippina's uncle. It fell
+upon him, too, as it would seem, by the merest chance, in the
+following very extraordinary manner.
+
+Claudius, as has already been said, was Caligula's uncle; and as
+Caligula and Agrippina were brother and sister, he was, of course,
+Agrippina's uncle too. He was at this time about fifty years of age,
+and he was universally ridiculed and contemned on account of his
+great mental and personal inferiority. He was weak and ill-formed at
+his birth, so that even his mother despised him. She called him "an
+unfinished little monster," and whenever she wished to express her
+contempt for any one in respect to his understanding, she used to
+say, "You are as stupid as my son Claudius." In a word, Claudius was
+extremely unfortunate in every respect, so far as natural endowments
+are concerned. His countenance was very repulsive, his figure was
+ungainly, his manners were awkward, his voice was disagreeable, and
+he had an impediment in his speech. In fact, he was considered in
+his youth as almost an idiot. He was not allowed to associate with
+the other Roman boys of his age, but was kept apart, in some
+secluded portion of the palace, with women and slaves, where he was
+treated with so much cruelty and neglect that what little spirit
+nature had given him was crushed and destroyed. In fact, by common
+consent all seemed to take pleasure in teasing and tormenting him.
+Sometimes, when he was coming to the table at an entertainment, the
+other guests would combine to exclude him from the seats, in order
+to enjoy his distress as he ran about from one part of the table to
+another, endeavoring to find a place. If they found him asleep they
+would pelt him with olives and dates, or awaken him with the blow of
+a rod or a whip; and sometimes they would stealthily put his sandals
+upon his hands while he was asleep, in order that when he awoke
+suddenly they might amuse themselves with seeing him rub his face
+and eyes with them.
+
+After all, however, the inferiority of Claudius was not really so
+great as it seemed. He was awkward and ungainly, no doubt, to the
+last degree; but he possessed some considerable capacity for
+intellectual pursuits and attainments, and as he was pretty
+effectually driven away from society by the jests and ridicule to
+which he was subjected, he devoted a great deal of time in his
+retirement to study, and to other useful pursuits. He made
+considerable progress in the efforts which he thus made to cultivate
+his mind. He, however, failed to acquire the respect of those around
+him; and as he grew up he seemed to be considered utterly incapable
+of performing any useful function; and during the time when his
+nephew Caligula was emperor, he remained at court, among the other
+nobles, but still neglected and despised by all of them. It is said
+that he probably owed the preservation of his life to his
+insignificance, as Caligula would probably have found some pretext
+for destroying him, if he had not thought him too spiritless and
+imbecile to form any ambitious plans. In fact, Claudius said himself
+afterward, when he became emperor, that a great part of his apparent
+simplicity was feigned, as a measure of prudence, to protect himself
+from injury. When Claudius grew up he was married several times. The
+wife who was living with him at the time of Caligula's death was his
+third wife; her name was Valeria Messalina. She was his cousin.
+Claudius and Messalina had one child--a daughter, named Octavia.
+Claudius had been extremely unhappy in his connection with the wives
+preceding Messalina. He had quarreled with them and been divorced
+from them both. He had had a daughter by one of these wives and a
+son by the other. The son was suddenly killed by getting choked with
+a small pear. He had been throwing it into the air and attempting to
+catch it in his mouth as it came down, when at last it slipped down
+into his throat and strangled him. As for the daughter, Claudius was
+so exasperated with her mother at the time of his divorce from her,
+that he determined to disown and reject the child; so he ordered the
+terrified girl to be stripped naked, and to be sent and laid down in
+that condition at her wretched mother's door.
+
+Claudius, as has already been stated, was present with Caligula at
+the theater, on the last day of the spectacle, and followed him into
+the palace when he went to look at the Asiatic captives; so that he
+was present, or at least very near, at the time of his nephew's
+assassination. As might have been expected from what has been said
+of his character, he was overwhelmed with consternation and terror
+at the scene, and was utterly incapacitated from taking any part,
+either for or against the conspirators. He stole away in great
+fright and hid himself behind the hangings in a dark recess in the
+palace. Here he remained for some time, listening in an agony of
+anxiety and suspense to the sounds which he heard around him. He
+could hear the cries and the tumult in the streets, and in the
+passages of the palace. Parties of the guards, in going to and fro,
+passed by the place of his retreat from time to time, alarming him
+with the clangor of their weapons, and their furious exclamations
+and outcries. At one time peeping stealthily out, he saw a group of
+soldiers hurrying along with a bleeding head on the point of a pike.
+It was the head of a prominent citizen of Rome whom the guards had
+intercepted and killed, supposing him to be one of the conspirators.
+This spectacle greatly increased Claudius's terror. He was wholly in
+the dark in respect to the motives and the designs of the men who
+had thus revolted against his nephew, and it was of course
+impossible for him to know how he himself would be regarded by
+either party. He did not dare, therefore, to surrender himself to
+either, but remained in his concealment, suffering great anxiety,
+and utterly unable to decide what to do.
+
+[Illustration: DISCOVERY OF CLAUDIUS.]
+
+At length, while he was in this situation of uncertainty and terror,
+a common soldier of the guards, named Epirius, who happened to pass
+that way, accidentally saw his feet beneath the hangings, and
+immediately, pulling the hangings aside, dragged him out to view.
+Claudius supposed now, of course, that his hour was come. He fell on
+his knees in an agony of terror, and begged the soldier to spare his
+life. The soldier, when he found that his prisoner was Claudius, the
+uncle of Caligula, raised him from the ground and saluted him
+emperor. As Caligula left no son, Epirius considered Claudius as his
+nearest relative, and consequently as the heir. Epirius immediately
+summoned others of the guard to the place, saying that he had found
+the new emperor, and calling upon them to assist in conveying him to
+the camp. The soldiers thus summoned procured a chair, and having
+placed the astonished Claudius in it, they raised the chair upon
+their shoulders, and began to convey it away. As they bore him thus
+along the streets, the people who saw them supposed that they were
+taking him to execution, and they lamented his unhappy fate.
+Claudius himself knew not what to believe. He could not but hope
+that his life was to be saved, but then he could not wholly dispel
+his fears.
+
+In the mean time, the soldiers went steadily forward with their
+burden. When one set of bearers became fatigued, they set down the
+chair, and others relieved them. No one molested them, or attempted
+to intercept them in their progress, and at length they reached the
+camp. Claudius was well received by the whole body of the army. The
+officers held a consultation that night, and determined to make him
+emperor. At first he was extremely unwilling to accept the proffered
+honor, but they urged it upon him, and he was at length induced to
+accept it. Thus the army was once more provided with a head, and
+prepared to engage anew in its conflict with the civil authorities
+of the city.
+
+The particulars of the conflict that ensued we can not here
+describe. It is sufficient to say that the army prevailed, and that
+Claudius soon found himself in full possession of the power from
+which his nephew had been so suddenly deposed.
+
+One of the first measures which the new emperor adopted, was to
+recall Agrippina from her banishment at Pontia, where Caligula had
+confined her, and restore her to her former position in Rome. Her
+husband, Brazenbeard, died about this time, and young Brazenbeard,
+her son, afterward called Nero, the subject of this history, was
+three years old. Octavia, the daughter of Claudius and Messalina,
+was a little younger.
+
+Messalina, the wife of Claudius, hated Agrippina, considering her,
+as she did, her rival and enemy. The favor which Claudius showed to
+Agrippina, in recalling her from her banishment, and treating her
+with consideration and favor at Rome, only inflamed still more
+Messalina's hatred. She could not, however, succeed in inducing
+Claudius to withdraw his protection from his niece; for Claudius,
+though almost entirely subject to the influence and control of his
+wife in most things, seemed fully determined not to yield to her
+wishes in this. Agrippina continued, therefore, to live at Rome, in
+high favor with the court, for several years,--her little son
+advancing all the time in age and in maturity, until at length he
+became twelve years old. At this time, another great change took
+place in his own and his mother's condition. Messalina became
+herself, by her wickedness and infatuation, the means of raising her
+rival into her own place as wife of the emperor. The result was
+accomplished in the following manner.
+
+Messalina had long been a very dissolute and wicked woman, having
+been accustomed to give herself up to criminal indulgences and
+pleasures of every kind, in company with favorites whom she selected
+from time to time among the courtiers around her. For a time she
+managed these intrigues with some degree of caution and secrecy, in
+order to conceal her conduct from her husband. She gradually,
+however, became more and more open and bold. She possessed a great
+ascendency over the mind of her husband, and could easily deceive
+him, or induce him to do whatever she pleased. She persuaded him to
+confer honors and rewards in a very liberal manner upon those whom
+she favored, and to degrade, and sometimes even to destroy, those
+who displeased her. She would occasionally resort to very cunning
+artifices to accomplish her ends. For example, she conceived at one
+time a violent hatred against the husband of her mother. His name
+was Silanus. He was not the father of Messalina, but a second
+husband of Messalina's mother; and, being young and attractive in
+person, Messalina at first loved him, and intended to make him one
+of her favorites and companions. Silanus, however, would not accede
+to her wishes, and her love for him was then changed into hatred and
+thirst for revenge. She accordingly determined on his destruction;
+but as she knew that it would be difficult to induce Claudius to
+proceed to extremities against him, on account of his intimate
+relationship to the family, she contrived a very artful plot to
+accomplish her ends. It was this:
+
+She sent word to Silanus, on a certain evening, that the emperor
+wished him to come to the palace, to his private apartment, the next
+morning, at a very early hour. The emperor wished to see him, the
+messenger said, on business of importance.
+
+Just before the time which had been appointed for Silanus to appear,
+a certain officer of the household, named Narcissus, whom Messalina
+had engaged to assist her in her plot, came into the emperor's
+apartment, with an anxious countenance, and in a very hurried
+manner, and said to Claudius, whom he waked out of sleep by his
+coming, that he had had a very frightful dream--one which he deemed
+it his duty to make known to his master without any delay. He
+dreamed, he said, that a plot had been formed for assassinating the
+emperor; that Silanus was the contriver of it, and that he was
+coming early that morning to carry his design into effect.
+Messalina, who was present with her husband at the time, listened to
+this story with well-feigned anxiety and agitation, and then
+declared, with a countenance of great mysteriousness and solemnity,
+that she had had precisely the same dream for two or three nights in
+succession, but that, not being willing to do Silanus an injury, or
+to raise any unjust suspicions against him, she had thus far
+forborne to speak of the subject to her husband. She was, however,
+now convinced, she said, that Silanus was really entertaining some
+treasonable designs, and that the dreams were tokens sent from
+heaven to warn the emperor of his danger.
+
+Claudius, who was of an extremely timid and nervous temperament, was
+very much alarmed by these communications; and his terrors were
+greatly increased by the appearance of a servant who announced to
+him at that moment that Silanus was then coming in. The coming of
+Silanus to the palace at that unseasonable hour was considered by
+the emperor as full confirmation of the dreams which had been
+related to him, and as proof of the guilt of the accused; and under
+the impulse of the sudden passion and fear which this conviction
+awakened in his mind, he ordered Silanus to be seized and led away
+to immediate execution. These commands were obeyed. Silanus was
+hurried away and dispatched by the swords of the soldiers, without
+ever knowing what the accusation was that had been made against him.
+
+Thus Messalina succeeded by artifice and cunning in accomplishing
+her ends, in cases where she could not rely on her direct influence
+upon the mind of the emperor. In one way or the other she almost
+always effected whatever she undertook, and gradually came to
+exercise almost supreme control. Whom she would she raised up, and
+whom she would she put down. In the mean time she lived herself, a
+life of the most guilty indulgence and pleasure. For a long time she
+concealed her wickedness from the emperor. He was very easily
+deceived, and though Messalina's character was perfectly well known
+to others, he himself continued blind to her guilt. At length,
+however, she began to grow more and more bold. She became satiated,
+as one of her historians says of her, with the common and ordinary
+forms of vice, and wished for something new and unusual to give
+piquancy and life to her sensations. At length, however, she went
+one step too far, and brought upon herself in consequence of it a
+terrible destruction.
+
+It was about seven years after the accession of Claudius that the
+event occurred. The favorite of Messalina at this time was a young
+Roman senator named Caius Silius. Silius was a very distinguished
+young nobleman, and a man of handsome person and of very graceful
+and accomplished manners and address. He was in fact a very general
+favorite, and Messalina, when she first saw him, conceived a very
+strong affection for him. He was, however, already married to a
+beautiful Roman lady named Junia Silana. Silana had been, and was
+still at this time, an intimate friend of Agrippina, Nero's mother;
+though in subsequent times they became bitter enemies. Messalina
+made no secret of her love for Silius. She visited him freely at his
+house, and received his visits in return; she accompanied him to
+public places, evincing everywhere her strong regard for him in the
+most undisguised and open manner. At length she proposed to him to
+divorce his wife, in order that she herself might enjoy his society
+without any limitation or restraint. Silius hesitated for a time
+about complying with these proposals. He was well aware that he must
+necessarily incur great danger, either by complying or by refusing
+to comply with them. To accede to the empress's proposals, would be
+of course to place himself in a position of extreme peril; and the
+fate of Silanus was a warning to him of what he had to fear from her
+wrath, in case of a refusal. He concluded that the former danger was
+on the whole the least to be apprehended, and he accordingly
+divorced his wife, and gave himself up wholly to Messalina's will.
+
+This arrangement being made, all things for a time went on smoothly
+and well. Claudius himself lived a very secluded life, and paid very
+little attention to his wife's pursuits or pleasures. He lived
+sometimes in retirement in his palace, devoting his time to his
+studies, or to the plans and measures of government. He seems to
+have honestly desired to promote the welfare and prosperity of the
+republic, and he made many useful regulations and laws which
+promised to be conducive to this end. Sometimes he was absent for a
+season from the city,--visiting fortresses and encampments, or
+inspecting the public works, such as aqueducts and canals, which
+were in progress of construction. He was particularly interested in
+certain operations which he planned and conducted at the mouths of
+the Tiber for forming a harbor there. The place was called Ostia,
+that word in the Latin tongue denoting _mouths_. To form a port
+there he built two long piers, extending them in a curvilinear form
+into the sea, so as to inclose a large area of water between them,
+where ships could lie at anchor in safety. Light-houses were built
+at the extremities of these piers. It is a curious circumstance that
+in forming the foundation of one of these piers, the engineers whom
+Claudius employed sunk an immense ship which Caligula had formerly
+caused to be built for the purpose of transporting an obelisk from
+Egypt to Rome,--the obelisk which now stands in front of St. Peter's
+Church, and is the admiration and wonder of all visitors to Rome. As
+the obelisk was formed of a single stone, a vessel of a very large
+size and of an unusual construction was necessary for the
+conveyance of it; and when this ship had once delivered its
+monstrous burden, it had no longer any useful function to perform on
+the surface of the sea, and the engineers accordingly filled it with
+stones and gravel, and sunk it at the mouth of the Tiber, to form
+part of the foundation of one of Claudius's piers. As it is found
+that there is no perceptible decay, even for centuries, in timber
+that is kept constantly submerged in the water of the sea, it is not
+impossible that the vast hulk, unless marine insects have devoured
+it and carried it away, lies imbedded where Claudius placed it,
+still.
+
+While the emperor was engaged in these and similar pursuits and
+occupations, Messalina went on in her career of dissipation and
+indulgence from bad to worse, growing more and more bold and open
+every day. She lived in a constant round of entertainments and of
+gayety--sometimes receiving companies of guests at her own palace,
+and sometimes making visits with a large retinue of attendants and
+friends, at the house of Silius. Of course, every one paid court to
+Silius, and assumed, in their intercourse with him, every appearance
+that they entertained for him the most friendly regard. It is
+always so with the favorites of the great. While in heart they are
+hated and despised, in form and appearance they are caressed and
+applauded. Silius was intoxicated with the emotions that the giddy
+elevation to which he had arrived so naturally inspired. He was not,
+however, wholly at his ease. He could not but be aware that lofty as
+his position was, it was the brink of a precipice that he stood
+upon. Still he shut his eyes in a great measure to his danger and
+went blindly on. The catastrophe, which came very suddenly at last,
+will form the subject of the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE FATE OF MESSALINA.
+
+A.D. 48
+
+Silius forms a scheme for making himself emperor.--He proposes
+his plan to Messalina.--Messalina's reply.--Her motives.--Her
+proposal.--Audacity of Messalina in this proposal.--The false marriage
+is celebrated.--Indignation of the emperor's friends.--Plot formed
+for Messalina's destruction.--Plans and arrangements of the
+conspirators.--Their hesitation.--Calpurnia.--Motives addressed to
+her.--Calpurnia and Cleopatra undertake their task.--Messalina's
+festival in the palace gardens.--Calpurnia's interview with Claudius
+at Ostia.--Claudius is exceedingly terrified.--The statement of
+Narcissus.--Council called.--Measures adopted by Claudius and the
+conspirators.--Messalina receives warning.--Scene in the
+garden.--Silius withdraws.--Messalina's anxiety.--Messalina's
+course of action.--Her two children.--She proceeds to meet the
+emperor.--Her entreaties.--Claudius will not hear her.--Vibidia
+repulsed.--Executions.--Claudius at supper.--Messalina's
+letter.--Claudius relents.--Alarm of Narcissus.--Narcissus orders
+Messalina to be slain.--Interview between Messalina and her mother
+in the garden.--Indifference of Claudius in respect to Messalina's
+fate.--Claudius marries Agrippina.--Adoption of her son.
+
+
+As might naturally have been expected, there were two very different
+emotions awakened in the mind of Silius by the situation in which he
+found himself placed with Messalina,--one was ambition, and the
+other was fear. Finding himself suddenly raised to the possession of
+so high a degree of consideration and influence, it was natural that
+he should look still higher, and begin to wish for actual and
+official power. And then, on the other hand, his uneasiness at the
+dangers that he was exposed to by remaining as he was, increased
+every day. At length a plan occurred to him which both these
+considerations urged him to adopt. The plan was to murder Claudius,
+and then to marry Messalina, and make himself emperor in Claudius's
+place. By the accomplishment of this design he would effect, he
+thought, a double object. He would at once raise himself to a post
+of real and substantial power, and also, at the same time place
+himself in a position of security. He resolved to propose this
+scheme to Messalina.
+
+Accordingly, on the first favorable opportunity, he addressed the
+empress on the subject, and cautiously made known his design. "I
+wish to have you wholly mine," said he "and although the emperor is
+growing old, we can not safely wait for his death. We are, in fact,
+continually exposed to danger. We have gone quite too far to be safe
+where we are, and by taking the remaining steps necessary to
+accomplish fully our ends we shall only be completing what we have
+begun, and by so doing, far from incurring any new penalties, we
+shall be taking the only effectual method to protect ourselves from
+the dangers which impend over us and threaten us now. Let us,
+therefore, devise some means to remove the emperor out of our way. I
+will then be proclaimed emperor in his place, and be married to you.
+The power which you now enjoy will then come back to you again,
+undiminished, and under such circumstances as will render it
+permanently secure to you. To accomplish this will be very easy; for
+the emperor, superannuated, infirm, and stupid as he is, can not
+protect himself against any well-planned and vigorous attempt which
+we may make to remove him; though, if we remain as we are, and any
+accidental cause should arouse him from his lethargy, we may expect
+to find him vindictive and furious against us to the last degree."
+
+Messalina listened to this proposal with great attention and
+interest, but so far as related to the proposed assassination of the
+emperor she did not seem inclined to assent to it. Her historian
+says that she was not influenced in this decision by any remaining
+sentiments of conjugal affection, or by conscientious principle of
+any kind, but by her distrust of Silius, and her unwillingness to
+commit herself so entirely into his power. She preferred to keep him
+dependent upon her, rather than to make herself dependent upon him.
+She liked the plan, however, of being married to him, she said, and
+would consent to that, even while the emperor remained alive. And so
+if Silius would agree to it, she was ready, she added, the next time
+that the emperor went to Ostia, to have the ceremony performed.
+
+That a wife and a mother, however unprincipled and corrupt, should
+make, under such circumstances, a proposal like this of
+Messalina's, is certainly very extraordinary; and to those who do
+not know to what extremes of recklessness and infatuation, the
+irresponsible despots that have arisen from time to time to rule
+mankind, have often pushed their wickedness and crime, it must seem
+wholly incredible. The Roman historian who has recorded this
+narrative, assures us, that it was the very audacity of this guilt
+that constituted its charm in Messalina's eyes. She had become weary
+of, and satiated with, all the ordinary forms of criminal indulgence
+and pleasure. The work of deceiving and imposing upon her husband,
+in order to secure for herself the gratifications which she sought,
+was for a time sufficient to give zest and piquancy to her
+pleasures. But he was so easily deceived, and she had been
+accustomed to deceive him so long, that it now no longer afforded to
+her mind any stimulus or excitement to do it in any common way. But
+the idea of being actually married to another man while he was
+absent at a short distance from the city, would be something
+striking and new, which would vary, she thought, the dull monotony
+of the common course of sin.
+
+The proposed marriage was finally determined upon, and the mock
+ceremony, for such a ceremony could, of course, have no legal force,
+was duly performed at a time when Claudius was absent at Ostia,
+inspecting the works which were in progress there. How far the
+pretended marriage was open and public in the actual celebration of
+it, is not very certain; but the historians say that it was
+conducted with all the usual ceremonies, and was attended by the
+usual witnesses. The service was performed by the _augur_, a sort of
+sacerdotal officer, on whom the duty of conducting such solemnities
+properly devolved. Messalina and Silius, each in their turn,
+repeated the words pertaining respectively to the bridegroom and the
+bride. The usual sacrifice to the gods was then made, and a nuptial
+banquet followed, at which there passed between the new married pair
+the caresses and endearments usual on such occasions. All things in
+a word were conducted, from the beginning to the end, as in a real
+and honest wedding, and whether the scene thus enacted was performed
+in public as a serious transaction, or at some private entertainment
+as a species of sport, it created a strong sensation among all who
+witnessed it, and the news of it soon spread abroad and became very
+generally known.
+
+The more immediate friends of Claudius were very indignant at such a
+proceeding. They conferred together, uttering to each other many
+murmurings and complaints, and anticipating the worst results and
+consequences from what had occurred. Silius, they said, was an
+ambitious and dangerous man, and the audacious deed which he had
+performed was the prelude, they believed, to some deep ulterior
+design. They feared for the safety of Claudius; and as they knew
+very well that the downfall of the emperor would involve them too in
+ruin, they were naturally much alarmed. It was, however, very
+difficult for them to decide what to do.
+
+If they were to inform the emperor of Messalina's proceedings, they
+considered it wholly uncertain what effect the communication would
+have upon him. Like almost all weak-minded men, he was impulsive and
+capricious in the extreme; and whether, on a communication being
+made to him, he would receive it with indifference and unconcern,
+or, in case his anger should be aroused, whether it would expend
+itself upon Messalina or upon those who informed him against her, it
+was wholly impossible to foresee.
+
+At length, after various consultations and debates, a small number
+of the courtiers who were most determined in their detestation of
+Messalina and her practices, leagued themselves together, and
+resolved upon a course of procedure by which they hoped, if
+possible, to effect her destruction. The leader of this company was
+Callistus, one of the officers of Claudius's household. He was one
+of the men who had been engaged with Chaerea in the assassination of
+Caligula. Narcissus was another. This was the same Narcissus that is
+mentioned in the last chapter, as the artful contriver, with
+Messalina, of the death of Silanus. Pallas was the name of a third
+conspirator. He was a confidential friend and favorite of Claudius,
+and was very jealous, like the rest, of the influence which Silius,
+through Messalina, exercised over his master. These were the
+principal confederates, though there were some others joined with
+them.
+
+The great object of the hostility of these men, seems to have been
+Silius, rather than Messalina. This, in fact, would naturally be
+supposed to be the case, since it was Silius rather than Messalina
+who was their rival. Some of them appear to have hated Messalina on
+her own account, but with the others there was apparently no wish to
+harm the empress, if any other way could be found of reaching
+Silius. In fact, in the consultations which were held, one plan
+which was proposed was to go to Messalina, and without evincing any
+feelings of unkindness or hostility toward her, to endeavor to
+persuade her to break off her connection with her favorite. This
+plan was, however, soon overruled. The plotters thought that it
+would be extremely improbable that Messalina would listen to any
+such proposition, and in case of her rejection of it, if it were
+made, her anger would be aroused strongly against them for making
+it: and then, even if she should not attempt to take vengeance upon
+them for their presumption, she would at any rate put herself
+effectually upon her guard against any thing else which they should
+attempt to do. The plan of separating Messalina and Silius was,
+therefore, abandoned, and the determination resolved upon to take
+measures for destroying them both together.
+
+The course which the confederates decided to pursue in order to
+effect their object, was to proceed to Ostia, where Claudius still
+remained, and there make known to him what Messalina and Silius had
+done, and endeavor to convince him that this audacious conduct on
+their part was only the prelude to open violence against the life of
+the emperor. It would seem, however, that no one of them was quite
+willing to take upon himself the office of making such a
+communication as this, in the first instance, to such a man. They
+did not know how he would receive it,--or against whom the first
+weight of his resentment and rage would fall. Finally, after much
+hesitation and debate, they concluded to employ a certain female for
+the purpose,--a courtesan named Calpurnia. Calpurnia was a favorite
+and companion of Claudius, and as such they thought she might
+perhaps have an opportunity to approach him with the subject under
+such circumstances as to diminish the danger. At any rate, Calpurnia
+was easily led by such inducements as the conspirators laid before
+her, to undertake the commission. They not only promised her
+suitable rewards, but they appealed also to the jealousy and hatred
+which such a woman would naturally feel toward Messalina, who,
+being a wife, while Calpurnia was only a companion and favorite,
+would of course be regarded as a rival and enemy. They represented
+to Calpurnia how entirely changed for the better her situation would
+be, if Messalina could once be put out of the way. There would then,
+they said, be none to interfere with her; but her influence and
+ascendency over the emperor's mind would be established on a
+permanent and lasting footing.
+
+Calpurnia was very easily led by these inducements to undertake the
+commission. There was another courtesan named Cleopatra, who, it was
+arranged, should be at hand when Calpurnia made her communication,
+to confirm the truth of it, should any confirmation seem to be
+required. The other conspirators, also, were to be near, ready to be
+called in and to act as occasion might require, in case Calpurnia
+and Cleopatra should find that their statement was making the right
+impression. Things being all thus arranged the party proceeded to
+Ostia to carry their plans into execution.
+
+In the mean time Messalina and Silius, wholly unconscious of the
+danger, gave themselves up with greater and greater boldness and
+unconcern to their guilty pleasures. On the day when Callistus and
+his party went to Ostia she was celebrating a festival at her palace
+with great gayety and splendor. It was in the autumn of the year,
+and the festival was in honor of the season. In the countries on the
+Mediterranean the gathering of grapes and the pressing of the juice
+for wine, is the great subject of autumnal rejoicings; and Messalina
+had arranged a festival in accordance with the usual customs, in the
+gardens of the palace. A wine-press had been erected, and grapes
+were gathered and brought to it. The guests whom Messalina had
+invited were assembled around; some were dancing about the
+wine-press, some were walking in the alleys, and some were seated in
+the neighboring bowers. They were dressed in fancy costumes, and
+their heads were adorned with garlands of flowers. There was a group
+of dancing girls who were engaged as performers on the occasion, to
+dance for the amusement of the company, in honor of Bacchus, the god
+of wine. These girls were dressed, so far as they were clothed at
+all, in robes made of the skins of tigers, and their heads were
+crowned with flowers. Messalina herself, however, was the most
+conspicuous object among the gay throng. She was robed in a manner
+to display most fully the graces of her person; her long hair waving
+loosely in the wind. She had in her hand a symbol, or badge, called
+the _thyrsus_, which was an ornamented staff, or pole, surmounted
+with a carved representation of a bunch of grapes, and with other
+ornaments and emblems. The thyrsus was always used in the rites and
+festivities celebrated in honor of Bacchus. Silius himself, dressed
+like the rest in a fantastic and theatrical costume, danced by the
+side of Messalina, in the center of a ring of dancing girls which
+was formed around them.
+
+[Illustration: MESSALINA IN THE GARDEN.]
+
+In the mean time, while this gay party were thus enjoying themselves
+in the palace gardens at Rome, a very different scene was enacting
+at Ostia. Calpurnia, in her secret interview with Claudius, seizing
+upon a moment which seemed to her favorable for her purpose, kneeled
+down before him and made the communication with which she had been
+charged. She told him of Messalina's conduct, and informed him
+particularly how she had at last crowned the dishonor of her husband
+by openly marrying Silius, or at least pretending to do so. "Your
+friends believe," she added, "that she and Silius entertain still
+more criminal designs, and that your life will be sacrificed unless
+you immediately adopt vigorous and decided measures to avert the
+danger."
+
+Claudius was very much amazed, and was also exceedingly terrified at
+this communication. He trembled and turned pale, then looked wild
+and excited, and began to make inquiries in an incoherent and
+distracted manner. Calpurnia called in Cleopatra to confirm her
+story. Cleopatra did confirm it, of course, in the fullest and most
+unqualified manner. The effect which was produced upon the mind of
+the emperor seemed to be exactly what the conspirators had desired.
+He evinced no disposition to justify or to defend Messalina, or to
+be angry with Calpurnia and Cleopatra for making such charges
+against her. His mind seemed to be wholly absorbed with a sense of
+the dangers of his situation, and Narcissus was accordingly sent for
+to come in.
+
+Narcissus, when appealed to, acknowledged, though with well-feigned
+reluctance and hesitation, the truth of what Calpurnia had
+declared, and he immediately began to apologize for his own
+remissness in not having before made the case known. He spoke with
+great moderation of Messalina, and also of Silius, as if his object
+were to appease rather than to inflame the anger of the emperor. He
+however admitted, he said, that it was absolutely necessary that
+something decisive should be done. "Your wife is taken from you,"
+said he, "and Silius is master of her. The next thing will be that
+he will be master of the republic. He may even already have gained
+the Praetorian guards over to his side, in which case all is lost. It
+is absolutely necessary that some immediate and decisive action
+should be taken."
