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 presentwork pertains, it has been the object of the author to furnish tothe reading community of this country an accurate and faithfulaccount of the lives and actions of the several personages that aremade successively the subjects of the volumes, following preciselythe story which has come down to us from ancient times. The writerhas spared no pains to gain access in all cases to the originalsources of information, and has confined himself strictly to them. The reader may, therefore, feel assured in perusing any one of theseworks, that the interest of it is in no degree indebted to theinvention of the author. No incident, however trivial, is ever addedto the original account, nor are any words even, in any case, attributed to a speaker without express authority. Whatever ofinterest, therefore, these stories may possess, is due solely to thefacts themselves which are recorded in them, and to their beingbrought 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

 CÆSONIA 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 ofAntium. --Account of Nero's parentage. --Brazenbeard. --Nero'sfather. --Agrippina his mother. --Agrippina's brother Caligula. --Romanemperors. --Regulations in respect to the Roman armies. --Descriptionof the Roman armies. --Encampments of the legions. --Theirstations. --Useful functions of the Roman armies. --Effectsproduced. --Mode of producing them. --The civil authorities. --Theprogress of the military power. --Disposition of men to submit toestablished power. --Great capacity of the early emperors. --Romanarmies. --Character of Caligula. --His desperate malignity. --Examplesof his cruelty. --Feeding wild beasts with men. --Branding. --Agrippinais implicated in a conspiracy. --She is banished with her sister toPontia. 

In ancient times, when the city of Rome was at the height of itspower and splendor, it was the custom, as it is in fact now with theinhabitants of wealthy capitals, for the principal families topossess, in addition to their city residences, rural villas forsummer retreats, which they built in picturesque situations, at alittle distance from the city, sometimes in the interior of thecountry, and sometimes upon the sea-shore. There were manyattractive places of resort of this nature in the neighborhood ofRome. Among them was Antium. 

Antium was situated on the sea-coast about thirty miles south of theTiber. A bold promontory here projects into the sea, affording fromits declivities the most extended and magnificent views on everyside. On the north, looking from the promontory of Antium, the eyefollows 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, bythe promontory of Circe, which is the second cape, or promontory, that marks the shore of Italy in going southward from Rome. Towardthe interior, from Antium, there extends a broad and beautifulplain, bounded by wooded hills toward the shore, and by ranges ofmountains in the distance beyond. On the southern side of the cape, and sheltered by it, was a small harbor where vessels from all theneighboring seas had been accustomed to bring in their cargoes, orto seek shelter in storms, from time immemorial. In fact, Antium, inpoint of antiquity, takes precedence, probably, even of Rome. 

The beauty and the salubrity of Antium made it a very attractiveplace of summer resort for the people of Rome; and in process oftime, when the city attained to an advanced stage of opulence andluxury, the Roman noblemen built villas there, choosing situations, in some instances, upon the natural terraces and esplanades of thepromontory, which looked off over the sea, and in others cool andsecluded retreats in the valleys, on the land. It was in one ofthese villas that Nero was born. 

Nero's father belonged to a family which had enjoyed for severalgenerations a considerable degree of distinction among the Romannobility, though known by a somewhat whimsical name. The family namewas Brazenbeard, or, to speak more exactly, it was Ahenobarbus, which is the Latin equivalent for that word. It is a questionsomewhat difficult to decide, whether in speaking of Nero's fatherat the present time, and in the English tongue, we should make useof the actual Latin name, or translate the word and employ theEnglish representative of it; that is, whether we shall call himAhenobarbus or Brazenbeard. The former seems to be more in harmonywith our ideas of the dignity of Roman history; while the latter, though less elegant, conveys probably to our minds a more exact ideaof the import and expression of the name as it sounded in the earsof the Roman community. The name certainly was not an attractiveone, though the family had contrived to dignify it some degree byassigning to it a preternatural origin. There was a tradition thatin ancient times a prophet appeared to one of the ancestors of theline, and after foretelling certain extraordinary events which wereto occur at some future period, stroked down the beard of hisauditor with his hand, and changed it to the color of brass, inmiraculous attestation of the divine authority of the message. Theman received the name of Brazenbeard in consequence, and he and hisdescendants 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 otherprominent Roman families, extremely profligate and corrupt. Nero'sfather, especially, was a very bad man. He was accused of the veryworst 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 issaid that when the messenger came to him to announce the birth ofhis child, the hero of this narrative, he uttered some exclamationof ill-humor and contempt, and said that whatever came from him andAgrippina could not but be fraught with ruin to Rome. 

The rank and station of Agrippina in Roman society was even higherthan that of her husband. She was the sister of the emperor. Thename of the emperor, her brother, was Caligula. He was the third inthe series of Roman emperors, Augustus Cæsar, the successor ofJulius Cæsar, having been the first. The term emperor, however, hada very different meaning in those days, from its present import. Itseems to denote now a sovereign ruler, who exercises officially ageneral jurisdiction which extends over the whole government of thestate. 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 ofgeneral-in-chief over the military forces of the republic. 

In the early periods of the Roman history, every possible precautionwas taken to keep the military power in a condition of very strictsubordination to the authority of the civil magistrate and of law. Very stringent regulations were adopted to secure this end. Noportion of the army, except such small detachments as were requiredfor preserving order within the walls, was allowed to approach thecity. Great commanders, in returning from their victoriouscampaigns, were obliged to halt and encamp at some distance from thegates, and there await the orders of the Roman Senate. The _Senate_was, in theory, the great repository of political power. This Senatewas not, however, as the word might seem in modern times to denote, a well-defined and compact body of legislators, designatedindividually to the office, but rather a class of hereditary nobles, very numerous, and deriving their power from immemorial usage, andfrom that strange and unaccountable feeling of deference and awewith which the mass of mankind always look up to an established, andespecially an ancient, aristocracy. The Senate were accustomed toconvene at stated times, in assemblages which were, sometimes, conducted with a proper degree of formality and order, and sometimeson 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 allottedprovinces, they made peace, and they declared war. The armies, andthe generals who commanded them, were the _agents_ employed to dotheir bidding. 

The Roman armies consisted of vast bodies of men which, when not inactual service, were established in permanent encampments in variousparts of the empire, wherever it was deemed necessary that troopsshould be stationed. These great bodies of troops were thecelebrated Roman legions, and they were renowned throughout theworld for their discipline, their admirable organization, thecelerity of their movements, and for the indomitable courage andenergy of the men. Each legion constituted, in fact, a separate andindependent community. Its camp was its city. Its general was itsking. In time of war it moved, of course, from place to place, asthe exigencies of the service required; but in time of peace itestablished itself with great formality in a spacious and permanentencampment, which was laid out with great regularity, and fortifiedwith ramparts and fosses. Within the confines of the camp the tentswere arranged in rows, with broad spaces for streets between them;and in a central position, before a space which served the purposeof a public square, the rich and ornamented pavilions of thecommander and chief, and of the other generals, rose above the rest, like the public edifices of a city. The encampment of a Roman legionwas, in fact, an extended and populous city, only that the dwellingsconsisted of tents instead of being formed of solid and permanentstructures of wood or stone. 

[Illustration: ENCAMPMENT OF A ROMAN LEGION. ]

Roman legions were encamped in this way in various places throughoutthe empire, wherever the Senate thought proper to station them. There were some in Syria and the East; some in Italy; some on thebanks of the Rhine; and it was through the instrumentality of thevast force thus organized, that the Romans held the whole Europeanworld under their sway. The troops were satisfied to yieldsubmission to the orders of their commanders, since they receivedthrough them in return, an abundant supply of food and clothing, andlived, ordinarily, lives of ease and indulgence. In consideration ofthis, they were willing to march from place to place wherever theywere ordered, and to fight any enemy when brought into the field. The commanders obtained food and clothing for them by means of thetribute which they exacted from conquered provinces, and from theplunder of sacked cities, in times of actual war. These armies werenaturally interested in preserving order and maintaining in generalthe authority of law, throughout the communities which theycontrolled; for without law and order the industrial pursuits of mencould not go on, and of course they were well aware that if in anycountry production were to cease, tribute must soon cease too. Inreading history we find, indeed, it must be confessed, that afearful proportion of the narrative which describes the achievementsof ancient armies, is occupied with detailing deeds of violence, rapine, and crime; but we must not infer from this that theinfluence of these vast organizations was wholly evil. Such extendedand heterogeneous masses of population as those which were spreadover Europe and Asia, in the days of the Romans, could be keptsubject to the necessary restraints of social order only by somevery powerful instrumentality. The legions organized by the RomanSenate, and stationed here and there throughout the extendedterritory, constituted this instrumentality. But still, during farthe greater portion of the time the power which a legion wielded waspower in repose. It accomplished its end by its simple presence, andby the sentiment of awe which its presence inspired; and the nationsand tribes within the circle of its influence lived in peace, andpursued their industrial occupations without molestation, protectedby 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; butcontaining, as they well knew, the latent elements of thunder, whichmight at any time burst upon their heads. Thus, in its ordinaryoperation, its influence was good. Occasionally and incidentallyperiods of commotion would occur, when its action was violent, cruel, and mercilessly evil. Unfortunately, however, for the creditof the system in the opinion of mankind in subsequent ages, therewas in the good which it effected nothing to narrate; while everydeed of violence and crime which was perpetrated by its agency, furnished materials for an entertaining and exciting story. Thegood which was accomplished extended perhaps through a long, butmonotonous period of quiescence and repose. The evil was brief, butwas attended with a rapid succession of events, and varied byinnumerable incidents; so that the historian was accustomed to passlightly over the one, with a few indifferent words of colddescription, while he employed all the force of his genius inamplifying and adorning the narratives which commemorated the other. Thus, violent and oppressive as the military rulers were, by whom inancient times the world was governed, they were less essentially andcontinuously violent and oppressive than the general tenor ofhistory makes them seem; and their crimes were, in some degree atleast, compensated for and redeemed, by the really useful functionwhich they generally fulfilled, of restraining and repressing alldisorder and violence except their own. 

The Roman legions, in particular, were for many centuries kept intolerable subjection to the civil authorities of the capitol; butthey were growing stronger and stronger all the time, and becomingmore and more conscious of their strength. Every new commander whoacquired renown by his victories, added greatly to the importanceand influence of the army in its political relations. The greatJulius Cæsar, in the course of his foreign conquests, and of hisprotracted and terrible wars with Pompey, and with his other rivals, made enormous strides in this direction. Every time that he returnedto Rome at the head of his victorious legions, he overawed thecapitol more and more. Octavius Cæsar, the successor of Julius, known generally in history by the name of Augustus, completed whathis uncle had begun. He made the military authority, though stillnominally and in form subordinate, in reality paramount and supreme. The Senate, indeed, continued to assemble, and to exercise its usualfunctions. Consuls and other civil magistrates were chosen, andinvested with the insignia of supreme command; and the customaryforms and usages of civil administration, in which the subordinationof the military to the civil power was fully recognized, were allcontinued. Still, the actual authority of the civil government waswholly overawed and overpowered; and the haughty _imperator_dictated to the Senate, and directed the administration, just as hepleased. 

It required great genius in the commanders to bring up the army tothis position of ascendency and power; but once up, it sustaineditself there, without the necessity of ability of any kind, or ofany lofty qualities whatever, in those subsequently placed at thehead. In fact, the reader of history has often occasion to beperfectly amazed at the lengths to which human endurance will go, when a governmental power of any kind is once established, intolerating imbecility and folly in the individual representatives ofit. It seems to be immaterial whether the dominant power assumes theform of a dynasty of kings, a class of hereditary nobles, or a lineof military generals. It requires genius and statesmanship toinstate it, but, once instated, no degree of stupidity, folly orcrime in those who wield it, seems sufficient to exhaust the spiritof submission with which man always bows to established power--aspirit of submission which is so universal, and so patient andenduring, and which so transcends all the bounds of expediency andof reason, as to seem like a blind instinct implanted in the verysoul of man by the Author of his being--a constituent and essentialpart of his nature as a gregarious animal. In fact, without somesuch instinct, it would seem impossible that those extendedcommunities could be formed and sustained, without which man, if hecould exist at all, could certainly never fully develop hiscapacities and powers. 

However this may be in theory, it is certain in fact, that the workof bringing up the military power of ancient Rome to its conditionof supremacy over all the civil functions of government, was thework of men of the most exalted capacities and powers. Marius andSylla, Pompey and Cæsar, Antony and Augustus, evinced, in all theirdeeds, a high degree of sagacity, energy, and greatness of soul. Mankind, though they may condemn their vices and crimes, will nevercease to admire the grandeur of their ambition, and themagnificence, comprehensiveness, and efficiency of their plans ofaction. The whole known world was the theater of their contests, andthe armies which they organized and disciplined, and which theysucceeded at length in bringing under the control of one central andconsolidated command, formed the most extended and imposingmilitary power that the world had ever seen. It was not only vast inextent, but permanent and self-sustaining in character. A wide andcomplicated, but most effectual system was adopted for maintainingit. Its discipline was perfect. Its organization was complete. Itwas equally trained to remain quietly at home in its city-likeencampments, in time of peace, or to march, or bivouac, or fight, intime of war. Such a system could be formed only by men possessed ofmental powers of the highest character; but, once formed, it couldafterward sustain itself; and not only so, but it was found capableof holding up, by its own inherent power, the most imbecile andincompetent men, as the nominal rulers of it. 

Caligula, for example, the brother of Agrippina, and the reigningemperor at the time of Nero's birth, was a man wholly unfit toexercise any high command. He was elevated to the post by theinfluence of the army, simply because he was the most prominent manamong those who had hereditary claims to the succession, and wasthus the man whom the army could most easily place in the office ofchieftain, and retain most securely there. His life, however, in thelofty station to which accident thus raised him, was one ofcontinual folly, vice and crime. He lived generally at Rome, wherehe expended the immense revenues that were at his command in themost wanton and senseless extravagance. In the earlier part of hiscareer the object of much of his extravagance was the gratificationof the people; but after a time he began to seek only gratificationsfor himself, and at length he evinced the most wanton spirit ofmalignity and cruelty toward others. He seemed at last actually tohate the whole human species, and to take pleasure in teasing andtormenting men, whenever an occasion of any kind occurred to affordhim the opportunity. They were accustomed in those days to havespectacles and shows in vast amphitheaters which were covered, whenthe sun was hot, with awnings. Sometimes when an amphitheater wascrowded with spectators, and the heat of the sun was unusuallypowerful, Caligula would order the awnings to be removed and thedoors to be kept closed so as to prevent the egress of the people;and then he would amuse himself with the indications of discomfortand suffering which so crowded a concourse in such an exposure wouldnecessarily exhibit. He kept wild animals for the combats which tookplace in these amphitheaters, and when it was difficult to procurethe 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 facewith hot irons, by which means they were not only subjected to crueltorture at the time, but were frightfully disfigured for life. Sometimes when the sons of noble or distinguished men displeasedhim, or when under the influence of his caprice or malignity heconceived some feeling of hatred toward them, he would order them tobe publicly executed, and he would require their parents to bepresent and witness the scene. At one time after such an executionhe required the wretched father of his victim to come and sup withhim at his palace; and while at supper he talked with his guest allthe time, in a light, and jocular, and mirthful manner, in order totrifle with and insult the mental anguish of the sufferer. Atanother time when he had commanded a distinguished senator to bepresent at the execution of his son, the senator said that he wouldgo, in obedience to the emperor's orders, but humbly askedpermission to shut his eyes at the moment of the execution, that hemight be spared the dreadful anguish of witnessing the dyingstruggles of his son. The emperor in reply immediately condemned thefather to death for daring to make so audacious a proposal. 

Of course the connection of Agrippina, the mother of Nero, with sucha sovereign as this, while it gave her a very high social positionin the Roman community, could not contribute much to her happiness. In fact all who were connected with Caligula in any way lived incontinual terror, for so wanton and capricious was his cruelty, thatall who were liable to come under his notice at all were in constantdanger. Agrippina herself at one time incurred her brother'sdispleasure, though she was fortunate enough to escape with herlife. Caligula discovered, or pretended to discover, a conspiracyagainst him, and he accused Agrippina and another of his sistersnamed Livilla of being implicated in it. Caligula sent a soldier tothe leader of the conspiracy to cut off his head, and then hebanished his sisters from Rome and shut them up in the island ofPontia, telling them when they went away, to beware, for he hadswords for them as well as islands, in case of need. 

At length Caligula's terrible tyranny was brought to a sudden end byhis assassination; and Agrippina, in consequence of this event wasnot only released from her thraldom but raised to a still highereminence than she had enjoyed before. The circumstances connectedwith these events will be related in the next chapter. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE ASSASSINATION OF CALIGULA. 

A. D. 40-41

Plots against Caligula. --Cassius Chærea. --Chærea's bravery. --His legionmutinies. --Chærea escapes the mutineers. --His appearance. --His justdealings displease the emperor. --Passwords given by Caligula toChærea. --Accusation of Propedius. --Quintilia's testimony. --Chæreaalarmed. --Quintilia's private signal. --Quintilia is put to thetorture in vain. --Anger of Chærea. --His determination to destroyCaligula. --Conspiracy formed. --The confederates. --Variousopinions. --Various plans proposed for destroying Caligula. --Finaldetermination. --The three days festival. --Brief conversation. --Therecess. --Chærea's duty. --The plan seems likely to fail. --Chærea'sambuscade. --Minucianus. --Adroit management of the conspirators. --TheAsiatic boys. --Chærea strikes Caligula down. --End of a despot. --Generaljoy in the palace. --Savage exultation of the conspirators. --Cæsonia andher child. --They are murdered. --Supposed necessity for destroying thechild. 

The emperor Caligula came to his death in the following manner:

Of course his wanton and remorseless tyranny often awakened verydeep feelings of resentment, and very earnest desires for revenge inthe hearts of those who suffered by it; but yet so absolute andterrible was his power, that none dared to murmur or complain. Theresentment, 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 wereformed, from time to time, against the tyrant's life. 

Among others who cherished such designs, there was a man namedCassius Chærea, an officer of the army, who, though not of highrank, was nevertheless a man of considerable distinction. He was acaptain, or, as it was styled in those days, a centurion. Hiscommand, therefore, was small, but it was in the prætorian cohort, as it was called, a sort of body-guard of the commander-in-chief, and consequently a very honorable corps. Chærea was thus a man ofconsiderable distinction on account of the post which he occupied, and his duties, as captain in the life-guards, brought him veryfrequently into communication with the emperor. He was a man ofgreat personal bravery, too, and was on this account held in highconsideration by the army. He had performed an exploit at one time, some years before, in Germany, which had gained him great fame. Itwas at the time of the death of Augustus, the first emperor. Some ofthe German legions, and among them one in which Chærea was serving, had seized upon the occasion to revolt. They alledged many andgrievous acts of oppression as the grounds of their revolt, anddemanded redress for what they had suffered, and security for thefuture. One of the first measures which they resorted to in thefrenzy of the first outbreak of the rebellion, was to seize all thecenturions in the camp, and to beat them almost to death. They gavethem sixty blows each, one for each of their number, and then turnedthem, bruised, wounded, and dying, out of the camp. Some they threwinto the Rhine. They revenged themselves thus on all the centurionsbut one. That one was Chærea. Chærea would not suffer himself to betaken by them, but seizing his sword he fought his way through themidst of them, slaying some and driving others before him, and thusmade his escape from the camp. This feat gained him great renown. 