+
+Claudius, in great trepidation, immediately called together such of
+his prominent councillors and friends as were at hand at Ostia, to
+consult on what was to be done. Of course, it was principally the
+conspirators themselves that appeared at this council. They crowded
+around the emperor and urged him immediately to take the most
+decisive measures to save himself from the impending danger, and
+they succeeded so well in working upon his fears that he stood
+before them in stupid amazement, wholly incapable of deciding what
+to say or do. The conspirators urged upon the emperor the necessity
+of first securing the guard. This body was commanded by an officer
+named Geta, on whom Narcissus said no reliance could be placed, and
+he begged that Claudius would immediately authorize him, Narcissus,
+to take the command. The object of the confederates in thus wishing
+to get command of the guard was, perhaps, to make sure of the prompt
+and immediate execution of any sentence which they might succeed in
+inducing the emperor to pronounce upon Silius or Messalina, before
+he should have the opportunity of changing his mind. The emperor
+turned from one adviser to another, listening to their various
+suggestions and plans, but he seemed bewildered and undecided, as if
+he knew not what to do. It was, however, at length, determined to
+proceed immediately to Rome. The whole party accordingly mounted
+into their carriages, Narcissus taking his seat by the side of the
+emperor in the imperial chariot, in order that he might keep up the
+excitement and agitation in his master's mind by his conversation on
+the way.
+
+In the mean time there were among those who witnessed these
+proceedings at Ostia, some who were disposed to take sides with
+Messalina and Silius, in the approaching struggle; and they
+immediately dispatched a special messenger to Rome to warn the
+empress of the impending danger. This messenger rode up along the
+banks of the Tiber with all speed, and in advance of the emperor's
+party. On his arrival in the city he immediately repaired to the
+palace gardens and communicated his errand to Messalina and her
+company in the midst of their festivities. Claudius had been
+informed, he said, against her and Silius, and was almost beside
+himself with resentment and anger. He was already on his way to
+Rome, the messenger added, coming to wreak vengeance upon them, and
+he warned them to escape for their lives. This communication was
+made, of course, in the first instance, somewhat privately to the
+parties principally concerned. It, however, put a sudden stop to all
+the hilarity and joy, and the tidings were rapidly circulated around
+the gardens. One man climbed into a tree and looked off in the
+direction of Ostia. The others asked him what he saw. "I see a
+great storm arising from the sea at Ostia," said he, "and coming
+hither, and it is time for us to save ourselves." In a word the
+bacchanalian games and sports were all soon broken up in confusion,
+and the company made their escape from the scene, each by a
+different way.
+
+Silius immediately resumed his ordinary dress, and went forth into
+the city, where, under an assumed appearance of indifference and
+unconcern, he walked about in the forum, as if nothing unusual had
+occurred. Messalina herself fled to the house of a friend, named
+Lucullus, and, passing immediately through the house, sought a
+hiding-place in the gardens. Here her mind began to be overwhelmed
+with anguish, remorse, and terror. Her sins, now that a terrible
+retribution for them seemed to be impending, rose before her in all
+their enormity, and she knew not what to do. She soon reflected that
+there could be no permanent safety for her where she was, for the
+advanced guards of Claudius, which were even then entering the city
+and commencing their arrests, would be sure soon to discover the
+place of her retreat, and bring her before her exasperated husband.
+She concluded that, rather than wait for this, it would be better
+for her to go before him herself voluntarily; and, by throwing
+herself upon his mercy, endeavor to soften and appease him. She
+accordingly, in her distraction, determined to pursue this course.
+She came forth from her hiding-place in Lucullus's gardens, and went
+to seek her children, intending to take them with her, that the
+sight of them might help to move the heart of their father. Her
+children were two in number. Octavia, who has already been
+mentioned, was the eldest, being now about ten or twelve years of
+age. The other was a boy several years younger; his name was
+Britannicus.
+
+In the mean time, the city was thrown quite into a state of
+commotion, by the approach of Claudius, and by the tidings which had
+spread rapidly through the streets, of what had occurred. The
+soldiers whom Claudius had sent forward, were making arrests in the
+streets, and searching the houses. In the midst of this excitement,
+Messalina, with her children, attended by one of the vestal virgins,
+named Vibidia, whom she had prevailed upon to accompany her and
+plead her cause, came forth from her palace on foot, and proceeded
+through the streets, her hair disheveled, her dress in disorder, and
+her whole appearance marked by every characteristic of humiliation,
+abasement, and woe. When she reached the gate of the city, she
+mounted into a common cart which she found there, and in that manner
+proceeded to meet her angry husband, leaving her children with
+Vibidia, the vestal, to follow behind.
+
+She had not proceeded very far, before she met the emperor's train
+approaching. As soon as she came near enough to the carriage of
+Claudius to be heard, she began to utter loud entreaties and
+lamentations, begging her husband to hear before he condemned her.
+"Hear your unhappy wife," said she, "hear the mother of Britannicus
+and Octavia." Narcissus and the others who were near, interposed to
+prevent her from being heard. They talked continually to the
+emperor, and produced a written memorial and other papers for him to
+read, which contained, they said, a full account of the whole
+transaction. Claudius, taking very little notice of his wife,
+pursued his way toward the city. She followed in his train. When
+they drew near to the gates, they met Vibidia and the children.
+Vibidia attempted to speak, but Claudius would not listen. She
+complained, in a mournful tone, that for him to condemn his wife
+unheard, would be unjust and cruel; but Claudius was unmoved. He
+told Vibidia that Messalina would in due time have a suitable
+opportunity to make her defense, and that, in the mean time, the
+proper duty of a vestal virgin was to confine herself to the
+functions of her sacred office. Thus he sent both her and the
+children away.
+
+As soon as the party arrived in the city Narcissus conducted the
+emperor to the house of Silius, and entering it he showed to the
+emperor there a great number of proofs of the guilty favoritism
+which the owner of it had enjoyed with Messalina. The house was
+filled with valuable presents, the tokens of Messalina's love,
+consisting, many of them, of costly household treasures which had
+descended to Claudius in the imperial line, and which were of such a
+character that the alienation of them by Messalina, in such a way,
+was calculated to fill the heart of Claudius with indignation and
+anger. The emperor then proceeded to the camp. Silius and several of
+his leading friends were arrested and brought together before a
+sort of military tribunal summoned on the spot to try them. The
+trial was of course very brief and very summary. They were all
+condemned to death and were led out to instant execution.
+
+This being done the emperor returned with his friends to the city
+and repaired to his palace. His mind seemed greatly relieved. He
+felt that the crisis of danger was past. He ordered supper to be
+prepared, and when it was ready he seated himself at table. He
+congratulated himself and his friends on the escape from the perils
+that had surrounded them, which they had so happily accomplished.
+Narcissus and the others began to tremble lest after all Messalina
+should be spared; and they knew full well that if she should be
+allowed to live, she would soon, by her artful management, regain
+her ascendency over the emperor's mind, and that in that case she
+would give herself no rest until she had destroyed all those who had
+taken any part in effecting the destruction of Silius. They began to
+be greatly alarmed therefore for their own safety. In the mean time
+messages came in from Messalina, who, when the emperor entered the
+city, had returned to her former place of refuge in the gardens of
+Lucullus. At length a letter, or memorial, came. On reading what was
+written it was found that Messalina was assuming a bolder tone. Her
+letter was a remonstrance rather than a petition, as if she were
+designing to try the effect of bravery and assurance, and to see if
+she could not openly reassume the ascendency and control which she
+had long exercised over the mind of her husband. Claudius seemed
+inclined to hesitate and waver. His anger appeared to be subsiding
+with his fears, and the wine which he drank freely at the table
+seemed to conspire with the other influences of the occasion to
+restore his wonted good-humor. He ordered that in reply to
+Messalina's letter a messenger should go and inform her that she
+should be admitted the next day to see him and to make her defense.
+
+Narcissus and his confederates were greatly alarmed, and determined
+immediately that this must not be. Narcissus had been placed, it
+would seem, according to the wish of the conspirators at the outset,
+in command of the guard; and he accordingly had power to prevent the
+emperor's determination from being carried into effect, provided
+that he should dare to take the responsibility of acting. It was a
+moment of great anxiety and suspense. He soon, however, came
+strongly to the conclusion that though it would be very dangerous
+for him to act, yet that not to act would be certain destruction;
+since if Messalina were allowed to live it would be absolutely
+certain that they all must die. Accordingly, summoning all his
+resolution he hurried out of the banqueting room, and gave orders to
+the officers on duty there, in the emperor's name, to proceed to the
+gardens of Lucullus and execute sentence of death on Messalina
+without any delay.
+
+Messalina was with her mother Lepida, in the gardens, awaiting her
+answer from the emperor, when the band of soldiers came. Messalina
+and her mother had never been agreed, and now for a long time had
+had no intercourse with each other. The daughter's danger had,
+however, reawakened the instinct of maternal love in the mother's
+heart, and Lepida had come to see her child in this the hour of her
+extremity. She came, however, not to console or comfort her child,
+or to aid her in her efforts to save her life, but to provide her
+with the means of putting an end to her own existence as the only
+way now left to her, of escape from the greater disgrace of public
+execution.
+
+She accordingly offered a poniard to Messalina in the gardens, and
+urged her to take it. "Death by your own hand," said she, "is now
+your only refuge. You _must_ die; it is impossible that this tragedy
+can have any other termination; and to wait quietly here for the
+stroke of the executioner is base and ignoble. You _must die_;--and
+all that now remains to you is the power to close the scene with
+dignity and with becoming spirit."
+
+Messalina manifested the greatest agitation and distress, but she
+could not summon resolution to receive the poniard. In the midst of
+this scene the band of soldiers appeared, entering the garden. The
+mother pressed the poniard upon her daughter, saying, "Now is the
+time." Messalina took the weapon, and pointed it toward her breast,
+but had not firmness enough to strike it home. The officer
+approached her at the head of his men, with his sword drawn in his
+hand. Messalina, still irresolute, made a feeble and ineffectual
+effort to give herself a wound, but failed of inflicting it; and
+then the officer who had by this time advanced to the spot where
+she was standing, put an end to her dreadful mental struggles by
+cutting her down and killing her at a single blow.
+
+When tidings were brought back to Narcissus that his commands had
+been obeyed, he went again to the presence of Claudius, and reported
+to him simply that Messalina was no more. He made no explanations,
+and the emperor asked for none; but went on with his supper as if
+nothing had occurred, and never afterward expressed any curiosity or
+interest in respect to Messalina's fate.
+
+As soon as the excitement produced by these transactions had in some
+degree subsided, various plans and intrigues were commenced for
+providing the emperor with another wife. There were many competitors
+for the station, all of whom were eager to occupy it; for, though
+Claudius was old, imbecile, and ugly, still he was the emperor; and
+all those ladies of his court who thought that they had any prospect
+of success, aspired to the possession of his hand, as the summit of
+earthly ambition. Among the rest, Agrippina appeared. She was
+Claudius's niece. This relationship was in one respect a bar to her
+success, since the laws prohibited marriage within that degree of
+consanguinity. In another respect, however, the relationship was
+greatly in Agrippina's favor, for under the plea of it she had
+constant access to the emperor, and was extremely assiduous in her
+attentions to him. She succeeded, at length, in inspiring him with
+some sentiment of love, and he determined to make her his wife. The
+Senate were easily induced to alter the laws in order to enable him
+to do this, and Claudius and Agrippina were married.
+
+Claudius not only thus made the mother of our hero his wife, but he
+adopted her son as his son and heir--changing, at the same time, the
+name of the boy. In place of his former plebeian appellation of
+Ahenobarbus, he gave him now the imposing title of Nero Claudius
+Caesar Drusus Germanicus. He has since generally been known in
+history, however, by the simple prenomen, Nero.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE CHILDHOOD OF NERO.
+
+A.D. 39-53
+
+Early history of Nero.--Character of his father.--Brutal character
+of Brazenbeard.--Nero neglected.--Nero reappears at
+court.--Britannicus.--The secular or centennial games.--Mode of
+celebrating them.--Nero and Britannicus.--Nero applauded.--The
+story of the serpents.--Advancement of Nero after the death of
+Messalina.--Agrippina's treatment of Britannicus.--Nero assumes the
+toga.--Britannicus secluded.--Agrippina's treatment of the two
+boys.--Britannicus offends Nero.--Agrippina's anger.--The Fucine
+lake.--Plan for draining it.--The canal.--Grand celebration at the
+opening of the canal.--Naval conflict to take place on the lake.--End
+of the naval battle.--The water will not flow.--Deepening the
+canal.--New celebrations.--Influences under which Nero's character
+was formed.--Agrippina's plan in respect to Octavia.--Tragical end
+of Silanus.--Marriage of Nero.
+
+
+During the time that Agrippina had been passing through the strange
+and eventful vicissitudes of her history, described in the preceding
+chapters, young Nero himself, as we shall henceforth call him, had
+been growing up an active and intelligent, but an indulged and
+ungoverned boy. His own father died when he was about three years
+old. This, however, was an advantage probably, rather than a loss to
+the boy, as Brazenbeard was an extremely coarse, cruel, and
+unprincipled man. He once killed one of his slaves for not drinking
+as much as he ordered him. Riding one day in his chariot through a
+village, he drove wantonly and purposely over a boy, and killed him
+on the spot. He defrauded all who dealt with him, and was repeatedly
+prosecuted for the worst of crimes. He treated his wife with great
+brutality. As has already been said, he received the announcement of
+the birth of his son with derision, saying that nothing but what
+was detestable could come from him and Agrippina; and when they
+asked him what name they should give the child, he recommended to
+them to name him Claudius. This was said in contempt, for Claudius
+was at that time despised by every one, as a deformed and stupid
+idiot, though he was subsequently made emperor in the manner that
+has been already explained. The manifestation of such a spirit, at
+such a time, on the part of her husband, pained Agrippina
+exceedingly,--but the more it pained her, the more Brazenbeard was
+gratified and amused. The death of such a father could, of course,
+be no calamity.
+
+When Agrippina, Nero's mother, was banished from Rome by the order
+of Caligula, Nero himself did not accompany her, but remained behind
+under the care of his aunt Lepida, with whom he lived for a time in
+comparative neglect and obscurity. Though he belonged to one of the
+most aristocratic families of Rome, his mother being a descendant
+and heir of the Caesars, he spent some years in a situation of
+poverty and disgrace. His education was neglected, as he received
+no instruction at this time except from a dancing-master and a
+barber, who were his only tutors. Of course, the formation of his
+moral character was wholly neglected,--nor, in fact, considering the
+character of those by whom he was surrounded, would it have been
+possible that any favorable influence should have been exerted upon
+him, if the attempt had been made.
+
+At length when Caligula died and Agrippina was recalled from her
+banishment by Claudius, and reinstated in her former position at
+Rome, Nero emerged from his obscurity, and thenceforth lived with
+his mother in luxury and splendor in the capital. Nero was a
+handsome boy, and he soon became an object of great popular favor
+and regard. He often appeared in public at entertainments and
+celebrations, and when he did so he was always specially noticed and
+caressed. His companion, and in some respects his rival and
+competitor, at such times, was Britannicus, the son of Claudius and
+Messalina. Britannicus was two or three years younger than Nero, and
+being the son of the emperor was of course a very prominent and
+conspicuous object of attention whenever he appeared. But the rank
+of Nero was scarcely less high, since his mother was descended
+directly from the imperial family, while in age and personal
+appearance and bearing he was superior to his cousin.
+
+One instance is specially noticed by the historians of those days,
+in which young Nero was honored with an extraordinary degree of
+public attention and regard. It was on the occasion of celebrating
+what might be called the centennial games. These games were
+generally supposed to be celebrated at each recurrence of a certain
+astronomical period, of about one hundred years' duration, called an
+age; but in reality it was at irregular though very distant
+intervals that they were observed. Claudius instituted a celebration
+of them early in his reign. There had been a celebration of them in
+the reign of Augustus, not many years before,--but Claudius, wishing
+to signalize his own reign by some great entertainment and display,
+pretended that Augustus had made a miscalculation, and had observed
+the festival at the wrong time; and he ordained, accordingly, that
+the celebration should take place again.
+
+The games and shows connected with this festival extended through
+three successive days. They consisted of sacrifices and other
+religious rites, dramatic spectacles, athletic games, and military
+and gladiatorial shows. In the course of these diversions there was
+celebrated on one of the days what was called the Trojan game, in
+which young boys of leading and distinguished families appeared on
+horseback in a circus or ring, where they performed certain
+evolutions and feats of horsemanship, and mock conflicts, in the
+midst of the tens of thousands of spectators who thronged the seats
+around. Of course Britannicus and Nero were the most prominent and
+conspicuous of the boys on this occasion. Nero, however, in the
+estimation of the populace, bore off the palm. He was received with
+the loudest acclamations by the whole assembly, while Britannicus
+attracted far less attention. This triumph filled Agrippina's heart
+with pride and pleasure, while it occasioned to Messalina the
+greatest vexation and chagrin. It made Agrippina more than ever
+before the object of Messalina's hatred and hostility, and the
+empress would very probably before long have found some means of
+destroying her rival had she not soon after this become involved
+herself in the difficulties arising out of her connection with
+Silius, which resulted so soon in her own destruction.
+
+The people, however, were filled with admiration of Nero, and they
+applauded his performance with the utmost enthusiasm. He was for a
+time a subject of conversation in every circle throughout the city,
+and many tales were told of his history and his doings. Among other
+things which were related of him, the story was circulated that
+Messalina became so excited against him in her jealousy and envy,
+that she sent two assassins to murder him in his sleep; and that the
+assassins, coming to him in a garden where he was lying asleep upon
+a pillow, were just putting their cruel orders into execution when
+they were driven away by a serpent that appeared miraculously at the
+moment to defend the child--darting out at the assassins from
+beneath the pillow. Others said that it was in his infancy that this
+occurrence took place, and that there were two serpents instead of
+one, and that they guarded the life of their charge lying with him
+in his cradle. One of the historians of the time states that neither
+of these stories was really true, but that they both originated in
+the fact that Nero was accustomed to wear, when a boy, a bracelet
+made of a serpent's skin, small and of beautiful colors,--and
+fastened, as they said, around the wearer's wrist with a clasp of
+gold.
+
+However the fact may be in respect to Messalina's allowing her
+jealousy of Agrippina to carry her so far as to make direct attempts
+upon his life, there is no doubt that she lived in continual fear of
+the influence both of Nero and of his mother, on the mind of the
+emperor; and Agrippina was consequently compelled to submit to many
+indignities which the position and the power of Messalina enabled
+her to impose upon her enemies and rivals. At length, however, the
+fall of Messalina, and the entire revolution in the situation and
+prospects of Agrippina which was consequent upon it, changed
+altogether the position of Nero. It might have been expected, it is
+true, even after the marriage of Claudius with Agrippina, that
+Britannicus would have still maintained altogether the highest place
+in the emperor's regard, since Britannicus was his own son, while
+Nero was only the son of his wife. But Agrippina was artful enough
+to manage her indolent and stupid husband just as she pleased; and
+she soon found means to displace Britannicus, and to raise Nero in
+his stead, to the highest place, in precedence and honor. She
+persuaded Claudius to adopt Nero as his own son, as was stated in
+the last chapter. She obtained a decree of the Senate, approving and
+confirming this act. She then removed Britannicus from the court and
+shut him up in seclusion, in a nursery, under pretense of tender
+regard for his health and safety. In a word, she treated Britannicus
+in all respects like a little child, and kept him wholly in the
+background; while she brought her own son, though he was but little
+older than the other, very prominently forward, as a young man.
+
+In those ancient days as now, there was an appropriate dress for
+youth, which was changed for that of a man when the subject arrived
+at maturity. The garment which was most distinctively characteristic
+of adult age among the Romans was called the toga; and it was
+assumed by the Roman youth, not as the dress of a man is by young
+persons now, in a private and informal manner, according as the
+convenience or fancy of the individual may dictate,--but publicly
+and with much ceremony, and always at the time when the party
+arrived at the period of legal majority; so that assuming the toga
+marked always a very important era of life. This distinction
+Agrippina caused to be conferred upon Nero by a special edict when
+he was only fourteen years of age, which was at a very much earlier
+period than usual. On the occasion of thus advancing him to the
+dress and to the legal capabilities of manhood, Agrippina brought
+him out in a special manner before the people of Rome at a great
+public celebration, and the more effectually to call public
+attention to him as a young prince of the highest distinction in the
+imperial family, she induced Claudius to bestow a largess upon the
+people, and a donative upon the army, that is a public distribution
+of money, to the citizens and to the soldiers, in Nero's name.
+
+All this time Britannicus was kept shut up in the private apartments
+of the palace with nurses and children. The tutors and attendants
+whom Messalina his mother provided for him were one by one removed,
+and their places supplied by others whom Agrippina selected for the
+purpose, and whom she could rely upon to second her views. When
+inquired of in respect to Britannicus by those who had known him
+before, during his mother's lifetime, she replied that he was a weak
+and feeble child, subject to fits, and thus necessarily kept
+secluded from society.
+
+Sometimes, indeed, on great public occasions, both Nero and
+Britannicus appeared together, but even in these cases the
+arrangements were so made as to impress the public mind more
+forcibly than ever with an idea of the vast superiority of Nero, in
+respect to rank and position. On one such occasion, while
+Britannicus was carried about clothed in the dress of a child, and
+with attendants characteristic of the nursery, Nero rode on
+horseback, richly appareled in the triumphal robes of a general
+returning from a foreign campaign.
+
+Agrippina was one day made very angry with Britannicus, for what
+might seem a very trifling cause. It seems that Britannicus, though
+young, was a very intelligent boy, and that he understood perfectly
+the policy which his step-mother was pursuing toward him, and was
+very unwilling to submit to be thus supplanted. One day, when he and
+Nero were both abroad, attending some public spectacle or
+celebration, they met, and Nero accosted his cousin, calling him
+Britannicus. Britannicus, in returning the salutation, addressed
+Nero familiarly by the name Domitius;--Domitius Ahenobarbus having
+been his name before he was adopted by Claudius. Agrippina was very
+indignant when she heard of this. She considered the using of this
+name by Britannicus, as denoting, on his part, a refusal to
+acknowledge his cousin as the adopted son of his father. She
+immediately went to Claudius with earnest and angry complainings.
+"Your own edict," said she, "sanctioned and confirmed by the Senate,
+is disavowed and annulled, and my son is subjected to public insult
+by the impertinence of this child." Agrippina farther represented to
+Claudius, that Britannicus never would have thought of addressing
+her son in such a manner, of his own accord. His doing it must have
+arisen from the influence of some of the persons around him who were
+hostile to her; and she made use of the occasion to induce Claudius
+to give her authority to remove all that remained of the child's
+instructors and governors, who could be suspected of a friendly
+interest in his cause, and to subject him to new and more rigorous
+restrictions than ever.
+
+One of the most imposing of all the spectacles and celebrations
+which Claudius instituted during his reign, was the one which
+signalized the opening of the canal by which the Fucine lake was
+drained. The Fucine lake was a large but shallow body of water, at
+the foot of the Appenines, near the sources of the Tiber.[A] It was
+subject to periodic inundations, by which the surrounding lands were
+submerged. An engineer had offered to drain the lake, in
+consideration of receiving for his pay the lands which would be laid
+dry by the operation. But Claudius, who seemed to have quite a taste
+for such undertakings, preferred to accomplish the work himself. The
+canal by which the water should be conveyed away, was to be formed
+in part by a deep cut, and partly by a tunnel through a mountain;
+and inasmuch as in those days the power now chiefly relied upon for
+making such excavations, namely, the explosive force of gunpowder,
+was not known, any extensive working in solid rock was an operation
+of immense labor. When the canal was finished, Claudius determined
+to institute a grand celebration to signalize the opening of it for
+drawing off the water; and as he could not safely rely on the
+hydraulic interest of the spectacle for drawing such a concourse to
+the spot as he wished to see there, he concluded to add to the
+entertainment a show more suited to the taste and habits of the
+times. He made arrangements accordingly for having a naval battle
+fought upon the lake, for the amusement of the spectators, just
+before the opening of the canal, which was to draw off the water.
+Thus the battle was to be the closing scene, in which the history
+and existence of the lake were to be terminated forever.
+
+[Footnote A: See Map. Frontispiece.]
+
+Ships were accordingly built, and an immense number of men were
+designated and set apart for fighting the battle. These men
+consisted of convicts and prisoners of war--men whom it was, in
+those days, considered perfectly just and right to employ in killing
+one another for the amusement of the emperor and his guests. A sort
+of bulwark was built all around the shore, and the emperor's guards
+were stationed upon it, to prevent the escape of the combatants, and
+to turn them back to their duty if any of them should attempt, when
+pressed hard in the battle, to escape to the land. The fleet of
+galleys was divided into two antagonistic portions, and the men in
+each were armed completely, as in a case of actual war. At the
+appointed time, hundreds of thousands of people assembled from all
+the surrounding country to see the sight. They lined the shores on
+every side, and crowned all the neighboring heights. The contest, of
+course, might be waged with all the fury and fatal effect of a real
+battle without endangering the spectators at all, as there were in
+those days no flying bullets, or other swift-winged missiles, like
+those which in modern times take so wide a range beyond the limits
+of the battle. The deadly effect of all that was done in an ancient
+combat was confined of course to those immediately engaged. Then
+there was, besides, nothing to intercept the vision. No smoke was
+raised to obscure the view, but the atmosphere above and around the
+combatants remained as pure and transparent at the end of the combat
+as at the beginning.
+
+A real battle was accordingly regarded by the Romans as the most
+sublime and imposing of spectacles, and hundreds of thousands of
+spectators flocked to witness the one which Claudius arranged for
+them on the Fucine lake. He himself presided, dressed in a coat of
+mail; and Agrippina sat by his side, clothed in a magnificent robe,
+which the historian states was woven from threads of gold, without
+the admixture of any other material. The signal was given, and the
+battle was commenced. There was some difficulty experienced, as
+usual in such cases, in getting the men to engage, but they became
+sufficiently ferocious at last to satisfy all the spectators, and
+thousands were slain. At length the emperor gave orders that the
+battle should cease, and the survivors were informed that their
+lives were spared.
+
+It was fortunate, on the whole, for Claudius, that he did not rely
+wholly on the simple drawing off of the water from the lake for the
+amusement of the immense assemblage that he had convened, for it was
+found, when, after the close of the battle, the canal was opened,
+that the water would not run. The engineers had made some mistake in
+their measurements or their calculations, and had left the bed of
+the canal in some part of its course too high, so that the water,
+when the sluices were opened, instead of flowing off into the river
+to which the canal was intended to conduct it, remained quietly in
+the lake as before.
+
+The assembly dispersed, and the work on the canal was resumed with a
+view of making it deeper. In the course of a year the excavation was
+completed, and all was made ready for a new trial. Claudius summoned
+a new assembly to witness the operation, and at this time, instead
+of a naval conflict, he made provision for a great combat of
+gladiators, to be fought on immense floating platforms which were
+built upon the lake near the outlet which the engineers had made. In
+the end, however, the second attempt to make the water flow, proved
+more unfortunate than the first. The channel had been made very deep
+and wide, so that the water was inclined to move, when once put in
+motion, with the utmost impetuosity and force; and it so happened,
+that in some way or other, the means which the engineer had relied
+upon for controlling it were insufficient, and when the gates were
+opened every thing suddenly gave way. The water rushed out in an
+overwhelming torrent, as in an inundation--and undermined and
+carried away the platforms and stagings which had been erected for
+the seats of the spectators. A scene of indescribable tumult and
+confusion ensued. The emperor and empress, with the guests and
+spectators, fled precipitously together, and all narrowly escaped
+being carried down into the canal.
+
+It is by no means difficult to imagine what sort of a character a
+boy must necessarily form, brought up under such influences and
+surrounded by such scenes as those which thus prevailed at the court
+of Claudius. It proved in the end that Nero experienced the full
+effect of them. He became proud, vain, self-willed, cruel, and
+accustomed to yield himself without restraint to all those wicked
+propensities and passions which, under such circumstances, always
+gain dominion over the human soul.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Besides Britannicus, it will be recollected that Messalina had left
+another child,--a daughter named Octavia, who was two or three years
+younger than her brother, and of course about five years younger
+than Nero. Agrippina did not pursue the same course of opposition
+and hostility toward her which she had adopted in regard to
+Britannicus. She determined, at the outset, upon a very different
+plan. Britannicus was necessarily a rival and competitor for Nero;
+and every step in advance which he should make, could not operate
+otherwise than as an impediment and obstacle to Nero's success. But
+Octavia, as Agrippina thought, might be employed to further and aid
+her designs, by being betrothed, and in due time married, to her
+son.
+
+The advantages of such a scheme were very obvious,--so obvious in
+fact that the design was formed by Agrippina at the very
+beginning,--even before her own marriage with the emperor was fully
+effected. There was one serious obstacle in the way, and that was
+that Octavia was already betrothed to a very distinguished young
+nobleman named Lucius Silanus. Agrippina, after having, by various
+skillful manoeuvers, succeeded in enlisting the public officers
+who would act as judges in his case, caused Silanus to be accused of
+infamous crimes. The historians say that the evidence which was
+adduced against him was of the most trivial character. Still he was
+condemned. He seems to have understood the nature and the cause of
+the hostility which had suddenly developed itself against him, and
+to have felt at once all the hopelessness of his condition. He
+killed himself in his despair on the very night of the marriage of
+Claudius with Agrippina.
+
+The empress found afterward no serious difficulty in accomplishing
+her design. She obtained the emperor's consent to a betrothal of
+Nero to Octavia; but as they were yet too young to be married, the
+ceremony was postponed for a short time. At length in about five
+years after the marriage of Agrippina herself, Nero and Octavia were
+married. Nero was at that time about sixteen years of age. His bride
+of course was only eleven.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+NERO AN EMPEROR.
+
+A.D. 54
+
+Claudius is sick.--Agrippina's joy.--Her schemes.--Estimation in
+which Nero was held.--Agrippina considers herself in danger.--Reasons
+for her fears.--Claudius and Britannicus.--She forms plans for
+hastening her husband's death.--Locusta.--Agrippina determines to
+consult her.--Locusta's poison is administered to Claudius.--The
+poison ineffectual.--A new plan.--The feather.--Poison administered by
+the physician.--Claudius dies.--Agrippina conceals her husband's
+death.--Agrippina's measures.--Her disimulation.--Agrippina's plans
+for proclaiming Nero.--Seneca and Burrus.--History of Seneca.--Account
+of Burrus.--His military rank.--The Praetorian cohorts.--Agrippina's
+plans.--Nero brought forward.--His promises to the army.--He is
+proclaimed.--General acquiescence in his elevation.--Agrippina's real
+designs in the elevation of her son.--The funeral solemnities.--Nero's
+oration.--The panegyric.--The senate is convened.--Nero's inaugural
+address.--Nero's excellent promises.--Satisfaction of the
+Senate.--Agrippina assumes the real power.--Discontent of the
+ministers.--An incident.--Reception of Agrippina in the hall of
+audience.
+
+
+About one year after Nero's marriage to Octavia the emperor Claudius
+was suddenly taken sick. On learning this, Agrippina was very much
+excited and very much pleased. If the sickness should result in the
+emperor's death, her son she thought would immediately succeed him.