One might imagine from this account that Chærea was a man of greatpersonal superiority in respect to size and strength, inasmuch asextraordinary muscular power, as well as undaunted courage, wouldseem to be required to enable a man to make his way against so manyenemies. But this was not the fact. Chærea was of small stature andof a slender and delicate form. He was modest and unassuming in hismanners, too, and of a very kind and gentle spirit. He was thus notonly honored and admired for his courage, but he was generallybeloved for the amiable and excellent qualities of his heart. 

The possession of such qualities, however, could not be expected torecommend him particularly to the favor of the emperor. In fact, inone instance it had the contrary effect. Caligula assigned to thecenturions of his guard, at one period, some duties connected withthe collection of taxes. Chærea, instead of practicing the extortionand cruelty common on such occasions, was merciful and considerate, and governed himself strictly by the rules of law and of justice inhis collections. The consequence necessarily was that the amount ofmoney received was somewhat diminished, and the emperor wasdispleased. The occasion was, however, not one of sufficientimportance to awaken in the monarch's mind any very serious anger, and so, instead of inflicting any heavy punishment upon theoffender, he contented himself with attempting to tease and tormenthim with sundry vexatious indignities and annoyances. 

It is the custom sometimes, in camps, and at other militarystations, for the commander to give every evening, what is calledthe _parole_ or password, which consists usually of some word orphrase that is to be communicated to all the officers, and asoccasion may require to all the soldiers, whom for any reason it maybe necessary to send to and fro about the precincts of the campduring the night. The sentinels, also, all have the password, andaccordingly, whenever any man approaches the post of a sentinel, heis stopped and the parole is demanded. If the stranger gives itcorrectly, it is presumed that all is right, and he is allowed topass on, --since an enemy or a spy would have no means of knowing it. 

Now, whenever it came to Chærea's turn to communicate the parole, the emperor was accustomed to give him some ridiculous or indecentphrase, intended not only to be offensive to the purity of Chærea'smind, but designed, also, to exhibit him in a ridiculous light tothe subordinate officers and soldiers to whom he would have tocommunicate it. Sometimes the password thus given was some word orphrase wholly unfit to be spoken, and sometimes it was the name ofsome notorious and infamous woman; but whatever it was, Chærea wascompelled by his duty as a soldier to deliver it to all the corps, and patiently to submit to the laughter and derision which hiscommunication awakened among the vile and wicked soldiery. 

If there was any dreadful punishment to be inflicted, or cruel deedof any kind to be performed, Caligula took great pleasure inassigning the duty to Chærea, knowing how abhorrent to his nature itmust 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 againstthe emperor. Propedius denied that he had ever spoken such words. The accuser, whose name was Timidius, cited a certain Quintilia, anactress, as his witness. Propedius was accordingly brought to trial, and Quintilia was called upon before the judges to give hertestimony. She denied that she had ever heard Propedius utter anysuch sentiment as Timidius attributed to him. Timidius then saidthat Quintilia was testifying falsely: he declared that she hadheard Propedius utter such words, and demanded that she should beput to the torture to compel her to acknowledge it. The emperoracceded to this demand, and commanded Chærea to put the actress tothe torture. 

It is, of course, always difficult to ascertain the precise truth inrespect to such transactions as those that are connected with plotsand conspiracies against tyrants, since every possible precautionis, of course, taken by all concerned to conceal what is done. It isprobable, however, in this case, that Propedius had cherished somehostile designs against Caligula, if he had not uttered injuriouswords, and that Quintilia was in some measure in his confidence. Itis even possible that Chærea may have been connected with them insome secret design, for it is said that when he received the ordersof Caligula to put Quintilia to the torture he was greatly agitatedand alarmed. If he should apply the torture severely, he feared thatthe unhappy sufferer might be induced to make confessions orstatements at least, which would bring destruction on the men whomhe most relied upon for the overthrow of Caligula. On the otherhand, if he should attempt to spare her, the effect would be only toprovoke the anger of Caligula against himself, without at allshielding or saving her. As, however, he was proceeding to the placeof torture, in charge of his victim, with his mind in this state ofanxiety and indecision, his fears were somewhat relieved by aprivate signal given to him by Quintilia, by which she intimated tohim that he need feel no concern, --that she would be faithful andtrue, and would reveal nothing, whatever might be done to her. 

This assurance, while it allayed in some degree Chærea's anxietiesand fears, must have greatly increased the mental distress which heendured at the idea of leading such a woman to the awful sufferingwhich awaited her. He could not, however, do otherwise than toproceed. Having arrived at the place of execution, the wretchedQuintilia was put to the rack. She bore the agony which she enduredwhile her limbs were stretched on the torturing engine, and herbones broken, with patient submission, to the end. She was thencarried, fainting, helpless, and almost dead, to Caligula, whoseemed now satisfied. He ordered the unhappy victim of the tortureto be taken away, and directed that Propedius should be acquittedand discharged. 

Of course while passing through this scene the mind of Chærea was ina tumult of agitation and excitement, --the anguish of mind which hemust have felt in his compassion for the sufferer, mingling andcontending with the desperate indignation which burned in his bosomagainst the author of all these miseries. He was wrought up, infact, to such a state of frenzy by this transaction, that as soon asit was over he determined immediately to take measures to putCaligula to death. This was a very bold and desperate resolution. Caligula was the greatest and most powerful potentate on earth. Chærea was only a captain of his guard, without any politicalinfluence or power, and with no means whatever of screening himselffrom the terrible consequences which might be expected to followfrom his attempt, whether it should succeed or fail. 

So thoroughly, however, was he now aroused, that he determined tobrave every danger in the attainment of his end. He immediatelybegan to seek out among the officers of the army such men as hesupposed would be most likely to join him, --men of courage, resolution, and faithfulness, and those who, from their generalcharacter or from the wrongs which they had individually enduredfrom the government, were to be supposed specially hostile toCaligula's dominion. From among these men he selected a few, and tothem he cautiously unfolded his designs. All approved of them. Some, it is true, declined taking any active part in the conspiracy, butthey assured Chærea of their good wishes, and promised solemnly notto betray him. 

The number of the conspirators daily increased. There was, however, at their meetings for consultation, some difference of opinion inrespect to the course to be pursued. Some were in favor of actingpromptly and at once. The greatest danger which was to beapprehended, they thought, was in delay. As the conspiracy becameextended, some one would at length come to the knowledge of it, theysaid, who would betray them. Others, on the other hand, were forproceeding cautiously and slowly. What they most feared was rash andinconsiderate action. It would be ruinous to the enterprise, as theymaintained, for them to attempt to act before their plans were fullymatured. 

Chærea was of the former opinion. He was very impatient to have thedeed performed. He was ready himself, he said, to perform it, at anytime; his personal duties as an officer of the guard, gave himfrequent occasions of access to the emperor, and he was ready toavail himself of any of them to kill the monster. The emperor wentoften, he said, to the capitol, to offer sacrifices, and he couldeasily kill him there. Or, if they thought that that was too publican occasion, he could have an opportunity in the palace, at certainreligious ceremonies which the emperor was accustomed to performthere, and at which Chærea himself was usually present. Or, he wasready to throw him down from a tower where he was accustomed to gosometimes for the purpose of scattering money among the populacebelow. Chærea said that he could easily come up behind him on suchan occasion, and hurl him suddenly over the parapet down to thepavement below. All these plans, however, seemed to the conspiratorstoo uncertain and dangerous, and Chærea's proposals were accordinglynot agreed to. 

At length, the time drew near when Caligula was to leave Rome toproceed to Alexandria in Egypt, and the conspirators perceived thatthey must prepare to act, or else abandon their design altogether. It had been arranged that there was to be a grand celebration atRome previous to the emperor's departure. This celebration, whichwas to consist of games, and sports, and dramatic performances ofvarious kinds, was to continue for three days, and the conspiratorsdetermined, after much consultation and debate, that Caligula shouldbe assassinated on one of those days. 

After coming to this conclusion, however, in general, their heartsseemed to fail them in fixing the precise time for the perpetrationof the deed, and two of the three days passed away accordinglywithout any attempt being made. At length, on the morning of thethird day, Chærea called the chief conspirators together, and urgedthem very earnestly not to let the present opportunity pass away. Herepresented to them how greatly they increased the danger of theirattempts by such delays, and he seemed himself so full ofdetermination and courage, and addressed them with so much eloquenceand power, that he inspired them with his own resolution, and theydecided 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. Hewas very complaisant to all around him, and very lively, affable, and gay. After performing certain ceremonies, by which it devolvedupon him to open the festivities of the day, he proceeded to hisplace, with his friends and favorites about him, and Chærea, withthe other officers that day on guard, at a little distance behindhim. 

The performances were commenced, and every thing went on as usualuntil toward noon. The conspirators kept their plans profoundlysecret, except that one of them, when he had taken his seat by theside of a distinguished senator, asked him whether he had heard anything new. The senator replied that he had not. "I can then tell yousomething, " 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 berepresented the death of a tyrant. " "Hush!" said the senator, and hequoted a verse from Homer, which meant, "Be silent, lest some Greekshould overhear. "

It had been the usual custom of the emperor, at such entertainments, to take a little recess about noon, for rest and refreshments. Itdevolved upon Chærea to wait upon him at this time, and to conducthim from his place in the theater to an adjoining apartment in hispalace which was connected with the theater, where there wasprovided a bath and various refreshments. When the time arrived, and Chærea perceived, as he thought, that the emperor was about togo, he himself went out, and stationed himself in a passage-wayleading to the bath, intending to intercept and assassinate theemperor when he should come along. The emperor, however, delayed hisdeparture, having fallen into conversation with his courtiers andfriends, and finally he said that, on the whole, as it was the lastday of the festival, he would not go out to the bath, but wouldremain in the theater; and then ordering refreshments to be broughtto him there, he proceeded to distribute them with great urbanity tothe officers around him. 

In the mean time, Chærea was patiently waiting in the passage-way, with his sword by his side, all ready for striking the blow themoment that his victim should appear. Of course the conspirators whoremained behind were in a state of great suspense and anxiety, andone of them, named Minucianus, determined to go out and informChærea of the change in Caligula's plans. He accordingly attemptedto rise, but Caligula put his hand upon his robe, saying, "Sitstill, my friend. You shall go with me presently. " Minucianusaccordingly dissembled his anxiety and agitation of mind still alittle longer, but presently, watching an opportunity when theemperor's attention was otherwise engaged, he rose, and, assuming anunconcerned and careless air, he walked out of the theater. 

He found Chærea in his ambuscade in the passage-way, and heimmediately informed him that the emperor had concluded not to comeout. Chærea and Minucianus were then greatly at a loss what to do. Some of the other conspirators, who had followed Minucianus out, nowjoined them, and a brief but very earnest and solemn consultationensued. After a moment's hesitation, Chærea declared that they mustnow go through with their work at all hazards, and he professedhimself ready, if his comrades would sustain him in it, to go backto the theater, and stab the tyrant there in his seat, in the midstof 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 ithad been resolved upon was prevented by a new turn which affairshad taken in the theater. For while Minucianus and the two or threeconspirators who had accompanied him were debating in thepassage-way, the others who remained, knowing that Chærea wasexpecting Caligula to go out, conceived the idea of attempting topersuade him to go, and thus to lead him into the snare which hadbeen set for him. They accordingly gathered around, and without anyappearance of concert or of eagerness, began to recommend him to goand take his bath as usual. He seemed at length disposed to yield tothese persuasions, and rose from his seat; and then, the wholecompany attending and following him, he proceeded toward the doorswhich conducted to the palace. The conspirators went before him, andunder pretense of clearing the way for him they contrived to removeto a little distance all whom they thought would be most disposed torender him any assistance. The consultations of Chærea and those whowere with him in the inner passage-way were interrupted by thecoming of this company. 

Among those who walked with the emperor at this time were his uncleClaudius and other distinguished relatives. Caligula advanced alongthe passage, walking in company with these friends, and whollyunconscious of the fate that awaited him, but instead of goingimmediately toward the bath he turned aside first into a gallery orcorridor which led into another apartment, where there wereassembled a company of boys and girls, that had been sent to himfrom Asia to act and dance upon the stage, and who had just arrived. The emperor took great interest in looking at these performers, andseemed desirous of having them go immediately into the theater andlet him see them perform. While talking on this subject Chærea andthe other conspirators came into the apartment, determined now tostrike the blow. 

Chærea advanced to the emperor, and asked him in the usual mannerwhat should be the parole for that night. The emperor gave him inreply such an one as he had often chosen before, to insult anddegrade him. Chærea instead of receiving the insult meekly andpatiently in his usual manner, uttered words of anger and defiancein reply; and drawing his sword at the same instant he struck theemperor across the neck and felled him to the floor. Caligula filledthe apartment with his cries of pain and terror; the otherconspirators rushed in and attacked him on all sides; hisfriends, --so far as the adherents of such a man can be calledfriends, --fled in dismay. As for Caligula's uncle Claudius, it wasnot to have been expected that he would have rendered his nephew anyaid, for he was a man of such extraordinary mental imbecility thathe was usually considered as not possessed even of common sense; andall the others who might have been expected to defend him, eitherfled from the scene, or stood by in consternation and amazement, leaving the conspirators to wreak their vengeance on their wretchedvictim, to the full. 

In fact though while a despot lives and retains his power, thousandsare ready to defend him and to execute his will, however much inheart they may hate and detest him, yet when he is dead, or when itis once certain that he is about to die, an instantaneous changetakes place and every one turns against him. The multitudes in andaround the theater and the palace who had an hour before trembledbefore this mighty potentate, and seemed to live only to do hisbidding, were filled with joy to see him brought to the dust. Theconspirators, when the success of their plans and the death of theiroppressor was once certain, abandoned themselves to the mostextravagant joy. They cut and stabbed the fallen body again andagain, as if they could never enough wreak their vengeance upon it. They cut off pieces of the body and bit them with their teeth intheir savage exultation and triumph. At length they left the bodywhere it lay, and went forth into the city where all was now ofcourse tumult and confusion. 

The body remained where it had fallen until late at night. Then someattendants of the palace came and conveyed it away. They were sent, it was said, by Cæsonia, the wife of the murdered man. Cæsonia hadan infant daughter at this time, and she remained herself with thechild, in a retired apartment of the palace while these things weretranspiring. Distracted with grief and terror at the tidings thatshe heard, she clung to her babe, and made the arrangements for theinterment of the body of her husband without leaving its cradle. Sheimagined perhaps that there was no reason for supposing that she orthe child were in any immediate danger, and accordingly she took nomeasures toward effecting an escape. If so, she did not understandthe terrible frenzy to which the conspirators had been aroused, andfor which the long series of cruelties and indignities which theyhad endured from her husband had prepared them. For at midnight oneof them broke into her apartment, stabbed the mother in her chair, and taking the innocent infant from its cradle, killed it by beatingits head against the wall. 

[Illustration: CÆSONIA. ]

Atrocious as this deed may seem, it was not altogether wanton andmalignant cruelty which prompted it. The conspirators intended bythe assassination of Caligula not merely to wreak their vengeance ona single man, but to bring to an end a hated race of tyrants; andthey justified the murder of the wife and child by the plea thatstern political necessity required them to exterminate the line, inorder that no successor might subsequently arise to re-establish thepower and renew the tyranny which they had brought to an end. Thehistory of monarchies is continually presenting us with instances ofinnocent and helpless children sacrificed to such a supposednecessity as this. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE ACCESSION OF CLAUDIUS. 

A. D. 41-47

Ultimate design of the conspirators. --Effect produced by the tidings ofCaligula's death. --Chærea and the conspirators secrete themselves. --Thesenate is convened. --Two parties formed. --Account of Claudius. --Hisapparent imbecility. --Every one against him. --Mode of teasing him. --Hissituation and position at court. --The wives of Claudius. --His sonstrangled by a pear. --Claudius terrified. --His hiding place. --Heis discovered by a soldier. --Claudius proclaimed emperor. --Hissurprise. --He is borne to the camp and proclaimed emperor. --Agrippinarecalled. --Messalina. --Messalina's intrigues. --Her hatred ofSilanus. --Plan for destroying Silanus. --Narcissus's pretendeddream. --Messalina's confirmation of it. --Claudius alarmed. --Silanusis executed. --Unbounded influence of Messalina. --CaiusSilius. --Messalina's attachment to him. --Hesitation of Silius. --Hisdecision. --Claudius. --Public works at Ostia. --The obelisk. --Immenseship. --Messalina continues her wicked career. --Silius intoxicatedwith his elevation. 

In the assassination of Caligula, the conspirators who combined toperpetrate the deed, had a much deeper design than that of merelygratifying their personal resentment and rage against an individualtyrant. They wished to effect a permanent change in the government, by putting down the army from the position of supreme and despoticauthority which it had assumed, and restoring the dominion to theRoman Senate, and to the other civil authorities of the city, as ithad been exercised by them in former years. Of course, the death ofCaligula was the commencement, not the end, of the great struggle. The whole country was immediately divided into two parties. Therewas the party of the Senate, and the party of the army; and a longand bitter conflict ensued. It was for some time doubtful whichwould win the day. 

In fact, immediately after Caligula was killed, and the tidings ofhis death began to spread about the palace and into the streets ofthe city, a considerable tumult arose, the precursor and earnest ofthe dissensions that were to follow. Upon the first alarm, a body ofthe emperor's guards that had been accustomed to attend upon hisperson, and whom he had strongly attached to himself by his lavishgenerosity in bestowing presents and rewards upon them, rushedforward to defend him, or if it should prove too late to defend him, to avenge his death. These soldiers ran toward the palace, and whenthey found that the emperor had been killed, they were furious withrage, and fell upon all whom they met, and actually slew severalmen. Tidings came to the theater, and the word was spread from rankto rank among the people that the emperor was slain. The people didnot, however, at first, believe the story. They supposed that thereport was a cunning contrivance of the emperor himself, intended toentrap them into some expression of pleasure and gratification, ontheir part, at his death, in order to give him an excuse forinflicting some cruel punishment upon them. The noise and tumult inthe streets soon convinced them, however, that somethingextraordinary had occurred; they learned that the news of theemperor's death was really true, and almost immediately afterwardthey found, to their consternation, that the furious guards werethundering at the gates of the theater, and endeavoring to forcetheir way in, in order to wreak their vengeance on the assembly, asif the spectators at the show were accomplices of the crime. 

In the mean time Chærea and the other chief conspirators had fled toa secret place of retreat, where they now lay concealed. As soon asthey had found that the object of their vengeance was really dead, and when they had satisfied themselves with the pleasure of cuttingand stabbing the lifeless body, they stole away to the house of oneof their friends in the neighborhood, where they could lie for atime secreted in safety. The life-guards sought for them everywhere, but could not find them. The streets were filled with tumult andconfusion. Rumors of every kind, false and true, spread in alldirections, and increased the excitement. At length, however, theconsuls, who were the chief magistrates of the republic, succeededin organizing a force and in restoring order. They took possessionof the forum and of the capitol and posted sentinels and guardsalong the streets. They compelled the emperor's guards to desistfrom their violence, and retire. They sent a herald clothed inmourning into the theater, to announce officially to the people theevent which had occurred, and to direct them to repair quietly totheir homes. Having taken these preliminary measures theyimmediately called the Senate together, to deliberate on theemergency which had occurred, and to decide what should next bedone. In the mean time the emperor's guards, having withdrawn fromthe streets of the city, retired to their camp and joined theircomrades. Thus there were two vast powers organized--that of thearmy in the camp, and that of the Senate in the city--each jealousof the other, and resolute in its determination not to yield, in theapproaching conflict. 

In times of sudden and violent revolution like that which attendedthe 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 bedecided by utter accident. It was strikingly so in this instance, inrespect to the selection, on the part of the army, of the man whowas to take the post of supreme command in the place of the murderedemperor. The choice fell on Claudius, Agrippina's uncle. It fellupon him, too, as it would seem, by the merest chance, in thefollowing very extraordinary manner. 

Claudius, as has already been said, was Caligula's uncle; and asCaligula 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 hisgreat mental and personal inferiority. He was weak and ill-formed athis birth, so that even his mother despised him. She called him "anunfinished little monster, " and whenever she wished to express hercontempt for any one in respect to his understanding, she used tosay, "You are as stupid as my son Claudius. " In a word, Claudius wasextremely unfortunate in every respect, so far as natural endowmentsare concerned. His countenance was very repulsive, his figure wasungainly, his manners were awkward, his voice was disagreeable, andhe had an impediment in his speech. In fact, he was considered inhis youth as almost an idiot. He was not allowed to associate withthe other Roman boys of his age, but was kept apart, in somesecluded portion of the palace, with women and slaves, where he wastreated with so much cruelty and neglect that what little spiritnature had given him was crushed and destroyed. In fact, by commonconsent all seemed to take pleasure in teasing and tormenting him. Sometimes, when he was coming to the table at an entertainment, theother guests would combine to exclude him from the seats, in orderto enjoy his distress as he ran about from one part of the table toanother, endeavoring to find a place. If they found him asleep theywould pelt him with olives and dates, or awaken him with the blow ofa rod or a whip; and sometimes they would stealthily put his sandalsupon his hands while he was asleep, in order that when he awokesuddenly they might amuse themselves with seeing him rub his faceand eyes with them. 

After all, however, the inferiority of Claudius was not really sogreat as it seemed. He was awkward and ungainly, no doubt, to thelast degree; but he possessed some considerable capacity forintellectual pursuits and attainments, and as he was prettyeffectually driven away from society by the jests and ridicule towhich he was subjected, he devoted a great deal of time in hisretirement to study, and to other useful pursuits. He madeconsiderable progress in the efforts which he thus made to cultivatehis mind. He, however, failed to acquire the respect of those aroundhim; and as he grew up he seemed to be considered utterly incapableof performing any useful function; and during the time when hisnephew Caligula was emperor, he remained at court, among the othernobles, but still neglected and despised by all of them. It is saidthat he probably owed the preservation of his life to hisinsignificance, as Caligula would probably have found some pretextfor destroying him, if he had not thought him too spiritless andimbecile to form any ambitious plans. In fact, Claudius said himselfafterward, when he became emperor, that a great part of his apparentsimplicity was feigned, as a measure of prudence, to protect himselffrom injury. When Claudius grew up he was married several times. Thewife who was living with him at the time of Caligula's death was histhird 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 wivespreceding Messalina. He had quarreled with them and been divorcedfrom them both. He had had a daughter by one of these wives and ason by the other. The son was suddenly killed by getting choked witha small pear. He had been throwing it into the air and attempting tocatch it in his mouth as it came down, when at last it slipped downinto his throat and strangled him. As for the daughter, Claudius wasso exasperated with her mother at the time of his divorce from her, that he determined to disown and reject the child; so he ordered theterrified girl to be stripped naked, and to be sent and laid down inthat condition at her wretched mother's door. 

Claudius, as has already been stated, was present with Caligula atthe theater, on the last day of the spectacle, and followed him intothe palace when he went to look at the Asiatic captives; so that hewas present, or at least very near, at the time of his nephew'sassassination. As might have been expected from what has been saidof his character, he was overwhelmed with consternation and terrorat the scene, and was utterly incapacitated from taking any part, either for or against the conspirators. He stole away in greatfright and hid himself behind the hangings in a dark recess in thepalace. Here he remained for some time, listening in an agony ofanxiety and suspense to the sounds which he heard around him. Hecould hear the cries and the tumult in the streets, and in thepassages of the palace. Parties of the guards, in going to and fro, passed by the place of his retreat from time to time, alarming himwith the clangor of their weapons, and their furious exclamationsand outcries. At one time peeping stealthily out, he saw a group ofsoldiers 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 hadintercepted and killed, supposing him to be one of the conspirators. This spectacle greatly increased Claudius's terror. He was wholly inthe dark in respect to the motives and the designs of the men whohad thus revolted against his nephew, and it was of courseimpossible for him to know how he himself would be regarded byeither party. He did not dare, therefore, to surrender himself toeither, 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 passthat way, accidentally saw his feet beneath the hangings, andimmediately, pulling the hangings aside, dragged him out to view. Claudius supposed now, of course, that his hour was come. He fell onhis knees in an agony of terror, and begged the soldier to spare hislife. The soldier, when he found that his prisoner was Claudius, theuncle of Caligula, raised him from the ground and saluted himemperor. As Caligula left no son, Epirius considered Claudius as hisnearest relative, and consequently as the heir. Epirius immediatelysummoned others of the guard to the place, saying that he had foundthe new emperor, and calling upon them to assist in conveying him tothe camp. The soldiers thus summoned procured a chair, and havingplaced the astonished Claudius in it, they raised the chair upontheir shoulders, and began to convey it away. As they bore him thusalong the streets, the people who saw them supposed that they weretaking him to execution, and they lamented his unhappy fate. Claudius himself knew not what to believe. He could not but hopethat his life was to be saved, but then he could not wholly dispelhis fears. 

In the mean time, the soldiers went steadily forward with theirburden. When one set of bearers became fatigued, they set down thechair, and others relieved them. No one molested them, or attemptedto intercept them in their progress, and at length they reached thecamp. Claudius was well received by the whole body of the army. Theofficers held a consultation that night, and determined to make himemperor. At first he was extremely unwilling to accept the profferedhonor, but they urged it upon him, and he was at length induced toaccept it. Thus the army was once more provided with a head, andprepared to engage anew in its conflict with the civil authoritiesof the city. 

The particulars of the conflict that ensued we can not heredescribe. It is sufficient to say that the army prevailed, and thatClaudius soon found himself in full possession of the power fromwhich his nephew had been so suddenly deposed. 

One of the first measures which the new emperor adopted, was torecall Agrippina from her banishment at Pontia, where Caligula hadconfined her, and restore her to her former position in Rome. Herhusband, Brazenbeard, died about this time, and young Brazenbeard, her son, afterward called Nero, the subject of this history, wasthree 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 toAgrippina, in recalling her from her banishment, and treating herwith consideration and favor at Rome, only inflamed still moreMessalina's hatred. She could not, however, succeed in inducingClaudius to withdraw his protection from his niece; for Claudius, though almost entirely subject to the influence and control of hiswife in most things, seemed fully determined not to yield to herwishes in this. Agrippina continued, therefore, to live at Rome, inhigh favor with the court, for several years, --her little sonadvancing all the time in age and in maturity, until at length hebecame twelve years old. At this time, another great change tookplace in his own and his mother's condition. Messalina becameherself, by her wickedness and infatuation, the means of raising herrival into her own place as wife of the emperor. The result wasaccomplished in the following manner. 

Messalina had long been a very dissolute and wicked woman, havingbeen accustomed to give herself up to criminal indulgences andpleasures of every kind, in company with favorites whom she selectedfrom time to time among the courtiers around her. For a time shemanaged these intrigues with some degree of caution and secrecy, inorder to conceal her conduct from her husband. She gradually, however, became more and more open and bold. She possessed a greatascendency over the mind of her husband, and could easily deceivehim, or induce him to do whatever she pleased. She persuaded him toconfer honors and rewards in a very liberal manner upon those whomshe favored, and to degrade, and sometimes even to destroy, thosewho displeased her. She would occasionally resort to very cunningartifices to accomplish her ends. For example, she conceived at onetime a violent hatred against the husband of her mother. His namewas Silanus. He was not the father of Messalina, but a secondhusband of Messalina's mother; and, being young and attractive inperson, Messalina at first loved him, and intended to make him oneof her favorites and companions. Silanus, however, would not accedeto her wishes, and her love for him was then changed into hatred andthirst for revenge. She accordingly determined on his destruction;but as she knew that it would be difficult to induce Claudius toproceed to extremities against him, on account of his intimaterelationship to the family, she contrived a very artful plot toaccomplish her ends. It was this:

She sent word to Silanus, on a certain evening, that the emperorwished him to come to the palace, to his private apartment, the nextmorning, at a very early hour. The emperor wished to see him, themessenger 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 Messalinahad engaged to assist her in her plot, came into the emperor'sapartment, with an anxious countenance, and in a very hurriedmanner, and said to Claudius, whom he waked out of sleep by hiscoming, that he had had a very frightful dream--one which he deemedit his duty to make known to his master without any delay. Hedreamed, he said, that a plot had been formed for assassinating theemperor; that Silanus was the contriver of it, and that he wascoming early that morning to carry his design into effect. Messalina, who was present with her husband at the time, listened tothis story with well-feigned anxiety and agitation, and thendeclared, with a countenance of great mysteriousness and solemnity, that she had had precisely the same dream for two or three nights insuccession, but that, not being willing to do Silanus an injury, orto raise any unjust suspicions against him, she had thus farforborne to speak of the subject to her husband. She was, however, now convinced, she said, that Silanus was really entertaining sometreasonable designs, and that the dreams were tokens sent fromheaven to warn the emperor of his danger. 

Claudius, who was of an extremely timid and nervous temperament, wasvery much alarmed by these communications; and his terrors weregreatly increased by the appearance of a servant who announced tohim at that moment that Silanus was then coming in. The coming ofSilanus to the palace at that unseasonable hour was considered bythe emperor as full confirmation of the dreams which had beenrelated to him, and as proof of the guilt of the accused; and underthe impulse of the sudden passion and fear which this convictionawakened in his mind, he ordered Silanus to be seized and led awayto immediate execution. These commands were obeyed. Silanus washurried away and dispatched by the swords of the soldiers, withoutever knowing what the accusation was that had been made against him. 

Thus Messalina succeeded by artifice and cunning in accomplishingher ends, in cases where she could not rely on her direct influenceupon the mind of the emperor. In one way or the other she almostalways effected whatever she undertook, and gradually came toexercise almost supreme control. Whom she would she raised up, andwhom she would she put down. In the mean time she lived herself, alife of the most guilty indulgence and pleasure. For a long time sheconcealed her wickedness from the emperor. He was very easilydeceived, and though Messalina's character was perfectly well knownto 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 ordinaryforms of vice, and wished for something new and unusual to givepiquancy and life to her sensations. At length, however, she wentone step too far, and brought upon herself in consequence of it aterrible destruction. 

It was about seven years after the accession of Claudius that theevent occurred. The favorite of Messalina at this time was a youngRoman senator named Caius Silius. Silius was a very distinguishedyoung nobleman, and a man of handsome person and of very gracefuland accomplished manners and address. He was in fact a very generalfavorite, and Messalina, when she first saw him, conceived a verystrong affection for him. He was, however, already married to abeautiful Roman lady named Junia Silana. Silana had been, and wasstill at this time, an intimate friend of Agrippina, Nero's mother;though in subsequent times they became bitter enemies. Messalinamade no secret of her love for Silius. She visited him freely at hishouse, and received his visits in return; she accompanied him topublic places, evincing everywhere her strong regard for him in themost undisguised and open manner. At length she proposed to him todivorce his wife, in order that she herself might enjoy his societywithout any limitation or restraint. Silius hesitated for a timeabout complying with these proposals. He was well aware that he mustnecessarily incur great danger, either by complying or by refusingto comply with them. To accede to the empress's proposals, would beof course to place himself in a position of extreme peril; and thefate of Silanus was a warning to him of what he had to fear from herwrath, in case of a refusal. He concluded that the former danger wason the whole the least to be apprehended, and he accordinglydivorced his wife, and gave himself up wholly to Messalina's will. 

This arrangement being made, all things for a time went on smoothlyand well. Claudius himself lived a very secluded life, and paid verylittle attention to his wife's pursuits or pleasures. He livedsometimes in retirement in his palace, devoting his time to hisstudies, or to the plans and measures of government. He seems tohave honestly desired to promote the welfare and prosperity of therepublic, and he made many useful regulations and laws whichpromised to be conducive to this end. Sometimes he was absent for aseason from the city, --visiting fortresses and encampments, orinspecting the public works, such as aqueducts and canals, whichwere in progress of construction. He was particularly interested incertain operations which he planned and conducted at the mouths ofthe Tiber for forming a harbor there. The place was called Ostia, that word in the Latin tongue denoting _mouths_. To form a portthere he built two long piers, extending them in a curvilinear forminto the sea, so as to inclose a large area of water between them, where ships could lie at anchor in safety. Light-houses were builtat the extremities of these piers. It is a curious circumstance thatin forming the foundation of one of these piers, the engineers whomClaudius employed sunk an immense ship which Caligula had formerlycaused to be built for the purpose of transporting an obelisk fromEgypt to Rome, --the obelisk which now stands in front of St. Peter'sChurch, and is the admiration and wonder of all visitors to Rome. Asthe obelisk was formed of a single stone, a vessel of a very largesize and of an unusual construction was necessary for theconveyance of it; and when this ship had once delivered itsmonstrous burden, it had no longer any useful function to perform onthe surface of the sea, and the engineers accordingly filled it withstones and gravel, and sunk it at the mouth of the Tiber, to formpart of the foundation of one of Claudius's piers. As it is foundthat there is no perceptible decay, even for centuries, in timberthat is kept constantly submerged in the water of the sea, it is notimpossible that the vast hulk, unless marine insects have devouredit and carried it away, lies imbedded where Claudius placed it, still. 

While the emperor was engaged in these and similar pursuits andoccupations, Messalina went on in her career of dissipation andindulgence from bad to worse, growing more and more bold and openevery day. She lived in a constant round of entertainments and ofgayety--sometimes receiving companies of guests at her own palace, and sometimes making visits with a large retinue of attendants andfriends, at the house of Silius. Of course, every one paid court toSilius, and assumed, in their intercourse with him, every appearancethat they entertained for him the most friendly regard. It isalways so with the favorites of the great. While in heart they arehated and despised, in form and appearance they are caressed andapplauded. Silius was intoxicated with the emotions that the giddyelevation to which he had arrived so naturally inspired. He was not, however, wholly at his ease. He could not but be aware that lofty ashis position was, it was the brink of a precipice that he stoodupon. Still he shut his eyes in a great measure to his danger andwent 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 proposeshis plan to Messalina. --Messalina's reply. --Her motives. --Herproposal. --Audacity of Messalina in this proposal. --The false marriageis celebrated. --Indignation of the emperor's friends. --Plot formedfor Messalina's destruction. --Plans and arrangements of theconspirators. --Their hesitation. --Calpurnia. --Motives addressed toher. --Calpurnia and Cleopatra undertake their task. --Messalina'sfestival in the palace gardens. --Calpurnia's interview with Claudiusat Ostia. --Claudius is exceedingly terrified. --The statement ofNarcissus. --Council called. --Measures adopted by Claudius and theconspirators. --Messalina receives warning. --Scene in thegarden. --Silius withdraws. --Messalina's anxiety. --Messalina'scourse of action. --Her two children. --She proceeds to meet theemperor. --Her entreaties. --Claudius will not hear her. --Vibidiarepulsed. --Executions. --Claudius at supper. --Messalina'sletter. --Claudius relents. --Alarm of Narcissus. --Narcissus ordersMessalina to be slain. --Interview between Messalina and her motherin the garden. --Indifference of Claudius in respect to Messalina'sfate. --Claudius marries Agrippina. --Adoption of her son. 

As might naturally have been expected, there were two very differentemotions awakened in the mind of Silius by the situation in which hefound himself placed with Messalina, --one was ambition, and theother was fear. Finding himself suddenly raised to the possession ofso high a degree of consideration and influence, it was natural thathe should look still higher, and begin to wish for actual andofficial power. And then, on the other hand, his uneasiness at thedangers that he was exposed to by remaining as he was, increasedevery day. At length a plan occurred to him which both theseconsiderations urged him to adopt. The plan was to murder Claudius, and then to marry Messalina, and make himself emperor in Claudius'splace. By the accomplishment of this design he would effect, hethought, a double object. He would at once raise himself to a postof real and substantial power, and also, at the same time placehimself in a position of security. He resolved to propose thisscheme to Messalina. 

Accordingly, on the first favorable opportunity, he addressed theempress on the subject, and cautiously made known his design. "Iwish to have you wholly mine, " said he "and although the emperor isgrowing 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 safewhere we are, and by taking the remaining steps necessary toaccomplish fully our ends we shall only be completing what we havebegun, and by so doing, far from incurring any new penalties, weshall be taking the only effectual method to protect ourselves fromthe dangers which impend over us and threaten us now. Let us, therefore, devise some means to remove the emperor out of our way. Iwill 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 itpermanently secure to you. To accomplish this will be very easy; forthe emperor, superannuated, infirm, and stupid as he is, can notprotect himself against any well-planned and vigorous attempt whichwe may make to remove him; though, if we remain as we are, and anyaccidental cause should arouse him from his lethargy, we may expectto find him vindictive and furious against us to the last degree. "

Messalina listened to this proposal with great attention andinterest, but so far as related to the proposed assassination of theemperor she did not seem inclined to assent to it. Her historiansays that she was not influenced in this decision by any remainingsentiments of conjugal affection, or by conscientious principle ofany kind, but by her distrust of Silius, and her unwillingness tocommit herself so entirely into his power. She preferred to keep himdependent upon her, rather than to make herself dependent upon him. She liked the plan, however, of being married to him, she said, andwould consent to that, even while the emperor remained alive. And soif Silius would agree to it, she was ready, she added, the next timethat the emperor went to Ostia, to have the ceremony performed. 

That a wife and a mother, however unprincipled and corrupt, shouldmake, under such circumstances, a proposal like this ofMessalina's, is certainly very extraordinary; and to those who donot know to what extremes of recklessness and infatuation, theirresponsible despots that have arisen from time to time to rulemankind, have often pushed their wickedness and crime, it must seemwholly incredible. The Roman historian who has recorded thisnarrative, assures us, that it was the very audacity of this guiltthat constituted its charm in Messalina's eyes. She had become wearyof, and satiated with, all the ordinary forms of criminal indulgenceand 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 herpleasures. But he was so easily deceived, and she had beenaccustomed to deceive him so long, that it now no longer afforded toher mind any stimulus or excitement to do it in any common way. Butthe idea of being actually married to another man while he wasabsent at a short distance from the city, would be somethingstriking and new, which would vary, she thought, the dull monotonyof the common course of sin. 