+Every thing had been long since fully arranged for such a result,
+and all was now ready, she imagined, for the change.
+
+It is true that Nero was still very young, but then he was
+uncommonly mature both in mind and in person, for one of his years;
+and the people had been accustomed for some time to look upon him as
+a man. Among other means which Agrippina had resorted to for giving
+an appearance of manliness and maturity to the character of her son,
+she had brought him forward in the Roman Forum as a public advocate,
+and he had made orations there in several instances, with great
+success. He had been well instructed in those studies which were
+connected with the art of oratory, and as his person and manners
+were agreeable, and his countenance intelligent and prepossessing,
+and especially as the confidence which he felt in his powers gave
+him an air of great self-possession and composure, the impression
+which he made was very favorable. The people were in fact
+predisposed to be pleased with and to applaud the efforts of a young
+orator so illustrious in rank and station--and the ability which he
+displayed, although he was so young, was such as to justify,
+unquestionably, in some degree, the honors that they paid him.
+
+Agrippina, therefore, supposing that her son was now far enough
+advanced in public consideration to make it in some degree certain
+that he would be the emperor's successor, was ready at any time for
+her husband to die. His sickness therefore filled her mind with
+excitement and hope. There was another motive too, besides her
+ambitious desires for the advancement of her son, that made her
+desirous that Claudius should not live. She had been now for several
+months somewhat solicitous and anxious about her own safety. Her
+influence over Claudius, which was at first so absolute and supreme,
+had afterward greatly declined, and within a few months she had
+begun to fear that she might be losing it entirely. In fact she had
+some reason for believing that Claudius regarded her with concealed
+hostility and hate, and was secretly revolving plans for deposing
+both her and her son from the high ascendency to which they had
+raised themselves, and for bringing back his own son to his proper
+prominence, in Nero's place. Agrippina, too, in the midst of her
+ambitious projects and plans, led a life of secret vice and crime,
+and feeling guilty and self-condemned, every trivial indication of
+danger excited her fears. Some one informed her that Claudius one
+day when speaking of a woman who had been convicted of crime, said
+that it had always been _his_ misfortune to have profligate wives,
+but that he always brought them in the end to the punishment that
+they deserved. Agrippina was greatly terrified at this report. She
+considered it a warning that Claudius was meditating some fatal
+proceedings in respect to her.
+
+Agrippina observed, too, as she thought, various indications that
+Claudius was beginning to repent of having adopted Nero and thus
+displaced his own son from the line of inheritance; and that he was
+secretly intending to restore Britannicus to his true position. He
+treated the boy with greater and greater attention every day, and at
+one time, after having been conversing with him and expressing an
+unusual interest in his health and welfare, he ended by saying, "Go
+on improving, my son, and grow up as fast as you can to be a man. I
+shall be able to give a good account of all that I have done in
+regard to you in due time. Trust to me, and you will find that all
+will come out right in the end." At another time he told Britannicus
+that pretty soon he should give him the _toga_, and bring him
+forward before the people as a man,--"and then at last," said he,
+"the Romans will have a prince that is _genuine_."
+
+Agrippina was not present, it is true, when these things were said
+and done, but every thing was minutely reported to her, and she was
+filled with anxiety and alarm. She began to be afraid that unless
+something should speedily occur to enable her to realize her hopes
+and expectations, they would end in nothing but bitter and cruel
+disappointment after all.
+
+Such being the state of things, Agrippina was greatly pleased at the
+news, when she heard that her husband was sick. She most earnestly
+hoped that he would die, and immediately began to consider what she
+could do to insure or to hasten such a result. She thought of
+poison, and began to debate the question in her mind whether she
+should dare to administer it. Then if she were to decide to give her
+husband poison, it was a very serious question what kind of poison
+she should employ. If she were to administer one that was sudden and
+violent in its operation, the effect which it would produce might
+attract attention, and her crime be discovered. On the other hand,
+if she were to choose one that was more moderate and gradual in its
+power, so as to produce a slow and lingering death, time would be
+allowed for Claudius to carry into effect any secret designs that he
+might be forming for disavowing Nero as his son, and fixing the
+succession upon Britannicus; and Agrippina well knew that if
+Claudius were to die, leaving things in such a state that
+Britannicus should succeed him, the downfall and ruin both of
+herself and her son would immediately and inevitably follow.
+
+There was at that time in Rome a celebrated mistress of the art of
+poisoning, named Locusta. She was in prison, having been condemned
+to death for her crimes. Though condemned she had been kept back
+from execution by the influence of Agrippina, on account of the
+skill which she possessed in her art, and which Agrippina thought it
+possible that she might have occasion at some time to make use of.
+This Locusta she now determined to consult. She accordingly went to
+her, and asked her if she did not know of any poison which would
+immediately take effect upon the brain and mind, so as to
+incapacitate the patient at once from all mental action, while yet
+it should be gradual and slow in its operations on the vital
+functions of the body. Locusta answered in the affirmative. Such
+characters were always prepared to furnish any species of
+medicaments that their customers might call for. She compounded a
+potion which she said possessed the properties which Agrippina
+required, and Agrippina, receiving it from her hands, went away.
+
+Agrippina then went to Halotus, the servant who waited upon the
+emperor and gave him his food,--and contrived some means to induce
+him to administer the dose. Halotus was the emperor's "taster," as
+it was termed:--that is, it was his duty to taste first, himself,
+every article of food or drink which he offered to his master, for
+the express purpose of making it sure that nothing was poisoned. It
+is obvious, however, that many ways might be devised for evading
+such a precaution as this, and Halotus and Agrippina arranged it,
+that the poison, in this case, should be put upon a dish of
+mushrooms, and served to the emperor at his supper. The taster was
+to avoid, by means of some dextrous management, the taking of any
+portion of the fatal ingredients himself. The plan thus arranged was
+put into execution. The emperor ate the mushrooms, and Agrippina
+tremblingly awaited the result.
+
+She was, however, disappointed in the effect that was produced.
+Whether the mixture that Locusta had prepared was not sufficiently
+powerful, or whether Halotus in his extreme anxiety not to get any
+of the poisonous ingredients himself failed to administer them
+effectually to his intended victim, the emperor seemed to continue
+afterward much as he had been before,--still sick, but without any
+new or more dangerous symptoms. Of course, Agrippina was in a state
+of great solicitude and apprehension. Having incurred the terrible
+guilt and danger necessarily involved in an attempt to poison her
+husband, she could not draw back. The work that was begun must be
+carried through now, she thought, at all hazards, to its
+termination; and she immediately set herself at work to devise some
+means of reaching her victim with poison, which would avoid the
+taster altogether, and thus not be liable to any interference on his
+part, dictated either by his fidelity to his master or his fears for
+himself. She went, accordingly, to the emperor's physician and found
+means to enlist him in her cause; and a plan was formed between them
+which proved effectual in accomplishing her designs. The manner in
+which they contrived it was this. The physician, at a time when the
+emperor was lying sick and in distress upon his couch, came to him
+and proposed that he should open his mouth and allow the physician
+to touch his throat with the tip of a feather, to promote vomiting,
+which he said he thought would relieve him. The emperor yielded to
+this treatment, and the feather was applied. It had previously been
+dipped in a very virulent and fatal poison. The poison thus
+administered took effect, and Claudius, after passing the night in
+agony, died early in the morning.
+
+[Illustration: THE POISONING OF CLAUDIUS.]
+
+Of course, Agrippina, when her husband's dying struggles were over,
+and she was satisfied that life was extinct, experienced for the
+moment a feeling of gratification and relief. It might have been
+expected, however, that the pangs of remorse, after the deed was
+perpetrated, would have followed very hard upon the termination of
+her suspense and anxiety. But it was not so. Much still remained to
+be done, and Agrippina was fully prepared to meet all the
+responsibilities of the crisis. The death of her husband took place
+very early in the morning, the poisoning operations having been
+performed in the night, and having accomplished their final effect
+about the break of day. Agrippina immediately perceived that the
+most effectual means of accomplishing the end which she had in view,
+was not to allow of any interval to elapse between the announcement
+of the emperor's death and the bringing forward of her son for
+induction into office as his successor; since during such an
+interval, if one were allowed, the Roman people would, of course,
+discuss the question, whether Britannicus or Nero should succeed to
+power, and a strong party might possibly organize itself to enforce
+the claims of the former. She determined, therefore, to conceal the
+death of her husband until noon, the hour most favorable for
+publicly proclaiming any great event, and then to announce the
+death of the father and the accession of the adopted son together.
+
+She accordingly took prompt and decisive measures to prevent its
+being known that the emperor was dead. The immediate attendants
+at his bedside could not indeed be easily deceived, but they were
+required to be silent in respect to what had occurred, and to go on
+with all their services and ministrations just as if their patient
+were still alive. Visitors were excluded from the room, and
+messengers were kept coming to and fro with baths, medicaments, and
+other appliances, such as a desperate crisis in a sick chamber might
+be supposed to require. The Senate was convened, too, in the course
+of the morning, and Agrippina, as if in great distress, sent a
+message to them, informing them of her husband's dangerous
+condition, and entreating them to join with the chief civil
+and religious functionaries of the city, in offering vows,
+supplications, and sacrifices for his recovery. She herself, in the
+mean time, went from room to room about the palace, overwhelmed to
+all appearance, with anxiety and grief. She kept Britannicus and his
+sisters all the time with her, folding the boy in her arms with an
+appearance of the fondest affection, and telling him how
+heart-broken she was at the dangerous condition of his father. She
+kept Britannicus thus constantly near to her, in order to prevent
+the possibility of his being seized and carried away to the camp by
+any party that might be disposed to make him emperor rather than
+Nero, when it should be known that Claudius had ceased to reign. As
+an additional defense against this danger, Agrippina brought up a
+cohort of the life-guards around the palace, and caused them to be
+stationed in such a manner that every avenue of approach to the
+edifice was completely secured. The cohort which she selected was
+one that she thought she could most safely rely upon, not only
+for guarding the palace while she remained within it, but for
+proclaiming Nero as emperor when she should at last be ready to come
+forth and announce the death of her husband.
+
+At length, about noon, she deemed that the hour had arrived, and
+after placing Britannicus and his sisters in some safe custody
+within the palace, she ordered the gates to be thrown open, and
+prepared to come forth to announce the death of Claudius, and to
+present Nero to the army and to the people of Rome, as his rightful
+successor. She was aided and supported in these preparations by a
+number of officers and attendants, among whom were the two whom she
+had determined upon as the two principal ministers of her son's
+government. These were Seneca and Burrus. Seneca was to be minister
+of state, and Burrus the chief military commander.
+
+Both these men had long been in the service of Agrippina and of
+Nero. Seneca was now over fifty years of age. He was very highly
+distinguished as a scholar and rhetorician while he lived, and his
+numerous writings have given him great celebrity since, in every
+age. He commenced his career in Rome as a public advocate in the
+Forum, during the reign of Caligula. After Caligula's death he
+incurred the displeasure of Claudius in the first year of that
+emperor's reign, and he was banished to the island of Corsica, where
+he remained in neglect and obscurity for about eight years. When at
+length Messalina was put to death, and the emperor married
+Agrippina, Seneca was pardoned and recalled through Agrippina's
+influence, and after that he devoted himself very faithfully to the
+service of the empress and of her son. Agrippina appointed him
+Nero's preceptor, and gave him the direction of all the studies
+which her son pursued in qualifying himself for the duties of a
+public orator; and now that she was about attempting to advance her
+son to the supreme command, she intended to make the philosopher his
+principal secretary and minister of state.
+
+Burrus was the commander of the life-guards, or as the office was
+called in those days, prefect of the praetorium. The life-guards, or
+body-guards, whose duty consisted exclusively in attending upon,
+escorting and protecting the emperor, consisted of ten cohorts, each
+containing about a thousand men. The soldiers designated for this
+service were of course selected from the whole army, and as no
+expense was spared in providing them with arms, accoutrements and
+other appointments, they formed the finest body of troops in the
+world. They received double pay, and enjoyed special privileges; and
+every arrangement was made to secure their entire subserviency to
+the will, and attachment to the person, of the reigning emperor. Of
+course such a corps would be regarded by all the other divisions of
+the army as entirely superior in rank and consideration, to the
+ordinary service; and the general who commanded them would take
+precedence of every other military commander, being second only
+to the emperor himself. Agrippina had contrived to raise Burrus
+to this post through her influence with Claudius. He was a friend
+to her interests before, and he became still more devoted to
+her after receiving such an appointment through her
+instrumentality,--Agrippina now depended upon Burrus to carry
+the Praetorian cohorts in favor of her son.
+
+Accordingly at noon of the day on which Claudius died, when all
+things were ready, the palace gates were thrown open and Agrippina
+came forth with her son, accompanied by Burrus and by other
+attendants. The cohort on duty was drawn up under arms at the palace
+gates. Burrus presented Nero to them as the successor of Claudius,
+and at a signal from him they all responded with shouts and
+acclamations. Some few of the soldiers did not join in this
+cheering, but looked on in silence, and then inquired of one
+another what had become of Britannicus. But there were none to
+answer this question, and as no one appeared to proclaim Britannicus
+or to speak in his name, the whole cohort finally acquiesced in the
+decision to which the majority, at the instigation of Burrus, seemed
+inclined. A sort of chair or open palanquin was provided, and Nero
+was mounted upon it. He was borne in this way by the soldiers
+through the streets of the city, escorted by the cohort on the way,
+till he reached the camp. As the procession moved along, the air was
+filled with the shouts and acclamations of the soldiers and of the
+people.
+
+When the party arrived at the camp Nero was presented to the army,
+and the officers and soldiers being drawn up before him he delivered
+a brief speech which Seneca had prepared for the occasion. The
+principal point in this speech, and the one on which its effect was
+expected to depend, was a promise of a large distribution of money.
+The soldiers always expected such a donative on the accession of any
+new emperor,--but Nero, in order to suppress any latent opposition
+which might be felt against his claims, made his proposed
+distribution unusually large. The soldiers readily yielded to the
+influence of this promise, and with one accord proclaimed Nero
+emperor. The Senate was soon afterward convened, and partly through
+the influence of certain prominent members whom Agrippina had taken
+measures to secure in her interest, and partly through the general
+conviction that as things were the claims of Britannicus could not
+be successfully maintained, the choice of the army was confirmed.
+And as the tidings of what had taken place at the capital gradually
+spread through Italy and to the remoter portions of the empire, the
+provinces, and the various legions at their encampments, one after
+another acquiesced in the result, both because on the one hand they
+had no strong motive for dissenting, and on the other, they had
+individually no power to make any effectual resistance. Thus Nero,
+at the age of seventeen became emperor of Rome, and as such the
+almost absolute monarch of nearly half the world.
+
+It was, however, by no means the design of Agrippina that her son
+should actually wield, himself, all this power. Her motive, in all
+her manoeuvers for bringing Nero to this lofty position, was a
+personal, not a maternal ambition. She was herself to reign, not he;
+and she had brought him forward as the nominal sovereign only, in
+order that she might herself exercise the power by acting in his
+name. Her plan was to secure her own ascendency, by so arranging and
+directing the course of affairs that the young emperor himself
+should have as little as possible to do with the duties of his
+office; and that instead of direct action on his part, all the
+functions of the government should be fulfilled by officers of
+various grades, whom she was herself to appoint and to sustain, and
+who, since they would know that they were dependent on Agrippina's
+influence for their elevation, would naturally be subservient to her
+will. Nero being so young, she thought that he could easily be led
+to acquiesce in such management as this, especially if he were
+indulged in the full enjoyment of the luxuries and pleasures,
+innocent or otherwise, which his high station would enable him to
+command, and which are usually so tempting to one of his character
+and years.
+
+The first of Agrippina's measures was to make arrangement for a most
+imposing and magnificent funeral, as the testimonial of the deep
+conjugal affection which she entertained for her husband, and the
+profound grief with which she was affected by his death! The most
+extensive preparations were made for this funeral; and the pomp and
+parade which were displayed in Rome on the day of the ceremony, had
+never been surpassed, it was said, by any similar spectacle on any
+former occasion. In the course of the services that were performed,
+a funeral oration was delivered by Nero to the immense concourse of
+people that were convened. The oration was written by Seneca. It was
+a high panegyric upon the virtues and the renown of the deceased,
+and it represented in the brightest colors, and with great
+magnificence of diction, his illustrious birth, the high offices to
+which he had attained, his taste for the liberal arts, and the peace
+and tranquillity which had prevailed throughout the empire during
+his reign. To write a panegyric upon such a man as Claudius had
+been, must surely have proved a somewhat difficult task; but Seneca
+accomplished it very adroitly, and the people, aided by the
+solemnity of the occasion, listened with proper gravity, until at
+length the orator began to speak of the judgment and the political
+wisdom of Claudius, and then the listeners found that they could
+preserve their decorum no longer. The audience looked at each other,
+and there was a general laugh. The young orator, though for the
+moment somewhat disconcerted at this interruption, soon recovered
+himself, and went on to the end of his discourse.
+
+After these funeral ceremonies had been performed, the Senate was
+convened, and Nero appeared before them to make his inaugural
+address. This address also, was of course prepared for him by
+Seneca, under directions from Agrippina, who, after revolving the
+subject fully in her mind, had determined what it would be most
+politic to say. She knew very well that until the power of her son
+became consolidated and settled, it became him to be modest in his
+pretensions and claims, and to profess great deference and respect
+for the powers and prerogatives of the Senate. In the speech,
+therefore, which Nero delivered in the senate-chamber, he said that
+in assuming the imperial dignity, which he had consented to do in
+obedience to the will of his father the late emperor, to the general
+voice of the army, and the universal suffrages of the people, he
+did not intend to usurp the civil powers of the state, but to leave
+to the Senate, and to the various civil functionaries of the city,
+their rightful and proper jurisdiction. He considered himself as
+merely the commander-in-chief of the armies of the commonwealth, and
+as such, his duty would be simply to execute the national will. He
+promised, moreover, a great variety of reforms in the
+administration, all tending to diminish the authority of the prince,
+and to protect the people from danger of oppression by military
+power. In a word, it was his settled purpose, he said, to restore
+the government to its pristine simplicity and purity, and to
+administer it in strict accordance with the true principles of the
+Roman Constitution, as originally established by the founders of the
+commonwealth. The professions and promises which Nero thus made to
+the Senate, or rather which he recited to them at the dictation of
+his mother and of Seneca, gave great satisfaction to all who heard
+them. All opposition to the claims which he advanced, disappeared,
+and the heart of Agrippina was filled with gladness and joy at
+finding that all her plans had been so fully and successfully
+realized.
+
+The official authority of Nero being thus generally acknowledged,
+Agrippina began immediately to pursue a system of policy designed to
+secure the possession of all real power for herself, leaving only
+the name and semblance of it to her son. She appeared in all public
+places with him, sharing with him the pomp, and parade, and insignia
+of office, as if she were associated with him in official power. She
+received and opened the dispatches and sent answers to them. She
+considered and decided questions of state, and issued her orders.
+She caused several influential persons whom she supposed likely to
+take part with Britannicus, or at least secretly to favor his
+claims, to be put to death, either by violence or by poison; and she
+would have caused the death of many others in this way, if Burrus
+and Seneca had not interposed their influence to prevent it. She did
+all these things in a somewhat covert and cautious manner, acting
+generally in Nero's name, so as not to attract too much attention at
+first to her measures. There was danger, she knew, of awakening
+resistance and opposition, as public sentiment among the Romans had
+always been entirely averse to the idea of the submission of men, in
+any form, to the government of women. Agrippina accordingly did not
+attempt openly to preside in the senate-chamber, but she made
+arrangements for having the meetings of the Senate sometimes held in
+an apartment of the palace where she could attend, during the
+sitting, in an adjoining cabinet, concealed from view by a screen or
+arras, and thus listen to the debate. Even this, however, was
+strongly objected to by some of the senators. They considered this
+arrangement of Agrippina's to be present at their debates as
+intended to intimidate them into the support of such measures as she
+might recommend, or be supposed to favor, and thus as seriously
+interfering with the freedom of their discussions. On one occasion
+Agrippina made a bolder experiment still, by coming into the hall
+where a company of foreign embassadors were to have audience, as if
+it were a part of her official duty to join in receiving them. Her
+son, the emperor, and the government officers around him, were
+confounded when they saw her coming, and at first did not know what
+to do. Seneca however, with great presence of mind, said to Nero,
+"Your mother is entering, go and receive her." Hereupon, Nero left
+his chair of state, and accompanied by his ministers, went to meet
+his mother, and received her with great deference and respect; and
+the attention of all present was wholly devoted to Agrippina while
+she remained, as to a very distinguished and highly honored
+guest,--the business which had called them together being suspended
+on her account until she withdrew.
+
+Notwithstanding some occasional difficulties and embarrassments of
+this kind, every thing went on for a time very prosperously, in
+accordance with Agrippina's wishes and plans. Nero was very young,
+and little disposed at first to thwart or to resist his mother's
+measures. He was, however, all the time growing older, and he soon
+began to grow restive under the domination which Agrippina exercised
+over him, and to form plans and determinations of his own. There
+followed, as might have been expected, a terrible conflict for the
+possession of power between him and his mother. The history and the
+termination of this struggle will form the subject of the two
+following chapters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+BRITANNICUS.
+
+A.D. 54-55
+
+Britannicus and Acte.--Indignation of Agrippina.--Otho and
+Senecio.--Perplexity of Nero's ministers.--They determine to connive
+at Nero's new connection.--Agrippina is greatly enraged.--Her furious
+invectives.--She becomes calm again.--Agrippina changes her
+policy.--Nero rejects his mother's advances.--His treatment of
+her.--He makes her a present of jewelry.--Agrippina is enraged.--Nero
+resolves to subdue his mother.--His plan.--Pallas dismissed.--His
+withdrawal.--Agrippina's bitter reproaches.--Her threats.--She declares
+that she will cause Nero to be deposed.--Probable character and meaning
+of these threats.--The game of "who shall be king?"--Nero's orders
+to Britannicus.--The song which Britannicus sung.--Nero resolves to
+resort to poison.--Pollio and Locusta.--The plan at first fails.--A
+second attempt.--A second preparation.--Mode of administering the
+poison.--Britannicus dies.--Agrippina's agitation and distress.--Effect
+produced by the poison.--Remedy.--The interment of Britannicus.--The
+storm.--Nero's proclamation.
+
+
+The occasion which led to the first open outbreak between Agrippina
+and her son was the discovery on her part of a secret and guilty
+attachment which had been formed between Nero and a young girl of
+the palace whose name was Acte. Acte was originally a slave from
+Asia Minor, having been purchased there and sent to Rome, very
+probably on account of her personal beauty. She had been
+subsequently enfranchised, but she remained still in the palace,
+forming a part of the household of Agrippina. Nero had never felt
+any strong attachment for Octavia. His marriage he had always
+regarded as merely one of his mother's political manoeuvers, and
+he did not consider himself as really bound to his wife by any tie.
+He was, besides, still but a boy, though unusually precocious and
+mature; and he had always been accustomed to the most unlimited
+indulgence of the propensities and passions of youth.
+
+The young prince, as is usual in such cases, was led on and
+encouraged in the vicious course of life that he was now beginning
+to pursue, by certain dissolute companions whose society he fell
+into about this time. There were two young men in particular whose
+influence over him was of the worst character. Their names were Otho
+and Senecio. Otho was descended from a very distinguished family,
+and his rank and social position in Roman society were very high.
+Senecio, on the other hand, was of a very humble extraction--his
+father being an emancipated slave. The three young men were,
+however, nearly of the same age, and being equally unprincipled and
+dissolute, they banded themselves together in the pursuit and
+enjoyment of vicious indulgences. Nero made Otho and Senecio his
+confidants in his connection with Acte, and it was in a great
+measure through their assistance and co-operation that he
+accomplished his ends.
+
+When Seneca and Burrus were informed of Nero's attachment to Acte,
+and of the connection which had been established between them, they
+were at first much perplexed to know what to do. They were men of
+strict moral principle themselves, and as Nero had been their
+pupil, and was still, while they continued his ministers, in some
+sense under their charge, they thought it might be their duty to
+remonstrate with him on the course which he was pursuing, and
+endeavor to separate him from his vicious companions, and bring him
+back, if possible, to his duty to Octavia. But then, on the other
+hand, they said to each other that any attempt on their part really
+to control the ungovernable and lawless propensities of such a soul
+as Nero's must be utterly unavailing, and since he must necessarily,
+as they thought, be expected to addict himself to vicious
+indulgences in some form, the connection with Acte might perhaps be
+as little to be dreaded as any. On the whole, they concluded not to
+interfere.
+
+Not so, however, with Agrippina. When she came to learn of this new
+attachment which her son had formed, she was very much disturbed and
+alarmed. Her distress, however, did not arise from any of those
+feelings of solicitude which, as a mother, she might have been
+expected to feel for the moral purity of her boy, but from fears
+that, through the influence and ascendency which such a favorite as
+Acte might acquire, she should lose her own power. She knew very
+well how absolute and complete the domination of such a favorite
+sometimes became, and she trembled at the danger which threatened
+her of being supplanted by Acte, and thus losing her control.
+
+Agrippina was very violent and imperious in her temper, and had long
+been accustomed to rule those around her with a very high hand; and
+now, without properly considering that Nero had passed beyond the
+age in which he could be treated as a mere boy, she attacked him at
+once with the bitterest reproaches and invectives, and insisted that
+his connection with Acte should be immediately abandoned. Nero
+resisted her, and stoutly refused to comply with her demands.
+Agrippina was fired with indignation and rage. She filled the palace
+with her complaints and criminations. She accused Nero of the basest
+ingratitude toward her, in repaying the long-continued and faithful
+exertions and sacrifices which she had made to promote his
+interests, by thus displacing her from his confidence and regard, to
+make room for this wretched favorite, and of falseness and
+faithlessness to Octavia, in abandoning her, his lawful wife, for
+the society of an enfranchised slave. Agrippina was extremely
+violent in these denunciations. She scolded, she stormed, she
+raved--acting manifestly under the impulse of blind and
+uncontrollable passion. Her passion was obviously blind, for the
+course to which it impelled her was plainly very far from tending to
+accomplish any object which she could be supposed to have in view.
+
+At length, when the first fury of her vexation and anger had spent
+itself, she began to reflect, as people generally do when recovering
+from a passion, that she was spending her strength in working
+mischief to her own cause. This reflection helped to promote the
+subsiding of her anger. Her loud denunciations gradually died away,
+and were succeeded by mutterings and murmurings. At length she
+became silent altogether, and after an interval of reflection, she
+concluded no longer to give way to her clamorous and useless anger,
+but calmly to consider what it was best to _do_.
+
+She soon determined that the wisest and most politic plan after all,
+would be for her to acquiesce in the fancy of her son, and endeavor
+to retain her ascendency over him by aiding and countenancing him in
+his pleasures. She accordingly changed by degrees the tone which she
+had assumed toward him, and began to address him in words of favor
+and indulgence. She said that it was natural, after all, at his time
+of life, to love, and that his superior rank and station entitled
+him to some degree of immunity from the restrictions imposed upon
+ordinary men. Acte was indeed a beautiful girl, and she was not
+surprised, she said, that he had conceived an affection for her. The
+indulgence of his love was indeed attended with difficulty and
+danger, but, if he would submit the affair to her care and
+management, she could take such precautions that all would be well.
+She apologized for the warmth with which she had at first spoken,
+and attributed it to the jealous and watchful interest which a
+mother must always feel in all that relates to the prosperity and
+happiness of her son. She said, moreover, that she was now ready and
+willing to enter into and promote his views, and she offered him the
+use of certain private apartments of her own in the palace, to meet
+Acte in, saying that, by such an arrangement, and with the
+precautions that she could use, he could enjoy the society of his
+favorite whenever he pleased, without interruption and without
+danger.
+
+Nero very naturally reported all this to his companions. They of
+course advised him not to believe any thing that his mother said,
+nor to trust to her in any way. "It is all," said they, "an artful
+device on her part to get you into her power; and no young man of
+pride and spirit will submit to the disgrace of being under his
+mother's management and control." The young profligate listened to
+the counsels of his associates, and rejected the overtures which his
+mother had made him. He continued his attachment to Acte, but kept
+as much as possible aloof from Agrippina.
+
+He desired, however, if possible, to avoid an open quarrel with his
+mother, and so he made some effort to treat her with attention and
+respect, in his general bearing toward her, while he persisted in
+refusing to admit her to his confidence in respect to Acte. These
+general attentions were, however, by no means sufficient to satisfy
+Agrippina. The influence of Acte was what she feared, and she well
+knew that her own power was in imminent danger of being undermined
+and overthrown, unless she could find some means of bringing her
+son's connection with his favorite under her own control. Thus the
+calm that seemed for a short time to reign between Nero and his
+mother was an armistice rather than a peace, and this armistice was
+brought at length to a sudden termination by an act of Nero's which
+he intended as an act of conciliation and kindness, but which proved
+to be in effect the means of awakening his mother's anger anew, and
+of exciting her even to a more violent exasperation than she had
+felt before.
+
+It seems that among the other treasures of the imperial palace at
+Rome there was an extensive wardrobe of very costly female dresses
+and decorations, which was appropriated to the use of the wives and
+mothers of the emperors. Nero conceived the idea of making a present
+to his mother, from this collection. He accordingly selected a
+magnificent dress, and a considerable quantity of jewelry, and sent
+them to Agrippina. Instead of being gratified with this gift,
+however, Agrippina received it as an affront. She had been so long
+accustomed to consider herself as the first personage in the
+imperial household, that she regarded all such things as rightfully
+her own; and she consequently looked upon the act of Nero in
+formally presenting her with a small portion of these treasures, as
+a simple impertinence, and as intended to notify her that he
+considered all that remained of the collection as his property, and
+thenceforth as such subject to his exclusive control. Instead
+therefore of being appeased by Nero's offering she was greatly
+enraged by it. The angry invectives which she uttered were duly
+reported to the emperor, and his indignation and resentment were
+aroused by them anew, and thus the breach between the mother and the
+son became wider than ever.
+
+[Illustration: THE JEWELRY.]
+
+In fact Nero began to perceive very clearly that if he intended to
+secure for himself any thing more than the empty semblance of power,
+he must at once do something effectual to curb the domineering and
+ambitious spirit of his mother. After revolving this subject in his
+mind, he finally concluded that the measure which promised to be
+most decisive was to dismiss a certain public officer named Pallas,
+who had been brought forward into public life many years before by
+Agrippina, and was now the chief instrument of her political power.
+Pallas was the public treasurer, and he had amassed such enormous
+wealth by his management of the public finances, that at one time
+when Claudius was complaining of the impoverished condition of his
+exchequer, some one replied that he would soon be rich enough if he
+could but induce his treasurer to receive him into partnership.
+
+Pallas, as has already been said, had been originally brought
+forward into public life by the influence of Agrippina, and he had
+always been Agrippina's chief reliance in all her political schemes.
+He had aided very effectually in promoting her marriage with
+Claudius; and had co-operated with her in all her subsequent
+measures; and Nero considered him now as his mother's chief
+supporter and ally. Nero resolved, accordingly, to dismiss him from
+office; and in order to induce him to retire peaceably, it was
+agreed that no inquiry or investigation should be made into the
+state of his accounts, but every thing should be considered as
+balanced and settled. Pallas acceded to this proposal. During the
+whole course of his official career, he had lived in great
+magnificence and splendor, and now in laying down his office, he
+withdrew from the imperial palaces, at the head of a long train of
+attendants, and with a degree of pomp and parade which attracted
+universal attention. The event was regarded by the public as a
+declaration on the part of Nero, that thenceforth he himself and not
+his mother was to rule; and Agrippina, of course, fell at once,
+many degrees, from the high position which she had held in the
+public estimation.
+
+She was, of course, greatly enraged, and though utterly helpless in
+respect to resistance, she stormed about the palace, uttering the
+loudest and most violent expressions of resentment and anger.
+
+During the continuance of this paroxysm Agrippina bitterly
+reproached her son for what she termed his cruel ingratitude. It was
+altogether to her, she said, that he owed his elevation. For a long
+course of years she had been making ceaseless exertions, had
+submitted to the greatest sacrifices, and had even committed the
+most atrocious crimes, to raise him to the high position to which he
+had attained; and now, so soon as he had attained it, and had made
+himself sure, as he fancied, of his foothold, his first act was to
+turn basely and ungratefully against the hand that had raised him.
+But notwithstanding his fancied security, she would teach him, she
+said, that her power was still to be feared. Britannicus was still
+alive, and he was after all the rightful heir, and since her son had
+proved himself so unworthy of the efforts and sacrifices that she
+had made for him, she would forthwith take measures to restore to
+Britannicus what she had so unjustly taken from him. She would
+immediately divulge all the dreadful secrets which were connected
+with Nero's elevation. She would make known the arts by means of
+which her marriage with Claudius had been effected, and the adoption
+of Nero as Claudius's son and heir had been secured. She would
+confess the murder of Claudius, and the usurpation on her part of
+the imperial power for Nero her son. Nero would, in consequence, be
+deposed, and Britannicus would succeed him, and thus the base
+ingratitude and treachery toward his mother which Nero had displayed
+would be avenged. This plan, she declared, she would immediately
+carry into effect. She would take Britannicus to the camp, and
+appeal to the army in his name. Both Burrus and Seneca would join
+her, and her undutiful and treacherous son would be stripped
+forthwith of his ill-gotten power.
+
+These words of Agrippina were not, however, the expressions of sober
+purpose, really and honestly entertained. They were the wild and
+unthinking threats and denunciations which are prompted in such
+cases by the frenzy of helpless and impotent rage. It is not at all
+probable that she had any serious intention of attempting such
+desperate measures as she threatened; for if she had really
+entertained such a design, she would have carefully kept it secret
+while making her arrangements for carrying it into execution.
+
+Still these threats and denunciations, though they were obviously
+prompted by a blind and temporary rage, which it might be reasonably
+supposed would soon subside, made a deep impression upon Nero's
+mind. In the first place, he was angry with his mother for daring to
+utter them. Then there was at least a possibility that she might
+really undertake to put them in execution, as no one could foresee
+what her desperate frenzy might lead her to do. Then besides, even
+if Agrippina's resentment were to subside, and she should seem
+entirely to abandon all idea of ever executing her threats, Nero was
+extremely unwilling to remain thus in his mother's power--exposed
+continually to fresh outbreaks of her hostility, whenever her anger
+or her caprice might arouse her again. The threats which his mother
+uttered made him, therefore, extremely restless and uneasy.
+
+A circumstance occurred about this time which, though very trifling
+in itself, had the effect greatly to increase the jealousy and fear
+in respect to Britannicus, which Nero was inclined to feel. It seems
+that among the other amusements with which the company were
+accustomed to entertain themselves in the social gatherings that
+took place, from time to time, in the imperial palace, there was a
+certain game which they used to play, called, "WHO SHALL BE KING?"
+The game consisted of choosing one of the party by lot to be king,
+and then of requiring all the others to obey the commands, whatever
+they might be, which the king so chosen might issue. Of course, the
+success of the game depended upon the art and ingenuity of the king
+in prescribing such things to be done by his various subjects, as
+would most entertain and amuse the company. What the forfeit or
+penalty was, that the rules of the game required, in case of
+disobedience, is not stated; but every one was considered bound to
+obey the commands that were laid upon him,--provided, of course,
+that the thing required was within his power.
+
+Nero himself, it appears, was accustomed to join in these sports,
+and one evening, when a party were all playing it together in his
+palace, it fell to _his_ lot to be king. When it came to be the turn
+of Britannicus to receive orders, Nero directed him to go out into
+the middle of the room, and sing a song to the company. This was a
+very severe requirement for one so young as Britannicus, and so
+little accustomed to take an active part in the festivities of so
+gay a company; and the motive of Nero in making it, was supposed to
+be a feeling of ill-will, and a desire to tease his brother, by
+placing him in an awkward and embarrassing situation--one in which
+he would be compelled either to interrupt the game by refusing to
+obey the orders of the king, or to expose himself to ridicule by
+making a fruitless attempt to sing a song.
+
+To the surprise of all, however, Britannicus rose from his seat
+without any apparent hesitation or embarrassment, walked out upon
+the floor, and took his position. The attention of the whole company
+was fixed upon him. All sounds were hushed.
+
+He began to sing. The song was a lament, describing in plaintive
+words and in mournful music, the situation and the sorrows of a
+young prince, excluded wrongfully from the throne of his
+ancestors.[B] The whole company listened with profound attention,
+charmed at first by the artless simplicity of the music, and the
+grace and beauty of the boy. As Britannicus proceeded in his song,
+and the meaning of it, in its application to his own case, began to
+be perceived, a universal sympathy for him was felt, by the whole
+assembly, and when he concluded and resumed his seat, the apartment
+was filled with suppressed murmurs of applause. The effect of this
+scene upon the mind of Nero, was of course only to awaken feelings
+of vexation and anger. He looked on in moody silence, uttering
+mentally the fiercest threats and denunciations against the object
+of his jealousy, whom he was now compelled to look upon, more than
+ever before, as a dangerous and formidable rival. He determined, in
+fact, that Britannicus should die.
+
+[Footnote B: By some it has been thought that the song which
+Britannicus sung on this occasion was one which he had learned
+before--one perhaps which he had accidentally seen or heard, and
+which had attracted his attention on account of its adaptedness to
+his own case; and there is a song of Ennius, an ancient writer,
+which is sometimes cited as the one he sang on this occasion. Others
+say that the performance was original and extemporaneous; that the
+young prince, excited by his wrongs, and by the peculiar
+circumstances of the occasion, gave utterance to his own feelings in
+words which suggested themselves to him on the spot. To do this
+would require, of course great intellectual readiness and
+ability,--but the difficulty of such a performance would be somewhat
+diminished by the fact, that the ancient poetry was wholly different
+from that of modern times, being marked only by a measured cadence,
+unconnected with rhyme.]
+
+In considering by what means he should undertake to effect his
+purpose, it seemed to Nero most prudent to employ poison. There was
+no pretext whatever for any criminal charge against the young
+prince, and Nero did not dare to resort to open violence. He
+determined, therefore, to resort to poison, and to employ Locusta to
+prepare it.
+
+Locusta, the reader will remember, was the woman whom Agrippina had
+employed for the murder of her husband, Claudius. She was still in
+custody as a convict, being under sentence of death for her crimes.
+She was in the charge of a certain captain named Pollio, an officer
+of the Praetorian guard. Nero sent for Pollio, and directed him to
+procure from his prisoner a poisonous potion suitable for the
+purpose intended. The potion was prepared, and soon afterward it
+was administered. At least it was given to certain attendants that
+were employed about the person of Britannicus, with orders that they
+should administer it. The expected effect, however, was not
+produced. Whether it was because the potion which Locusta had
+prepared was too weak, or because it was not really administered by
+those who received it in charge, no result followed, and Nero was
+greatly enraged. He sent for Pollio, and assailed him with
+reproaches and threats, and as for Locusta, he declared that she
+should be immediately put to death. They were both miserable
+cowards, he said, who had not the firmness to do their duty. Pollio,
+in reply, made the most earnest protestations of his readiness to do
+whatever his master should command. He assured Nero that the failure
+of their attempt was owing entirely to some accidental cause, and
+that if he would give Locusta one more opportunity to make the
+trial, he would guarantee that she would prepare a mixture that
+would kill Britannicus as quick as a dagger would do it.
+
+Nero ordered that this should immediately be done. Locusta was sent
+for, and was shut up with Pollio in an apartment adjoining that of
+the emperor, with directions to make the mixture there, and then to
+administer it forthwith. Their lives were to depend upon the result.
+The poison was soon prepared. There was, however, a serious
+difficulty in the way of administering it, since a potion so sudden
+and violent in its character as this was intended to be, might be
+expected to take immediate effect upon the taster, and so produce an
+alarm which would prevent Britannicus from receiving it. To obviate
+this difficulty, Pollio and Locusta cunningly contrived the
+following plan.
+
+They mixed the poison when it was prepared, with cold water, and put
+it in the pitcher in which cold water was customarily kept in the
+apartment where Britannicus was to take his supper. When the time
+arrived Nero himself came in and took his place upon a couch which
+was standing in the room, with a view of watching the proceedings.
+Some broth was brought in for the prince's supper. The attendant
+whose duty it was, tasted it as usual, and then passed it into the
+prince's hand. Britannicus tasted it, and found it too hot. It had
+been purposely made so. He gave it back to the attendant to be
+cooled. The attendant took it to the pitcher, and cooled it with the
+poisoned water, and then gave it back again to Britannicus without
+asking the taster to taste it again. Britannicus drank the broth. In
+a few minutes the fatal consequences ensued. The unhappy victim sank
+suddenly down in a fainting fit. His eyes became fixed, his limbs
+were paralyzed, his breathing was short and convulsive. The
+attendants rushed toward him to render him assistance, but his life
+was fast ebbing away, and before they could recover from the shock
+which his sudden illness occasioned them, they found that he had
+ceased to breathe.
+
+The event produced, of course, great excitement and commotion
+throughout the palace. Agrippina was immediately summoned, and as
+she stood over the dying child she was overwhelmed with terror and
+distress. Nero, on the other hand, appeared wholly unmoved. "It is
+only one of his epileptic fits," said he. "Britannicus has been
+accustomed to them from infancy. He will soon recover."
+
+As soon, however, as there was no longer any room to question that
+Britannicus was dead, Nero began immediately to make preparations
+for the burial of the body. The remorse which, notwithstanding his
+depravity, he could not but feel at having perpetrated such a crime,
+made him impatient to remove all traces and memorials of it from his
+sight; and, besides, he was afraid to wait the usual period and then
+to make arrangements for a public funeral, lest the truth in respect
+to the death of Britannicus might be suspected by the Romans, and a
+party be formed to revenge his wrongs. Any tendency of this kind
+which might exist would be greatly favored, he knew, by the
+excitement of a public funeral. He determined, therefore, that the
+body should be immediately buried.
+
+There was another reason still for this dispatch. It seems that one
+of the effects of the species of poison which Locusta had
+administered was that the body of the victim was turned black by it
+soon after death. This discoloration, in fact, began to appear in
+the face of the corpse of Britannicus before the time for the
+interment arrived; and Nero, in order to guard against the exposure
+which this phenomenon threatened, ordered the face to be painted of
+the natural color, by means of cosmetics, such as the ladies of the
+court were accustomed to use in those days. By doing this the
+countenance of the dead was restored to its proper color, and
+afterward underwent no further change. Still the emperor was
+naturally impatient to have the body interred.
+
+The preparations were accordingly made that same evening, and in the
+middle of the night the body of Britannicus was buried in the Field
+of Mars, a vast parade-ground in the precincts of the city. In
+addition to the darkness of the night, a violent storm arose, and
+the rain fell in torrents while the interment proceeded. Very few,
+therefore, of the people of the city knew what had occurred until
+the following day. The violence of the storm, however, which
+promoted in one respect the accomplishment of Nero's designs by
+favoring the secrecy of the interment, in another respect operated
+strongly against him, for the face of the corpse became so wet with
+the fallen rain, that the cosmetic was washed away and the blackened
+skin was brought to view. The attendants who had the body in charge
+learned thus that the boy had been poisoned.
+
+On the morning after the funeral the emperor issued a proclamation
+announcing the death and burial of his brother, and calling upon the
+Roman Senate and the Roman people for their sympathy and support in
+the bereavement which he had sustained.
+
+At the time of his death Britannicus was fourteen years old.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE FATE OF AGRIPPINA.
+
+A.D. 55-60
+
+Situation of Agrippina.--Her state of mind.--Nero's views in respect
+to his mother.--Plans and measures adopted by Agrippina.--Nero
+establishes his mother as a private lady.--Agrippina finds herself
+forsaken and friendless.--A plot discovered.--Statement of Paris.--Nero
+is greatly alarmed.--A council called.--Burrus defends
+Agrippina.--Agrippina's indignant answer to the charge.--Return of
+the commissioners to Nero.--Nero is convinced of his mother's
+innocence.--Nero's course of life.--Riots in the street.--Agrippina
+lives in seclusion.--Poppaea.--Her influence over Nero.--Her taunts
+and reproaches.--Effect of them on Nero's mind.--Nero begins to
+desire the death of his mother.--Great naval celebration at
+Misenum.--Anicetus.--Proposal of Anicetus.--Nero is pleased with
+it.--Arrangements for carrying it into effect.--Agrippina goes
+to Baiae.--Preparations for destroying Agrippina.--Nero bids his
+mother an affectionate farewell.--Agrippina and her attendant
+on board the barge.--The result of the attempt.--Narrow escape
+of Agrippina.--Agrippina and Aceronia in the sea.--Agrippina
+escapes.--Her message to Nero.--Nero's alarm on bearing of his
+mother's escape.--Consultation with Seneca and Burrus.--Anicetus
+undertakes to finish his work.--Anicetus goes to Agrippina's
+villa.--Conversation.--Agrippina is murdered.--Nero is overwhelmed with
+remorse and horror.--He becomes more calm.--The dead body.--Burning
+of the body of Agrippina.
+
+
+However it may have been with others, Agrippina herself was not
+deceived by the false pretenses which Nero offered in explanation
+of his brother's death. She understood the case too well, and the
+event filled her mind with a tumult of conflicting emotions.
+Notwithstanding the terrible quarrels which had disturbed her
+intercourse with the emperor, he was still her son,--her first-born
+son,--and she loved him as such, even in the midst of the resentment
+and hostility which her disappointed ambition from time to time
+awakened in her mind. Her ambition was now more bitterly
+disappointed than ever. In the death of Britannicus the last link of
+her power over Nero seemed to be forever sundered. The hand by which
+he had fallen was still that of her son,--a son to whom she could
+not but cling with maternal affection, while she felt deeply wounded
+at what she considered his cruel ingratitude toward her, and vexed
+and maddened at finding herself so hopelessly circumvented in all
+her schemes.
+
+As for Nero himself, he had no longer any hope or expectation of
+being on good terms with his mother again. He saw clearly that her
+schemes and plans were wholly incompatible with his, and that in
+order to secure the prosperous accomplishment of his own designs he
+must now finish the work that he had begun, and curtail and restrict
+his mother's influence by every means in his power. Other persons he
+attempted to conciliate. He made splendid presents to the leading
+men of Rome, as bribes to prevent their instituting inquiries in
+respect to the death of Britannicus. To some he gave landed estates,
+to others sums of money, and others still he advanced to high
+offices of civil or military command. Those whom he most feared he
+removed from Rome, by giving them honorable and lucrative
+appointments in distant provinces.
+
+In the mean time Agrippina herself was not idle. As soon as she
+recovered from the first shock which the death of Britannicus had
+occasioned her, she began to think of revenge. Within the limits
+and restrictions which the suspicion and vigilance of Nero imposed
+upon her, she formed a small circle of friends and adherents, and
+sought out, diligently, though secretly, all whom she supposed to be
+disaffected to the government of Nero. She attached herself
+particularly to Octavia, who, being the daughter of Claudius,
+succeeded now, on the death of Britannicus, to whatever hereditary
+rights had been vested in him. She collected money, so far as she
+had power to do so, from all the resources which remained to her,
+and she availed herself of every opportunity to cultivate the
+acquaintance, and court the favor, of all such officers of the army
+as were accessible to her influence. In a word, she seemed to be
+meditating some secret scheme for retrieving her fallen
+fortunes,--and Nero, who watched all her motions with a jealous and
+suspicious eye, began to be alarmed, not knowing to what desperate
+extremes her resentment and ambition might urge her.
+
+Up to this time Agrippina had lived in the imperial palace with
+Nero, forming, with her retinue, a part of his household, and
+sharing of course, in some sense, the official honors paid to him.
+Nero now concluded, however, that he would remove her from this
+position and give her a separate establishment of her own,--making
+it correspond in its appointments with the secondary and subordinate
+station to which he intended thenceforth to confine her. He
+accordingly assigned to her a certain mansion in the city which had
+formerly been occupied by some branch of the imperial family, and
+removed her to it, with all her attendants. He dismissed, however,
+from her service, under various pretexts, such officers and
+adherents as he supposed were most devoted to her interests and most
+disposed to join with her in plots and conspiracies against him. The
+places of those whom he thus superseded were supplied by men on whom
+he could rely for subserviency to him. He diminished too the number
+of Agrippina's attendants and guards; he withdrew the sentinels that
+had been accustomed to guard the gates of her apartments, and
+dismissed a certain corps of German soldiers that had hitherto
+served under her command, as a sort of life-guard. In a word he
+removed her from the scenes of imperial pomp and splendor in which
+she had been accustomed to move, and established her instead in the
+position of a private Roman lady.
+
+The unhappy Agrippina soon found that this change in her position
+made a great change in respect to the degree of consideration and
+regard which was bestowed upon her by the public. The circle of her
+adherents and friends was gradually diminished. Her visitors were
+few. The emperor himself went sometimes to see his mother, but he
+came always attended with a retinue, and after a brief and formal
+interview, he retired as ceremoniously as he came,--thus giving to
+his visit the character simply of a duty of state etiquette. In a
+word, Agrippina found herself forsaken and friendless, and her mind
+gradually sank into a condition of hopeless despondency, vexation
+and chagrin.
+
+Things continued in this state for some time until at length one
+night when Nero had been drinking and carousing at a banquet in his
+palace, a well-known courtier named Paris, one of the principal of
+Nero's companions and favorites, came into the apartment and
+informed the emperor with a countenance expressive of great concern,
+that he had tidings of the most serious moment to communicate to
+him. Nero withdrew from the scene of festivity to receive the
+communication, and was informed by Paris, that a discovery had been
+made of a deep-laid and dangerous plot, which Agrippina and certain
+accomplices of hers had formed. The object of the conspirators, as
+Paris alledged, was to depose Nero, and raise a certain descendant
+of Augustus Caesar, named Plautus, to the supreme command, in his
+stead. This revolution being effected, Agrippina was to marry the
+new emperor, and thus be restored to her former power.
+
+The statement which Paris made was very full in all its details. The
+names of the chief conspirators were given, and all the plans
+explained. The chief witness on whose authority the charge was made,
+was a celebrated woman of the court, an intimate acquaintance and
+visitor of Agrippina, named Silana. Silana and Agrippina had been
+very warm friends, but a terrible quarrel had recently broken out
+between them, in consequence of some interference on the part of
+Agrippina, to prevent a marriage, which had been partially arranged
+between Silana and a distinguished Roman citizen, from being carried
+into effect. Silana had been exasperated by this ill office, and
+the revelation which she had made had been the result. Whether such
+a conspiracy had really been formed, and Silana had been induced to
+betray the secret in consequence of the injury which Agrippina had
+inflicted upon her in preventing her marriage, or whether she wholly
+invented the story under the impulse of a desperate revenge, was
+never fully known. The historians of the time incline to the latter
+opinion.
+
+However this may be, Nero was greatly alarmed at the communication
+which Paris made to him. He immediately abandoned his festivities
+and carousals, dismissed his guests, and called a council of his
+most confidential advisers, to consider what was to be done. He
+stated the case to this council, and announced it as his
+determination immediately to pronounce sentence of death upon his
+mother and upon Plautus, and to send officers at once to execute the
+decree, as the first step to be taken. Burrus, however, strongly
+dissuaded him from so rash a proceeding. "These are only charges,"
+said he, "at present. We have yet no proofs. An informer has come
+to you at dead of night with this wild and improbable story, and if
+we take it for granted at once that it is true, and allow ourselves
+to act under the influence of excitement and alarm, we should
+afterward regret our rashness when the consequences could not be
+retrieved. Besides, Agrippina is your mother; and as it is the right
+of the humblest person in the commonwealth, when accused of crime,
+to be heard in answer to the accusation, it would be an atrocious
+crime to deprive the mother of the emperor of that privilege.
+Postpone, therefore, pronouncing judgment in this case until we can
+learn the facts more certainly. I pledge myself to execute sentence
+of death on Agrippina, if after a fair hearing, this charge is
+proved against her."
+
+By such arguments and remonstrances as these Nero was in some degree
+appeased, and it was determined to postpone taking any decisive
+action in the emergency until the morning. As soon as it was day,
+Burrus and Seneca, accompanied by several attendants, who were to
+act as witnesses of the interview, were dispatched to the house of
+Agrippina to lay the charge before her and to hear what she had to
+say.
+
+Agrippina was at first somewhat astonished at being summoned at so
+early an hour to give audience to so formidable a commission; but
+her proud spirit had become so fierce and desperate under the
+treatment which she had received from her son, that she was very
+slightly sensible to fear. She listened, therefore, to the heavy
+charge which Burrus brought against her, undismayed; and when he
+paused to hear her reply, instead of excusing and defending herself,
+and deprecating the emperor's displeasure, she commenced the most
+severe and angry invectives against her son, for listening for a
+moment to calumnies against her so wild and improbable. That Silana,
+who was, as she said, a dissolute and unprincipled woman, and who,
+consequently, could have no idea of the strength and the fidelity of
+maternal affection, should think it possible that a mother could
+form plots and conspiracies against an only son, was not strange;
+but that Nero himself, for whom she had made such exertions and
+incurred such dangers, and to whose interests she had surrendered
+and sacrificed every thing that could be dear to the heart of a
+woman--could believe such tales, and actually conceive the design
+of murdering his mother on the faith of them, was not to be endured.
+"Does not he know well," said she, in a voice almost inarticulate
+with excitement and indignation, "that, if by any means,
+Britannicus, or Plautus, or any other man were to be raised to
+power, my life would be immediately forfeited in consequence of what
+I have already done for him? Can he imagine, after the deep and
+desperate crimes which I have committed for his sake, in order that
+I might raise him to his present power, that I could seal my own
+destruction by bringing forward any one of his rivals and enemies to
+his place? Go back and tell him this, and say, moreover, that I
+demand an audience of him. I am his mother; and I have a right to
+expect that he shall see me himself, and hear what I have to say."
+
+The commissioners whom Nero had sent with the accusations, were
+somewhat astonished at receiving these angry denunciations and
+invectives in reply, instead of the meek and faltering defense which
+they had expected. They were overawed, too, by the lofty and
+passionate energy with which Agrippina had spoken. They answered her
+with soothing and conciliatory words, and then went back to Nero,
+and reported the result of their interview.
+
+Nero consented to see his mother. In his presence she assumed the
+same tone of proud and injured innocence, that had characterized her
+interview with the messengers. She scorned to enter into any
+vindication of herself; but _assumed_ that she was innocent, and
+demanded that her accusers should be punished as persons guilty of
+the most atrocious calumny. Nero was convinced of her innocence, and
+yielded to her demands. Silana and two others of her accusers, were
+banished from Rome. Another still was punished with death.
+
+Thus a sort of temporary and imperfect peace was once more
+established between Nero and his mother.
+
+This state of things continued for about the space of three years.
+During this time, the public affairs of the empire, as conducted by
+the ministers of state and the military generals, to whom Nero
+intrusted them, went on with tolerable prosperity and success, while
+in every thing that related to personal conduct and character, the
+condition of the emperor was becoming every day more and more
+deplorable. He spent his days in sloth and sensual stupor, and his
+nights in the wildest riot and debauchery. He used to disguise
+himself as a slave, and sally forth at midnight with a party of his
+companions similarly attired, into the streets of the city,
+disturbing the night with riot and noise. Sometimes they would go
+out at an earlier hour,--while the people were in the streets and
+the shops were open,--and amuse themselves with seizing the goods
+and merchandise that they found offered for sale, and assaulting all
+that came in their way. In these frolics, the emperor and his party
+were met sometimes by other parties; and in the brawls which ensued
+Nero was frequently handled very roughly--his opponents not knowing
+who he was. At one time he was knocked down and very seriously
+wounded; and in consequence of this adventure, his face was for a
+long time disfigured with a scar.
+
+Although in these orgies Nero went generally in disguise, yet as he
+and his companions were accustomed afterward to boast of their
+exploits, it soon became generally known to the people of the city
+that their young emperor was in the habit of mingling in these
+midnight brawls. Of course every wild and dissolute young man in
+Rome was fired with an ambition to imitate the example set him by so
+exalted an authority. Midnight riots became the fashion. As the
+parties grew larger, the brawls which occurred in the streets became
+more and more serious, until at last Nero was accustomed to take
+with him a gang of soldiers and gladiators in disguise, who were
+instructed to follow him within call, so as to be ready to come up
+instantly to his aid whenever he should require their assistance.
+
+Year after year passed away in this manner, Nero abandoning himself
+all the time to the grossest sensual pleasures, and growing more and
+more reckless and desperate every day. His mother lived during this
+period in comparative seclusion. She attempted to exercise some
+little restraint over her son, but without success. She attached
+herself strongly to Octavia, the wife of Nero, and would have
+defended her, if she could, from the injuries and wrongs which the
+conduct of Nero as a husband heaped upon her.
+
+At length the young emperor, in following his round of vicious
+indulgence, formed an intimacy with a certain lady of the court
+named Poppaea, the wife of Otho, one of Nero's companions in
+pleasure. Nero sent Otho away on some distant appointment, in order
+that he might enjoy the society of Poppaea without restraint. At
+length Poppaea gained so great an ascendency over the mind of the
+emperor as to seduce him entirely away from his duty to his wife,
+and she proposed that they should both be divorced and then marry
+one another. Nero was inclined to accede to this proposal, but
+Agrippina strongly opposed it. For a time Nero hesitated between the
+influence of Agrippina and the sentiment of duty, on the one hand,
+and the enticements of Poppaea on the other. In addition to the
+influence of her blandishments and smiles, she attempted to act upon
+Nero's boyish pride by taunting him with what she called his
+degrading and unmanly subjection to his mother. How long, she asked,
+was he to remain like a child under maternal tutelage? She wondered
+how he could endure so ignoble a bondage. He was in name and
+position, she said, a mighty monarch, reigning absolutely over half
+the world,--but in actual fact he was a mere nursery boy, who could
+do nothing without his mother's leave. She was ashamed, she said, to
+see him in so humiliating a condition; and unless he would take some
+vigorous measures to free himself from his chains, she declared that
+she would leave him forever, and go with her husband to some distant
+quarter of the world where she could no longer be a witness of his
+disgrace.
+
+The effect of these taunts upon the mind of Nero was very much
+heightened by the proud and imperious spirit which his mother
+manifested toward him, and which seemed to become more and more
+stern and severe, through the growing desperation which the conduct
+of her son and her own hopeless condition seemed to awaken in her
+mind. The quarrel, in a word, between the emperor and his mother
+grew more and more inveterate and hopeless every day. At length he
+shunned her entirely, and finally, every remaining spark of filial
+duty having become extinguished, he began to meditate some secret
+plan of removing her out of his way.
+
+He revolved various projects for accomplishing this purpose, in his
+mind. He did not dare to employ open violence, as he had no charge
+against his mother to justify a criminal sentence against her; and
+he dreaded the effect upon the public mind which would be produced
+by the spectacle of so unnatural a deed as the execution of a mother
+by command of her son. He could not trust to poison. Agrippina was
+perfectly familiar with every thing relating to the poisoning art,
+and would doubtless be fully on her guard against any attempt of
+that kind that he might make. Besides, he supposed, that by means of
+certain antidotes which she was accustomed to use, her system was
+permanently fortified against the action of every species of poison.
+
+While Nero was revolving these things in his mind, the occasion
+occurred for a great naval celebration at Baiae, a beautiful bay
+south of Rome, near what is now the bay of Naples. Baiae was
+celebrated in ancient times, as it is in fact now, for the beauty of
+its situation, and it was a place of great resort for the Roman
+nobility. There was a small, but well-built town at the head of the
+bay, and the hills and valleys in the vicinity, as well as every
+headland and promontory along the shore, were ornamented with villas
+and country-seats, which were occupied as summer residences by the
+wealthy people of the city. Baiae was also a great naval station, and
+there was at this time a fleet stationed there,--or rather at the
+promontory of Misenum, a few miles beyond,--under the command of one
+of Nero's confidential servants, named Anicetus. The naval
+celebration was to take place in connection with this fleet. It was
+an annual festival, and was to continue five days.
+
+Anicetus had been a personal attendant upon Nero in his infancy, and
+had lived always in habits of great intimacy with him. For some
+reason or other, too, he was a great enemy to Agrippina, having been
+always accustomed, when Nero was a child, to take his part in the
+little contests which had arisen, from time to time, between him and
+his mother. Anicetus was of course prepared to sympathize very
+readily with Nero in the hatred which he now cherished toward
+Agrippina, and when he learned that Nero was desirous of devising
+some means of accomplishing her death, he formed a plan which he
+said would effect the purpose very safely. He proposed to invite
+Agrippina to Baiae, and then, in the course of the ceremonies and
+manoeuvers connected with the naval spectacle, to take her out
+upon the bay in a barge or galley. He would have the barge so
+constructed, he said, that it should go to pieces at sea, making
+arrangements beforehand for saving the lives of the others, but
+leaving Agrippina to be drowned.