The proposed marriage was finally determined upon, and the mockceremony, 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 thepretended marriage was open and public in the actual celebration ofit, is not very certain; but the historians say that it wasconducted with all the usual ceremonies, and was attended by theusual witnesses. The service was performed by the _augur_, a sort ofsacerdotal officer, on whom the duty of conducting such solemnitiesproperly devolved. Messalina and Silius, each in their turn, repeated the words pertaining respectively to the bridegroom and thebride. The usual sacrifice to the gods was then made, and a nuptialbanquet followed, at which there passed between the new married pairthe caresses and endearments usual on such occasions. All things ina word were conducted, from the beginning to the end, as in a realand honest wedding, and whether the scene thus enacted was performedin public as a serious transaction, or at some private entertainmentas a species of sport, it created a strong sensation among all whowitnessed it, and the news of it soon spread abroad and became verygenerally known. 

The more immediate friends of Claudius were very indignant at such aproceeding. They conferred together, uttering to each other manymurmurings and complaints, and anticipating the worst results andconsequences from what had occurred. Silius, they said, was anambitious and dangerous man, and the audacious deed which he hadperformed was the prelude, they believed, to some deep ulteriordesign. They feared for the safety of Claudius; and as they knewvery well that the downfall of the emperor would involve them too inruin, they were naturally much alarmed. It was, however, verydifficult for them to decide what to do. 

If they were to inform the emperor of Messalina's proceedings, theyconsidered it wholly uncertain what effect the communication wouldhave upon him. Like almost all weak-minded men, he was impulsive andcapricious in the extreme; and whether, on a communication beingmade to him, he would receive it with indifference and unconcern, or, in case his anger should be aroused, whether it would expenditself upon Messalina or upon those who informed him against her, itwas wholly impossible to foresee. 

At length, after various consultations and debates, a small numberof the courtiers who were most determined in their detestation ofMessalina and her practices, leagued themselves together, andresolved upon a course of procedure by which they hoped, ifpossible, to effect her destruction. The leader of this company wasCallistus, one of the officers of Claudius's household. He was oneof the men who had been engaged with Chærea in the assassination ofCaligula. Narcissus was another. This was the same Narcissus that ismentioned in the last chapter, as the artful contriver, withMessalina, of the death of Silanus. Pallas was the name of a thirdconspirator. 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 theprincipal confederates, though there were some others joined withthem. 

The great object of the hostility of these men, seems to have beenSilius, rather than Messalina. This, in fact, would naturally besupposed to be the case, since it was Silius rather than Messalinawho was their rival. Some of them appear to have hated Messalina onher own account, but with the others there was apparently no wish toharm the empress, if any other way could be found of reachingSilius. In fact, in the consultations which were held, one planwhich was proposed was to go to Messalina, and without evincing anyfeelings of unkindness or hostility toward her, to endeavor topersuade her to break off her connection with her favorite. Thisplan was, however, soon overruled. The plotters thought that itwould be extremely improbable that Messalina would listen to anysuch proposition, and in case of her rejection of it, if it weremade, her anger would be aroused strongly against them for makingit: and then, even if she should not attempt to take vengeance uponthem for their presumption, she would at any rate put herselfeffectually upon her guard against any thing else which they shouldattempt to do. The plan of separating Messalina and Silius was, therefore, abandoned, and the determination resolved upon to takemeasures for destroying them both together. 

The course which the confederates decided to pursue in order toeffect their object, was to proceed to Ostia, where Claudius stillremained, and there make known to him what Messalina and Silius haddone, and endeavor to convince him that this audacious conduct ontheir part was only the prelude to open violence against the life ofthe emperor. It would seem, however, that no one of them was quitewilling to take upon himself the office of making such acommunication as this, in the first instance, to such a man. Theydid not know how he would receive it, --or against whom the firstweight of his resentment and rage would fall. Finally, after muchhesitation and debate, they concluded to employ a certain female forthe purpose, --a courtesan named Calpurnia. Calpurnia was a favoriteand companion of Claudius, and as such they thought she mightperhaps have an opportunity to approach him with the subject undersuch circumstances as to diminish the danger. At any rate, Calpurniawas easily led by such inducements as the conspirators laid beforeher, to undertake the commission. They not only promised hersuitable rewards, but they appealed also to the jealousy and hatredwhich 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 representedto Calpurnia how entirely changed for the better her situation wouldbe, if Messalina could once be put out of the way. There would then, they said, be none to interfere with her; but her influence andascendency over the emperor's mind would be established on apermanent and lasting footing. 

Calpurnia was very easily led by these inducements to undertake thecommission. There was another courtesan named Cleopatra, who, it wasarranged, should be at hand when Calpurnia made her communication, to confirm the truth of it, should any confirmation seem to berequired. The other conspirators, also, were to be near, ready to becalled in and to act as occasion might require, in case Calpurniaand Cleopatra should find that their statement was making the rightimpression. Things being all thus arranged the party proceeded toOstia to carry their plans into execution. 

In the mean time Messalina and Silius, wholly unconscious of thedanger, gave themselves up with greater and greater boldness andunconcern to their guilty pleasures. On the day when Callistus andhis party went to Ostia she was celebrating a festival at her palacewith 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 theMediterranean the gathering of grapes and the pressing of the juicefor wine, is the great subject of autumnal rejoicings; and Messalinahad arranged a festival in accordance with the usual customs, in thegardens of the palace. A wine-press had been erected, and grapeswere gathered and brought to it. The guests whom Messalina hadinvited were assembled around; some were dancing about thewine-press, some were walking in the alleys, and some were seated inthe neighboring bowers. They were dressed in fancy costumes, andtheir heads were adorned with garlands of flowers. There was a groupof dancing girls who were engaged as performers on the occasion, todance for the amusement of the company, in honor of Bacchus, the godof wine. These girls were dressed, so far as they were clothed atall, in robes made of the skins of tigers, and their heads werecrowned with flowers. Messalina herself, however, was the mostconspicuous object among the gay throng. She was robed in a mannerto display most fully the graces of her person; her long hair wavingloosely in the wind. She had in her hand a symbol, or badge, calledthe _thyrsus_, which was an ornamented staff, or pole, surmountedwith a carved representation of a bunch of grapes, and with otherornaments and emblems. The thyrsus was always used in the rites andfestivities celebrated in honor of Bacchus. Silius himself, dressedlike the rest in a fantastic and theatrical costume, danced by theside of Messalina, in the center of a ring of dancing girls whichwas formed around them. 

[Illustration: MESSALINA IN THE GARDEN. ]

In the mean time, while this gay party were thus enjoying themselvesin the palace gardens at Rome, a very different scene was enactingat Ostia. Calpurnia, in her secret interview with Claudius, seizingupon a moment which seemed to her favorable for her purpose, kneeleddown before him and made the communication with which she had beencharged. She told him of Messalina's conduct, and informed himparticularly how she had at last crowned the dishonor of her husbandby openly marrying Silius, or at least pretending to do so. "Yourfriends believe, " she added, "that she and Silius entertain stillmore criminal designs, and that your life will be sacrificed unlessyou immediately adopt vigorous and decided measures to avert thedanger. "

Claudius was very much amazed, and was also exceedingly terrified atthis communication. He trembled and turned pale, then looked wildand excited, and began to make inquiries in an incoherent anddistracted manner. Calpurnia called in Cleopatra to confirm herstory. Cleopatra did confirm it, of course, in the fullest and mostunqualified manner. The effect which was produced upon the mind ofthe emperor seemed to be exactly what the conspirators had desired. He evinced no disposition to justify or to defend Messalina, or tobe angry with Calpurnia and Cleopatra for making such chargesagainst her. His mind seemed to be wholly absorbed with a sense ofthe dangers of his situation, and Narcissus was accordingly sent forto come in. 

Narcissus, when appealed to, acknowledged, though with well-feignedreluctance and hesitation, the truth of what Calpurnia haddeclared, and he immediately began to apologize for his ownremissness in not having before made the case known. He spoke withgreat moderation of Messalina, and also of Silius, as if his objectwere to appease rather than to inflame the anger of the emperor. Hehowever admitted, he said, that it was absolutely necessary thatsomething decisive should be done. "Your wife is taken from you, "said he, "and Silius is master of her. The next thing will be thathe will be master of the republic. He may even already have gainedthe Prætorian guards over to his side, in which case all is lost. Itis absolutely necessary that some immediate and decisive actionshould be taken. "

Claudius, in great trepidation, immediately called together such ofhis prominent councillors and friends as were at hand at Ostia, toconsult on what was to be done. Of course, it was principally theconspirators themselves that appeared at this council. They crowdedaround the emperor and urged him immediately to take the mostdecisive measures to save himself from the impending danger, andthey succeeded so well in working upon his fears that he stoodbefore them in stupid amazement, wholly incapable of deciding whatto say or do. The conspirators urged upon the emperor the necessityof first securing the guard. This body was commanded by an officernamed Geta, on whom Narcissus said no reliance could be placed, andhe begged that Claudius would immediately authorize him, Narcissus, to take the command. The object of the confederates in thus wishingto get command of the guard was, perhaps, to make sure of the promptand immediate execution of any sentence which they might succeed ininducing the emperor to pronounce upon Silius or Messalina, beforehe should have the opportunity of changing his mind. The emperorturned from one adviser to another, listening to their varioussuggestions and plans, but he seemed bewildered and undecided, as ifhe knew not what to do. It was, however, at length, determined toproceed immediately to Rome. The whole party accordingly mountedinto their carriages, Narcissus taking his seat by the side of theemperor in the imperial chariot, in order that he might keep up theexcitement and agitation in his master's mind by his conversation onthe way. 

In the mean time there were among those who witnessed theseproceedings at Ostia, some who were disposed to take sides withMessalina and Silius, in the approaching struggle; and theyimmediately dispatched a special messenger to Rome to warn theempress of the impending danger. This messenger rode up along thebanks of the Tiber with all speed, and in advance of the emperor'sparty. On his arrival in the city he immediately repaired to thepalace gardens and communicated his errand to Messalina and hercompany in the midst of their festivities. Claudius had beeninformed, he said, against her and Silius, and was almost besidehimself with resentment and anger. He was already on his way toRome, the messenger added, coming to wreak vengeance upon them, andhe warned them to escape for their lives. This communication wasmade, of course, in the first instance, somewhat privately to theparties principally concerned. It, however, put a sudden stop to allthe hilarity and joy, and the tidings were rapidly circulated aroundthe gardens. One man climbed into a tree and looked off in thedirection of Ostia. The others asked him what he saw. "I see agreat storm arising from the sea at Ostia, " said he, "and cominghither, and it is time for us to save ourselves. " In a word thebacchanalian games and sports were all soon broken up in confusion, and the company made their escape from the scene, each by adifferent way. 

Silius immediately resumed his ordinary dress, and went forth intothe city, where, under an assumed appearance of indifference andunconcern, he walked about in the forum, as if nothing unusual hadoccurred. Messalina herself fled to the house of a friend, namedLucullus, and, passing immediately through the house, sought ahiding-place in the gardens. Here her mind began to be overwhelmedwith anguish, remorse, and terror. Her sins, now that a terribleretribution for them seemed to be impending, rose before her in alltheir enormity, and she knew not what to do. She soon reflected thatthere could be no permanent safety for her where she was, for theadvanced guards of Claudius, which were even then entering the cityand commencing their arrests, would be sure soon to discover theplace of her retreat, and bring her before her exasperated husband. She concluded that, rather than wait for this, it would be betterfor her to go before him herself voluntarily; and, by throwingherself upon his mercy, endeavor to soften and appease him. Sheaccordingly, in her distraction, determined to pursue this course. She came forth from her hiding-place in Lucullus's gardens, and wentto seek her children, intending to take them with her, that thesight of them might help to move the heart of their father. Herchildren were two in number. Octavia, who has already beenmentioned, was the eldest, being now about ten or twelve years ofage. The other was a boy several years younger; his name wasBritannicus. 

In the mean time, the city was thrown quite into a state ofcommotion, by the approach of Claudius, and by the tidings which hadspread rapidly through the streets, of what had occurred. Thesoldiers whom Claudius had sent forward, were making arrests in thestreets, 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 andplead her cause, came forth from her palace on foot, and proceededthrough the streets, her hair disheveled, her dress in disorder, andher whole appearance marked by every characteristic of humiliation, abasement, and woe. When she reached the gate of the city, shemounted into a common cart which she found there, and in that mannerproceeded to meet her angry husband, leaving her children withVibidia, the vestal, to follow behind. 

She had not proceeded very far, before she met the emperor's trainapproaching. As soon as she came near enough to the carriage ofClaudius to be heard, she began to utter loud entreaties andlamentations, begging her husband to hear before he condemned her. "Hear your unhappy wife, " said she, "hear the mother of Britannicusand Octavia. " Narcissus and the others who were near, interposed toprevent her from being heard. They talked continually to theemperor, and produced a written memorial and other papers for him toread, which contained, they said, a full account of the wholetransaction. Claudius, taking very little notice of his wife, pursued his way toward the city. She followed in his train. Whenthey drew near to the gates, they met Vibidia and the children. Vibidia attempted to speak, but Claudius would not listen. Shecomplained, in a mournful tone, that for him to condemn his wifeunheard, would be unjust and cruel; but Claudius was unmoved. Hetold Vibidia that Messalina would in due time have a suitableopportunity to make her defense, and that, in the mean time, theproper duty of a vestal virgin was to confine herself to thefunctions of her sacred office. Thus he sent both her and thechildren away. 

As soon as the party arrived in the city Narcissus conducted theemperor to the house of Silius, and entering it he showed to theemperor there a great number of proofs of the guilty favoritismwhich the owner of it had enjoyed with Messalina. The house wasfilled with valuable presents, the tokens of Messalina's love, consisting, many of them, of costly household treasures which haddescended to Claudius in the imperial line, and which were of such acharacter that the alienation of them by Messalina, in such a way, was calculated to fill the heart of Claudius with indignation andanger. The emperor then proceeded to the camp. Silius and several ofhis leading friends were arrested and brought together before asort of military tribunal summoned on the spot to try them. Thetrial was of course very brief and very summary. They were allcondemned to death and were led out to instant execution. 

This being done the emperor returned with his friends to the cityand repaired to his palace. His mind seemed greatly relieved. Hefelt that the crisis of danger was past. He ordered supper to beprepared, and when it was ready he seated himself at table. Hecongratulated himself and his friends on the escape from the perilsthat had surrounded them, which they had so happily accomplished. Narcissus and the others began to tremble lest after all Messalinashould be spared; and they knew full well that if she should beallowed to live, she would soon, by her artful management, regainher ascendency over the emperor's mind, and that in that case shewould give herself no rest until she had destroyed all those who hadtaken any part in effecting the destruction of Silius. They began tobe greatly alarmed therefore for their own safety. In the mean timemessages came in from Messalina, who, when the emperor entered thecity, had returned to her former place of refuge in the gardens ofLucullus. At length a letter, or memorial, came. On reading what waswritten it was found that Messalina was assuming a bolder tone. Herletter was a remonstrance rather than a petition, as if she weredesigning to try the effect of bravery and assurance, and to see ifshe could not openly reassume the ascendency and control which shehad long exercised over the mind of her husband. Claudius seemedinclined to hesitate and waver. His anger appeared to be subsidingwith his fears, and the wine which he drank freely at the tableseemed to conspire with the other influences of the occasion torestore his wonted good-humor. He ordered that in reply toMessalina's letter a messenger should go and inform her that sheshould be admitted the next day to see him and to make her defense. 

Narcissus and his confederates were greatly alarmed, and determinedimmediately that this must not be. Narcissus had been placed, itwould seem, according to the wish of the conspirators at the outset, in command of the guard; and he accordingly had power to prevent theemperor's determination from being carried into effect, providedthat he should dare to take the responsibility of acting. It was amoment of great anxiety and suspense. He soon, however, camestrongly to the conclusion that though it would be very dangerousfor him to act, yet that not to act would be certain destruction;since if Messalina were allowed to live it would be absolutelycertain that they all must die. Accordingly, summoning all hisresolution he hurried out of the banqueting room, and gave orders tothe officers on duty there, in the emperor's name, to proceed to thegardens of Lucullus and execute sentence of death on Messalinawithout any delay. 

Messalina was with her mother Lepida, in the gardens, awaiting heranswer from the emperor, when the band of soldiers came. Messalinaand her mother had never been agreed, and now for a long time hadhad no intercourse with each other. The daughter's danger had, however, reawakened the instinct of maternal love in the mother'sheart, and Lepida had come to see her child in this the hour of herextremity. She came, however, not to console or comfort her child, or to aid her in her efforts to save her life, but to provide herwith the means of putting an end to her own existence as the onlyway now left to her, of escape from the greater disgrace of publicexecution. 

She accordingly offered a poniard to Messalina in the gardens, andurged her to take it. "Death by your own hand, " said she, "is nowyour only refuge. You _must_ die; it is impossible that this tragedycan have any other termination; and to wait quietly here for thestroke of the executioner is base and ignoble. You _must die_;--andall that now remains to you is the power to close the scene withdignity and with becoming spirit. "

Messalina manifested the greatest agitation and distress, but shecould not summon resolution to receive the poniard. In the midst ofthis scene the band of soldiers appeared, entering the garden. Themother pressed the poniard upon her daughter, saying, "Now is thetime. " Messalina took the weapon, and pointed it toward her breast, but had not firmness enough to strike it home. The officerapproached her at the head of his men, with his sword drawn in hishand. Messalina, still irresolute, made a feeble and ineffectualeffort to give herself a wound, but failed of inflicting it; andthen the officer who had by this time advanced to the spot whereshe was standing, put an end to her dreadful mental struggles bycutting her down and killing her at a single blow. 

When tidings were brought back to Narcissus that his commands hadbeen obeyed, he went again to the presence of Claudius, and reportedto him simply that Messalina was no more. He made no explanations, and the emperor asked for none; but went on with his supper as ifnothing had occurred, and never afterward expressed any curiosity orinterest in respect to Messalina's fate. 

As soon as the excitement produced by these transactions had in somedegree subsided, various plans and intrigues were commenced forproviding the emperor with another wife. There were many competitorsfor the station, all of whom were eager to occupy it; for, thoughClaudius was old, imbecile, and ugly, still he was the emperor; andall those ladies of his court who thought that they had any prospectof success, aspired to the possession of his hand, as the summit ofearthly ambition. Among the rest, Agrippina appeared. She wasClaudius's niece. This relationship was in one respect a bar to hersuccess, since the laws prohibited marriage within that degree ofconsanguinity. In another respect, however, the relationship wasgreatly in Agrippina's favor, for under the plea of it she hadconstant access to the emperor, and was extremely assiduous in herattentions to him. She succeeded, at length, in inspiring him withsome sentiment of love, and he determined to make her his wife. TheSenate were easily induced to alter the laws in order to enable himto do this, and Claudius and Agrippina were married. 