+
+Nero was greatly pleased with this device, and determined at once to
+adopt the plan. In order to open the way for carrying it into
+effect, he pretended, when the time for the festival drew nigh, that
+he desired to be reconciled to his mother, and that he was ready now
+to fall in with her wishes and plans. He begged her to forget all
+his past unkindness to her, and assuring her that his feelings
+toward her were now wholly changed, he lavished upon her expressions
+of the tenderest regard. A mother is always very easily deceived by
+such protestations on the part of a wayward son, and Agrippina
+believed all that Nero said to her. In a word, the reconciliation
+seemed to be complete.
+
+At length, when the time for the naval festival drew nigh, Nero, who
+was then at Baiae, sent an invitation to his mother to come and join
+him in witnessing the spectacle. Agrippina readily consented to
+accept the invitation. She was at this time at Antium, the place,
+it will be recollected, where Nero was born. She accordingly set
+sail from this place in her own galley, and proceeded to the
+southward. She landed at one of the villas in the neighborhood of
+Baiae. Nero was ready upon the shore to meet her. He received her
+with every demonstration of respect and affection. He had provided
+quarters for her at Baiae, and there was a splendid barge ready to
+convey her thither; the plan being that she should embark on board
+this barge, and leave her own galley,--that is the one by which she
+had come in from sea,--at anchor at the villa where she landed. The
+barge in which Agrippina was thus invited to embark, was the
+treacherous trap that Anicetus had contrived for her destruction. It
+was, however, to all appearance, a very splendid vessel, being very
+richly and beautifully decorated, as if expressly intended to do
+honor to the distinguished passenger whom it was designed to convey.
+
+Agrippina, however, did not seem inclined to go in the barge. She
+preferred proceeding to Baiae by land. Perhaps, notwithstanding
+Nero's apparent friendliness she felt still some misgivings, and
+was afraid to trust herself entirely to his power,--or perhaps she
+preferred to finish her journey by land only because, in making the
+passage from Antium, she had become tired of the sea. However this
+may have been, Nero acquiesced at once in her decision, and provided
+a sort of sedan for conveying her to Baiae by land. In this sedan she
+was carried accordingly, by bearers to Baiae, and there lodged in the
+apartments provided for her.
+
+No favorable opportunity occurred for taking Agrippina out upon the
+water until the time arrived for her return to Antium. During the
+time of her stay at Baiae, Nero devoted himself to her with the most
+assiduous attention. He prepared magnificent banquets for her, and
+entertained her with a great variety of amusements and diversions.
+In his conversation he sometimes addressed her with a familiar
+playfulness and gayety, and at other times he sought occasions to
+discourse with her seriously on public affairs, in a private and
+confidential manner. Agrippina was completely deceived by these
+indications, and her heart was filled with pride and joy at the
+thought that she had regained the affection and confidence of her
+son.
+
+Nero and Anicetus determined finally to put their plan into
+execution by inducing Agrippina to embark on board their barge in
+returning to Antium, when the time should arrive, instead of going
+back in her own vessel. Their other attempts to induce her to go out
+upon the water had failed, and this was the only opportunity that
+now remained. It was desirable that this embarkation should take
+place in the night, as the deed which they were contemplating could
+be more effectually accomplished under the cover of the darkness.
+Accordingly, on the afternoon of the day on which Agrippina was to
+return, Nero prepared a banquet for her, and he protracted the
+festivities and entertainments which attended it until late in the
+evening, so that it was wholly dark before his mother could take her
+leave. Anicetus then contrived to have one of the vessels of his
+fleet run against the galley in which Agrippina had come from
+Antium, as it lay at anchor near the shore at the place where she
+had landed. The galley was broken down and disabled by the
+collision. Anicetus came to Agrippina to report the accident, with
+a countenance expressive of much concern; but added that the barge
+which the emperor had prepared for her was at her service, and
+proposed to substitute that in the place of the one which had been
+injured. There seemed to be no other alternative, and Agrippina,
+after taking a very affectionate leave of her son, went gayly, and
+wholly unconscious of danger, on board the beautiful but treacherous
+vessel.
+
+It was observed that Nero exhibited an extreme degree of tender
+regard for his mother in bidding her farewell on this occasion. He
+hung upon her neck a long time, and kissed her again and again,
+detaining her by these endearments on the shore, as if reluctant to
+let her go. After Agrippina's death this scene was remembered by
+those who witnessed it, but in reflecting upon it they could not
+decide whether these tokens of affection were all assumed, as
+belonging to the part which he was so hypocritically acting, or
+whether he really felt at the last moment some filial relentings,
+which led him to detain his mother for a time on the brink of the
+pit which he had been preparing for her destruction. From all,
+however, that we now know in respect to the personal character which
+Nero had formed at this period, it is probable that the former is
+the correct supposition.
+
+The plot, dextrous as the contrivance of it had been, was not
+destined to succeed. The vessel moved gently from the shore, rowed
+by the mariners. It was a clear starlight night. The sea was smooth,
+and the air was calm. Agrippina took her place upon a couch which
+had been arranged for her, under a sort of canopy or awning, the
+frame-work of which, above, had been secretly loaded with lead. She
+was attended here by one of her ladies named Aceronia Polla, who lay
+at her mistress's feet, and entertained her with conversation as the
+boat glided along on its way. They talked of Nero--of the kind
+attentions which he had been paying to Agrippina, and of the various
+advantages which were to follow from the reconciliation which had
+been so happily effected. In this manner the hours passed away, and
+the barge went on until it reached the place which had been
+determined upon for breaking it down and casting Agrippina into the
+sea. The spot which had been chosen was so near the land as to allow
+of the escape of the mariners by swimming, but yet remote enough,
+as was supposed, to make Agrippina's destruction sure. A few of the
+mariners were in the secret, and were in some degree prepared for
+what was to come. Others knew nothing, and were expected to save
+themselves as they best could, when they should find themselves cast
+into the sea.
+
+At a given signal the fastenings of the canopy were loosened, and
+the loaded structure came down suddenly with a heavy crash, carrying
+away with it other parts of the vessel. One man was crushed under
+the weight of the falling ruins, and instantly killed. Agrippina and
+the lady in waiting upon her were saved by the posts of the bed or
+couch on which Agrippina was reclining, which happened to be in such
+a position that they held up the impending mass sufficiently to
+allow the ladies to creep out from beneath it. The breaking down,
+too, of the deck and bulwarks of the barge was less extensive than
+had been intended, so that Agrippina not only escaped being crushed
+by the ruins but she also saved herself at first from being thrown
+into the sea. The men then who were in the secret of the plot
+immediately raised a great cry and confusion, and attempted to
+upset the barge by climbing up upon one side of it--while the
+others, who did not understand the case, did all they could to save
+it. In the mean time the noise of the outcries reached the shore,
+and fishermen's boats began to put off with a view of coming to the
+rescue of the distressed vessel. Before they arrived, however, the
+boat had been overturned, Agrippina and Aceronia had been thrown
+into the sea, and the men who were in the secret of the plot, taking
+advantage of the darkness and confusion, were endeavoring to seal
+the fate of their victims, by beating them down with poles and oars
+as they struggled in the water.
+
+[Illustration: THE ATTEMPT OF ANICETUS.]
+
+These efforts succeeded in the case of Aceronia, for she uttered
+loud and continual outcries in her terror, and thus drew upon
+herself the blows of the assassins. Agrippina, on the other hand,
+had the presence of mind to keep silence. She received one heavy
+blow upon the shoulder, which inflicted a serious wound. In other
+respects she escaped uninjured, and succeeded, partly through the
+buoyancy of her dress, and partly by the efforts that she made to
+swim, in keeping herself afloat until she was taken up by the
+fishermen and conveyed to the shore. She was taken to a villa
+belonging to her, which was situated not far from the place where
+the disaster had occurred.
+
+As soon as Agrippina had recovered a little from the terror and
+excitement of this scene, and had time to reflect upon the
+circumstances of it, she was convinced that what had occurred was no
+accident, but the result of a deep-laid design to destroy her life.
+She, however, thought it most prudent to dissemble her opinion for a
+time. As soon therefore as she had safely reached her villa, and her
+wound had been dressed, she dispatched a messenger to Baiae to inform
+Nero of what had occurred. The vessel in which she had embarked had
+been wrecked at sea, she said, and she had narrowly escaped
+destruction. She had received a severe hurt, by some falling spar,
+but had at length safely reached her home at Antium. She begged,
+however, that her son would not come to see her, as what she needed
+most was repose. She had sent the messenger, she said, to inform him
+of what had occurred only that he might rejoice with her in the
+signal interposition of divine providence by which she had been
+rescued from so imminent a danger.
+
+In the mean time Nero was waiting impatiently and anxiously in his
+palace at Baiae, for the arrival of a messenger from Anicetus to
+inform him that his plot had been successful, and that his mother
+was drowned. Instead of this a rumor of her escape reached him some
+time before Agrippina's messenger arrived, and threw him into
+consternation. People came from the coast and informed him that the
+barge in which his mother had sailed had been wrecked, and that
+Agrippina had narrowly escaped with her life. The particulars were
+not fully given to him, but he presumed that Agrippina must have
+learned that the occurrence was the result of a deliberate attempt
+to destroy her, and he was consequently very much alarmed. He
+dreaded the desperate spirit of resentment and revenge which he
+presumed had been aroused in his mother's mind.
+
+He forthwith sent for Burrus and Seneca, and revealed to them all
+the circumstances of the case. He made the most bitter accusations
+against his mother, in justification of his attempt to destroy her.
+He had long been convinced, he said, that there could be no peace
+or safety for him as long as she lived, and now, at all events,
+since he had undertaken the work of destroying her and made the
+attempt, no alternative was left to him but to go on and finish what
+he had begun. "She must die now," said he, "or she will most
+assuredly contrive some means to destroy me."
+
+Seneca and Burrus were silent. They knew not what to say. They saw
+very clearly that a crisis had arrived, the end of which would be,
+that one or the other must perish, and consequently the only
+question for them to decide was, whether the victim should be the
+mother or the son. At length, after a long and solemn pause, Seneca
+looked to Burrus, and inquired whether the soldiers under his
+command could be relied upon to execute death upon Agrippina. Burrus
+shook his head. The soldiers, he said, felt such a veneration for
+the family of Germanicus, which was the family from which Agrippina
+had sprung, that they would perform no such bloody work upon any
+representative of it. "Besides," said he, "Anicetus has undertaken
+this duty. It devolves on him to finish what he has begun."
+
+Anicetus readily undertook the task. He had, in fact, a personal
+interest in it, for, after what had passed, he knew well that there
+could be no safety for him while Agrippina lived. Nero seemed
+overjoyed at finding Anicetus so ready to meet his wishes. "Be
+prompt," said he, "in doing what you have to do. Take with you whom
+you please to assist you. If you accomplish the work, I shall
+consider that I owe my empire to your fidelity."
+
+Anicetus, having thus received his commission, ordered a small
+detachment from the fleet to accompany him, and proceeded to the
+villa where Agrippina had taken refuge. He found a crowd of country
+people assembled around the gates of the villa. They had been drawn
+thither by the tidings of the disaster which had happened to
+Agrippina, curious to learn all the particulars of the occurrence,
+or desirous, perhaps, to congratulate Agrippina on her escape. When
+these peasantry saw the armed band of Anicetus approaching, they
+know not what it meant, but were greatly alarmed, and fled in all
+directions.
+
+The guards at the gates of Agrippina's villa made some resistance
+to the entrance of the soldiers, but they were soon knocked down and
+overpowered; the gates were burst open, and Anicetus entered at the
+head of his party of marines. Agrippina, who was upon her bed in an
+inner chamber at the time, heard the noise and tumult, and was
+greatly alarmed. A number of friends who were with her, hearing the
+footsteps of the armed men on the stairs, fled from the chamber in
+dismay, by a private door, leaving Agrippina alone with her maid.
+The maid, after a moment's pause, fled too, Agrippina saying to her
+as she disappeared, "Are you, too, going to forsake me?" At the same
+moment, Anicetus forced open the door of entrance, and came in
+accompanied by two of his officers. The three armed men, with an
+expression of fierce and relentless determination upon their
+countenances, advanced to Agrippina's bedside.
+
+Agrippina was greatly terrified, but she preserved some degree of
+outward composure, and raising herself in her bed, she looked
+steadily upon her assassins.
+
+"Do you come from my son?" said she.
+
+They did not answer.
+
+"If you came to inquire how I am," said she, "tell him that I am
+better, and shall soon be entirely well. I can not believe that he
+can possibly have sent you to do me any violence or harm."
+
+At this instant one of the assassins struck at the wretched mother
+with his club. The arm, however, of the most hardened and
+unrelenting monster, usually falters somewhat at the beginning, in
+doing such work as this, and the blow gave Agrippina only an
+inconsiderable wound. She saw at once, however, that all was
+lost--that the bitter moment of death had come,--but instead of
+yielding to the emotions of terror and despair which might have been
+expected to overwhelm the heart of a woman in such a scene, her
+fierce and indomitable spirit aroused itself to new life and vigor
+in the terrible emergency. As the assassins approached her with
+their swords brandished in the air, preparing to strike her, she
+threw the bed-clothes off, so as to uncover her person, and called
+upon her murderers to strike her in the womb. "It is there," said
+she, "that the stab should be given when a mother is to be murdered
+by her son." She was instantly thrust through with a multitude of
+wounds in every part of her body, and died weltering in the blood
+that flowed out upon the couch on which she lay.
+
+Anicetus and his comrades, when the deed was done, gazed for a
+moment on the lifeless body, and then gathering together again the
+soldiers that they had left at the gates, they went back to Baiae
+with the tidings. The first emotion which Nero experienced, on
+hearing that all was over, was that of relief. He soon found,
+however, that monster as he was, his conscience was not yet so
+stupefied, that he could perpetrate such a deed as this without
+bringing out her scourge. As soon as he began to reflect upon what
+he had done, his soul was overwhelmed with remorse and horror. He
+passed the remainder of the night in dreadful agony, sometimes
+sitting silent and motionless--gazing into vacancy, as if his
+faculties were bewildered and lost, and then suddenly starting up,
+amazed and trembling, and staring wildly about, as if seized with a
+sudden frenzy. His wild and ghastly looks, his convulsive
+gesticulations, and his incoherent ravings and groans, indicated the
+horror that he endured, and were so frightful that his officers and
+attendants shrunk away from his presence, and knew not what to do.
+
+At length they sent in one after another to attempt to calm and
+console him. Their efforts, however, were attended with little
+success. When the morning came, it brought with it some degree of
+composure; but the dreadful burden of guilt which pressed upon
+Nero's mind made him still unutterably wretched. He said that he
+could not endure any longer to remain on the spot, as every thing
+that he saw, the villas, the ships, the sea, the shore, and all the
+other objects around him, were so associated in his mind with the
+thought of his mother, and with the remembrance of his dreadful
+crime, that he could not endure them.
+
+In the mean time, as soon as the servants and attendants at
+Agrippina's villa found that Anicetus and his troop had gone, they
+returned to the chamber of their mistress and gazed upon the
+spectacle which awaited them there, with inexpressible horror.
+Anicetus had left some of his men behind to attend to the disposal
+of the body, as it was important that it should be removed from
+sight without delay, since it might be expected that all who should
+look upon it would be excited to a high pitch of indignation against
+the perpetrators of such a crime. The countenance, in the condition
+of repose which it assumed after death, appeared extremely
+beautiful, and seemed to address a mute but touching appeal to the
+commiseration of every beholder. It was necessary, therefore, to
+hurry it away. Besides, the soldiers themselves were impatient. They
+wished to get through with their horrid work and be gone.
+
+They accordingly built a funeral pile in the garden of the
+villa,--using such materials for the purpose as came most readily to
+hand--and then took up the body of Agrippina on the bed upon which
+it lay, and placed all together upon the pile. The fires were
+lighted. The soldiers watched by the side of it until the pile was
+nearly consumed, and then went away, leaving the heart-broken
+domestics of Agrippina around the smoldering embers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+EXTREME DEPRAVITY.
+
+A.D. 62-64
+
+The atrocity of Nero's crime in murdering Agrippina.--Nero's messages
+to the senate.--Action of the senate.--Nero divorces Octavia and
+marries Poppaea.--Octavia banished from Rome.--Anicetus.--Octavia's
+unhappy destiny.--Charges against her.--She is put to death.--Extreme
+depravity.--Nero recovers from his remorse.--His various
+crimes.--Public affairs neglected.--His performances on the
+stage.--Musical training.--Nero's success.--His trained
+applauders.--Rules and regulations at the theater.--Races and
+games.--Nero generally the victor.--His private conduct and
+character.--His midnight brawls.--Rioting and excess.--His great
+feasts.--The artificial lake.--Immense sums of money expended by
+Nero.--His favorites.--His excursions to Ostia.--The burning of
+Rome.--Nero accused of being the incendiary.--His probable
+motives.--He comes to see the fire.--He celebrates the occasion by a
+song.
+
+
+There was nothing in the attendant circumstances that were connected
+with the act of Nero in murdering his mother, which could palliate
+or extenuate the deed in the slightest degree. It was not an act of
+self-defense. Agrippina was not doing him, or intending to do him
+any injury. It was not an act of hasty violence, prompted by sudden
+passion. It was not required by any political necessity as a means
+for accomplishing some great and desirable public end. It was a
+cool, deliberate, and well-considered crime, performed solely for
+the purpose of removing from the path of the perpetrator of it an
+obstacle to the commission of another crime. Nero murdered his
+mother in cool blood, simply because she was in the way of his plans
+for divorcing his innocent wife, and marrying adulterously another
+woman.
+
+For some time after the commission of this great crime, the mind of
+Nero was haunted by dreadful fears, and he suffered continually, by
+day and by night, all the pangs of remorse and horror. He did not
+dare to return to Rome, not knowing to what height the popular
+indignation, that would be naturally excited by so atrocious a deed,
+might rise; or what might be the consequences to him if he were to
+appear in the city. He accordingly remained for a time on the coast
+at Neapolis, the town to which he had retired from Baiae. From this
+place he sent various communications to the Roman Senate, explaining
+and justifying what he called the execution of his mother. He
+pretended that he had found her guilty of treasonable conspiracies
+against him and against the state, and that her death had been
+imperiously demanded, as the only means of securing the public
+safety. The senators hated Nero and abhorred his crimes; but they
+were overawed by the terrible power which he exercised over them
+through the army, which they knew was entirely subservient to his
+will, and by their dread of his ruthless and desperate character.
+They passed resolves approving of what he had done. His officers and
+favorites at Rome sent him word that the memory of Agrippina was
+abhorred at the capital, and that in destroying her, he was
+considered as having rendered a great service to the state. These
+representations in some measure reassured his mind, and at length he
+returned to the city.
+
+In due time he divorced Octavia, and married Poppaea. Octavia,
+however, still remained at Rome, residing in apartments assigned her
+in one of the imperial palaces. Her high birth and distinguished
+position, and, more than all, the sympathy that was felt for her in
+her misfortunes, made her an object of great attention. The people
+put garlands upon her statues in the public places in the city, and
+pulled down those which were placed at Nero's command upon those of
+Poppaea. These and other indications of the popular feeling, inflamed
+Poppaea's hatred and jealousy to such a degree, that she suborned one
+of Octavia's domestics to accuse her mistress of an ignominious
+crime. When thus accused, other women in Octavia's service were put
+to the rack to compel them to testify against her. They, however,
+persevered, in the midst of their tortures, in asserting her
+innocence. Poppaea, nevertheless, insisted that she should be
+condemned, and at last, by way of compromising the case, Nero
+consented to banish her from the city.
+
+She was sent to a villa on the sea-coast, in the neighborhood of the
+place where Anicetus was stationed with his fleet. But Poppaea would
+not allow her to live in peace even as an exile. She soon brought a
+charge against her of having formed a conspiracy against the
+government of Nero, and of having corrupted Anicetus, with a view of
+obtaining the co-operation of the fleet in the execution of
+treasonable designs. Anicetus himself testified to the truth of this
+charge. He said that Octavia had formed such a plan, and that she
+had given herself up, in person, wholly to him, in order to induce
+him to join in it. Octavia was accordingly condemned to die.
+
+Notwithstanding the testimony of Anicetus, Octavia was not at the
+time generally believed to be guilty of the charge on which she was
+condemned. It was supposed that Anicetus was induced, by promises
+and bribes from Nero and Poppaea, to fabricate the story, in order
+that they might have a pretext for putting Octavia to death. However
+this may be, the unhappy princess was condemned, and the sentence
+pronounced upon her was, that she must die.
+
+The life of Octavia, lofty as her position was in respect to earthly
+grandeur, had been one of uninterrupted suffering and sorrow. She
+had been married to Nero when a mere child, and during the whole
+period of her connection with her husband he had treated her with
+continual unkindness and neglect. She had at length been cruelly
+divorced from him, and banished from her native city on charges of
+the most ignominious nature, though wholly false--and before this
+last accusation was made against her there seemed to be nothing
+before her but the prospect of spending the remainder of her days in
+a miserable and hopeless exile. Still she clung to life, and when
+the messengers of Nero came to tell her that she must die, she was
+overwhelmed with agitation and terror.
+
+She begged and implored them with tears and agony, to spare her
+life. She would never, she said, give the emperor any trouble, or
+interfere in any way with any of his plans. She gave up willingly
+all claims to being his wife, and would always consider herself as
+only his sister. She would live in retirement and seclusion in any
+place where Nero might appoint her abode, and would never occasion
+him the slightest uneasiness whatever. The executioners cut short
+these entreaties by seizing the unhappy princess in the midst of
+them, binding her limbs with thongs, and opening her veins. She
+fainted, however, under this treatment, and when the veins were
+opened the wretched victim lay passive and insensible in the hands
+of her executioners, and the blood would not flow. So they carried
+her to a steam-bath which happened to be in readiness near at hand,
+and shutting her up in it, left her to be suffocated by the vapor.
+
+Thus the great crowning crime of Nero's life,--for the murder of
+Agrippina, the adulterous marriage with Poppaea, and the subsequent
+murder of Octavia, are to be regarded as constituting one single
+though complicated crime,--was consummate and complete. It was a
+crime of the highest possible atrocity. To open the way to an
+adulterous marriage by the deliberate and cruel murder of a mother,
+and then to seal and secure it by murdering an innocent
+wife,--blackening her memory at the same time with an ignominy
+wholly undeserved, constitute a crime which for unnatural and
+monstrous enormity must be considered as standing at the head of all
+that human depravity has ever achieved.
+
+Nero gradually recovered from the remorse and horror with which the
+commission of these atrocities at first overwhelmed him; and in
+order to hasten his relief he plunged recklessly into every species
+of riot and excess, and in the end hardened himself so completely in
+crime, that during the remainder of his life he perpetrated the most
+abominable deeds without any apparent compunction whatever. He
+killed Poppaea herself at last with a kick, which he gave her in a
+fit of passion at a time when circumstances were such with her that
+the violence brought on a premature and unnatural sickness. He
+afterward ordered her son to be drowned in the sea, by his slaves,
+when he was a-fishing, because he understood that the boy, in
+playing with the other children, often acted the part of an emperor.
+His general Burrus he poisoned. He sent him the poison under
+pretense that it was a medical remedy for a swelling of the throat
+under which Burrus was suffering. Burrus drank the draught under
+that impression and died. He destroyed by similar means in the
+course of his life great numbers of his relatives and officers of
+state, so that there was scarcely a person who was brought into any
+degree of intimate connection with him that did not sooner or later
+come to a violent end.
+
+During his whole reign Nero neglected the public affairs of the
+empire almost altogether,--apparently regarding the vast power, and
+the immense resources that were at his command, as only means for
+the more complete gratification of his own personal propensities and
+passions. The only ambition which ever appeared to animate him was a
+desire for fame as a singer and actor on the stage.
+
+At the time when he commenced his career it was considered wholly
+beneath the dignity of any Roman of rank to appear in any public
+performance of that nature; but Nero, having conceived in his youth
+a high idea of his merit as a singer, devoted himself with great
+assiduity to the cultivation of his voice, and, as he was encouraged
+in what he did by the flatterers that of course were always around
+him, his interest in the musical art became at length an extravagant
+passion. He submitted with the greatest patience to the rigorous
+training customary in those times for the development and
+improvement of the voice; such as lying for long periods upon his
+back, with a weight of lead upon his breast, in order to force the
+muscles of the chest to extraordinary exertion, for the purpose of
+strengthening them--and taking medicines of various kinds to clear
+the voice and reduce the system. He was so much pleased with the
+success of these efforts, that he began to feel a great desire to
+perform in public upon the stage. He accordingly began to make
+arrangements for doing this. He first appeared in private
+exhibitions, in the imperial palaces and gardens, where only the
+nobility of Rome and invited guests were present. He, however,
+gradually extended his audiences, and at length came out upon the
+public stage,--first, however, in order to prepare the public mind
+for what they would have otherwise considered a great degradation,
+inducing the sons of some of the principal nobility to come forward
+in similar entertainments. He was so pleased with the success which
+he imagined that he met with in this career that he devoted a large
+part of his time during his whole life to such performances. Of
+course, his love of applause in his theatrical career, increased
+much too fast to be satisfied with the natural and ordinary means of
+gratifying it, and he accordingly made arrangements, most absurdly,
+to create for his performances a fictitious and counterfeit
+celebrity. At one time he had a corps of five thousand men under pay
+to applaud him, in the immense circuses and amphitheaters where he
+performed. These men were regularly trained to the work of
+applauding, as if it were an art to be acquired by study and
+instruction. It _was_ an art, in fact, as they practiced
+it,--different modes of applause being designated for different
+species of merit, and the utmost precision being required on the
+part of the performers, in the concert of their action, and in their
+obedience to the signals. He used also to require on the days when
+he was to perform, that the doors of the theater should be closed
+when the audience had assembled, and no egress allowed on any
+pretext whatever. Such regulations of course excited great
+complaint, and much ridicule; especially as the sessions at these
+spectacles were sometimes protracted and tiresome to the last
+degree. Even sudden sickness was not a sufficient reason for
+allowing a spectator to depart, and so it was said that the people
+used sometimes to feign death, in order to be carried out to their
+burial. In some cases, it was said, births took place in the
+theaters, the mothers having come incautiously with the crowd to
+witness the spectacles, without properly considering what might be
+the effect of the excitement, and then afterward not being permitted
+to retire.
+
+Besides singing and acting on the stage, Nero took part in every
+other species of public amusement. He entered as a competitor for
+the prize in races and games of every kind. Of course he always came
+off victor. This end was accomplished sometimes by the secret
+connivance of the other competitors, and sometimes by open bribery
+of the judges. Nero's ridiculous vanity and self-conceit seemed to
+be fully gratified by receiving the prize, without any regard
+whatever to the question of deserving it. He used to come back
+sometimes from journeys to foreign cities, where he had been
+performing on the stage at great public festivals, and enter Rome in
+triumph, with the garlands, and crowns, and other decorations which
+he had won, paraded before him in the procession, in the manner in
+which distinguished commanders had been accustomed to display the
+trophies of their military victories, when returning from foreign
+campaigns.
+
+In fact it was only in the perpetration of such miserable follies as
+these that Nero appeared before the public at all, and in his
+private conduct and character he sank very rapidly, after he came
+into power, to the very lowest degree of profligacy and vice. After
+having spent the evening in drinking and debauchery, he would sally
+forth into the streets at midnight, as has already been stated, to
+mingle there with the vilest men and women of the town in brawls and
+riots. On these excursions he would attack such peaceable parties as
+he chanced to meet in the streets, and if they made resistance, he
+and his companions would beat them down and throw them into canals
+or open sewers. Sometimes in these combats he was beaten himself,
+and on one occasion he came very near losing his life, having been
+almost killed by the blows dealt upon him by a certain Roman
+senator, whose wife he insulted as she was walking with her husband
+in the street. The senator, of course, did not know him. He used to
+go to the theater in disguise, in company with a gang of companions
+of similar character to himself, and watch for opportunities to
+excite or encourage riots or tumults there. Whenever he could
+succeed in urging these tumults on to actual violence he would
+mingle in the fray, and throw stones and fragments of broken benches
+and furniture among the people.
+
+After a while, when he had grown more bold and desperate in his
+wickedness, he began to lay aside all disguise, and at last he
+actually seemed to take a pride and pleasure in exhibiting the
+scenes of riot and excess in which he engaged, in the most impudent
+manner before the public gaze. He used to celebrate great feasts in
+the public amphitheaters, and on the arena of the circus, and
+carouse there in company with the most dissolute men and women of
+the city--a spectacle to the whole population. There was a large
+artificial lake or reservoir in one part of the city, built for the
+purpose of exhibiting mimic representations of the manoeuvers of
+fleets, and naval battles, for the amusement of the people at great
+public celebrations. There were, of course, numerous ranges of seats
+around the margin of this lake for the accommodation of the
+spectators. Nero took possession of this structure for some of his
+carousals, in order to obtain greater scope for ostentation and
+display. The water was drawn off on such occasions and the gates
+shut, and then the bottom of the reservoir was floored over to make
+space for the tables.
+
+The sums of money which Nero spent in the pursuit of sensual
+pleasures were incalculable. In fact there were no bounds to his
+extravagance and profusion. He had command, of course, of all the
+treasure of the empire, and he procured immense sums besides, by
+fines, confiscations, and despotic exactions of various kinds; and
+as he undertook no public enterprises--being seldom engaged in
+foreign wars, and seldom attempting any useful constructions in the
+city--the vast resources at his command were wholly devoted to the
+purposes of ostentatious personal display, and sensual
+gratifications. The pomp and splendor of his feasts, his
+processions, his journeys of pleasure, and the sums that he is said
+to have lavished sometimes in money and jewels, and sometimes in
+villas, gardens, and equipages, upon his favorites, both male and
+female, are almost incredible. On some of the pleasure excursions
+which he took to the mouth of the Tiber, he would have the banks of
+the river lined with booths and costly tents all the way from the
+river to the sea. These tents were provided with sumptuous
+entertainments, and with beds and couches for repose; and they were
+all attended by beautiful girls who stood at the doors of them
+inviting Nero and his party to land, as they passed along the river
+in their barges. He used to fish with a golden net, which was drawn
+by silken cords of a rich scarlet color. Occasionally he made grand
+excursions of pleasure through Italy or into Greece, in the style of
+royal progresses. In these expeditions he sometimes had no less than
+a thousand carts to convey his baggage--the mules that drew them
+being all shod with silver, and their drivers dressed in scarlet
+clothes of the most costly character. He was attended, also, on
+these excursions, by a numerous train of footmen, and of African
+servants, who wore rich bracelets upon their arms, and were mounted
+on horses splendidly caparisoned.
+
+One of the most remarkable of the events which occurred during
+Nero's reign was what was called the burning of Rome,--a great
+conflagration, by which a large part of the city was destroyed. It
+was very generally believed at the time that this destruction was
+the work of Nero himself,--the fruit of his reckless and willful
+depravity. There is, it is true, no very positive proof that the
+fire was set by Nero's orders, though one of the historians of the
+time states that confidential servants belonging to Nero's household
+were seen, when the fire commenced, going from house to house with
+combustibles and torches, spreading the flames. He was himself at
+Antium at the time, and did not come to Rome until the fire had been
+raging for many days. If it is true that the fire was Nero's work,
+it is not supposed that he designed to cause so extensive a
+conflagration. He intended, perhaps, only to destroy a few buildings
+that covered ground which he wished to occupy for the enlargement of
+his palaces; though it was said by some writers that he really
+designed to destroy a great part of the city, with a view to
+immortalize his name by rebuilding it in a new and more splendid
+form. With these motives, if these indeed were his motives, there
+was doubtless mingled a feeling of malicious gratification at any
+thing that would terrify and torment the miserable subjects of his
+power. When he came to Rome from Antium at the time that the
+conflagration was at its height, he found the whole city a scene of
+indescribable terror and distress. Thousands of the people had been
+burned to death or crushed beneath the ruins of the fallen houses.
+The streets were filled with piles of goods and furniture burnt and
+broken. Multitudes of men, though nearly exhausted with fatigue,
+were desperately toiling on, in hopeless endeavors to extinguish the
+flames, or to save some small remnant of their property,--and
+distracted mothers, wild and haggard from terror and despair, were
+roaming to and fro, seeking their children,--some moaning in
+anguish, and some piercing the air with loud and frantic outcries.
+Nero was entertained by the scene as if it had been a great dramatic
+spectacle. He went to one of the theaters, and taking his place upon
+the stage he amused himself there with singing and playing a
+celebrated composition on the subject of the burning of Troy. At
+least it was said and generally believed in the city that he did so,
+and the minds of the people were excited against the inhuman monster
+to the highest pitch of indignation. In fact, Nero seems to have
+thought at last that he had gone too far, and he began to make
+efforts in earnest to relieve the people from some portion of their
+distress. He caused great numbers of tents to be erected in the
+parade-ground for temporary shelter, and brought fresh supplies of
+corn into the city to save the people from famine. These measures of
+mercy, however, came too late to retrieve his character. The people
+attributed the miseries of this dreadful calamity to his desperate
+maliciousness, and he became the object of universal execration.
+
+[Illustration: BURNING OF ROME.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+PISO'S CONSPIRACY.
+
+A.D. 65
+
+Origin and nature of Piso's conspiracy.--Lucan, the Latin poet.--His
+quarrel with Nero.--Lateranus.--Celebrity of his name.--The church
+of St. John Lateran.--Fenius Rufus.--A woman in the secret.--Plans
+and arrangements of the conspirators.--Bold proposals of Flavius.--The
+palace to be set on fire.--Epicharis impatient.--She goes to the
+fleet.--She communicates with Proculus at Misenum.--Proculus reveals
+the plot to Nero.--Nero perplexed.--Epicharis imprisoned.--A new
+plan.--Piso's objections.--Reasons.--Final arrangements agreed
+upon.--Nero to be slain in the theatre.--The several parts
+assigned.--Scevinus.--Excitement of Scevinus.--His knife.--He gives
+his knife to Milichus to be ground.--Milichus confers with his
+wife.--Their suspicions.--Revelations made by Milichus.--Scevinus's
+defense.--He denies the allegations of his accuser.--Nero
+perplexed.--The truth at last discovered.--Scevinus and Natalis make
+a full confession.
+
+
+Although the people of Rome were generally so overawed by the terror
+of Nero's power, that for a long period no one dared to make any
+open resistance to his will, still his excesses and cruelties
+excited in the minds of men a great many secret feelings of
+resentment and detestation. At one period in the course of his reign
+a very desperate conspiracy was formed by some of the leading men of
+the state, to dethrone and destroy the tyrant. This plot was a very
+extensive and a very formidable one. It was, however, accidentally
+discovered before it was fully mature, and thus was unsuccessful. It
+is known in history as Piso's Conspiracy--deriving its name from
+that of the principal leader of it, Caius Calpurnius Piso.
+
+It is not supposed, however, that Piso was absolutely the originator
+of the conspiracy, nor is it known, in fact, who the originator of
+it was. A great number of prominent men were involved in the
+plot--men who, possessing very different characters, and occupying
+very different stations in life, were probably induced by various
+motives to take part in the conspiracy. A conspiracy, however, of
+this kind, against so merciless a tyrant as Nero, is an enterprise
+of such frightful danger, and is attended, if unsuccessful, with
+such awful consequences to all concerned in it, that men will seldom
+engage in such a scheme until goaded to desperation, and almost
+maddened, by the wrongs which they have endured.
+
+And yet the exasperation which these conspirators felt against Nero,
+seems to have been produced, in some instances at least, by what we
+should now consider rather inadequate causes. For example, one of
+the men most active in this secret league, was the celebrated Latin
+poet Lucan. In the early part of his life, Lucan had been one of
+Nero's principal flatterers, having written hymns and sonnets in his
+praise. At length, as it was said, some public occasion occurred in
+which verses were to be recited in public, for a prize. Nero, who
+imagined himself to excel in every human art or attainment, offered
+some of his own verses in the competition. The prize, however, was
+adjudged to Lucan. Nero's mind was accordingly filled with envy and
+hate toward his rival, and he soon found some pretext for forbidding
+Lucan ever to recite any verses in public again. This of course
+exasperated Lucan in his turn, and was the cause of his joining in
+the conspiracy.
+
+Another of the conspirators was a certain Roman nobleman, whose
+family name has since become very widely known in all parts of the
+civilized world, through an estate in the city with which it was
+associated,--which estate, and certain buildings erected upon it,
+became subsequently greatly celebrated in the ecclesiastical history
+of Rome. The name of this nobleman was Plautius Lateranus. When
+Lateranus was put to death at the detection of the conspiracy, in
+the manner to be presently described, his estate was confiscated.
+The palace and grounds thus became the property of the Roman
+emperors. In process of time, the emperor Constantine gave the place
+to the pope, and from that period it continued to be the residence
+of the successive pontiffs for a thousand years. A church was built
+upon the ground, called the Basilica of St. John of Lateran, where
+many ancient councils were held, known in ecclesiastical history as
+the councils of the Lateran. This church is still used for some of
+the ceremonies connected with the inauguration of the pope, but the
+palace is now uninhabited. It presents, however, in its ruins, a
+vast and imposing, though desolate aspect.
+
+Lateranus was an unprincipled and dissolute man, and in consequence
+of certain crimes which he committed in connection with Messalina,
+during the reign of Claudius, he had been condemned to death. The
+sentence of death was not executed, though Lateranus was deprived of
+his rank, and doomed to live in retirement and disgrace. At the
+death of Claudius, and the accession of Nero, Lateranus was fully
+pardoned and restored to his former rank and position, through
+Nero's instrumentality. It might have been supposed that gratitude
+for these favors would have prevented Lateranus from joining such a
+conspiracy as this against his benefactor, but gratitude has very
+little place in the hearts of those who dwell in the courts and
+palaces of such tyrants as Nero.
+
+The man on whom the conspirators relied most for efficient military
+aid, so far as such aid should be needed in their enterprise, was a
+certain Fenius Rufus, a captain of the imperial guards. He was a man
+of very resolute and decided character, and was very highly esteemed
+by the people of Rome. He was not one of the originators of the
+plot, but joined it at a later period; and when the news of his
+accession to it was communicated to the rest, it gave them great
+encouragement, as they attached great importance to the adhesion of
+such a man to their cause. They now immediately began to take
+measures for executing their plans.
+
+There was a woman in the secret of this conspiracy, though how she
+obtained a knowledge of it no one seemed to know. Her name was
+Epicharis. While the execution of the plans of the confederates was
+delayed, Epicharis came to the principal conspirators privately,
+first to one and then to another, and urged them to action. None of
+the members of the plot would admit that they had given her any
+information on the subject, and how she obtained her information no
+one could tell. She was a woman of bad character, and as such women
+often are, she was violent and implacable in her hatred. She hated
+Nero, and was so impatient at the delay of the conspirators that
+she made repeated and earnest efforts to urge them on.
+
+The conspirators in the mean time held various secret meetings to
+mature their plans, and to complete the preparation for the
+execution of them. They designed to destroy Nero by some violent
+means, and then to cause Piso to be proclaimed emperor in his place.
+Piso was a man well suited for their purpose in this respect. He was
+tall and graceful in form, and his personal appearance was in every
+respect prepossessing. His rank was very high, and he was held in
+great estimation by all the people of the city for the many generous
+and noble qualities that he possessed. He was allied, too, to the
+most illustrious families of Rome, and he occupied in all respects
+so conspicuous a position, and was so much an object of popular
+favor, that the conspirators believed that his elevation to the
+empire could easily be effected, if Nero himself could once be put
+out of the way. To effect the assassination of Nero, therefore, was
+the first step.
+
+After much debate, and many consultations in respect to the best
+course to be pursued, it was decided to accept the offer of a
+certain Subrius Flavius, who undertook to kill the emperor in the
+streets, at night, at some time when he was roaming about in his
+carousals. Flavius, in fact, was very daring and resolute in his
+proposals, though wanting, as it proved in the end, in the
+fulfillment of them. He offered to stab Nero in the theater, when he
+was singing on the stage, in the midst of all the thousands of
+spectators convened there. This the conspirators thought, it seems,
+an unnecessarily bold and desperate mode of accomplishing the end in
+view, and the plan was accordingly overruled. Flavius then proposed
+to set the palace on fire some night when Nero was out in the city,
+and then, in the confusion that would ensue, and while the attention
+of the guards who had accompanied Nero should be drawn toward the
+fire, to assassinate the emperor in the streets. This plan was
+acceded to by the conspirators, and it was left to Flavius to select
+a favorable time for the execution of it.
+
+Time passed on, however, and nothing was done. The favorable time
+which Flavius looked for did not appear. In the meanwhile Epicharis
+became more and more impatient of the delay. She urged the
+conspirators to do their work, and chided in the strongest terms
+their irresolution and pusillanimity. At length finding that her
+invectives and reproaches were of no avail, she determined to leave
+them, and to see what she could do herself toward the attainment of
+the end.
+
+She accordingly left Rome and proceeded southwardly along the coast
+till she came to Misenum, which, as has already been said, was the
+great naval station of the empire at this time. Epicharis went to
+some of the officers of the fleet, many of whom she knew,--and in a
+very secret and cautious manner made known to them the nature of the
+plot which had been formed at Rome for the destruction of Nero and
+the elevation of Piso to the empire in his stead. Before, however,
+communicating intelligence of the conspiracy to any persons
+whatever, Epicharis would converse with them secretly and
+confidentially to learn how they were affected toward Nero and his
+government. If she found them well disposed she said nothing. If on
+the other hand any one appeared discontented with the government, or
+hostile to it in any way, she would cautiously make known to him
+the plans which were concocting at Rome for the overthrow of it. She
+took care, however, in these conversations to have never more than
+one person present with her at a time, and she revealed none of the
+names of the conspirators.
+
+Among the other officers of the fleet was a certain Proculus, who
+was one of the first with whom Epicharis communicated. Proculus was
+one of the men who had been employed by Nero in his attempts to
+assassinate Agrippina his mother, and for his services on that
+occasion had been promoted to the command of a certain number of
+ships, a number containing in all one thousand men. This promotion,
+however, as Epicharis found when she came to converse with him,
+Proculus did not consider as great a reward as his services had
+deserved. The perpetration of so horrible a crime as the murder of
+the emperor's mother, merited, in his opinion, as he said to
+Epicharis, a much higher recompense than the command of a thousand
+men. Epicharis thought so too. She talked with Proculus about his
+wrongs, and the injuries which he suffered from Nero's ingratitude
+and neglect, until she fancied that he was in a state of mind which
+would prepare him to join in the plans of the conspirators, and then
+she cautiously unfolded them to him.
+
+Proculus listened with great apparent interest to Epicharis's
+communication, and pretended to enter very cordially into the plan
+of the conspiracy; but as soon as the interview was ended he
+immediately left Misenum, and proceeded immediately to Rome, where
+he divulged the whole design to Nero.
+
+Nero was exceedingly alarmed, and sent officers off at once to seize
+Epicharis and bring her before him. Epicharis, when questioned and
+confronted with Proculus, resolutely denied that she had ever held
+any such conversation with Proculus as he alledged, and feigned the
+utmost astonishment at what she termed the impudence of his
+accusation. She called for witnesses and proofs. Proculus of course
+could produce none, for Epicharis had taken care that there should
+be no third person present at their interviews. Proculus could not
+even give the names of any of the conspirators at Rome. He could
+only persist in his declaration that Epicharis had really disclosed
+to him the existence of the conspiracy, and had proposed to him to
+join in it; while she on the contrary as strenuously and positively
+denied it. Nero was perplexed. He found it impossible to determine
+what to believe. He finally dismissed Proculus, and sent Epicharis
+to prison, intending that she should remain there until he could
+make a more full examination into the case, and determine what to
+do.
+
+In the mean time the conspirators became considerably alarmed when
+they heard of the arrest of Epicharis, and though they knew that
+thus far she had revealed nothing, they could not tell how soon her
+fidelity and firmness might yield under the tortures to which she
+was every day liable to be subjected; and as there appeared to be
+now no prospect that Flavius would ever undertake to execute his
+plan, they began to devise some other means of attaining the end.
+
+It seems that Piso possessed at this time a villa and country-seat
+at Baiae, on the coast south of Rome, and near to Misenum, and that
+Nero was accustomed sometimes to visit Piso here. It was now
+proposed by some of the conspirators that Piso should invite Nero to
+visit him at this villa, as if to witness some spectacles or shows
+which should be arranged for his entertainment there, and that then
+persons employed for the purpose should suddenly assassinate him,
+when off his guard, in the midst of some scene of convivial
+pleasure. Piso, however, objected to this plan. He conceived, he
+said, that it would be dishonorable in him to commit an act of
+violence upon a guest whom he had invited under his roof, as his
+friend. He was willing to take his full share of the responsibility
+of destroying the tyrant in any fair and manly way, but he would not
+violate the sacred rites of hospitality to accomplish the end.
+
+So this plan was abandoned. It was supposed, however, that Piso had
+another and a deeper reason for his unwillingness that Nero should
+be assassinated at Baiae than his regard for his honor as a host. He
+thought, it was said, that it would not be safe for him to be away
+from Rome when the death of Nero should be proclaimed in the
+capitol, lest some other Roman nobleman or great officer of state
+should suddenly arise in the emergency and assume the empire. There
+were, in fact, one or two men in Rome of great power and influence,
+of whom Piso was specially jealous and he was naturally very much
+disposed to be on his guard against opening any door of opportunity
+for them to rise to power. To commit a great crime in order to
+secure his own aggrandizement, and yet to manage the commission of
+it in such a way as not only to shut himself off from the expected
+benefit, but to secure that benefit to a hated rival, would have
+been a very fatal misstep. So the plan of destroying Nero at Baiae
+was overruled.
+
+At length one more, and as it proved a final scheme, was formed for
+accomplishing the purpose of the conspiracy. It was determined to
+execute Nero in Rome, at a great public celebration which was then
+about to take place. It seems that it was sometimes customary in
+ancient times for persons who had any request or petition to make to
+an emperor or king, to avail themselves of the occasion of such
+celebrations to present them. Accordingly it was determined that
+Lateranus should approach Nero at a certain time during the
+celebration of the games, as if to offer a petition,--the other
+conspirators being close at hand, and ready to act at a moment's
+warning. Lateranus, as soon as he was near enough, was to kneel down
+and suddenly draw the emperor's robes about his feet, and then
+clasp the feet thus enveloped, in his arms, so as to render Nero
+helpless. The other conspirators were then to rush forward and kill
+their victim with their daggers. In the mean time while Lateranus
+and his associates were perpetrating this deed in the circus where
+the games were to be exhibited, Piso was to station himself in a
+certain temple not far distant, to await the result; while Fenius,
+the officer of the guard, who has already been mentioned as the
+chief military reliance of the conspirators, was to be posted in
+another part of the city, with a military cavalcade in array, ready
+to proceed through the streets and bring Piso forth to be proclaimed
+emperor as soon as he should receive the tidings that Nero had been
+slain. It is said that in order to give additional eclat and
+popularity to the proceeding, it was arranged that Octavia, a
+daughter of Claudius, the former emperor, was to be brought forward
+with Piso in the cavalcade, as if to combine the influence of her
+hereditary claims, whatever they might be, with the personal
+popularity of Piso in favor of the new government about to be
+established.
+
+Thus every thing was arranged. To each conspirator, his own
+particular duty was assigned, and, as the day approached for the
+execution of the scheme, every thing seemed to promise success. It
+is obvious, however, that, as the affair had been arranged, all
+would depend upon the resolution and fidelity of those who had been
+designated to stab the emperor with their daggers, when Lateranus
+should have grasped his feet. The slightest faltering or fear at
+this point, would be fatal to the whole scheme. The man on whom the
+conspirators chiefly relied for this part of their work, was a
+certain desperate profligate, named Scevinus, who had been one of
+the earliest originators of the conspiracy, and one of the most
+dauntless and determined of the promoters of it, so far as words and
+professions could go. He particularly desired that the privilege of
+plunging the first dagger into Nero's heart should be granted to
+him. He had a knife, he said, which he had found in a certain temple
+a long time before, and which he had preserved and carried about his
+person constantly ever since, for some such deed. So it was arranged
+that Scevinus should strike the fatal blow.
+
+As the time drew nigh, Scevinus seemed to grow more and more excited
+with the thoughts of what was before him. He attracted the attention
+of the domestics at his house, by his strange and mysterious
+demeanor. He held a long and secret consultation with Natalis,
+another conspirator, on the day before the one appointed for the
+execution of the plot, under such circumstances as to increase still
+more the wonder and curiosity of his servants. He formally executed
+his will, as if he were approaching some dangerous crisis. He made
+presents to his servants, and actually emancipated one or two of his
+favorite slaves. He talked with all he met, in a rapid and
+incoherent manner, on various subjects, and with an air of gayety
+and cheerfulness which it was obvious to those who observed him was
+all assumed; for, in the intervals of these conversations, and at
+every pause, he relapsed into a thoughtful and absent mood, as if he
+were meditating some deep and dangerous design.
+
+That night, too, he took out his knife from its sheath, and gave it
+to one of his servants, named Milichus, to be ground. He directed
+Milichus to be particularly attentive to the sharpening of the
+point. Before Milichus brought back the knife, Scevinus directed him
+to prepare bandages such as would be suitable for binding up wounds
+to stop the effusion of blood. Milichus observed all these
+directions, and, having made all the preparations required,
+according to the orders which Scevinus had given him--keeping the
+knife, however, still in his possession--he went to report the whole
+case to his wife, in order to consult with her in respect to the
+meaning of all these mysterious indications.
+
+[Illustration: THE KNIFE.]
+
+The wife of Milichus soon came to the conclusion, that these strange
+proceedings could denote nothing less than a plot against the life
+of the emperor; and she urged her husband to go early the next
+morning, and make known his discovery. She told him that it was
+impossible that such a conspiracy should succeed, for it must be
+known to a great many persons, some one of whom would be sure to
+divulge it in hope of a reward. "If you divulge it," she added, "you
+will secure the reward for yourself; and if you do not, you will be
+supposed to be privy to it, when it is made known by others, and so
+will be sacrificed with the rest to Nero's anger."
+
+Milichus was convinced by his wife's reasonings, and on the
+following morning, as soon as the day dawned, he rose and repaired
+to the palace. At first he was refused admittance, but on sending
+word to the officer of the household, that he had intelligence of
+the most urgent importance to communicate to Nero, they allowed him
+to come in. When brought into Nero's presence, he told his story,
+describing particularly all the circumstances that he had observed,
+which had led him to suppose that a conspiracy was formed. He spoke
+of the long and mysterious consultation which Scevinus and Natalis
+had held together on the preceding day; he described the singular
+conduct and demeanor which Scevinus had subsequently manifested, the
+execution of his will, his wild and incoherent conversation, his
+directions in respect to the sharpening of the knife and the
+preparation of the bandages; and, to crown his proofs, he produced
+the knife itself, which he had kept for this purpose, and which thus
+furnished, in some sense, an ocular demonstration of the truth of
+what he had declared.
+
+Officers were immediately sent to seize Scevinus, and to bring him
+into the presence of the emperor. Scevinus knew, of course, that the
+only possible hope for him was in a bold and resolute denial of the
+charge made against him. He accordingly denied, in the most solemn
+manner, that there was any plot or conspiracy whatever, and he
+attempted to explain all the circumstances which had awakened his
+servant's suspicions. The knife or dagger which Milichus had
+produced, was an ancient family relic, he said,--one which he had
+kept for a long time in his chamber, and which his servant had
+obtained surreptitiously, for the purpose of sustaining his false
+and malicious charge against his master. As to his will, he often
+made and signed a will anew, he said, as many other persons were
+accustomed to do, and no just inference against him could be drawn
+from the circumstance that he had done this on the preceding day;
+and in respect to the bandages and other preparation for the
+dressing of wounds which Milichus alledged that he had ordered, he
+denied the statement altogether. He had not given any such orders.
+The whole story was the fabrication of a vile slave, attempting, by
+these infamous means, to compass his master's destruction. Scevinus
+said all this with so bold and intrepid a tone of voice, and with
+such an air of injured innocence, that Nero and his friends were
+half disposed to believe that he was unjustly accused, and to
+dismiss him from custody. This might very probably have been the
+result, and Milichus himself might have been punished for making a
+false and malicious accusation, had not the sagacity of his wife,
+who was all the time watching these proceedings with the most
+anxious interest, furnished a clew which, in the end, brought the
+whole truth to light.
+
+She called attention to the long conference which Scevinus had held
+with Natalis on the preceding day. Scevinus was accordingly
+questioned concerning it. He declared that his interview was nothing
+but an innocent consultation about his own private affairs. He was
+questioned then about the particulars of the conversation. Of course
+he was compelled to fabricate a statement in reply. Natalis himself
+was then sent for, and examined, apart from Scevinus, in regard to
+the conversation they had held together. Natalis, of course,
+fabricated a story too,--but, as usual with such fabrications, the
+two accounts having been invented independently, were inconsistent
+with each other. Nero was immediately convinced that the men were
+guilty, and that some sort of plot or conspiracy had been formed. He
+ordered that they should both be put to the torture in order to
+compel them to confess their crime, and disclose the names of their
+accomplices. In the mean time they were sent to prison, and loaded
+with irons, to be kept in that condition until the instruments of
+torture could be prepared.
+
+When at length they were brought to the rack, the sight of the
+horrid machinery unmanned them. They begged to be spared, and
+promised to reveal the whole. They acknowledged that a conspiracy
+had been formed, and gave the names of all who had participated in
+it. They explained fully, too, the plans which had been devised, and
+as in this case, though they were examined separately, their
+statements agreed, Nero and his friends were convinced of the truth
+of their declarations, and thus at last the plot was fully brought
+to light. Nero himself was struck with consternation and terror at
+discovering the formidable danger to which he had been exposed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE FATE OF THE CONSPIRATORS.
+
+A.D. 65
+
+Epicharis denies all knowledge of the conspiracy.--Seizures and
+executions.--General panic.--Death of Piso.--The conspirators
+discouraged.--Epicharis at the torture.--Her death.--The conspirators
+tried before Nero.--Flavius.--Demeanor of Rufus in the garden.--He is
+accused.--Rufus begs for his life.--His execution.--Flavius is
+accused.--His desperation.--The execution of Flavius.--The executioner's
+fears.--Seneca.--His character and public position.--Evidence against
+Seneca.--His journey to Rome.--Seneca arrested.--His defence.--The
+officer's report.--Nero decides that Seneca must die.--The death of
+Seneca.--Grief and despair of Paulina.--They save Paulina's life.--The
+consul Vestinus.--Large force sent to arrest Vestinus.--Vestinus
+arrested.--His extraordinary fate.--Nero is pleased.--The guests at
+Vestinus's supper.--Appearances of public rejoicing.--Nero grants gifts
+to the army.--Nature of despotic government.--Secret of their
+power.--Doubt in respect to Piso's conspiracy.
+
+
+As soon as Nero had obtained all the information which he and his
+officers could draw from Scevinus and Natalis, and had sent to all
+parts of the city to arrest those whom the forced disclosures of
+these witnesses accused, he thought of Epicharis, who, it will be
+recollected, had been sent to prison, and who was still in
+confinement there. He ordered Epicharis to be told that concealment
+was no longer possible,--that Scevinus and Natalis had divulged the
+plot in full, and that her only hope lay in amply confessing all
+that she knew.
+
+This announcement had no effect upon Epicharis. She refused to admit
+that she knew any thing of any conspiracy.
+
+Nero then ordered that she should be put to the torture. The engines
+were prepared and she was brought before them. The sight of them
+produced no change. She was then placed upon the wheel, and her
+frail and delicate limbs were stretched, dislocated, and broken,
+until she had endured every form of agony which such engines could
+produce. Her constancy remained unshaken to the end. At length, when
+she was so much exhausted by her sufferings that she could no longer
+feel the pain, she was taken away to be restored by medicaments,
+cordials, and rest, in order that she might recover strength to
+endure new tortures on the following day.
+
+In the mean time, panic and excitement reigned throughout the city.
+Nero doubled his guards; he garrisoned his palace; he brought out
+bodies of armed men, and stationed them on the walls of the city and
+in the public squares, or marched them to and fro about the streets.
+As fast as men were accused they were put to the question, and as
+each one saw that the only hope for safety to himself was in freely
+denouncing others, the names of supposed confederates were revealed
+in great numbers, and as fast as these names were obtained the men
+were seized and imprisoned or executed--the innocent and the guilty
+together.
+
+On the very first announcement that the plot had been discovered,
+those of the conspirators who were still at large made all haste to
+the house of Piso. They found him prostrate in consternation and
+despair. They urged him immediately to come forth, and to put
+himself at the head of an armed force, and fight for his life.
+Desperate as such an undertaking might be, no other alternative,
+they said, was now left to him. But all was of no avail. The
+conspirators could not arouse him to action. They were obliged to
+retire and leave him to his fate. He opened the veins in his arm,
+and bled to death while the soldiers whom Nero had sent were
+breaking into his house to arrest him.
+
+Being thus deprived of their leader, the conspirators gave up all
+hope of effecting the revolution, and thought only of the means of
+screening themselves from Nero's vengeance.
+
+In the mean time, Epicharis had so far recovered during the night,
+that on the following morning it was determined to bring her again
+to the torture. She was utterly helpless,--her limbs having been
+broken by the execution of the day before. The officers accordingly
+put her into a sort of sedan chair, or covered litter, in order that
+she might be carried by bearers to the place of torture. She was
+borne in this way to the spot, but when the executioners opened the
+door of the chair to take her out, they beheld a shocking spectacle.
+Their wretched victim had escaped from their power. She was hanging
+by the neck, dead. She had contrived to make a noose in one end of
+the cincture with which she was girded, and fastening the other end
+to some part of the chair within, she had succeeded in bringing the
+weight of her body upon the noose around her neck, and had died
+without disturbing her bearers as they walked along.
+
+[Illustration: BRINGING EPICHARIS TO THE TORTURE.]
+
+In the mean time the various parties that were accused were seized
+in great numbers, and were brought in for trial before a sort of
+court-martial which Nero himself, with some of his principal
+officers, held for this purpose in the gardens of the palace. The
+number of those accused was so large that the avenues to the garden
+were blocked up with them, and with the parties of soldiers that
+conducted them, and multitudes were detained together at the gates,
+in a state, of course, of awful suspense and agitation, waiting
+their turns. It happened singularly enough that among those whom
+Nero summoned to serve on the tribunal for the trial of the
+prisoners were two of the principal conspirators, who had not yet
+been accused. These were Subrius Flavius and Fenius Rufus, whom the
+reader will perhaps recollect as prominent members of the plot.
+Flavius was the man who had once undertaken to kill the emperor in
+the streets, and while standing near him at the tribunal, he made
+signs to the other conspirators that he was ready to stab him to the
+heart now, if they would but say the word. But Rufus restrained
+him, anxiously signifying to him that he was by no means to attempt
+it. Rufus in fact seems to have been as weak-minded and irresolute
+as Flavius was desperate and bold.
+
+In fact although Rufus, when summoned to attend in the garden, for
+the trial of the conspirators, did not dare to disobey, he yet found
+it very difficult to summon resolution to face the appalling dangers
+of his position. He took his place at last among the others, and
+with a forced external composure which ill concealed the desperate
+agitation and anxiety which reigned in his soul, he gave himself to
+the work of trying and condemning his confederates and companions.
+For a time no one of them betrayed him. But at length during the
+examination of Scevinus, in his solicitude to appear zealous in
+Nero's cause he overacted his part, so far as to press Scevinus too
+earnestly with his inquiries, until at length Scevinus turned
+indignantly toward him saying--
+
+"Why do _you_ ask these questions? No person in Rome knows more
+about this conspiracy than you, and if you feel so devoted to this
+humane and virtuous prince of yours, show your gratitude by telling
+him, yourself, the whole story."
+
+Rufus was perfectly overwhelmed at this sudden charge, and could not
+say a word. He attempted to speak, but he faltered and stammered,
+and then sank down into his seat, pale and trembling, and covered
+with confusion. Nero and the other members of the tribunal were
+convinced of his guilt. He was seized and put in irons, and after
+the same summary trial to which the rest were subjected, condemned
+to die. He begged for his life with the most earnest and piteous
+lamentations, but Nero was relentless, and he was immediately
+beheaded.
+
+The conspirator Flavius displayed a very different temper. When he
+came to be accused, at first he denied the charge, and he appealed
+to his whole past character and course of life as proof of his
+innocence. Those who had informed against him, however, soon
+furnished incontestable evidence of his guilt, and then changing his
+ground, he openly acknowledged his share in the conspiracy and
+gloried in it even in the presence of Nero himself. When Nero asked
+him how he could so violate his oath of allegiance and fidelity as
+to conspire against the life of his sovereign, he turned to him with
+looks of open and angry defiance and said--
+
+"It was because I hated and detested you, unnatural monster as you
+are. There was a time when there was not a soldier in your service
+who was more devoted to you than I. But that time has passed. You
+have drawn upon yourself the detestation and abhorrence of all
+mankind by your cruelties and your crimes. You have murdered your
+mother. You have murdered your wife. You are an incendiary. And not
+content with perpetrating these enormous atrocities, you have
+degraded yourself in the eyes of all Rome to the level of the lowest
+mountebank and buffoon, so as to make yourself the object of
+contempt as well as abhorrence. I hate and defy you."