Claudius not only thus made the mother of our hero his wife, but headopted her son as his son and heir--changing, at the same time, thename of the boy. In place of his former plebeian appellation ofAhenobarbus, he gave him now the imposing title of Nero ClaudiusCæsar Drusus Germanicus. He has since generally been known inhistory, 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 characterof Brazenbeard. --Nero neglected. --Nero reappears atcourt. --Britannicus. --The secular or centennial games. --Mode ofcelebrating them. --Nero and Britannicus. --Nero applauded. --Thestory of the serpents. --Advancement of Nero after the death ofMessalina. --Agrippina's treatment of Britannicus. --Nero assumes thetoga. --Britannicus secluded. --Agrippina's treatment of the twoboys. --Britannicus offends Nero. --Agrippina's anger. --The Fucinelake. --Plan for draining it. --The canal. --Grand celebration at theopening of the canal. --Naval conflict to take place on the lake. --Endof the naval battle. --The water will not flow. --Deepening thecanal. --New celebrations. --Influences under which Nero's characterwas formed. --Agrippina's plan in respect to Octavia. --Tragical endof Silanus. --Marriage of Nero. 

During the time that Agrippina had been passing through the strangeand eventful vicissitudes of her history, described in the precedingchapters, young Nero himself, as we shall henceforth call him, hadbeen growing up an active and intelligent, but an indulged andungoverned boy. His own father died when he was about three yearsold. This, however, was an advantage probably, rather than a loss tothe boy, as Brazenbeard was an extremely coarse, cruel, andunprincipled man. He once killed one of his slaves for not drinkingas much as he ordered him. Riding one day in his chariot through avillage, he drove wantonly and purposely over a boy, and killed himon the spot. He defrauded all who dealt with him, and was repeatedlyprosecuted for the worst of crimes. He treated his wife with greatbrutality. As has already been said, he received the announcement ofthe birth of his son with derision, saying that nothing but whatwas detestable could come from him and Agrippina; and when theyasked him what name they should give the child, he recommended tothem to name him Claudius. This was said in contempt, for Claudiuswas at that time despised by every one, as a deformed and stupididiot, though he was subsequently made emperor in the manner thathas been already explained. The manifestation of such a spirit, atsuch a time, on the part of her husband, pained Agrippinaexceedingly, --but the more it pained her, the more Brazenbeard wasgratified 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 orderof Caligula, Nero himself did not accompany her, but remained behindunder the care of his aunt Lepida, with whom he lived for a time incomparative neglect and obscurity. Though he belonged to one of themost aristocratic families of Rome, his mother being a descendantand heir of the Cæsars, he spent some years in a situation ofpoverty and disgrace. His education was neglected, as he receivedno instruction at this time except from a dancing-master and abarber, who were his only tutors. Of course, the formation of hismoral character was wholly neglected, --nor, in fact, considering thecharacter of those by whom he was surrounded, would it have beenpossible that any favorable influence should have been exerted uponhim, if the attempt had been made. 

At length when Caligula died and Agrippina was recalled from herbanishment by Claudius, and reinstated in her former position atRome, Nero emerged from his obscurity, and thenceforth lived withhis mother in luxury and splendor in the capital. Nero was ahandsome boy, and he soon became an object of great popular favorand regard. He often appeared in public at entertainments andcelebrations, and when he did so he was always specially noticed andcaressed. His companion, and in some respects his rival andcompetitor, at such times, was Britannicus, the son of Claudius andMessalina. Britannicus was two or three years younger than Nero, andbeing the son of the emperor was of course a very prominent andconspicuous object of attention whenever he appeared. But the rankof Nero was scarcely less high, since his mother was descendeddirectly from the imperial family, while in age and personalappearance 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 ofpublic attention and regard. It was on the occasion of celebratingwhat might be called the centennial games. These games weregenerally supposed to be celebrated at each recurrence of a certainastronomical period, of about one hundred years' duration, called anage; but in reality it was at irregular though very distantintervals that they were observed. Claudius instituted a celebrationof them early in his reign. There had been a celebration of them inthe reign of Augustus, not many years before, --but Claudius, wishingto signalize his own reign by some great entertainment and display, pretended that Augustus had made a miscalculation, and had observedthe festival at the wrong time; and he ordained, accordingly, thatthe celebration should take place again. 

The games and shows connected with this festival extended throughthree successive days. They consisted of sacrifices and otherreligious rites, dramatic spectacles, athletic games, and militaryand gladiatorial shows. In the course of these diversions there wascelebrated on one of the days what was called the Trojan game, inwhich young boys of leading and distinguished families appeared onhorseback in a circus or ring, where they performed certainevolutions and feats of horsemanship, and mock conflicts, in themidst of the tens of thousands of spectators who thronged the seatsaround. Of course Britannicus and Nero were the most prominent andconspicuous of the boys on this occasion. Nero, however, in theestimation of the populace, bore off the palm. He was received withthe loudest acclamations by the whole assembly, while Britannicusattracted far less attention. This triumph filled Agrippina's heartwith pride and pleasure, while it occasioned to Messalina thegreatest vexation and chagrin. It made Agrippina more than everbefore the object of Messalina's hatred and hostility, and theempress would very probably before long have found some means ofdestroying her rival had she not soon after this become involvedherself in the difficulties arising out of her connection withSilius, which resulted so soon in her own destruction. 

The people, however, were filled with admiration of Nero, and theyapplauded his performance with the utmost enthusiasm. He was for atime a subject of conversation in every circle throughout the city, and many tales were told of his history and his doings. Among otherthings which were related of him, the story was circulated thatMessalina became so excited against him in her jealousy and envy, that she sent two assassins to murder him in his sleep; and that theassassins, coming to him in a garden where he was lying asleep upona pillow, were just putting their cruel orders into execution whenthey were driven away by a serpent that appeared miraculously at themoment to defend the child--darting out at the assassins frombeneath the pillow. Others said that it was in his infancy that thisoccurrence took place, and that there were two serpents instead ofone, and that they guarded the life of their charge lying with himin his cradle. One of the historians of the time states that neitherof these stories was really true, but that they both originated inthe fact that Nero was accustomed to wear, when a boy, a braceletmade of a serpent's skin, small and of beautiful colors, --andfastened, as they said, around the wearer's wrist with a clasp ofgold. 

However the fact may be in respect to Messalina's allowing herjealousy of Agrippina to carry her so far as to make direct attemptsupon his life, there is no doubt that she lived in continual fear ofthe influence both of Nero and of his mother, on the mind of theemperor; and Agrippina was consequently compelled to submit to manyindignities which the position and the power of Messalina enabledher to impose upon her enemies and rivals. At length, however, thefall of Messalina, and the entire revolution in the situation andprospects of Agrippina which was consequent upon it, changedaltogether the position of Nero. It might have been expected, it istrue, even after the marriage of Claudius with Agrippina, thatBritannicus would have still maintained altogether the highest placein the emperor's regard, since Britannicus was his own son, whileNero was only the son of his wife. But Agrippina was artful enoughto manage her indolent and stupid husband just as she pleased; andshe soon found means to displace Britannicus, and to raise Nero inhis stead, to the highest place, in precedence and honor. Shepersuaded Claudius to adopt Nero as his own son, as was stated inthe last chapter. She obtained a decree of the Senate, approving andconfirming this act. She then removed Britannicus from the court andshut him up in seclusion, in a nursery, under pretense of tenderregard for his health and safety. In a word, she treated Britannicusin all respects like a little child, and kept him wholly in thebackground; while she brought her own son, though he was but littleolder than the other, very prominently forward, as a young man. 

In those ancient days as now, there was an appropriate dress foryouth, which was changed for that of a man when the subject arrivedat maturity. The garment which was most distinctively characteristicof adult age among the Romans was called the toga; and it wasassumed by the Roman youth, not as the dress of a man is by youngpersons now, in a private and informal manner, according as theconvenience or fancy of the individual may dictate, --but publiclyand with much ceremony, and always at the time when the partyarrived at the period of legal majority; so that assuming the togamarked always a very important era of life. This distinctionAgrippina caused to be conferred upon Nero by a special edict whenhe was only fourteen years of age, which was at a very much earlierperiod than usual. On the occasion of thus advancing him to thedress and to the legal capabilities of manhood, Agrippina broughthim out in a special manner before the people of Rome at a greatpublic celebration, and the more effectually to call publicattention to him as a young prince of the highest distinction in theimperial family, she induced Claudius to bestow a largess upon thepeople, and a donative upon the army, that is a public distributionof money, to the citizens and to the soldiers, in Nero's name. 

All this time Britannicus was kept shut up in the private apartmentsof the palace with nurses and children. The tutors and attendantswhom Messalina his mother provided for him were one by one removed, and their places supplied by others whom Agrippina selected for thepurpose, and whom she could rely upon to second her views. Wheninquired of in respect to Britannicus by those who had known himbefore, during his mother's lifetime, she replied that he was a weakand feeble child, subject to fits, and thus necessarily keptsecluded from society. 

Sometimes, indeed, on great public occasions, both Nero andBritannicus appeared together, but even in these cases thearrangements were so made as to impress the public mind moreforcibly than ever with an idea of the vast superiority of Nero, inrespect to rank and position. On one such occasion, whileBritannicus was carried about clothed in the dress of a child, andwith attendants characteristic of the nursery, Nero rode onhorseback, richly appareled in the triumphal robes of a generalreturning from a foreign campaign. 

Agrippina was one day made very angry with Britannicus, for whatmight seem a very trifling cause. It seems that Britannicus, thoughyoung, was a very intelligent boy, and that he understood perfectlythe policy which his step-mother was pursuing toward him, and wasvery unwilling to submit to be thus supplanted. One day, when he andNero were both abroad, attending some public spectacle orcelebration, they met, and Nero accosted his cousin, calling himBritannicus. Britannicus, in returning the salutation, addressedNero familiarly by the name Domitius;--Domitius Ahenobarbus havingbeen his name before he was adopted by Claudius. Agrippina was veryindignant when she heard of this. She considered the using of thisname by Britannicus, as denoting, on his part, a refusal toacknowledge his cousin as the adopted son of his father. Sheimmediately 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 insultby the impertinence of this child. " Agrippina farther represented toClaudius, that Britannicus never would have thought of addressingher son in such a manner, of his own accord. His doing it must havearisen from the influence of some of the persons around him who werehostile to her; and she made use of the occasion to induce Claudiusto give her authority to remove all that remained of the child'sinstructors and governors, who could be suspected of a friendlyinterest in his cause, and to subject him to new and more rigorousrestrictions than ever. 

One of the most imposing of all the spectacles and celebrationswhich Claudius instituted during his reign, was the one whichsignalized the opening of the canal by which the Fucine lake wasdrained. The Fucine lake was a large but shallow body of water, atthe foot of the Appenines, near the sources of the Tiber. [A] It wassubject to periodic inundations, by which the surrounding lands weresubmerged. An engineer had offered to drain the lake, inconsideration of receiving for his pay the lands which would be laiddry by the operation. But Claudius, who seemed to have quite a tastefor such undertakings, preferred to accomplish the work himself. Thecanal by which the water should be conveyed away, was to be formedin 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 formaking such excavations, namely, the explosive force of gunpowder, was not known, any extensive working in solid rock was an operationof immense labor. When the canal was finished, Claudius determinedto institute a grand celebration to signalize the opening of it fordrawing off the water; and as he could not safely rely on thehydraulic interest of the spectacle for drawing such a concourse tothe spot as he wished to see there, he concluded to add to theentertainment a show more suited to the taste and habits of thetimes. He made arrangements accordingly for having a naval battlefought upon the lake, for the amusement of the spectators, justbefore the opening of the canal, which was to draw off the water. Thus the battle was to be the closing scene, in which the historyand existence of the lake were to be terminated forever. 

[Footnote A: See Map. Frontispiece. ]

Ships were accordingly built, and an immense number of men weredesignated and set apart for fighting the battle. These menconsisted of convicts and prisoners of war--men whom it was, inthose days, considered perfectly just and right to employ in killingone another for the amusement of the emperor and his guests. A sortof bulwark was built all around the shore, and the emperor's guardswere stationed upon it, to prevent the escape of the combatants, andto turn them back to their duty if any of them should attempt, whenpressed hard in the battle, to escape to the land. The fleet ofgalleys was divided into two antagonistic portions, and the men ineach were armed completely, as in a case of actual war. At theappointed time, hundreds of thousands of people assembled from allthe surrounding country to see the sight. They lined the shores onevery side, and crowned all the neighboring heights. The contest, ofcourse, might be waged with all the fury and fatal effect of a realbattle without endangering the spectators at all, as there were inthose days no flying bullets, or other swift-winged missiles, likethose which in modern times take so wide a range beyond the limitsof the battle. The deadly effect of all that was done in an ancientcombat was confined of course to those immediately engaged. Thenthere was, besides, nothing to intercept the vision. No smoke wasraised to obscure the view, but the atmosphere above and around thecombatants remained as pure and transparent at the end of the combatas at the beginning. 

A real battle was accordingly regarded by the Romans as the mostsublime and imposing of spectacles, and hundreds of thousands ofspectators flocked to witness the one which Claudius arranged forthem on the Fucine lake. He himself presided, dressed in a coat ofmail; and Agrippina sat by his side, clothed in a magnificent robe, which the historian states was woven from threads of gold, withoutthe admixture of any other material. The signal was given, and thebattle was commenced. There was some difficulty experienced, asusual in such cases, in getting the men to engage, but they becamesufficiently ferocious at last to satisfy all the spectators, andthousands were slain. At length the emperor gave orders that thebattle should cease, and the survivors were informed that theirlives were spared. 

It was fortunate, on the whole, for Claudius, that he did not relywholly on the simple drawing off of the water from the lake for theamusement of the immense assemblage that he had convened, for it wasfound, when, after the close of the battle, the canal was opened, that the water would not run. The engineers had made some mistake intheir measurements or their calculations, and had left the bed ofthe canal in some part of its course too high, so that the water, when the sluices were opened, instead of flowing off into the riverto which the canal was intended to conduct it, remained quietly inthe lake as before. 

The assembly dispersed, and the work on the canal was resumed with aview of making it deeper. In the course of a year the excavation wascompleted, and all was made ready for a new trial. Claudius summoneda new assembly to witness the operation, and at this time, insteadof a naval conflict, he made provision for a great combat ofgladiators, to be fought on immense floating platforms which werebuilt upon the lake near the outlet which the engineers had made. Inthe end, however, the second attempt to make the water flow, provedmore unfortunate than the first. The channel had been made very deepand wide, so that the water was inclined to move, when once put inmotion, with the utmost impetuosity and force; and it so happened, that in some way or other, the means which the engineer had reliedupon for controlling it were insufficient, and when the gates wereopened every thing suddenly gave way. The water rushed out in anoverwhelming torrent, as in an inundation--and undermined andcarried away the platforms and stagings which had been erected forthe seats of the spectators. A scene of indescribable tumult andconfusion ensued. The emperor and empress, with the guests andspectators, fled precipitously together, and all narrowly escapedbeing carried down into the canal. 

It is by no means difficult to imagine what sort of a character aboy must necessarily form, brought up under such influences andsurrounded by such scenes as those which thus prevailed at the courtof Claudius. It proved in the end that Nero experienced the fulleffect of them. He became proud, vain, self-willed, cruel, andaccustomed to yield himself without restraint to all those wickedpropensities and passions which, under such circumstances, alwaysgain dominion over the human soul. 

 * * * * *

Besides Britannicus, it will be recollected that Messalina had leftanother child, --a daughter named Octavia, who was two or three yearsyounger than her brother, and of course about five years youngerthan Nero. Agrippina did not pursue the same course of oppositionand hostility toward her which she had adopted in regard toBritannicus. She determined, at the outset, upon a very differentplan. Britannicus was necessarily a rival and competitor for Nero;and every step in advance which he should make, could not operateotherwise than as an impediment and obstacle to Nero's success. ButOctavia, as Agrippina thought, might be employed to further and aidher designs, by being betrothed, and in due time married, to herson. 

The advantages of such a scheme were very obvious, --so obvious infact that the design was formed by Agrippina at the verybeginning, --even before her own marriage with the emperor was fullyeffected. There was one serious obstacle in the way, and that wasthat Octavia was already betrothed to a very distinguished youngnobleman named Lucius Silanus. Agrippina, after having, by variousskillful manoeuvers, succeeded in enlisting the public officerswho would act as judges in his case, caused Silanus to be accused ofinfamous crimes. The historians say that the evidence which wasadduced against him was of the most trivial character. Still he wascondemned. He seems to have understood the nature and the cause ofthe hostility which had suddenly developed itself against him, andto have felt at once all the hopelessness of his condition. Hekilled himself in his despair on the very night of the marriage ofClaudius with Agrippina. 

The empress found afterward no serious difficulty in accomplishingher design. She obtained the emperor's consent to a betrothal ofNero to Octavia; but as they were yet too young to be married, theceremony was postponed for a short time. At length in about fiveyears after the marriage of Agrippina herself, Nero and Octavia weremarried. Nero was at that time about sixteen years of age. His brideof course was only eleven. 

CHAPTER VI. 

NERO AN EMPEROR. 

A. D. 54

Claudius is sick. --Agrippina's joy. --Her schemes. --Estimation inwhich Nero was held. --Agrippina considers herself in danger. --Reasonsfor her fears. --Claudius and Britannicus. --She forms plans forhastening her husband's death. --Locusta. --Agrippina determines toconsult her. --Locusta's poison is administered to Claudius. --Thepoison ineffectual. --A new plan. --The feather. --Poison administered bythe physician. --Claudius dies. --Agrippina conceals her husband'sdeath. --Agrippina's measures. --Her disimulation. --Agrippina's plansfor proclaiming Nero. --Seneca and Burrus. --History of Seneca. --Accountof Burrus. --His military rank. --The Prætorian cohorts. --Agrippina'splans. --Nero brought forward. --His promises to the army. --He isproclaimed. --General acquiescence in his elevation. --Agrippina's realdesigns in the elevation of her son. --The funeral solemnities. --Nero'soration. --The panegyric. --The senate is convened. --Nero's inauguraladdress. --Nero's excellent promises. --Satisfaction of theSenate. --Agrippina assumes the real power. --Discontent of theministers. --An incident. --Reception of Agrippina in the hall ofaudience. 