+
+Nero was of course astonished and almost confounded at hearing such
+words. He had never listened to language like this before. His
+astonishment was succeeded by violent rage, and he ordered Flavius
+to be led out to immediate execution.
+
+The centurion to whom the execution was committed conducted Flavius
+without the city to a field, and then set the soldiers at work to
+dig the grave, as was customary at military executions, while he
+made the other necessary preparations. The soldiers, in their haste,
+shaped the excavation rudely and imperfectly. Flavius ridiculed
+their work, asking them, in a tone of contempt, if they considered
+that the proper way to dig a military grave. And when at length,
+after all the preparations had been made, and the fatal moment had
+arrived, the tribune who was in command called upon him to uncover
+his neck and stand forth courageously to meet his fate--he replied
+by exhorting the officer himself to be resolute and firm. "See,"
+said he, "if you can show as much nerve in striking the blow,
+as I can in meeting it." To cut down such a man, under such
+circumstances, was of course a very dreadful duty, even for a Roman
+soldier, and the executioner faltered greatly in the performance of
+it. The decapitation should have been effected by a single blow; but
+the officer found his strength failing him when he came to strike,
+so that a second blow was necessary to complete the severance of the
+head from the body. The tribune was afraid that this, when
+represented to Nero, might bring him under suspicion, as if it
+indicated some shrinking on his part from a prompt and vigorous
+action in putting down the conspiracy; and so on his return to Nero
+he boasted of his performance as if it had been just as he intended.
+"I made the traitor die twice," said he, "by taking two blows to
+dispatch him."
+
+But perhaps the most melancholy of all the results of this most
+unfortunate conspiracy, was the fate of Seneca. Seneca, it will be
+remembered, had been Nero's instructor and guardian in former years,
+and subsequently one of his chief ministers of state. He was now
+almost seventy years of age, and besides the veneration in which he
+was held on this account, and the respect that was paid to the
+exalted position which he had occupied for so long a period, he was
+very highly esteemed for his intellectual endowments and for his
+private character. His numerous writings, in fact, had acquired for
+him an extensive literary fame.
+
+But Nero hated him. He had long wished him out of the way. It was
+currently reported, and generally believed, that he had attempted to
+poison him. However this may be, he certainly desired to find some
+occasion of proceeding against him, and such an occasion was
+furnished by the developments connected with this conspiracy.
+
+Natalis, in the course of his testimony, said that he supposed that
+Seneca was concerned in the plot, for he recollected that he was
+once sent to him, while he was confined to his house by illness,
+with a message from Piso. The message was, that Piso had repeatedly
+called at his, that is, Seneca's house, but had been unable to
+obtain admittance. The answer which Seneca had returned was, that
+the reason why he had not received visitors was, that the state of
+his health was very infirm, but that he entertained none but
+friendly feelings toward Piso, and wished him prosperity and
+success.
+
+Nero determined to consider this as proof that Seneca was privy to
+the conspiracy, and that he secretly abetted it. At least he
+determined, for a first step, to send an officer with a band of
+armed men to arrest him, and to lay the crime to his charge. Seneca
+was not in the city at this time. He had been absent in Campania,
+which was a beautiful rural region, south of Rome, back from
+Misenum. He was, however, that very day on his return to Rome, and
+Silvanus, the officer whom Nero sent to him, met him on the way, at
+a villa which he possessed a few miles from Rome. The name of this
+villa was Nomentanum.[C] Seneca had stopped at the villa to spend
+the night, and was seated at the table with Paulina his wife, when
+Silvanus and his troop arrived.
+
+[Footnote C: See map. Frontispiece.]
+
+The soldiers surrounded the house, so as to prevent all possibility
+of escape, and posted sentinels at the doors. Silvanus and some of
+his associates then went in, and entering the hall where Seneca was
+at supper, they informed him for what purpose they were come.
+Silvanus repeated what Natalis had testified in respect to the
+messages which had passed between Seneca and Piso. Seneca admitted
+that the statement was true, but he declared that the word which he
+had sent to Piso was only an ordinary message of civility and
+friendliness; it meant nothing more. Finding that no farther
+explanation could be obtained, Silvanus left Seneca in his villa,
+with a strong guard posted around the house, and returned to Rome to
+report to Nero.
+
+When Nero had heard the report, he asked Silvanus whether Seneca
+appeared sufficiently terrified by the accusation to make it
+probable that he would destroy himself that night.[D] Silvanus
+answered no. "He displayed," said he, "no marks of fear. There was
+no agitation, no sign of regret, no token of sorrow. His words and
+looks bespoke a mind calm, confident and firm."
+
+[Footnote D: It seems to have been considered by public men in those
+days, that to resolve on self-destruction was a much more honorable
+course to pursue in an extreme emergency like this, than to wait to
+be condemned and executed by the officers of the law. The attempt to
+frighten a man into the act of killing himself was accordingly _one_
+of the various modes which a tyrant might resort to, to remove those
+who were obnoxious to him.]
+
+"Go to him," rejoined Nero, "and tell him that he must make up his
+mind to die."
+
+Silvanus was thunderstruck at receiving this order. He could not
+believe it possible that Nero would really put to death a man so
+venerable in years and wisdom, who had been to him all his life, in
+the place of a father. Instead of proceeding directly to Seneca's
+house he went to consult with the captain of the guard, who, though
+really one of the conspirators, had not yet been accused, and was
+still at liberty, though trembling with apprehension at the
+imminence of his danger. The captain, after hearing the case, said
+that nothing was to be done but to deliver the message. Silvanus
+then went to Seneca's villa, but not being able to endure the
+thought of being himself the bearer of such tidings, sent in a
+centurion with the message.
+
+Seneca received it with calm composure, and immediately made
+preparations for terminating his life. His wife Paulina insisted on
+sharing his fate. He gathered his friends around him to give them
+his parting counsels and bid them farewell, and ordered his servants
+to make the necessary preparations for opening his veins. Then
+ensued one of those sad and awful scenes of mourning and death, with
+which the page of ancient history is so often darkened--forming
+pictures, as they do, too shocking to be exhibited in full detail.
+The calm composure of Seneca, was contrasted on the one hand with
+the bitter anguish and loud lamentations of his domestics and
+friends, and on the other with Paulina's mute despair. When the
+veins were opened, the blood at first would not flow, and various
+artificial means were resorted to, to accelerate the extinction of
+life; at last, however, Seneca ceased to breathe. The domestics of
+the family then begged and entreated the soldiers with many tears,
+that they might be allowed to save Paulina if it were not too late.
+The soldiers consented; so the women bound up her wounds, as she lay
+insensible and helpless before them, and thus stopping the farther
+effusion of blood, they watched over her with assiduous care, in
+hopes to restore her. They succeeded. They brought her back to life,
+or rather to a semblance of life; for she never really recovered so
+as to be herself again, during the few lonely and desolate years
+through which she afterward lingered.
+
+There was another Roman citizen of the highest rank who fell an
+innocent victim to the angry passions which the discovery of this
+plot awakened in Nero's mind. It was the consul Vestinus. Vestinus
+was a man of great loftiness of character, and had never evinced
+that pliancy of temper, and that submissiveness to the imperial
+will, which Nero required. His position, too, as consul, which was
+the highest civil office in the commonwealth, gave him a vast
+influence over the people of Rome, so that Nero feared as well as
+hated him. In fact, so great was his independence of character, and
+his intractability, as it was sometimes called, that the
+conspirators, after mature deliberation, had concluded not to
+propose to him to engage in the plot. But, though he was thus
+innocent, Nero did not certainly know the fact, and, at any rate,
+such an opportunity to effect the destruction of a hated rival, was
+too good to be lost. Very soon, therefore, after the disclosure of
+the conspiracy had been made, Nero sent a tribune, at the head of
+five hundred men, to arrest the consul.
+
+This large force was designated for the service, partly because,--on
+account of the high rank and office of the accused,--Nero did not
+know what means of resistance the consul might be able to command,
+and partly because his house, which was situated in the most public
+part of the city, overlooking the Forum, was in itself a sort of
+citadel, of which the various officers of Vestinus's household, and
+his numerous retainers, constituted a sort of garrison. It happened
+that, at the time when Nero sent his troop to make the arrest,
+Vestinus was entertaining a large party of friends at supper. The
+festivities were suddenly interrupted, and the whole company were
+thrown into a state of the most frightful excitement and confusion,
+by the sudden onset of this large body of armed men, who besieged
+the doors, blocked up all the avenues of approach, and, surrounding
+and guarding the house on every side, shut all the inmates in, as if
+they were investing the castle of an enemy. Certain soldiers of the
+guard were then sent in to Vestinus in the banqueting-room, to
+inform him that the tribune wished to speak with him on important
+business.
+
+The consul knew the character of Nero, and the feelings which the
+tyrant entertained toward him too well, and saw too clearly the
+advantage which the discovery of the conspiracy gave to Nero, not to
+perceive at once that his fate was sealed; and the action which he
+took in this frightful emergency comported well with his
+insubmissive and intractable character. Instead of obeying the
+summons of the tribune, he repaired immediately to a private
+apartment, summoned his physician, directed a bath to be prepared,
+ordered the physician to open his veins, lay down in the bath to
+promote the flowing of the blood, and in a few minutes ceased to
+breathe.
+
+The announcement of the consul's death, when it came to be reported
+to Nero, of course gave him great satisfaction. He continued the
+guards, however, still about the house, keeping the guests
+imprisoned in the banqueting-room for many hours. Of course, during
+all this time, the minds of these guests were in a state of extreme
+distress and apprehension, inasmuch as every one of them must
+necessarily have felt in immediate danger. When the anxiety and
+agitation which they felt, was reported to Nero, he was greatly
+entertained by it, and said that they were paying for their consular
+supper. He kept them in this state of suspense until nearly morning,
+and then ordered the guards to be withdrawn.
+
+The number of victims who were sacrificed to Nero's resentment in
+consequence of this conspiracy, was very large; so that the streets
+were filled with executions and with funeral processions for many
+days. Universal grief and panic prevailed, and yet no one dared to
+manifest the slightest indications of sorrow or of fear. The people
+supposed that pity for the sufferers, or anxiety for themselves,
+would be interpreted as proofs that they had been concerned in the
+conspiracy; for multitudes of those who had been put to death, were
+condemned on pretexts and pretended proofs of the most frivolous
+character. Every one, therefore, even of those whose nearest and
+dearest friends had been killed, was compelled to assume all the
+appearances of extravagant joy that so wicked a plot against the
+life of so wise and excellent a prince, had been exposed, and the
+guilty devisers of it brought to punishment. Parents whose sons had
+been slain, and wives and children who had lost their husbands and
+fathers, were thus compelled to unite in the congratulations and
+expressions of joy which were everywhere addressed to the emperor.
+Processions were formed, addresses were made, sacrifices were
+offered, games, spectacles, and illuminations without number were
+celebrated, to testify to the general rejoicing; and thus the city
+presented all the outward appearances of universal gladness and joy,
+while, in truth, the hearts of men were everywhere overwhelmed with
+anxiety, grief, and fear.
+
+When at length a sufficient number of the citizens of Rome had been
+destroyed, Nero assembled the army, and after making an address to
+the troops on the subject of the conspiracy, and on his happy escape
+from the danger, he divided an immense sum of money from the public
+treasury among the soldiers, so as to give a very considerable
+largess to each man. He also distributed among them a vast amount of
+provisions from the public granaries. This act, and the connection
+between Nero and the troops which it illustrates, explain what would
+otherwise seem an inscrutable mystery, namely, how it can be
+possible for one man to bring the immense population of such an
+empire as that of ancient Rome so entirely under his power, that any
+number of the most prominent and influential of the citizens shall
+be seized and beheaded, or thrust through the heart with swords and
+daggers at a word or a nod from him. The explanation is, _the army_.
+Give to the single tyrant one or two hundred thousand desperadoes,
+well banded together, and completely armed, under a compact between
+them by which he says, "Help me to control, to domineer over, and to
+plunder the industrial classes of society, and I will give you a
+large share of the spoil," and the work is very easy. The
+governments that have existed in the world have generally been
+formed on this plan. They have been simply vast armies authorized to
+collect their own pay by the systematic plunder of the millions
+whose peaceful industry feeds and clothes the world. The remedy
+which mankind is now beginning to discover and apply is equally
+simple. The millions who do the work are learning to keep the arms
+in their own hands, and to forbid the banding together of masses of
+troops for the purpose of exalting pride and cruelty to a position
+of absolute and irresponsible power.
+
+In Nero's case, so great was the awe which the terrible power of the
+Roman legions inspired, that even the Senate bowed humbly before it,
+and joined in the general adulation of the hated tyrant. They
+decreed oblations and public thanksgivings; they erected new temples
+to express their gratitude to the gods for so signal a deliverance;
+they instituted new games and festivities to express the general
+joy, and erected statues and monuments in honor of those who had
+contributed to the discovery of the plot. The knife or dagger which
+Milichus had produced as the one by which Nero was to have been
+slain, was preserved as a sacred relic. A suitable inscription was
+placed upon it, and it was deposited, with all solemnity, in one of
+the temples of the city, there to remain a memorial of the event for
+all future generations. In a word, the tyrant's escape from death
+called forth all the outward manifestations of joy which could have
+been deserved by the greatest public benefactor.
+
+And yet, notwithstanding all this, such was the estimate which
+public sentiment really entertained of the true character of Nero,
+that it was considered extremely doubtful at the time, and has, in
+fact, been so considered ever since, whether there ever was any
+conspiracy at all. It was very extensively believed that the whole
+pretended discovery of the plot was an ingenious device on the part
+of Nero, to furnish him with plausible pretexts for destroying a
+great number of men who were personally obnoxious to him. And were
+it not almost impossible to believe that such monstrous wickedness
+and tyranny as that of Nero could riot so long over Romans without
+arousing them to some desperate attempts to destroy him, we might
+ourselves adopt this view, and suppose that this celebrated plot was
+wholly a fabrication.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE EXPEDITION INTO GREECE.
+
+A.D. 65
+
+Nero becomes more depraved and abandoned than ever.--Nero appears on
+the public stage.--Estimation in which players were held.--Action of
+the Senate.--Theatrical excitements.--Humiliating demeanor of the
+emperor.--Rewards and honors conferred upon Nero.--The Olympic
+games.--The plain.--Rules.--Preliminary arrangements of the Olympic
+games.--Various contests and spectacles at the Olympic games.--Nero
+sets out for Greece.--His retinue.--Nero's progress through
+Greece.--Crowds of auditors.--Nero is received with great
+applause.--The crown of olive leaves.--Ceremonies.--Sacrifices and
+festivities.--Nero at Olympia.--His chariot race.--Nero receives the
+prizes.--Nero sends despatches to Rome.--His plan for cutting through
+the Isthmus of Corinth.--Breaking ground.--The golden pick-axe.--Helius
+calls upon Nero to return to Rome.--Nero returns.--His train.--His
+prizes.--His voyage.--Danger of shipwreck.--Journey to Rome.--His
+triumphal entry into Rome.--His proceedings.--He continues the training
+of his voice.--The _Phonascus_.--Public performances.--Pecuniary
+embarassments.--Bessus's story.--Nero sends to Egypt for the
+treasure.--His disappointment.--The dream.
+
+
+As the excitement which had been produced by the discovery, real or
+pretended, of Piso's conspiracy, and by the innumerable executions
+which were attendant upon it, passed away, Nero returned to his
+usual mode of life, and in fact abandoned himself to the indulgence
+of his brutal propensities and passions more recklessly than ever.
+He spent his days in sloth, and his nights in rioting and carousals,
+and was rapidly becoming an object of general contempt and
+detestation. The only ambition which seemed to animate him was to
+excel, or rather to have the credit of excelling, as a player and
+singer on the public stage.
+
+Not long after the period of the conspiracy described in the last
+two chapters, and when the excitement connected with it had in some
+measure subsided, the attention of the public began to be turned
+toward a great festival, the time for which was then approaching.
+This festival was celebrated with spectacles and games of various
+kinds, which were called the quinquennial games, from the
+circumstance that the period for the celebration of them recurred
+once in five years. A principal part of the performances on these
+occasions consisted of contests for prizes, which were offered for
+those who chose to compete for them. Some of these prizes were for
+those who excelled in athletic exercises, and in feats of strength
+and dexterity, while others were for singers and dancers, and other
+performers on the public stage. Nero could not resist the temptation
+to avail himself of this grand occasion for the display of his
+powers, and he prepared to appear among the other actors and
+mountebanks as a competitor for the theatrical prizes.
+
+Performers on the public stage were regarded in ancient days much as
+they are now. They were applauded, flattered, caressed, and most
+extravagantly paid; but after all they formed a social class
+distinct from all others, and of a very low grade. Just as now great
+public singers are rewarded sometimes with the most princely
+revenues,--not twice or three times, but _ten_ times perhaps the
+amount ever paid to the highest ministers of state,--and receive the
+most flattering attentions from the highest classes of society, and
+are followed by crowds in the public streets, and enter cities
+escorted by grand processions, while yet there is scarce a
+respectable citizen of the better class who would not feel himself
+demeaned at seeing his son or his daughter on the stage by their
+side.
+
+In the same manner public sentiment was such in the city of Rome, in
+Nero's day, that to see the chief military magistrate of the
+commonwealth publicly performing on the stage, and entering into an
+eager competition with the singing men and women, the low comedians,
+the dancers, the buffoons, and other such characters, that figured
+there, was a very humiliating spectacle. In fact, when the time for
+the quinquennial celebration approached, the government attempted to
+prevent the necessity of the emperor's actual appearing upon the
+stage, by passing in the Senate, among other decrees relating to the
+celebrations, certain votes awarding honorary crowns and prizes to
+Nero, by anticipation,--thus acknowledging him to be the first
+without requiring the test of actual competition. But this did not
+satisfy Nero. In fact, the honor of being publicly proclaimed victor
+was not probably the chief allurement which attracted him. He wished
+to enjoy the excitement and the pleasure of the contest,--to see the
+vast audience assembled before him, and held in charmed and
+enraptured attention by his performance; and to listen to and enjoy
+the triumphant grandeur of the applause which rolled and
+reverberated in the great Roman amphitheaters on such occasions with
+the sound of thunder. In a word it was the vanity of personal
+display, rather than ambition for an honorable distinction, that
+constituted the motive which actuated him.
+
+He consequently disregarded the honorary awards which the Senate had
+decreed him, and insisted on actually appearing on the stage. His
+first performance was the reciting of a poem which he had composed.
+The poem was received, of course, with unbounded applause. Afterward
+he appeared on the stage in competition with the harpers and other
+musical performers. The populace applauded his efforts with the
+greatest enthusiasm, while the more respectable citizens were
+silent, or spoke to each other in secret murmurs of discontent and
+disapproval. There were a great many rules and restrictions which
+the candidates in these contests were required to observe; and
+though they were all proper enough for the class of men for whom
+they were intended, were yet such that the emperor, in subjecting
+himself to them, placed himself in a very low and degraded position,
+so as to become an object of ridicule and contempt. For example,
+after coming to the end of a performance on the harp, he would
+advance to the front of the stage, and there, after the manner
+customary among the players of that day, would kneel down in an
+imploring attitude, with his hands raised, as if humbly soliciting a
+favorable sentence from the audience, as his judges, and tremblingly
+waiting their decision. This, considering that the suppliant
+performer was the greatest potentate on earth, officially
+responsible for the government of half the world, and the audience
+before whom he was kneeling was mainly composed of the lowest rabble
+of the city, seemed to every respectable Roman, absurd and
+ridiculous to the last degree.
+
+Nevertheless, the fame of these exploits performed by Nero as a
+public actor, spread gradually throughout the empire, and the
+subject attracted special attention in the cities of Greece, where
+games and public spectacles of every kind were celebrated with the
+greatest pomp and splendor. Several of these cities sent deputations
+to Rome, with crowns and garlands for the emperor, which they had
+decreed to him in honor of the skill and superiority which he had
+displayed in the histrionic art. Nero was extremely gratified at
+having such honors conferred upon him. He received the deputations
+which brought these tokens, with great pomp and parade, as if they
+had been embassadors from sovereign princes or states, sent to
+transact business of the most momentous concern. He gave them
+audience, in fact, before all others, and entertained them with
+feasts and spectacles, and conferred upon them every other mark of
+public consideration and honor. On one occasion, at a feast to which
+he had invited such a company of embassadors, one of them asked him
+to favor them with a song. The emperor at once complied, and sang a
+song for the entertainment of the company at the table. He was
+rapturously applauded, and was so delighted with the enthusiasm
+which his performance awakened, as to exclaim that the Greeks were,
+after all, the only people that really had a taste for music; none
+but they, he said, could understand or appreciate a good song.
+
+The most renowned of all the celebrations of the ancient Greeks were
+the Olympic games. These games constituted a grand national
+festival, which was held once in four years on a plain in the
+western part of the Peloponnesus, called the Olympian Plain. This
+plain was but little more than a mile in extent, and was bordered on
+one side by rocky hills, and on the other by the waters of a river.
+Here suitable structures were erected for the exhibition of the
+spectacles and games, and for the accommodation of the spectators,
+and when the period for the celebrations arrived, immense multitudes
+assembled from every part of Greece to witness the solemnities. The
+spectators, however, were all men; for with the exception of a few
+priestesses who had certain official duties to perform, no females
+were allowed to be present. The punishment for an attempt to evade
+this law was death; for if any woman attempted to witness the scene
+in disguise, the law was that she was to be seized, if detected,
+and hurled down a neighboring precipice, to be killed by the fall.
+It is said, however, that only one case of such detection ever
+occurred, and in that case the woman was pardoned in consideration
+of the fact that her father, her brothers, and her son had all been
+victors in the games.
+
+The games continued for five days. The general arrangements were
+made, and the umpires were appointed, by the government of Elis,
+which was the state in which the Olympian plain was situated. There
+was a gymnasium in the vicinity, where those who intended to enter
+the lists as competitors were accustomed to put themselves in
+training. This training occupied nearly a year, and for thirty days
+previous to the public exhibition the exercises were conducted at
+this gymnasium in the same manner and form as at the games
+themselves. There was a large and regularly organized police
+provided to preserve order, and umpires appointed with great
+formality, to decide the contests and make the awards. These umpires
+were inducted into office by the most solemn oaths. They bound
+themselves by these oaths to give just and true decisions without
+fear or favor.
+
+The festival was opened, when the time arrived, in the evening, by
+the offering of sacrifices,--the services being conducted in the
+most imposing and solemn manner. On the following morning at
+daybreak the games and contests began. These consisted of races--in
+chariots, on horseback, and on foot,--the runners being in the
+latter case sometimes dressed lightly, and sometimes loaded with
+heavy armor;--of matches in leaping, wrestling, boxing, and throwing
+the discus;--and finally, of musical and poetical performances of
+various kinds. To obtain the prize in any of these contests was
+considered throughout the whole Grecian world as an honor of the
+highest degree.
+
+The period for the celebration of these games began to draw nigh, as
+it happened, not long after the time when the deputations from
+Greece came to Nero with the compliments and crowns decreed to him
+in token of their admiration of his public performances at
+Rome,--and it is not at all surprising that his attention and
+interest were strongly awakened by the approach of so renowned a
+festival. In short he resolved to go to Greece, and display his
+powers before the immense and distinguished audiences that were to
+assemble on the Olympic plains.
+
+He accordingly organized a very large retinue of attendants and
+followers, and prepared to set out on his journey. This retinue was
+in numbers quite an army; but in character it was a mere troop of
+actors, musicians and buffoons. It was made up almost wholly of
+people connected in various ways with the stage, so that the baggage
+which followed in its train, instead of being formed of arms and
+munitions of war, as was usual when a great Roman commander had
+occasion to pass out of Italy, consisted of harps, fiddles, masks,
+buskins, and such other stage property as was in use in those
+times,--while the company itself was formed almost entirely of
+comedians, singers, dancers, and wrestlers, with an immense retinue
+of gay and dissipated men and women, who exemplified every possible
+stage of moral debasement and degradation. With this company Nero
+crossed to the eastern shore of Italy, and there, embarking on board
+the vessels which had been prepared for the voyage, he sailed over
+the Adriatic sea to the shores of Greece.
+
+He landed at Cassiope, a town in the northern part of the island of
+Corcyra. Here there was a temple to Jupiter, and the first of Nero's
+exploits was to go there and sing, being impatient, it would seem,
+to give the people of Greece a specimen of his powers immediately on
+landing. After this he passed over to the continent, and thence
+advanced into the heart of Greece, playing, singing, and acting in
+all the cities through which he passed. As there were yet some
+months to elapse before the period for celebrating the Olympic
+games, Nero had ample time for making this tour. He was of course
+everywhere received with the most unbounded applause, for of course
+those only, in general, who were most pleased with such amusements,
+and were most inclined to approve of Nero's exhibiting himself as a
+performer, came together in the assemblies which convened to hear
+him. Thus it happened that the virtuous, the cultivated, and the
+refined, remained at their homes; while all the idle, reckless,
+and dissolute spirits of the land flocked in crowds to the
+entertainments which their imperial visitor offered them. These men,
+of course, considered it quite a triumph for them that so
+distinguished a potentate should take an active part in ministering
+to their pleasures; and thus wherever Nero went he was sure to be
+attended by crowds, and his performances, whether skillful or not,
+could not fail of being extravagantly extolled in conversation, and
+of eliciting in the theaters thunders of applause. The consequence
+was that Nero was delighted with the enthusiasm which his
+performances seemed everywhere to awaken. To be thus received and
+thus applauded in the cities of Greece, seemed to satisfy his
+highest ambition.
+
+It has always been considered a very extraordinary proof of mental
+and moral degradation on the part of Nero, that he could thus
+descend from the exalted sphere of responsibility and duty to which
+his high official station properly consigned him, in order to mingle
+in such scenes and engage in such contests as were exhibited in the
+ordinary theaters and circuses in Greece. It is however not so
+surprising that he should have been willing to appear as a
+competitor at the Olympic games: so prominent were these games above
+all the other athletic and military celebrations of that age, and so
+great was the value attached to the honor of a victory obtained in
+them. There was, it is true, no value in the prize itself, that was
+bestowed upon the victors. There was no silver cup, or golden crown,
+or sum of money staked upon the issue. The only direct award was a
+crown of olive leaves, which, at the close of the contest, was
+placed upon the head of the victor. Everything pertaining to this
+crown was connected with the most imposing and peculiar ceremonies.
+The leaves from which the garland was made were obtained from a
+certain sacred olive-tree, which grew in a consecrated grove in
+Olympia. The tree itself had been originally brought, it was said,
+from the country of the Hyperboreans, by Hercules, and planted in
+Olympia, where it was sacredly preserved to furnish garlands for the
+victors in the games. The leaves were cut from the tree by a boy
+chosen for the purpose. He gathered the leaves by means of a golden
+sickle, which was set apart expressly to this use. When the time
+arrived for the crowning of the victor, the candidate was brought
+forward in presence of a vast concourse of spectators, and placed
+upon a tripod, which was originally formed of bronze, but in
+subsequent ages was wrought in ivory and gold. Branches of
+palm-trees, the usual symbols of victory, were placed in his hands.
+His name and that of his father and of the country whence he came,
+were proclaimed with great ceremony by the heralds. The crown was
+then placed upon his head, and the festival ended with processions
+and sacrifices and a public banquet given in honor of the occasion.
+On his return to his own country, the victor entered the capital by
+a triumphal procession, and was usually rewarded there by immunities
+and privileges of the most important character.
+
+At length the time arrived for the celebration of the Olympic games,
+and Nero repaired to the spot, following the vast throngs that were
+proceeding thither from every part of Greece, and there entered into
+competition with all the common singers and players of the time. The
+prize for excellence in music was awarded to him. It was, however,
+generally understood that the judges were bribed to decide in his
+favor. Nero entered as a competitor, too, in the chariot race; and
+here he was successful in winning the prize; though in this case it
+was decreed to him in plain and open violation of all rule. He
+undertook to drive ten horses in this race; but he found the team
+too much for him to control. The horses became unmanageable; Nero
+was thrown out of his carriage and was so much hurt that he could
+not finish the race at all. He, however, insisted that accidents and
+casualties were not to be taken into the account, and that inasmuch
+as he should certainly have outran his competitors if he had not
+been prevented by misfortune, he claimed that the judges should
+award him the prize. Greatly to his delight the judges did so. It is
+true they were bound by the most solemn oaths to make just and true
+decisions; but it has been seldom found in the history of the world
+that official oaths constitute any serious barrier against the
+demands or encroachments of emperors or kings.
+
+When the games were ended Nero conferred very rich rewards upon all
+the judges.
+
+These successes at the Olympic games, nominal and empty as they
+really were, seemed to have inflamed the emperor's vanity and
+ambition more than ever. Instead of returning to Rome he commenced
+another tour through the heart of Greece, singing and playing in all
+the cities where he went, and challenging all the most distinguished
+actors and performers to meet him and contend with him for prizes.
+
+Of course the prizes were always awarded to Nero on this tour, as
+they had been at the Olympic games. Nero sent home regular
+despatches after each of his performances, to inform the Roman
+Senate of his victories, just as former emperors had been accustomed
+to send military bulletins to announce the progress of their armies,
+and the conquests which they had gained in battle; and with a degree
+of vanity and folly which seems almost incredible, he called upon
+the Senate to institute religious celebrations and sacrifices in
+Rome, and great public processions, in order to signalize and
+commemorate these great successes, and to express the gratitude of
+the people to the gods for having vouchsafed them. Not satisfied
+with expecting this parade of public rejoicing in Rome, he called
+upon the Senate to ordain that similar services should be held in
+all the cities and towns throughout the empire.
+
+During the visit of Nero to Greece, he engaged in one undertaking
+which might be denominated a useful enterprise, though he managed it
+with such characteristic imbecility and folly, that it ended, as
+might have been foreseen, in a miserable failure. The plan which he
+conceived, was to cut through the Isthmus of Corinth, so as to open
+a ship communication between the Ionian and the AEgean seas. Such a
+canal, he thought, would save for many vessels the long and
+dangerous voyage around the Peloponnesus, and thus prevent many of
+the wrecks which then annually took place on the shores of the
+Peninsula, and which were often attended with the destruction of
+much property and of many lives.
+
+The plan might thus have been a very good one, had any proper and
+efficient means been adopted for carrying it into execution; but in
+all that he did in this respect, Nero seems to have looked no
+farther than to the performance of pompous and empty ceremonies in
+commencing the work. He convened a great public assembly on the
+ground. He entertained this assembly with spectacles and shows. He
+then placed himself at the head of his life-guards, and, after a
+speech of great promise and pretension, he advanced at the head of a
+procession, singing and dancing by the way, to the place where the
+first ground was to be broken. Here he made three strokes with a
+golden pick-axe, which had been provided for the occasion, and
+putting the earth which he had loosened into a basket, he carried it
+away to a short distance, and threw it out upon the ground. This
+ceremony was meant for the commencement of the canal; and when it
+was over, the company dispersed, and Nero was escorted by his guards
+back to the city of Corinth, which lay at a few miles' distance from
+the scene.
+
+Nothing more was ever done. Nero issued orders, it is true, that all
+the criminals, convicts, and prisoners in Greece, should be
+transported to the Isthmus, and set to work upon this canal; and
+some Jewish captives were actually employed there for a time; but,
+for some reason or other, nothing was done. The actual work was
+never seriously undertaken.
+
+In the mean time, Nero had left the government at Rome in the hands
+of a certain ignoble favorite, named Helius, who, being placed in
+command of the army during his master's absence, held the lives and
+fortunes of all the inhabitants at his supreme disposal, and, as
+might have been expected, he pursued such a career of cruelty and
+oppression, in his attempts to overawe and subject those who were
+under his power, that a universal feeling of hostility and hatred
+was awakened against him. Things at last assumed so alarming an
+attitude, that Helius was terrified in his turn, and at length he
+began to send for Nero to come home. Nero at first paid no attention
+to these requests. The danger, however, increased; the crisis became
+extremely imminent, so that a general insurrection was anticipated.
+Helius sent messengers after messengers to Nero, imploring him to
+return, if he wished to save himself from ruin;--but all the answer
+that he could obtain from Nero was, that, if Helius truly loved him,
+he would not envy him the glory that he was acquiring in Greece;
+but, instead of hastening his return, would rather wish that he
+should come back worthy of himself, after having fully accomplished
+his victories. At last Helius, growing desperate in view of the
+impending danger, left Rome, and, traveling with all possible
+dispatch, night and day, came to Nero in Greece, and there made such
+statements and disclosures in respect to the condition of things at
+Rome, that Nero at length reluctantly concluded to return.
+
+He accordingly set out in grand state on his journey westward,
+escorted by his body-guard, and with his motley and innumerable
+horde of singers, dancers, poets, actors, and mountebanks in his
+train. He brought with him the prizes which he had won in the
+various cities of Greece. The number of these prizes, it was said,
+was more than eighteen hundred. On his way through Greece, when
+about to return to Rome, he went to Delphi, to consult the sacred
+oracle there, in respect to his future fortunes. The reply of the
+Pythoness was, "_Beware of seventy-three._" This answer gave Nero
+great satisfaction and pleasure. It meant, he had no doubt, that he
+had no danger to fear until he should have attained to the age of
+seventy-three; and as he was yet not quite thirty, the response of
+the oracle seemed to put so far away the evil day, that he thought
+he might dismiss it from his mind altogether. So he repaid the
+oracle for the flattering prediction with most magnificent presents,
+and pursued his journey toward Rome with a mind quite at ease.
+
+The ships in which he embarked to cross the Adriatic on his return
+to Italy encountered a terrible storm, by which they were dispersed,
+and many of them were destroyed. Nero himself had a very narrow
+escape, as the ship which he was in came very near being lost. To
+see him in this danger seems greatly to have pleased some of his
+attendants, for so imperious and cruel was his temper, that he was
+generally hated by all who came under his power. These men hated him
+so intensely that they were willing, as it would appear, to perish
+themselves, for the pleasure of witnessing his destruction; and in
+the extreme moments of danger they openly manifested this feeling.
+The vessel, however, was saved, and Nero, as soon as he landed,
+ordered these persons all to be slain.
+
+On landing he gathered together the scattered remnants of his
+company, and organizing a new escort, he advanced toward Rome, in a
+grand triumphal march, displaying his prizes and crowns in all the
+great cities through which he passed, and claiming universal homage.
+When he arrived at the gates of Rome, he made preparations for a
+grand triumphal entry to the city, in the manner of great military
+conquerors. A breach was made in the walls for the admission of the
+procession. Nero rode in the triumphal chariot of Augustus, with a
+distinguished Greek harpist by his side, who wore an Olympic crown
+upon his head, and carried another crown in his hand. Before this
+chariot marched a company of eighteen hundred men, each of them
+carrying one of the crowns which Nero had won, with an inscription
+for the spectators to read, signifying where the crown had been won,
+the name of the emperor's competitor, the title of the song which he
+had sung, and other similar particulars. In this way he traversed
+the principal streets, exhibiting himself and his trophies to the
+populace, and finally when he arrived at his house, he entered it
+with great pomp and parade, and caused the crowns to be hung up upon
+the innumerable statues of himself which had been erected in the
+courts and halls of the building. Those which he valued most highly
+he placed conspicuously around his bed in his bedchamber, in order
+that they might be the last objects for his eyes to rest upon at
+night, and the first to greet his view in the morning.
+
+As soon as he became established in Rome again, he began to form new
+plans for developing his powers and capacities as a musician, in the
+hope of gaining still higher triumphs than those to which he had
+already attained. Far from giving his time and attention to the
+public business of the empire, he devoted himself with new zeal and
+enthusiasm to the cultivation of his art. In doing this it was
+necessary, according to the customs and usages in respect to the
+training of musicians that prevailed in those days, that he should
+submit to rules and exercises most absurd and degrading to one
+holding such a station as his; and as accounts of his mode of life
+circulated among the community, he became an object of general
+ridicule and contempt. In order to strengthen his lungs and improve
+his voice he used to lie on his back with a plate of lead upon his
+chest, that the lungs, working under such a burden, might acquire
+strength by the effort. He took powerful medicines, such as were
+supposed in those days to act upon the system in such a manner as to
+produce clearness and resonance in the tones of the voice. He
+subjected himself to the most rigid rules of diet,--and gave up the
+practice of addressing the senate and the army, which the Roman
+emperors often had occasion to do, for fear that speaking so loud
+might strain his voice and injure the sweetness of its tones. He had
+a special officer in his household, called his _Phonascus_, meaning
+his voice-keeper. This officer was to watch him at all times,
+caution him against speaking too loud or too fast,--prescribe for
+him, and in every way take care that his voice received no
+detriment. During all this time Nero was continually performing in
+public, and though his performances were protracted and tedious to
+the last degree, all the Roman nobility were compelled always to
+attend them, under pain of his horrible displeasure.
+
+As Nero went on thus in the career which he had chosen,--neglecting
+altogether the affairs of government, and giving himself up more and
+more every year to the most expensive dissipation, his finances
+became at length greatly involved, and he was compelled to resort to
+every possible form of extortion, in order to raise the money that
+he required. His pecuniary embarrassments became, at length, very
+perplexing, and they were finally very much increased by the
+extraordinary folly which he displayed in giving credence to the
+dreams and promises of a certain adventurer who came to him from
+Africa. The name of this man was Bessus. He was a native of
+Carthage. He came, at one time, to Rome, and having contrived, by
+means of presents and bribes which he offered to the officers of
+Nero's household, to obtain an audience of the emperor, he informed
+him that he had intelligence of the highest importance to
+communicate, which was, that on his estate in Africa, there was a
+large cavern, in which was stored an immense treasure. This treasure
+consisted, he said, of vast heaps of golden ingots, rude and
+shapeless in form, but composed of pure and precious metal. The
+cavern, he said, which contained these stores, was very spacious,
+and the gold lay piled in it in heaps, and sometimes in solid
+columns, towering to a prodigious height. These treasures had been
+deposited there, he said, by Dido, the ancient Carthaginian queen,
+and they had remained there so long, that all knowledge of them had
+been lost. They had been reserved, in a word, for Nero, and were all
+now at his disposal, ready to be brought out and employed in
+promoting the glory and magnificence of his reign.
+
+Nero readily gave credit to this story, and inasmuch as in the
+exuberance of his exultation he made known this wonderful discovery
+to those around him, the tidings of it soon spread throughout the
+city, and produced the most intense excitement among all classes.
+Nero immediately began to fit out an expedition to proceed to
+Africa, and bring the treasure home. Galleys were equipped to convey
+it, and a body of troops was designated to escort it, and suitable
+officers appointed to proceed with Bessus to Carthage, and
+superintend the transportation of the metal. These preparations
+necessarily required some time, and during the interval Bessus was
+of course the object at Rome of universal attention and regard. Nero
+himself, finding that he was about to enter upon the possession of
+such inexhaustible treasures, dismissed all concern in respect to
+his finances, and launched out into wilder extravagance than ever.
+He raised money for the present moment, by assigning shares in the
+treasure at exorbitant rates of discount, and thus borrowed and
+expended with the most unbounded profusion.
+
+At length the expedition sailed for Carthage, taking Bessus with
+them,--but all search for the cavern, when they arrived, was
+unavailing. It proved that all the evidence which Bessus had of the
+existence of the cave, and of the heaps of gold contained in it, was
+derived from certain remarkable dreams which he had had,--and though
+Nero's commissioners dug into the ground most faithfully in every
+place on the estate which the dreams had indicated, no treasure, and
+not even the cavern, could ever be found.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+NERO'S END.
+
+A.D. 66.
+
+Galba.--His history.--His province.--Revolt of Vindex.--Embassadors
+sent to Galba.--Debates in the council.--Galba joins Vindex.--News of
+the rebellion meets Nero at Naples.--The proclamation of Vindex.--Nero's
+ire.--Nero plans new performances.--The new instruments.--Galba joins
+the insurrection.--Nero appalled.--His plans for vengeance.--He is
+restrained.--He attempts to raise an army.--Slaves.--Nero's hopeless
+condition.--His plans for escape.--The arrival of the cargoes of sand
+from Egypt.--His distraction and terror.--Nero proposes to fly to
+Egypt.--He sinks into hopeless despair.--The night.--He is deserted by
+his guards.--He calls for a gladiator.--Phaon proposes a place of
+retreat.--Nero's flight from the city.--Incidents.--He refuses to be
+buried before he is dead.--He gets through the wall.--He is
+concealed.--Phaon counsels Nero to kill himself.--Nero is condemned by
+the Senate.--The daggers.--Armed men come to arrest Nero at Phaon's
+home.--The soldiers attempt to save Nero.--He dies.--Galba's march to
+Rome.--Seventy-three.
+
+
+The successor of Nero in the line of Roman emperors, was Galba.
+Galba, though a son of one of the most illustrious Roman families,
+was born in Spain, and he was about forty years older than Nero,
+being now over seventy, while Nero was yet but thirty years of age.
+
+During the whole course of his life, Galba had been a very
+distinguished commander, and had risen from one post of influence
+and honor to another, until he became one of the most considerable
+personages in the state. Nero at length appointed him to the command
+of a very large and important province in Spain. At this station
+Galba remained some years, and he was here, attending regularly to
+the duties of his government, at the time when Nero returned from
+his expedition into Greece. Galba himself, and all the other
+governors around him, felt the same indignation at Nero's cruelties
+and crimes, and the same contempt for his low and degrading vanity
+and folly, that prevailed so generally at Rome. In fact, feelings of
+exasperation and hatred against the tyrant, began to extend
+universally throughout the empire. The people in every quarter, in
+fact, seemed ripe for insurrection.
+
+While things were in this state, a messenger arrived one day at
+Galba's court, from a certain chieftain of the Gauls, named Julius
+Vindex. This messenger came to announce to Galba that Vindex had
+revolted against the Roman government in Gaul. He declared, however,
+that it was only _Nero's_ power that Vindex intended to resist, and
+promised that if Galba would himself assume the supreme command,
+Vindex would acknowledge allegiance to him, and would do all in his
+power to promote his cause. He said, moreover, that such was the
+detestation in which Nero was universally held, that there was no
+doubt that the whole empire would sustain Galba in effecting such a
+revolution, if he would once raise his standard. At the same time
+that this messenger came from Vindex, another came from the Roman
+governor of the province of Gaul, where Vindex resided, to inform
+Galba of the revolt, and asking for a detachment of troops to
+assist him in putting it down. Galba called a council, and laid the
+subject before them.
+
+After some debate one of the councillors rose and said that there
+was no more danger in openly joining Vindex in his rebellion, than
+there was in debating, in such a council, what they should do. "It
+is just as treasonable," said he, "to doubt and hesitate whether to
+send troops to put down the revolt, as it would be openly to rebel;
+and Nero will so regard it. My counsel therefore is that, unless you
+choose to be considered as aiding the revolution, you should
+instantly send off troops to put it down."
+
+Galba was much impressed with the wisdom of this advice. He felt
+strongly inclined to favor the cause of Vindex and the rebels, and
+on further reflection he secretly determined to join them, and to
+take measures for raising a general insurrection. He did not,
+however, make known his determination to any one, but dismissed the
+council without declaring what he had concluded to do. Soon
+afterward he sent out to all parts of the province, and ordered a
+general mustering of the forces under his command, and of all that
+could be raised throughout the province, requiring them to meet at a
+certain appointed rendezvous. The army, though not openly informed
+of it, suspected what the object of this movement was to be, and
+came forward to the work, with the utmost alacrity and joy.
+
+In the mean time the tidings of Vindex's revolt traveled rapidly to
+Rome, and thence to Naples, where Nero was at this time performing
+on the public stage. Nero seemed to be very much delighted to hear
+the news. He supposed that the rebellion would of course be very
+easily suppressed, and that when it was suppressed he could make it
+an excuse for subjecting the province in which it had occurred to
+fines and confiscations that would greatly enrich his treasury. He
+was extremely pleased therefore at the tidings of the revolt, and
+abandoned himself to the theatrical pursuits and pleasures in which
+he was engaged, more absolutely and recklessly than ever.
+
+In the mean time fresh messengers arrived at short intervals from
+Rome, to inform Nero of the progress of the rebellion. The news was
+that Vindex was gaining strength every day, and was issuing
+proclamations to the people calling upon them everywhere to rise and
+throw off the ignoble yoke of oppression which they were enduring.
+In these proclamations the emperor was called Brazenbeard, and
+designated as a "wretched fiddler." These taunts excited Nero's ire.
+He wrote to the Senate at Rome calling upon them to adopt some
+measures for putting down this insolent rebel, and having dispatched
+this letter, he seemed to dismiss the subject from his mind, and
+turned his attention anew to his dancing and acting.
+
+His mind was, however, soon disturbed again, for fresh messengers
+continued to come, each bringing reports more alarming than those of
+his predecessor. The rebellion was evidently gaining ground. Nero
+was convinced that something must be done. He accordingly broke
+away, though with great reluctance, from his amusements at Naples,
+and proceeded to Rome. On his arrival at the capital he called a
+council of some of his principal ministers of state, and after a
+short consultation on the subject of the rebellion--in which,
+however, nothing was determined upon--he proceeded to produce some
+newly-invented musical instruments which he had brought with him
+from Naples, and in which he was greatly interested. After showing
+and explaining these instruments to the councilors, he promised them
+that he would give them the pleasure before long of hearing a
+performance upon them, on the stage,--"provided," he added jocosely,
+"that this Vindex will give me leave."
+
+The councilors at length withdrew, and Nero remained in his
+apartment. On retiring to rest, however, he found that he could not
+sleep. His thoughts were running on the musical instruments which he
+had been showing, and on the pleasure which he anticipated in a
+public performance with them. At length, at a very late hour, he
+sent for his councilors to come again to his apartment. They came,
+full of excitement and wonder, supposing that they were thus
+suddenly summoned on account of some new and very momentous tidings
+which had been received from Gaul. They found, however, that Nero
+only wished to give some further account of the instruments which he
+had shown them, and to ask their opinions of certain improvements
+which had occurred to him since they went away.
+
+Nero did not, however, remain very long in this state of insane and
+stupid unconcern; for on the evening of the following day a courier
+arrived from the north with the appalling intelligence that Vindex
+had made himself master of Gaul, and that Galba, the most powerful
+general in the Roman army, had joined the insurrection with all the
+legions under his command, and that he was now advancing toward Rome
+at the head of his armies with the avowed purpose of deposing Nero,
+and making himself emperor in his stead.
+
+Nero was at first absolutely stupefied at hearing these tidings. He
+remained for some time silent and motionless, as if made completely
+senseless with consternation. When at length he came to himself
+again, he fell into a perfect frenzy of rage and terror. He
+overturned the supper table, tore his garments, threw down two
+valuable cups to the floor and broke them to pieces, and then began
+to dash his head against the wall, as if he were perfectly insane.
+He said he was undone. No man had ever been so wretched. His
+dominions were to be seized from him while he yet lived, and held
+by an usurper; he was utterly ruined and undone.
+
+After a little time had elapsed the agitation and excitement of his
+mind took another direction, that of furious anger against the
+generals and officers of his army,--not only those who had actually
+rebelled, but all others, for he was jealous and suspicious of all,
+and said that he believed that the whole army was engaged in the
+conspiracy. He was going to send out orders to the various provinces
+and encampments, for the assassination of great numbers of the
+officers,--such as he imagined might be inclined to turn against
+him,--and he would probably have done so if he had not been
+restrained by the influence of his ministers of state. He also
+proposed to seize and kill all the Gauls then in Rome, as a mode of
+taking vengeance on their countrymen for joining Vindex in his
+rebellion, and could scarcely be prevented from doing this by the
+urgent remonstrances of all his friends.
+
+After a time Nero so far recovered his self-possession that he began
+to make preparations for organizing an army, with the design of
+marching against the rebels. He accordingly ordered troops to be
+enlisted and arms and ammunition to be provided,--assessing at the
+same time heavy taxes upon the people of Rome to defray the expense.
+All these arrangements, however, only increased the general
+discontent. The people saw that the preparations which the emperor
+was making were wholly inadequate to the crisis, and that no
+efficient military operations could ever come from them. In the
+first place, he could obtain no troops, for no men fit for soldiers
+were willing to enlist,--and so he undertook to supply the
+deficiency by requiring every master of slaves to send him a certain
+number of his bondmen, and these bondmen he freed and then enrolled
+them in his army, in lieu of soldiers. Moreover, in making provision
+for the wants of his army, instead of devoting his chief attention
+to securing a sufficiency of arms, ammunition, military stores, and
+other such supplies as were required in preparing for an efficient
+campaign, he seemed only interested in getting together actors,
+dancers, musical instruments, and dresses for performers on the
+public stage. In excuse for this course of procedure, Nero said
+frankly that he did not expect that his expedition would lead to
+any important military operations. As soon as he reached the rebel
+armies his intention was, he said, to throw himself upon their sense
+of justice and their loyalty. He would acknowledge whatever had been
+wrong in his past government, and promise solemnly that his sway in
+future should be more mild and beneficent; and he had no doubt that
+thus the whole disturbance would be quelled. The revolted troops
+would at once return to their duty, and the musical and theatrical
+preparations which he was making were intended for a series of grand
+festivities to celebrate the reconciliation.
+
+Of course such insane and hopeless folly as this awakened a
+sentiment of universal contempt and indignation among the people of
+Rome. The greatest excitement and confusion prevailed throughout the
+city; and, as is usual in times of public panic, money and
+provisions were hid away by those who possessed them, in secret
+hoards; and this soon occasioned a great scarcity of food. The
+city, in fact, was threatened with famine. In the midst of the
+alarm and anxiety which this state of things occasioned, two ships
+arrived from Egypt, at Ostia, and the news produced a general
+rejoicing,--it being supposed, of course, that the ships were laden
+with corn. It proved, however, that there was no corn on board.
+Instead of food for the metropolis, the cargo consisted of _sand_,
+intended to form the _arena_ of some of the emperor's amphitheaters,
+for the gladiators and wrestlers to stand upon, in contending. This
+incident seemed to fill the cup of public indignation to the brim;
+and, as news arrived just at this time that the rebellion had
+extended into Germany, and that all the legions in the German
+provinces had gone over to Galba, Nero's power began to be
+considered at an end. Tumults prevailed everywhere throughout the
+city, and assemblies were held, threatening open defiance to the
+authority of the emperor, and declaring the readiness of the people
+to acknowledge Galba so soon as he should arrive.
+
+Nero was now more terrified than ever. He knew not what to do. He
+fled from his palace, and sought a retreat in certain gardens
+near--acting in this, however, under the influence of a blind and
+instinctive fear, rather than from any rational hope of securing his
+safety by seeking such a place of refuge.
+
+In fact, he was now perfectly distracted with terror. He procured
+some poison before he left his palace, and carried it in a small
+golden box with him to the gardens; but he had not strength or
+resolution to take it. He then conceived of the plan of flying from
+Rome altogether. He would go at once to Ostia, he said, and there
+embark on board a ship and sail for Egypt, where, it might be
+supposed, he would be out of the reach of his enemies. He asked his
+officers and attendants if they would accompany him in this flight.
+But they refused to go.
+
+Then he began to talk of another plan. He would go and meet Galba as
+a suppliant, and, falling upon his knees before the conqueror, would
+implore him to spare his life. Or he would go into the Roman Forum,
+and make a humble and supplicatory address to the people there,
+imploring their forgiveness for his cruelties and crimes, and
+solemnly promising never to be guilty of such excesses again, if
+they would pardon and protect him. The by-standers told him that
+such a proceeding was wholly out of the question; for if he were to
+go forth for such a purpose from his retreat, the people were in
+such a frenzy of excitement against him, that they would tear him
+to pieces before he could reach the Rostra. In a word, the
+distracted thoughts of the wretched criminal turned this way and
+that, in the wild agitation with which remorse and terror filled his
+mind, vainly seeking some way of escape from the awful dangers which
+were circling and narrowing so rapidly around him. There was, in
+fact, no hope now left for him--no refuge, no protection, no
+possibility of escape; and so, after suddenly seizing, and as
+suddenly abandoning, one impracticable scheme after another, his
+mind became wholly bewildered, and he sank down, at length, into a
+condition of blank and hopeless despair.
+
+Although the insurrection had become very general in the provinces,
+the troops in the city, consisting chiefly of the emperor's guards,
+yet remained faithful; and now as the night was coming on, they were
+stationed as usual at their respective posts in various parts of the
+city and at the palace gates. Nero retired to rest. He found,
+however, that he could not sleep. At midnight he rose, and came
+forth from his apartment. He was surprised to find that there was no
+sentinel at the door. On farther examination he found to his
+amazement that the palace guards had been wholly withdrawn. He was
+thunderstruck at making this discovery. He returned into the palace
+and aroused some of the domestics, and then went forth with them to
+the residences of some of his chief ministers, who resided near, to
+ask for help. He could, however, nowhere gain admission. He found
+the houses all closely shut up, and by all his knocking at the doors
+he could get no answer from any persons within. He then came back in
+great distress and alarm to his own apartment. He found that it had
+been broken into during the short time that he had been gone, and
+rifled of every thing valuable that it contained. Even his golden
+box of poison had been carried away. In a word the great sovereign
+of half the world found that he had been abandoned by all his
+adherents, and left in a condition of utter and absolute exposure.
+The guards had concluded to declare for Galba, and had accordingly
+gone away, leaving the fallen tyrant to his fate.
+
+Nero called desperately to his servants to send for a gladiator to
+thrust him through with a sword, but no one would go. "Alas!" he
+exclaimed, "has it come to this? Am I so utterly abandoned that I
+have not even enemies left who are willing to kill me?"
+
+After a little time he began to be a little more composed, and
+expressed a wish that he knew of some place in the environs of the
+city where he could go and conceal himself for a little time until
+he could determine what to do. One of the servants of his household
+named Phaon, told him that he had a country-house near the city,
+where, perhaps, Nero might hide. Nero immediately resolved to go
+there. The better to conceal his flight he disguised himself in mean
+apparel, and tied a handkerchief about his face; and then, mounting
+on horseback in company with two or three attendants, he proceeded
+out of the city. As he went, it thundered and lightened from time to
+time, and Nero was greatly terrified. He supposed that the commotion
+of the elements was occasioned by the spirits of those whom he had
+murdered coming now to persecute and torment him in the hour of his
+extremity.
+
+He passed, during his ride, a station of the guard which happened to
+be on his way, and heard the soldiers cursing him as he went by,
+and expressing joy at his downfall. Soon after this he overheard a
+passenger whom his party met on the road, say to his companion, when
+he saw Nero and his attendants riding by, "These men no doubt are
+going in pursuit of the emperor." Another man whom they met on the
+way stopped them to ask what news there was in town about the
+emperor. In these occurrences, though they of course tended to
+increase the agitation and excitement of Nero's mind, there was
+nothing particularly alarming; but at length an incident happened
+which frightened the fugitive extremely. He was passing a place
+where a carcass lay by the side of the road. Some soldiers of the
+guard were standing near. The horse that Nero rode was startled at
+the sight of the carcass, and springing suddenly shook down the
+handkerchief from Nero's face. One of the soldiers by this means
+obtained a view of his countenance, and exclaimed that that was the
+emperor. Nero was so much alarmed at this that he hastened on, and
+as soon as he was out of the view of the men who had seen him, he
+leaped from his horse, and calling upon his attendants to dismount
+too and follow him, he ran into an adjoining thicket, among bushes
+and briers, and thence the whole party made their way circuitously
+round to the rear of Phaon's grounds. Here they stopped and hid
+themselves till they could contrive some way to get through or over
+the wall.
+
+There was a pit near by, which had been made by digging for sand.
+Phaon proposed that Nero should hide in this pit until an opening
+could be made in the wall. But Nero refused to do this, saying that
+he would not be buried before he was dead. So he remained hid in the
+thickets while Phaon went to work to make an opening in the wall.
+
+The wall was not of a very substantial character; if it had been, it
+would not have been possible for Phaon, with the means at his
+command, to have effected a passage. As it was, he succeeded, though
+with difficulty, in loosening some of the stones, so as gradually to
+make an opening.
+
+Nero was engaged, while this work was going on, in pulling the
+briers out of his clothes and flesh, and being thirsty, he went down
+to a ditch that was near, and drank, taking up the water in his
+hands. As he drank, he groaned out, "Oh, can it be that I have come
+to this!"
+
+[Illustration: PHAON AT THE WALL.]
+
+In the mean time, Phaon went on with his work, and soon succeeded in
+making a hole in the wall sufficient for his purpose, and then the
+men dragged Nero through. They brought him into the house, and shut
+him up in a small and secret apartment there.
+
+Nero now felt relieved from the extreme terror which he had suffered
+during his flight; but the feelings of terror subsided in his mind,
+only to give place to the still more dreadful pangs of remorse and
+horror. He moaned continually in his anguish, and incessantly
+repeated the words, "My father, my mother, and my wife doom me to
+destruction." These were indeed the words of one of the tragedies
+which he had been accustomed to act upon the stage, but they
+expressed the remorse and anguish of his mind so truly, that they
+recurred continually to his lips. Phaon and the men who had brought
+him to the house, finding it impossible to calm him, and seeing no
+hope of his final escape from death, and perhaps, moreover, wishing
+to relieve themselves of what was now fast becoming a serious
+burthen to them, recommended to him to kill himself,--and thus, as
+they said, since he must die, die like a man. Finally, Nero seemed
+to yield to their urgings. He said that he would kill himself as
+they desired. They might go out and dig a grave for him, and prepare
+wood and water for washing the body. While giving these orders he
+moaned and groaned continually, as if in a state of delirium.
+
+In the mean time the morning had come, and at Rome all was
+excitement and commotion. The Senate came together and proclaimed
+Galba emperor. They also passed a decree pronouncing Nero an enemy
+to the state, and sentencing him to be punished as such in the
+ancient manner. When this news transpired, a friend of Phaon wrote a
+letter to him, giving an account of what the Senate had done, and
+sent it off with the utmost haste by a trusty messenger. The
+messenger arrived at Phaon's house, and brought the letter in. Nero
+seized it from Phaon's hands, and read it. "What is the ancient
+manner?" he asked, in a tone of great anxiety and terror. They told
+him that it was to be stripped naked, and then to be secured by
+having his head fastened in a pillory, and in that position to be
+whipped to death. At hearing this, Nero broke forth in fresh groans
+and lamentations. He could not endure such a death as that, he said,
+and he would kill himself, therefore, at once, if they would give
+him a dagger.
+
+There were daggers at hand. Nero took them, examined the points of
+them with a trembling touch, seemed undecided, and finally put them
+away again, saying that his hour was not yet quite come. Presently
+he took one of the daggers again, and made a new attempt to awaken
+in himself sufficient resolution to strike the blow, but his courage
+failed him. He moaned and raved all this time in the most incoherent
+and distracted manner. He even begged that one of the attendants who
+were with him would take the dagger and kill himself first, in order
+to encourage Nero by letting him see that it was not after all so
+dreadful a thing to die. But no one of the attendants seemed
+sufficiently devoted to his master to be willing to render him such
+a service as this.
+
+In the midst of this perplexity and delay a noise was heard as of
+horsemen riding up to the door. Nero was terrified anew at the
+sound. They were coming, he said, to seize him. He immediately drew
+one of the daggers, and putting it to his throat, attempted
+desperately to nerve himself to the work of driving it home. But he
+could not do it. The noise at the door in the mean time increased.
+Nero then gave the dagger to one of the men standing by, and begged
+that he would kill him. The man took the dagger with great
+reluctance, but presently gave the fatal stab, and Nero sank down
+upon the ground mortally wounded.
+
+At this moment the door was suddenly opened, and the soldiers that
+had just arrived came in. They had been sent by the Senate to search
+for the fugitive and bring him back to Rome. The centurion who
+commanded these men, advanced into the room, and looked at the
+fallen emperor, as he lay upon the floor, weltering in his blood. He
+had been commanded to bring the prisoner to the city, if possible,
+alive; and he accordingly ordered the soldiers to come to the dying
+man and endeavor to stanch his wounds and save him. But it was too
+late. Nero stared at them as they advanced to take hold of him, with
+a wild and frightful expression of countenance, which shocked all
+who saw him, and in the midst of this agony of terror, he sank down
+and died.
+
+The news of the tyrant's death spread with the utmost rapidity in
+all directions. A courier immediately set off for the north to carry
+tidings of the event to Galba. People flocked from all quarters to
+the house of Phaon to gaze on the lifeless body, and to exult in the
+monster's death. The people of the city gave themselves up to the
+wildest and most extravagant joy. They put on caps such as were worn
+by manumitted slaves when first obtaining their freedom, and roamed
+about the city expressing in every possible way the exultation they
+felt at their deliverance, and breaking down and destroying the
+statues of Nero wherever they could find them.
+
+In the mean time Galba was steadily advancing on the way to Rome. In
+due time he made his entry into the city, and embassadors came to
+him there from all parts of the Roman world to acknowledge him as
+the reigning emperor. At this time he was seventy-three years old.
+So that the number seventy-three of which the oracle had warned Nero
+to beware, denoted the age of his rival and enemy,--not his own.
+
+                         THE END.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
+
+1. Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters errors, and to
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