About one year after Nero's marriage to Octavia the emperor Claudiuswas suddenly taken sick. On learning this, Agrippina was very muchexcited and very much pleased. If the sickness should result in theemperor'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 wasuncommonly 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 asa man. Among other means which Agrippina had resorted to for givingan 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 greatsuccess. He had been well instructed in those studies which wereconnected with the art of oratory, and as his person and mannerswere agreeable, and his countenance intelligent and prepossessing, and especially as the confidence which he felt in his powers gavehim an air of great self-possession and composure, the impressionwhich he made was very favorable. The people were in factpredisposed to be pleased with and to applaud the efforts of a youngorator so illustrious in rank and station--and the ability which hedisplayed, 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 enoughadvanced in public consideration to make it in some degree certainthat he would be the emperor's successor, was ready at any time forher husband to die. His sickness therefore filled her mind withexcitement and hope. There was another motive too, besides herambitious desires for the advancement of her son, that made herdesirous that Claudius should not live. She had been now for severalmonths somewhat solicitous and anxious about her own safety. Herinfluence over Claudius, which was at first so absolute and supreme, had afterward greatly declined, and within a few months she hadbegun to fear that she might be losing it entirely. In fact she hadsome reason for believing that Claudius regarded her with concealedhostility and hate, and was secretly revolving plans for deposingboth her and her son from the high ascendency to which they hadraised themselves, and for bringing back his own son to his properprominence, in Nero's place. Agrippina, too, in the midst of herambitious projects and plans, led a life of secret vice and crime, and feeling guilty and self-condemned, every trivial indication ofdanger excited her fears. Some one informed her that Claudius oneday when speaking of a woman who had been convicted of crime, saidthat it had always been _his_ misfortune to have profligate wives, but that he always brought them in the end to the punishment thatthey deserved. Agrippina was greatly terrified at this report. Sheconsidered it a warning that Claudius was meditating some fatalproceedings in respect to her. 

Agrippina observed, too, as she thought, various indications thatClaudius was beginning to repent of having adopted Nero and thusdisplaced his own son from the line of inheritance; and that he wassecretly intending to restore Britannicus to his true position. Hetreated the boy with greater and greater attention every day, and atone time, after having been conversing with him and expressing anunusual interest in his health and welfare, he ended by saying, "Goon improving, my son, and grow up as fast as you can to be a man. Ishall be able to give a good account of all that I have done inregard to you in due time. Trust to me, and you will find that allwill come out right in the end. " At another time he told Britannicusthat pretty soon he should give him the _toga_, and bring himforward 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 saidand done, but every thing was minutely reported to her, and she wasfilled with anxiety and alarm. She began to be afraid that unlesssomething should speedily occur to enable her to realize her hopesand expectations, they would end in nothing but bitter and crueldisappointment after all. 

Such being the state of things, Agrippina was greatly pleased at thenews, when she heard that her husband was sick. She most earnestlyhoped that he would die, and immediately began to consider what shecould do to insure or to hasten such a result. She thought ofpoison, and began to debate the question in her mind whether sheshould dare to administer it. Then if she were to decide to give herhusband poison, it was a very serious question what kind of poisonshe should employ. If she were to administer one that was sudden andviolent in its operation, the effect which it would produce mightattract attention, and her crime be discovered. On the other hand, if she were to choose one that was more moderate and gradual in itspower, so as to produce a slow and lingering death, time would beallowed for Claudius to carry into effect any secret designs that hemight be forming for disavowing Nero as his son, and fixing thesuccession upon Britannicus; and Agrippina well knew that ifClaudius were to die, leaving things in such a state thatBritannicus should succeed him, the downfall and ruin both ofherself and her son would immediately and inevitably follow. 

There was at that time in Rome a celebrated mistress of the art ofpoisoning, named Locusta. She was in prison, having been condemnedto death for her crimes. Though condemned she had been kept backfrom execution by the influence of Agrippina, on account of theskill which she possessed in her art, and which Agrippina thought itpossible that she might have occasion at some time to make use of. This Locusta she now determined to consult. She accordingly went toher, and asked her if she did not know of any poison which wouldimmediately take effect upon the brain and mind, so as toincapacitate the patient at once from all mental action, while yetit should be gradual and slow in its operations on the vitalfunctions of the body. Locusta answered in the affirmative. Suchcharacters were always prepared to furnish any species ofmedicaments that their customers might call for. She compounded apotion which she said possessed the properties which Agrippinarequired, and Agrippina, receiving it from her hands, went away. 

Agrippina then went to Halotus, the servant who waited upon theemperor and gave him his food, --and contrived some means to inducehim to administer the dose. Halotus was the emperor's "taster, " asit was termed:--that is, it was his duty to taste first, himself, every article of food or drink which he offered to his master, forthe express purpose of making it sure that nothing was poisoned. Itis obvious, however, that many ways might be devised for evadingsuch a precaution as this, and Halotus and Agrippina arranged it, that the poison, in this case, should be put upon a dish ofmushrooms, and served to the emperor at his supper. The taster wasto avoid, by means of some dextrous management, the taking of anyportion of the fatal ingredients himself. The plan thus arranged wasput into execution. The emperor ate the mushrooms, and Agrippinatremblingly awaited the result. 

She was, however, disappointed in the effect that was produced. Whether the mixture that Locusta had prepared was not sufficientlypowerful, or whether Halotus in his extreme anxiety not to get anyof the poisonous ingredients himself failed to administer themeffectually to his intended victim, the emperor seemed to continueafterward much as he had been before, --still sick, but without anynew or more dangerous symptoms. Of course, Agrippina was in a stateof great solicitude and apprehension. Having incurred the terribleguilt and danger necessarily involved in an attempt to poison herhusband, she could not draw back. The work that was begun must becarried through now, she thought, at all hazards, to itstermination; and she immediately set herself at work to devise somemeans of reaching her victim with poison, which would avoid thetaster altogether, and thus not be liable to any interference on hispart, dictated either by his fidelity to his master or his fears forhimself. She went, accordingly, to the emperor's physician and foundmeans to enlist him in her cause; and a plan was formed between themwhich proved effectual in accomplishing her designs. The manner inwhich they contrived it was this. The physician, at a time when theemperor was lying sick and in distress upon his couch, came to himand proposed that he should open his mouth and allow the physicianto touch his throat with the tip of a feather, to promote vomiting, which he said he thought would relieve him. The emperor yielded tothis treatment, and the feather was applied. It had previously beendipped in a very virulent and fatal poison. The poison thusadministered took effect, and Claudius, after passing the night inagony, 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 themoment a feeling of gratification and relief. It might have beenexpected, however, that the pangs of remorse, after the deed wasperpetrated, would have followed very hard upon the termination ofher suspense and anxiety. But it was not so. Much still remained tobe done, and Agrippina was fully prepared to meet all theresponsibilities of the crisis. The death of her husband took placevery early in the morning, the poisoning operations having beenperformed in the night, and having accomplished their final effectabout the break of day. Agrippina immediately perceived that themost effectual means of accomplishing the end which she had in view, was not to allow of any interval to elapse between the announcementof the emperor's death and the bringing forward of her son forinduction into office as his successor; since during such aninterval, if one were allowed, the Roman people would, of course, discuss the question, whether Britannicus or Nero should succeed topower, and a strong party might possibly organize itself to enforcethe claims of the former. She determined, therefore, to conceal thedeath of her husband until noon, the hour most favorable forpublicly proclaiming any great event, and then to announce thedeath of the father and the accession of the adopted son together. 

She accordingly took prompt and decisive measures to prevent itsbeing known that the emperor was dead. The immediate attendantsat his bedside could not indeed be easily deceived, but they wererequired to be silent in respect to what had occurred, and to go onwith all their services and ministrations just as if their patientwere still alive. Visitors were excluded from the room, andmessengers were kept coming to and fro with baths, medicaments, andother appliances, such as a desperate crisis in a sick chamber mightbe supposed to require. The Senate was convened, too, in the courseof the morning, and Agrippina, as if in great distress, sent amessage to them, informing them of her husband's dangerouscondition, and entreating them to join with the chief civiland religious functionaries of the city, in offering vows, supplications, and sacrifices for his recovery. She herself, in themean time, went from room to room about the palace, overwhelmed toall appearance, with anxiety and grief. She kept Britannicus and hissisters all the time with her, folding the boy in her arms with anappearance of the fondest affection, and telling him howheart-broken she was at the dangerous condition of his father. Shekept Britannicus thus constantly near to her, in order to preventthe possibility of his being seized and carried away to the camp byany party that might be disposed to make him emperor rather thanNero, when it should be known that Claudius had ceased to reign. Asan additional defense against this danger, Agrippina brought up acohort of the life-guards around the palace, and caused them to bestationed in such a manner that every avenue of approach to theedifice was completely secured. The cohort which she selected wasone that she thought she could most safely rely upon, not onlyfor guarding the palace while she remained within it, but forproclaiming Nero as emperor when she should at last be ready to comeforth and announce the death of her husband. 

At length, about noon, she deemed that the hour had arrived, andafter placing Britannicus and his sisters in some safe custodywithin the palace, she ordered the gates to be thrown open, andprepared to come forth to announce the death of Claudius, and topresent Nero to the army and to the people of Rome, as his rightfulsuccessor. She was aided and supported in these preparations by anumber of officers and attendants, among whom were the two whom shehad determined upon as the two principal ministers of her son'sgovernment. These were Seneca and Burrus. Seneca was to be ministerof state, and Burrus the chief military commander. 

Both these men had long been in the service of Agrippina and ofNero. Seneca was now over fifty years of age. He was very highlydistinguished as a scholar and rhetorician while he lived, and hisnumerous writings have given him great celebrity since, in everyage. He commenced his career in Rome as a public advocate in theForum, during the reign of Caligula. After Caligula's death heincurred the displeasure of Claudius in the first year of thatemperor's reign, and he was banished to the island of Corsica, wherehe remained in neglect and obscurity for about eight years. When atlength Messalina was put to death, and the emperor marriedAgrippina, Seneca was pardoned and recalled through Agrippina'sinfluence, and after that he devoted himself very faithfully to theservice of the empress and of her son. Agrippina appointed himNero's preceptor, and gave him the direction of all the studieswhich her son pursued in qualifying himself for the duties of apublic orator; and now that she was about attempting to advance herson to the supreme command, she intended to make the philosopher hisprincipal secretary and minister of state. 

Burrus was the commander of the life-guards, or as the office wascalled in those days, prefect of the prætorium. The life-guards, orbody-guards, whose duty consisted exclusively in attending upon, escorting and protecting the emperor, consisted of ten cohorts, eachcontaining about a thousand men. The soldiers designated for thisservice were of course selected from the whole army, and as noexpense was spared in providing them with arms, accoutrements andother appointments, they formed the finest body of troops in theworld. They received double pay, and enjoyed special privileges; andevery arrangement was made to secure their entire subserviency tothe will, and attachment to the person, of the reigning emperor. Ofcourse such a corps would be regarded by all the other divisions ofthe army as entirely superior in rank and consideration, to theordinary service; and the general who commanded them would takeprecedence of every other military commander, being second onlyto the emperor himself. Agrippina had contrived to raise Burrusto this post through her influence with Claudius. He was a friendto her interests before, and he became still more devoted toher after receiving such an appointment through herinstrumentality, --Agrippina now depended upon Burrus to carrythe Prætorian cohorts in favor of her son. 

Accordingly at noon of the day on which Claudius died, when allthings were ready, the palace gates were thrown open and Agrippinacame forth with her son, accompanied by Burrus and by otherattendants. The cohort on duty was drawn up under arms at the palacegates. Burrus presented Nero to them as the successor of Claudius, and at a signal from him they all responded with shouts andacclamations. Some few of the soldiers did not join in thischeering, but looked on in silence, and then inquired of oneanother what had become of Britannicus. But there were none toanswer this question, and as no one appeared to proclaim Britannicusor to speak in his name, the whole cohort finally acquiesced in thedecision to which the majority, at the instigation of Burrus, seemedinclined. A sort of chair or open palanquin was provided, and Nerowas mounted upon it. He was borne in this way by the soldiersthrough the streets of the city, escorted by the cohort on the way, till he reached the camp. As the procession moved along, the air wasfilled with the shouts and acclamations of the soldiers and of thepeople. 

When the party arrived at the camp Nero was presented to the army, and the officers and soldiers being drawn up before him he delivereda brief speech which Seneca had prepared for the occasion. Theprincipal point in this speech, and the one on which its effect wasexpected to depend, was a promise of a large distribution of money. The soldiers always expected such a donative on the accession of anynew emperor, --but Nero, in order to suppress any latent oppositionwhich might be felt against his claims, made his proposeddistribution unusually large. The soldiers readily yielded to theinfluence of this promise, and with one accord proclaimed Neroemperor. The Senate was soon afterward convened, and partly throughthe influence of certain prominent members whom Agrippina had takenmeasures to secure in her interest, and partly through the generalconviction that as things were the claims of Britannicus could notbe successfully maintained, the choice of the army was confirmed. And as the tidings of what had taken place at the capital graduallyspread through Italy and to the remoter portions of the empire, theprovinces, and the various legions at their encampments, one afteranother acquiesced in the result, both because on the one hand theyhad no strong motive for dissenting, and on the other, they hadindividually no power to make any effectual resistance. Thus Nero, at the age of seventeen became emperor of Rome, and as such thealmost absolute monarch of nearly half the world. 

It was, however, by no means the design of Agrippina that her sonshould actually wield, himself, all this power. Her motive, in allher manoeuvers for bringing Nero to this lofty position, was apersonal, not a maternal ambition. She was herself to reign, not he;and she had brought him forward as the nominal sovereign only, inorder that she might herself exercise the power by acting in hisname. Her plan was to secure her own ascendency, by so arranging anddirecting the course of affairs that the young emperor himselfshould have as little as possible to do with the duties of hisoffice; and that instead of direct action on his part, all thefunctions of the government should be fulfilled by officers ofvarious grades, whom she was herself to appoint and to sustain, andwho, since they would know that they were dependent on Agrippina'sinfluence for their elevation, would naturally be subservient to herwill. Nero being so young, she thought that he could easily be ledto acquiesce in such management as this, especially if he wereindulged in the full enjoyment of the luxuries and pleasures, innocent or otherwise, which his high station would enable him tocommand, and which are usually so tempting to one of his characterand years. 

The first of Agrippina's measures was to make arrangement for a mostimposing and magnificent funeral, as the testimonial of the deepconjugal affection which she entertained for her husband, and theprofound grief with which she was affected by his death! The mostextensive preparations were made for this funeral; and the pomp andparade which were displayed in Rome on the day of the ceremony, hadnever been surpassed, it was said, by any similar spectacle on anyformer occasion. In the course of the services that were performed, a funeral oration was delivered by Nero to the immense concourse ofpeople that were convened. The oration was written by Seneca. It wasa high panegyric upon the virtues and the renown of the deceased, and it represented in the brightest colors, and with greatmagnificence of diction, his illustrious birth, the high offices towhich he had attained, his taste for the liberal arts, and the peaceand tranquillity which had prevailed throughout the empire duringhis reign. To write a panegyric upon such a man as Claudius hadbeen, must surely have proved a somewhat difficult task; but Senecaaccomplished it very adroitly, and the people, aided by thesolemnity of the occasion, listened with proper gravity, until atlength the orator began to speak of the judgment and the politicalwisdom of Claudius, and then the listeners found that they couldpreserve their decorum no longer. The audience looked at each other, and there was a general laugh. The young orator, though for themoment somewhat disconcerted at this interruption, soon recoveredhimself, and went on to the end of his discourse. 

After these funeral ceremonies had been performed, the Senate wasconvened, and Nero appeared before them to make his inauguraladdress. This address also, was of course prepared for him bySeneca, under directions from Agrippina, who, after revolving thesubject fully in her mind, had determined what it would be mostpolitic to say. She knew very well that until the power of her sonbecame consolidated and settled, it became him to be modest in hispretensions and claims, and to profess great deference and respectfor the powers and prerogatives of the Senate. In the speech, therefore, which Nero delivered in the senate-chamber, he said thatin assuming the imperial dignity, which he had consented to do inobedience to the will of his father the late emperor, to the generalvoice of the army, and the universal suffrages of the people, hedid not intend to usurp the civil powers of the state, but to leaveto the Senate, and to the various civil functionaries of the city, their rightful and proper jurisdiction. He considered himself asmerely the commander-in-chief of the armies of the commonwealth, andas such, his duty would be simply to execute the national will. Hepromised, moreover, a great variety of reforms in theadministration, all tending to diminish the authority of the prince, and to protect the people from danger of oppression by militarypower. In a word, it was his settled purpose, he said, to restorethe government to its pristine simplicity and purity, and toadminister it in strict accordance with the true principles of theRoman Constitution, as originally established by the founders of thecommonwealth. The professions and promises which Nero thus made tothe Senate, or rather which he recited to them at the dictation ofhis mother and of Seneca, gave great satisfaction to all who heardthem. All opposition to the claims which he advanced, disappeared, and the heart of Agrippina was filled with gladness and joy atfinding that all her plans had been so fully and successfullyrealized. 

The official authority of Nero being thus generally acknowledged, Agrippina began immediately to pursue a system of policy designed tosecure the possession of all real power for herself, leaving onlythe name and semblance of it to her son. She appeared in all publicplaces with him, sharing with him the pomp, and parade, and insigniaof office, as if she were associated with him in official power. Shereceived and opened the dispatches and sent answers to them. Sheconsidered and decided questions of state, and issued her orders. She caused several influential persons whom she supposed likely totake part with Britannicus, or at least secretly to favor hisclaims, to be put to death, either by violence or by poison; and shewould have caused the death of many others in this way, if Burrusand Seneca had not interposed their influence to prevent it. She didall these things in a somewhat covert and cautious manner, actinggenerally in Nero's name, so as not to attract too much attention atfirst to her measures. There was danger, she knew, of awakeningresistance and opposition, as public sentiment among the Romans hadalways been entirely averse to the idea of the submission of men, inany form, to the government of women. Agrippina accordingly did notattempt openly to preside in the senate-chamber, but she madearrangements for having the meetings of the Senate sometimes held inan apartment of the palace where she could attend, during thesitting, in an adjoining cabinet, concealed from view by a screen orarras, and thus listen to the debate. Even this, however, wasstrongly objected to by some of the senators. They considered thisarrangement of Agrippina's to be present at their debates asintended to intimidate them into the support of such measures as shemight recommend, or be supposed to favor, and thus as seriouslyinterfering with the freedom of their discussions. On one occasionAgrippina made a bolder experiment still, by coming into the hallwhere a company of foreign embassadors were to have audience, as ifit were a part of her official duty to join in receiving them. Herson, the emperor, and the government officers around him, wereconfounded when they saw her coming, and at first did not know whatto do. Seneca however, with great presence of mind, said to Nero, "Your mother is entering, go and receive her. " Hereupon, Nero lefthis chair of state, and accompanied by his ministers, went to meethis mother, and received her with great deference and respect; andthe attention of all present was wholly devoted to Agrippina whileshe remained, as to a very distinguished and highly honoredguest, --the business which had called them together being suspendedon her account until she withdrew. 

Notwithstanding some occasional difficulties and embarrassments ofthis kind, every thing went on for a time very prosperously, inaccordance with Agrippina's wishes and plans. Nero was very young, and little disposed at first to thwart or to resist his mother'smeasures. He was, however, all the time growing older, and he soonbegan to grow restive under the domination which Agrippina exercisedover him, and to form plans and determinations of his own. Therefollowed, as might have been expected, a terrible conflict for thepossession of power between him and his mother. The history and thetermination of this struggle will form the subject of the twofollowing chapters. 

CHAPTER VII. 

BRITANNICUS. 

A. D. 54-55

Britannicus and Acte. --Indignation of Agrippina. --Otho andSenecio. --Perplexity of Nero's ministers. --They determine to conniveat Nero's new connection. --Agrippina is greatly enraged. --Her furiousinvectives. --She becomes calm again. --Agrippina changes herpolicy. --Nero rejects his mother's advances. --His treatment ofher. --He makes her a present of jewelry. --Agrippina is enraged. --Neroresolves to subdue his mother. --His plan. --Pallas dismissed. --Hiswithdrawal. --Agrippina's bitter reproaches. --Her threats. --She declaresthat she will cause Nero to be deposed. --Probable character and meaningof these threats. --The game of "who shall be king?"--Nero's ordersto Britannicus. --The song which Britannicus sung. --Nero resolves toresort to poison. --Pollio and Locusta. --The plan at first fails. --Asecond attempt. --A second preparation. --Mode of administering thepoison. --Britannicus dies. --Agrippina's agitation and distress. --Effectproduced by the poison. --Remedy. --The interment of Britannicus. --Thestorm. --Nero's proclamation. 

The occasion which led to the first open outbreak between Agrippinaand her son was the discovery on her part of a secret and guiltyattachment which had been formed between Nero and a young girl ofthe palace whose name was Acte. Acte was originally a slave fromAsia Minor, having been purchased there and sent to Rome, veryprobably on account of her personal beauty. She had beensubsequently enfranchised, but she remained still in the palace, forming a part of the household of Agrippina. Nero had never feltany strong attachment for Octavia. His marriage he had alwaysregarded as merely one of his mother's political manoeuvers, andhe did not consider himself as really bound to his wife by any tie. He was, besides, still but a boy, though unusually precocious andmature; and he had always been accustomed to the most unlimitedindulgence of the propensities and passions of youth. 

The young prince, as is usual in such cases, was led on andencouraged in the vicious course of life that he was now beginningto pursue, by certain dissolute companions whose society he fellinto about this time. There were two young men in particular whoseinfluence over him was of the worst character. Their names were Othoand 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--hisfather being an emancipated slave. The three young men were, however, nearly of the same age, and being equally unprincipled anddissolute, they banded themselves together in the pursuit andenjoyment of vicious indulgences. Nero made Otho and Senecio hisconfidants in his connection with Acte, and it was in a greatmeasure through their assistance and co-operation that heaccomplished his ends. 

When Seneca and Burrus were informed of Nero's attachment to Acte, and of the connection which had been established between them, theywere at first much perplexed to know what to do. They were men ofstrict moral principle themselves, and as Nero had been theirpupil, and was still, while they continued his ministers, in somesense under their charge, they thought it might be their duty toremonstrate with him on the course which he was pursuing, andendeavor to separate him from his vicious companions, and bring himback, if possible, to his duty to Octavia. But then, on the otherhand, they said to each other that any attempt on their part reallyto control the ungovernable and lawless propensities of such a soulas Nero's must be utterly unavailing, and since he must necessarily, as they thought, be expected to addict himself to viciousindulgences in some form, the connection with Acte might perhaps beas little to be dreaded as any. On the whole, they concluded not tointerfere. 

Not so, however, with Agrippina. When she came to learn of this newattachment which her son had formed, she was very much disturbed andalarmed. Her distress, however, did not arise from any of thosefeelings of solicitude which, as a mother, she might have beenexpected to feel for the moral purity of her boy, but from fearsthat, through the influence and ascendency which such a favorite asActe might acquire, she should lose her own power. She knew verywell how absolute and complete the domination of such a favoritesometimes became, and she trembled at the danger which threatenedher of being supplanted by Acte, and thus losing her control. 

Agrippina was very violent and imperious in her temper, and had longbeen accustomed to rule those around her with a very high hand; andnow, without properly considering that Nero had passed beyond theage in which he could be treated as a mere boy, she attacked him atonce with the bitterest reproaches and invectives, and insisted thathis connection with Acte should be immediately abandoned. Neroresisted her, and stoutly refused to comply with her demands. Agrippina was fired with indignation and rage. She filled the palacewith her complaints and criminations. She accused Nero of the basestingratitude toward her, in repaying the long-continued and faithfulexertions and sacrifices which she had made to promote hisinterests, by thus displacing her from his confidence and regard, tomake room for this wretched favorite, and of falseness andfaithlessness to Octavia, in abandoning her, his lawful wife, forthe society of an enfranchised slave. Agrippina was extremelyviolent in these denunciations. She scolded, she stormed, sheraved--acting manifestly under the impulse of blind anduncontrollable passion. Her passion was obviously blind, for thecourse to which it impelled her was plainly very far from tending toaccomplish any object which she could be supposed to have in view. 

At length, when the first fury of her vexation and anger had spentitself, she began to reflect, as people generally do when recoveringfrom a passion, that she was spending her strength in workingmischief to her own cause. This reflection helped to promote thesubsiding of her anger. Her loud denunciations gradually died away, and were succeeded by mutterings and murmurings. At length shebecame silent altogether, and after an interval of reflection, sheconcluded 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 endeavorto retain her ascendency over him by aiding and countenancing him inhis pleasures. She accordingly changed by degrees the tone which shehad assumed toward him, and began to address him in words of favorand indulgence. She said that it was natural, after all, at his timeof life, to love, and that his superior rank and station entitledhim to some degree of immunity from the restrictions imposed uponordinary men. Acte was indeed a beautiful girl, and she was notsurprised, she said, that he had conceived an affection for her. Theindulgence of his love was indeed attended with difficulty anddanger, but, if he would submit the affair to her care andmanagement, 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 amother must always feel in all that relates to the prosperity andhappiness of her son. She said, moreover, that she was now ready andwilling to enter into and promote his views, and she offered him theuse of certain private apartments of her own in the palace, to meetActe in, saying that, by such an arrangement, and with theprecautions that she could use, he could enjoy the society of hisfavorite whenever he pleased, without interruption and withoutdanger. 

Nero very naturally reported all this to his companions. They ofcourse 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 artfuldevice on her part to get you into her power; and no young man ofpride and spirit will submit to the disgrace of being under hismother's management and control. " The young profligate listened tothe counsels of his associates, and rejected the overtures which hismother had made him. He continued his attachment to Acte, but keptas much as possible aloof from Agrippina. 

He desired, however, if possible, to avoid an open quarrel with hismother, and so he made some effort to treat her with attention andrespect, in his general bearing toward her, while he persisted inrefusing to admit her to his confidence in respect to Acte. Thesegeneral attentions were, however, by no means sufficient to satisfyAgrippina. The influence of Acte was what she feared, and she wellknew that her own power was in imminent danger of being underminedand overthrown, unless she could find some means of bringing herson's connection with his favorite under her own control. Thus thecalm that seemed for a short time to reign between Nero and hismother was an armistice rather than a peace, and this armistice wasbrought at length to a sudden termination by an act of Nero's whichhe intended as an act of conciliation and kindness, but which provedto be in effect the means of awakening his mother's anger anew, andof exciting her even to a more violent exasperation than she hadfelt before. 

It seems that among the other treasures of the imperial palace atRome there was an extensive wardrobe of very costly female dressesand decorations, which was appropriated to the use of the wives andmothers of the emperors. Nero conceived the idea of making a presentto his mother, from this collection. He accordingly selected amagnificent dress, and a considerable quantity of jewelry, and sentthem to Agrippina. Instead of being gratified with this gift, however, Agrippina received it as an affront. She had been so longaccustomed to consider herself as the first personage in theimperial household, that she regarded all such things as rightfullyher own; and she consequently looked upon the act of Nero informally presenting her with a small portion of these treasures, asa simple impertinence, and as intended to notify her that heconsidered all that remained of the collection as his property, andthenceforth as such subject to his exclusive control. Insteadtherefore of being appeased by Nero's offering she was greatlyenraged by it. The angry invectives which she uttered were dulyreported to the emperor, and his indignation and resentment werearoused by them anew, and thus the breach between the mother and theson became wider than ever. 

[Illustration: THE JEWELRY. ]

In fact Nero began to perceive very clearly that if he intended tosecure for himself any thing more than the empty semblance of power, he must at once do something effectual to curb the domineering andambitious spirit of his mother. After revolving this subject in hismind, he finally concluded that the measure which promised to bemost decisive was to dismiss a certain public officer named Pallas, who had been brought forward into public life many years before byAgrippina, and was now the chief instrument of her political power. Pallas was the public treasurer, and he had amassed such enormouswealth by his management of the public finances, that at one timewhen Claudius was complaining of the impoverished condition of hisexchequer, some one replied that he would soon be rich enough if hecould but induce his treasurer to receive him into partnership. 

Pallas, as has already been said, had been originally broughtforward into public life by the influence of Agrippina, and he hadalways been Agrippina's chief reliance in all her political schemes. He had aided very effectually in promoting her marriage withClaudius; and had co-operated with her in all her subsequentmeasures; and Nero considered him now as his mother's chiefsupporter and ally. Nero resolved, accordingly, to dismiss him fromoffice; and in order to induce him to retire peaceably, it wasagreed that no inquiry or investigation should be made into thestate of his accounts, but every thing should be considered asbalanced and settled. Pallas acceded to this proposal. During thewhole course of his official career, he had lived in greatmagnificence and splendor, and now in laying down his office, hewithdrew from the imperial palaces, at the head of a long train ofattendants, and with a degree of pomp and parade which attracteduniversal attention. The event was regarded by the public as adeclaration on the part of Nero, that thenceforth he himself and nothis mother was to rule; and Agrippina, of course, fell at once, many degrees, from the high position which she had held in thepublic estimation. 

She was, of course, greatly enraged, and though utterly helpless inrespect to resistance, she stormed about the palace, uttering theloudest and most violent expressions of resentment and anger. 

During the continuance of this paroxysm Agrippina bitterlyreproached her son for what she termed his cruel ingratitude. It wasaltogether to her, she said, that he owed his elevation. For a longcourse of years she had been making ceaseless exertions, hadsubmitted to the greatest sacrifices, and had even committed themost atrocious crimes, to raise him to the high position to which hehad attained; and now, so soon as he had attained it, and had madehimself sure, as he fancied, of his foothold, his first act was toturn basely and ungratefully against the hand that had raised him. But notwithstanding his fancied security, she would teach him, shesaid, that her power was still to be feared. Britannicus was stillalive, and he was after all the rightful heir, and since her son hadproved himself so unworthy of the efforts and sacrifices that shehad made for him, she would forthwith take measures to restore toBritannicus what she had so unjustly taken from him. She wouldimmediately divulge all the dreadful secrets which were connectedwith Nero's elevation. She would make known the arts by means ofwhich her marriage with Claudius had been effected, and the adoptionof Nero as Claudius's son and heir had been secured. She wouldconfess the murder of Claudius, and the usurpation on her part ofthe imperial power for Nero her son. Nero would, in consequence, bedeposed, and Britannicus would succeed him, and thus the baseingratitude and treachery toward his mother which Nero had displayedwould be avenged. This plan, she declared, she would immediatelycarry into effect. She would take Britannicus to the camp, andappeal to the army in his name. Both Burrus and Seneca would joinher, and her undutiful and treacherous son would be strippedforthwith of his ill-gotten power. 

These words of Agrippina were not, however, the expressions of soberpurpose, really and honestly entertained. They were the wild andunthinking threats and denunciations which are prompted in suchcases by the frenzy of helpless and impotent rage. It is not at allprobable that she had any serious intention of attempting suchdesperate measures as she threatened; for if she had reallyentertained such a design, she would have carefully kept it secretwhile making her arrangements for carrying it into execution. 

Still these threats and denunciations, though they were obviouslyprompted by a blind and temporary rage, which it might be reasonablysupposed would soon subside, made a deep impression upon Nero'smind. In the first place, he was angry with his mother for daring toutter them. Then there was at least a possibility that she mightreally undertake to put them in execution, as no one could foreseewhat her desperate frenzy might lead her to do. Then besides, evenif Agrippina's resentment were to subside, and she should seementirely to abandon all idea of ever executing her threats, Nero wasextremely unwilling to remain thus in his mother's power--exposedcontinually to fresh outbreaks of her hostility, whenever her angeror her caprice might arouse her again. The threats which his motheruttered made him, therefore, extremely restless and uneasy. 

A circumstance occurred about this time which, though very triflingin itself, had the effect greatly to increase the jealousy and fearin respect to Britannicus, which Nero was inclined to feel. It seemsthat among the other amusements with which the company wereaccustomed to entertain themselves in the social gatherings thattook place, from time to time, in the imperial palace, there was acertain 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, whateverthey might be, which the king so chosen might issue. Of course, thesuccess of the game depended upon the art and ingenuity of the kingin prescribing such things to be done by his various subjects, aswould most entertain and amuse the company. What the forfeit orpenalty was, that the rules of the game required, in case ofdisobedience, is not stated; but every one was considered bound toobey 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 hispalace, it fell to _his_ lot to be king. When it came to be the turnof Britannicus to receive orders, Nero directed him to go out intothe middle of the room, and sing a song to the company. This was avery severe requirement for one so young as Britannicus, and solittle accustomed to take an active part in the festivities of sogay a company; and the motive of Nero in making it, was supposed tobe a feeling of ill-will, and a desire to tease his brother, byplacing him in an awkward and embarrassing situation--one in whichhe would be compelled either to interrupt the game by refusing toobey the orders of the king, or to expose himself to ridicule bymaking a fruitless attempt to sing a song. 

To the surprise of all, however, Britannicus rose from his seatwithout any apparent hesitation or embarrassment, walked out uponthe floor, and took his position. The attention of the whole companywas fixed upon him. All sounds were hushed. 

He began to sing. The song was a lament, describing in plaintivewords and in mournful music, the situation and the sorrows of ayoung prince, excluded wrongfully from the throne of hisancestors. [B] The whole company listened with profound attention, charmed at first by the artless simplicity of the music, and thegrace and beauty of the boy. As Britannicus proceeded in his song, and the meaning of it, in its application to his own case, began tobe perceived, a universal sympathy for him was felt, by the wholeassembly, and when he concluded and resumed his seat, the apartmentwas filled with suppressed murmurs of applause. The effect of thisscene upon the mind of Nero, was of course only to awaken feelingsof vexation and anger. He looked on in moody silence, utteringmentally the fiercest threats and denunciations against the objectof his jealousy, whom he was now compelled to look upon, more thanever before, as a dangerous and formidable rival. He determined, infact, that Britannicus should die. 

[Footnote B: By some it has been thought that the song whichBritannicus sung on this occasion was one which he had learnedbefore--one perhaps which he had accidentally seen or heard, andwhich had attracted his attention on account of its adaptedness tohis own case; and there is a song of Ennius, an ancient writer, which is sometimes cited as the one he sang on this occasion. Otherssay that the performance was original and extemporaneous; that theyoung prince, excited by his wrongs, and by the peculiarcircumstances of the occasion, gave utterance to his own feelings inwords which suggested themselves to him on the spot. To do thiswould require, of course great intellectual readiness andability, --but the difficulty of such a performance would be somewhatdiminished by the fact, that the ancient poetry was wholly differentfrom that of modern times, being marked only by a measured cadence, unconnected with rhyme. ]

In considering by what means he should undertake to effect hispurpose, it seemed to Nero most prudent to employ poison. There wasno pretext whatever for any criminal charge against the youngprince, and Nero did not dare to resort to open violence. Hedetermined, therefore, to resort to poison, and to employ Locusta toprepare it. 

Locusta, the reader will remember, was the woman whom Agrippina hademployed for the murder of her husband, Claudius. She was still incustody as a convict, being under sentence of death for her crimes. She was in the charge of a certain captain named Pollio, an officerof the Prætorian guard. Nero sent for Pollio, and directed him toprocure from his prisoner a poisonous potion suitable for thepurpose intended. The potion was prepared, and soon afterward itwas administered. At least it was given to certain attendants thatwere employed about the person of Britannicus, with orders that theyshould administer it. The expected effect, however, was notproduced. Whether it was because the potion which Locusta hadprepared was too weak, or because it was not really administered bythose who received it in charge, no result followed, and Nero wasgreatly enraged. He sent for Pollio, and assailed him withreproaches and threats, and as for Locusta, he declared that sheshould be immediately put to death. They were both miserablecowards, he said, who had not the firmness to do their duty. Pollio, in reply, made the most earnest protestations of his readiness to dowhatever his master should command. He assured Nero that the failureof their attempt was owing entirely to some accidental cause, andthat if he would give Locusta one more opportunity to make thetrial, he would guarantee that she would prepare a mixture thatwould kill Britannicus as quick as a dagger would do it. 

Nero ordered that this should immediately be done. Locusta was sentfor, and was shut up with Pollio in an apartment adjoining that ofthe emperor, with directions to make the mixture there, and then toadminister it forthwith. Their lives were to depend upon the result. The poison was soon prepared. There was, however, a seriousdifficulty in the way of administering it, since a potion so suddenand violent in its character as this was intended to be, might beexpected to take immediate effect upon the taster, and so produce analarm which would prevent Britannicus from receiving it. To obviatethis difficulty, Pollio and Locusta cunningly contrived thefollowing plan. 

They mixed the poison when it was prepared, with cold water, and putit in the pitcher in which cold water was customarily kept in theapartment where Britannicus was to take his supper. When the timearrived Nero himself came in and took his place upon a couch whichwas standing in the room, with a view of watching the proceedings. Some broth was brought in for the prince's supper. The attendantwhose duty it was, tasted it as usual, and then passed it into theprince's hand. Britannicus tasted it, and found it too hot. It hadbeen purposely made so. He gave it back to the attendant to becooled. The attendant took it to the pitcher, and cooled it with thepoisoned water, and then gave it back again to Britannicus withoutasking the taster to taste it again. Britannicus drank the broth. Ina few minutes the fatal consequences ensued. The unhappy victim sanksuddenly down in a fainting fit. His eyes became fixed, his limbswere paralyzed, his breathing was short and convulsive. Theattendants rushed toward him to render him assistance, but his lifewas fast ebbing away, and before they could recover from the shockwhich his sudden illness occasioned them, they found that he hadceased to breathe. 

The event produced, of course, great excitement and commotionthroughout the palace. Agrippina was immediately summoned, and asshe stood over the dying child she was overwhelmed with terror anddistress. Nero, on the other hand, appeared wholly unmoved. "It isonly one of his epileptic fits, " said he. "Britannicus has beenaccustomed to them from infancy. He will soon recover. "

As soon, however, as there was no longer any room to question thatBritannicus was dead, Nero began immediately to make preparationsfor the burial of the body. The remorse which, notwithstanding hisdepravity, he could not but feel at having perpetrated such a crime, made him impatient to remove all traces and memorials of it from hissight; and, besides, he was afraid to wait the usual period and thento make arrangements for a public funeral, lest the truth in respectto the death of Britannicus might be suspected by the Romans, and aparty be formed to revenge his wrongs. Any tendency of this kindwhich might exist would be greatly favored, he knew, by theexcitement of a public funeral. He determined, therefore, that thebody should be immediately buried. 

There was another reason still for this dispatch. It seems that oneof the effects of the species of poison which Locusta hadadministered was that the body of the victim was turned black by itsoon after death. This discoloration, in fact, began to appear inthe face of the corpse of Britannicus before the time for theinterment arrived; and Nero, in order to guard against the exposurewhich this phenomenon threatened, ordered the face to be painted ofthe natural color, by means of cosmetics, such as the ladies of thecourt were accustomed to use in those days. By doing this thecountenance of the dead was restored to its proper color, andafterward underwent no further change. Still the emperor wasnaturally impatient to have the body interred. 

The preparations were accordingly made that same evening, and in themiddle of the night the body of Britannicus was buried in the Fieldof Mars, a vast parade-ground in the precincts of the city. Inaddition to the darkness of the night, a violent storm arose, andthe rain fell in torrents while the interment proceeded. Very few, therefore, of the people of the city knew what had occurred untilthe following day. The violence of the storm, however, whichpromoted in one respect the accomplishment of Nero's designs byfavoring the secrecy of the interment, in another respect operatedstrongly against him, for the face of the corpse became so wet withthe fallen rain, that the cosmetic was washed away and the blackenedskin was brought to view. The attendants who had the body in chargelearned thus that the boy had been poisoned. 

On the morning after the funeral the emperor issued a proclamationannouncing the death and burial of his brother, and calling upon theRoman Senate and the Roman people for their sympathy and support inthe 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 respectto his mother. --Plans and measures adopted by Agrippina. --Neroestablishes his mother as a private lady. --Agrippina finds herselfforsaken and friendless. --A plot discovered. --Statement of Paris. --Nerois greatly alarmed. --A council called. --Burrus defendsAgrippina. --Agrippina's indignant answer to the charge. --Return ofthe commissioners to Nero. --Nero is convinced of his mother'sinnocence. --Nero's course of life. --Riots in the street. --Agrippinalives in seclusion. --Poppæa. --Her influence over Nero. --Her tauntsand reproaches. --Effect of them on Nero's mind. --Nero begins todesire the death of his mother. --Great naval celebration atMisenum. --Anicetus. --Proposal of Anicetus. --Nero is pleased withit. --Arrangements for carrying it into effect. --Agrippina goesto Baiæ. --Preparations for destroying Agrippina. --Nero bids hismother an affectionate farewell. --Agrippina and her attendanton board the barge. --The result of the attempt. --Narrow escapeof Agrippina. --Agrippina and Aceronia in the sea. --Agrippinaescapes. --Her message to Nero. --Nero's alarm on bearing of hismother's escape. --Consultation with Seneca and Burrus. --Anicetusundertakes to finish his work. --Anicetus goes to Agrippina'svilla. --Conversation. --Agrippina is murdered. --Nero is overwhelmed withremorse and horror. --He becomes more calm. --The dead body. --Burningof the body of Agrippina. 

However it may have been with others, Agrippina herself was notdeceived by the false pretenses which Nero offered in explanationof his brother's death. She understood the case too well, and theevent filled her mind with a tumult of conflicting emotions. Notwithstanding the terrible quarrels which had disturbed herintercourse with the emperor, he was still her son, --her first-bornson, --and she loved him as such, even in the midst of the resentmentand hostility which her disappointed ambition from time to timeawakened in her mind. Her ambition was now more bitterlydisappointed than ever. In the death of Britannicus the last link ofher power over Nero seemed to be forever sundered. The hand by whichhe had fallen was still that of her son, --a son to whom she couldnot but cling with maternal affection, while she felt deeply woundedat what she considered his cruel ingratitude toward her, and vexedand maddened at finding herself so hopelessly circumvented in allher schemes. 

As for Nero himself, he had no longer any hope or expectation ofbeing on good terms with his mother again. He saw clearly that herschemes and plans were wholly incompatible with his, and that inorder to secure the prosperous accomplishment of his own designs hemust now finish the work that he had begun, and curtail and restricthis mother's influence by every means in his power. Other persons heattempted to conciliate. He made splendid presents to the leadingmen of Rome, as bribes to prevent their instituting inquiries inrespect to the death of Britannicus. To some he gave landed estates, to others sums of money, and others still he advanced to highoffices of civil or military command. Those whom he most feared heremoved from Rome, by giving them honorable and lucrativeappointments in distant provinces. 

In the mean time Agrippina herself was not idle. As soon as sherecovered from the first shock which the death of Britannicus hadoccasioned her, she began to think of revenge. Within the limitsand restrictions which the suspicion and vigilance of Nero imposedupon her, she formed a small circle of friends and adherents, andsought out, diligently, though secretly, all whom she supposed to bedisaffected to the government of Nero. She attached herselfparticularly to Octavia, who, being the daughter of Claudius, succeeded now, on the death of Britannicus, to whatever hereditaryrights had been vested in him. She collected money, so far as shehad power to do so, from all the resources which remained to her, and she availed herself of every opportunity to cultivate theacquaintance, and court the favor, of all such officers of the armyas were accessible to her influence. In a word, she seemed to bemeditating some secret scheme for retrieving her fallenfortunes, --and Nero, who watched all her motions with a jealous andsuspicious eye, began to be alarmed, not knowing to what desperateextremes her resentment and ambition might urge her. 

Up to this time Agrippina had lived in the imperial palace withNero, forming, with her retinue, a part of his household, andsharing of course, in some sense, the official honors paid to him. Nero now concluded, however, that he would remove her from thisposition and give her a separate establishment of her own, --makingit correspond in its appointments with the secondary and subordinatestation to which he intended thenceforth to confine her. Heaccordingly assigned to her a certain mansion in the city which hadformerly been occupied by some branch of the imperial family, andremoved her to it, with all her attendants. He dismissed, however, from her service, under various pretexts, such officers andadherents as he supposed were most devoted to her interests and mostdisposed to join with her in plots and conspiracies against him. Theplaces of those whom he thus superseded were supplied by men on whomhe could rely for subserviency to him. He diminished too the numberof Agrippina's attendants and guards; he withdrew the sentinels thathad been accustomed to guard the gates of her apartments, anddismissed a certain corps of German soldiers that had hithertoserved under her command, as a sort of life-guard. In a word heremoved her from the scenes of imperial pomp and splendor in whichshe had been accustomed to move, and established her instead in theposition of a private Roman lady. 

The unhappy Agrippina soon found that this change in her positionmade a great change in respect to the degree of consideration andregard which was bestowed upon her by the public. The circle of heradherents and friends was gradually diminished. Her visitors werefew. The emperor himself went sometimes to see his mother, but hecame always attended with a retinue, and after a brief and formalinterview, he retired as ceremoniously as he came, --thus giving tohis visit the character simply of a duty of state etiquette. In aword, Agrippina found herself forsaken and friendless, and her mindgradually sank into a condition of hopeless despondency, vexationand chagrin. 

Things continued in this state for some time until at length onenight when Nero had been drinking and carousing at a banquet in hispalace, a well-known courtier named Paris, one of the principal ofNero's companions and favorites, came into the apartment andinformed the emperor with a countenance expressive of great concern, that he had tidings of the most serious moment to communicate tohim. Nero withdrew from the scene of festivity to receive thecommunication, and was informed by Paris, that a discovery had beenmade of a deep-laid and dangerous plot, which Agrippina and certainaccomplices of hers had formed. The object of the conspirators, asParis alledged, was to depose Nero, and raise a certain descendantof Augustus Cæsar, named Plautus, to the supreme command, in hisstead. This revolution being effected, Agrippina was to marry thenew emperor, and thus be restored to her former power. 

The statement which Paris made was very full in all its details. Thenames of the chief conspirators were given, and all the plansexplained. The chief witness on whose authority the charge was made, was a celebrated woman of the court, an intimate acquaintance andvisitor of Agrippina, named Silana. Silana and Agrippina had beenvery warm friends, but a terrible quarrel had recently broken outbetween them, in consequence of some interference on the part ofAgrippina, to prevent a marriage, which had been partially arrangedbetween Silana and a distinguished Roman citizen, from being carriedinto effect. Silana had been exasperated by this ill office, andthe revelation which she had made had been the result. Whether sucha conspiracy had really been formed, and Silana had been induced tobetray the secret in consequence of the injury which Agrippina hadinflicted upon her in preventing her marriage, or whether she whollyinvented the story under the impulse of a desperate revenge, wasnever fully known. The historians of the time incline to the latteropinion. 

However this may be, Nero was greatly alarmed at the communicationwhich Paris made to him. He immediately abandoned his festivitiesand carousals, dismissed his guests, and called a council of hismost confidential advisers, to consider what was to be done. Hestated the case to this council, and announced it as hisdetermination immediately to pronounce sentence of death upon hismother and upon Plautus, and to send officers at once to execute thedecree, as the first step to be taken. Burrus, however, stronglydissuaded him from so rash a proceeding. "These are only charges, "said he, "at present. We have yet no proofs. An informer has cometo you at dead of night with this wild and improbable story, and ifwe take it for granted at once that it is true, and allow ourselvesto act under the influence of excitement and alarm, we shouldafterward regret our rashness when the consequences could not beretrieved. Besides, Agrippina is your mother; and as it is the rightof the humblest person in the commonwealth, when accused of crime, to be heard in answer to the accusation, it would be an atrociouscrime to deprive the mother of the emperor of that privilege. Postpone, therefore, pronouncing judgment in this case until we canlearn the facts more certainly. I pledge myself to execute sentenceof death on Agrippina, if after a fair hearing, this charge isproved against her. "

By such arguments and remonstrances as these Nero was in some degreeappeased, and it was determined to postpone taking any decisiveaction in the emergency until the morning. As soon as it was day, Burrus and Seneca, accompanied by several attendants, who were toact as witnesses of the interview, were dispatched to the house ofAgrippina to lay the charge before her and to hear what she had tosay. 

Agrippina was at first somewhat astonished at being summoned at soearly an hour to give audience to so formidable a commission; buther proud spirit had become so fierce and desperate under thetreatment which she had received from her son, that she was veryslightly sensible to fear. She listened, therefore, to the heavycharge which Burrus brought against her, undismayed; and when hepaused to hear her reply, instead of excusing and defending herself, and deprecating the emperor's displeasure, she commenced the mostsevere and angry invectives against her son, for listening for amoment 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 ofmaternal affection, should think it possible that a mother couldform plots and conspiracies against an only son, was not strange;but that Nero himself, for whom she had made such exertions andincurred such dangers, and to whose interests she had surrenderedand sacrificed every thing that could be dear to the heart of awoman--could believe such tales, and actually conceive the designof murdering his mother on the faith of them, was not to be endured. "Does not he know well, " said she, in a voice almost inarticulatewith excitement and indignation, "that, if by any means, Britannicus, or Plautus, or any other man were to be raised topower, my life would be immediately forfeited in consequence of whatI have already done for him? Can he imagine, after the deep anddesperate crimes which I have committed for his sake, in order thatI might raise him to his present power, that I could seal my owndestruction by bringing forward any one of his rivals and enemies tohis place? Go back and tell him this, and say, moreover, that Idemand an audience of him. I am his mother; and I have a right toexpect that he shall see me himself, and hear what I have to say. "

The commissioners whom Nero had sent with the accusations, weresomewhat astonished at receiving these angry denunciations andinvectives in reply, instead of the meek and faltering defense whichthey had expected. They were overawed, too, by the lofty andpassionate energy with which Agrippina had spoken. They answered herwith 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 thesame tone of proud and injured innocence, that had characterized herinterview with the messengers. She scorned to enter into anyvindication of herself; but _assumed_ that she was innocent, anddemanded that her accusers should be punished as persons guilty ofthe most atrocious calumny. Nero was convinced of her innocence, andyielded to her demands. Silana and two others of her accusers, werebanished from Rome. Another still was punished with death. 

Thus a sort of temporary and imperfect peace was once moreestablished 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 bythe ministers of state and the military generals, to whom Nerointrusted them, went on with tolerable prosperity and success, whilein every thing that related to personal conduct and character, thecondition of the emperor was becoming every day more and moredeplorable. He spent his days in sloth and sensual stupor, and hisnights in the wildest riot and debauchery. He used to disguisehimself as a slave, and sally forth at midnight with a party of hiscompanions similarly attired, into the streets of the city, disturbing the night with riot and noise. Sometimes they would goout at an earlier hour, --while the people were in the streets andthe shops were open, --and amuse themselves with seizing the goodsand merchandise that they found offered for sale, and assaulting allthat came in their way. In these frolics, the emperor and his partywere met sometimes by other parties; and in the brawls which ensuedNero was frequently handled very roughly--his opponents not knowingwho he was. At one time he was knocked down and very seriouslywounded; and in consequence of this adventure, his face was for along time disfigured with a scar. 

Although in these orgies Nero went generally in disguise, yet as heand his companions were accustomed afterward to boast of theirexploits, it soon became generally known to the people of the citythat their young emperor was in the habit of mingling in thesemidnight brawls. Of course every wild and dissolute young man inRome was fired with an ambition to imitate the example set him by soexalted an authority. Midnight riots became the fashion. As theparties grew larger, the brawls which occurred in the streets becamemore and more serious, until at last Nero was accustomed to takewith him a gang of soldiers and gladiators in disguise, who wereinstructed to follow him within call, so as to be ready to come upinstantly to his aid whenever he should require their assistance. 

Year after year passed away in this manner, Nero abandoning himselfall the time to the grossest sensual pleasures, and growing more andmore reckless and desperate every day. His mother lived during thisperiod in comparative seclusion. She attempted to exercise somelittle restraint over her son, but without success. She attachedherself strongly to Octavia, the wife of Nero, and would havedefended her, if she could, from the injuries and wrongs which theconduct of Nero as a husband heaped upon her. 

At length the young emperor, in following his round of viciousindulgence, formed an intimacy with a certain lady of the courtnamed Poppæa, the wife of Otho, one of Nero's companions inpleasure. Nero sent Otho away on some distant appointment, in orderthat he might enjoy the society of Poppæa without restraint. Atlength Poppæa gained so great an ascendency over the mind of theemperor as to seduce him entirely away from his duty to his wife, and she proposed that they should both be divorced and then marryone another. Nero was inclined to accede to this proposal, butAgrippina strongly opposed it. For a time Nero hesitated between theinfluence of Agrippina and the sentiment of duty, on the one hand, and the enticements of Poppæa on the other. In addition to theinfluence of her blandishments and smiles, she attempted to act uponNero's boyish pride by taunting him with what she called hisdegrading and unmanly subjection to his mother. How long, she asked, was he to remain like a child under maternal tutelage? She wonderedhow he could endure so ignoble a bondage. He was in name andposition, she said, a mighty monarch, reigning absolutely over halfthe world, --but in actual fact he was a mere nursery boy, who coulddo nothing without his mother's leave. She was ashamed, she said, tosee him in so humiliating a condition; and unless he would take somevigorous measures to free himself from his chains, she declared thatshe would leave him forever, and go with her husband to some distantquarter of the world where she could no longer be a witness of hisdisgrace. 

The effect of these taunts upon the mind of Nero was very muchheightened by the proud and imperious spirit which his mothermanifested toward him, and which seemed to become more and morestern and severe, through the growing desperation which the conductof her son and her own hopeless condition seemed to awaken in hermind. The quarrel, in a word, between the emperor and his mothergrew more and more inveterate and hopeless every day. At length heshunned her entirely, and finally, every remaining spark of filialduty having become extinguished, he began to meditate some secretplan of removing her out of his way. 

He revolved various projects for accomplishing this purpose, in hismind. He did not dare to employ open violence, as he had no chargeagainst his mother to justify a criminal sentence against her; andhe dreaded the effect upon the public mind which would be producedby the spectacle of so unnatural a deed as the execution of a motherby command of her son. He could not trust to poison. Agrippina wasperfectly familiar with every thing relating to the poisoning art, and would doubtless be fully on her guard against any attempt ofthat kind that he might make. Besides, he supposed, that by means ofcertain antidotes which she was accustomed to use, her system waspermanently fortified against the action of every species of poison. 

While Nero was revolving these things in his mind, the occasionoccurred for a great naval celebration at Baiæ, a beautiful baysouth of Rome, near what is now the bay of Naples. Baiæ wascelebrated in ancient times, as it is in fact now, for the beauty ofits situation, and it was a place of great resort for the Romannobility. There was a small, but well-built town at the head of thebay, and the hills and valleys in the vicinity, as well as everyheadland and promontory along the shore, were ornamented with villasand country-seats, which were occupied as summer residences by thewealthy people of the city. Baiæ was also a great naval station, andthere was at this time a fleet stationed there, --or rather at thepromontory of Misenum, a few miles beyond, --under the command of oneof Nero's confidential servants, named Anicetus. The navalcelebration was to take place in connection with this fleet. It wasan annual festival, and was to continue five days. 

Anicetus had been a personal attendant upon Nero in his infancy, andhad lived always in habits of great intimacy with him. For somereason or other, too, he was a great enemy to Agrippina, having beenalways accustomed, when Nero was a child, to take his part in thelittle contests which had arisen, from time to time, between him andhis mother. Anicetus was of course prepared to sympathize veryreadily with Nero in the hatred which he now cherished towardAgrippina, and when he learned that Nero was desirous of devisingsome means of accomplishing her death, he formed a plan which hesaid would effect the purpose very safely. He proposed to inviteAgrippina to Baiæ, and then, in the course of the ceremonies andmanoeuvers connected with the naval spectacle, to take her outupon the bay in a barge or galley. He would have the barge soconstructed, he said, that it should go to pieces at sea, makingarrangements beforehand for saving the lives of the others, butleaving Agrippina to be drowned. 

Nero was greatly pleased with this device, and determined at once toadopt the plan. In order to open the way for carrying it intoeffect, he pretended, when the time for the festival drew nigh, thathe desired to be reconciled to his mother, and that he was ready nowto fall in with her wishes and plans. He begged her to forget allhis past unkindness to her, and assuring her that his feelingstoward her were now wholly changed, he lavished upon her expressionsof the tenderest regard. A mother is always very easily deceived bysuch protestations on the part of a wayward son, and Agrippinabelieved all that Nero said to her. In a word, the reconciliationseemed to be complete. 

At length, when the time for the naval festival drew nigh, Nero, whowas then at Baiæ, sent an invitation to his mother to come and joinhim in witnessing the spectacle. Agrippina readily consented toaccept the invitation. She was at this time at Antium, the place, it will be recollected, where Nero was born. She accordingly setsail from this place in her own galley, and proceeded to thesouthward. She landed at one of the villas in the neighborhood ofBaiæ. Nero was ready upon the shore to meet her. He received herwith every demonstration of respect and affection. He had providedquarters for her at Baiæ, and there was a splendid barge ready toconvey her thither; the plan being that she should embark on boardthis barge, and leave her own galley, --that is the one by which shehad come in from sea, --at anchor at the villa where she landed. Thebarge in which Agrippina was thus invited to embark, was thetreacherous trap that Anicetus had contrived for her destruction. Itwas, however, to all appearance, a very splendid vessel, being veryrichly and beautifully decorated, as if expressly intended to dohonor to the distinguished passenger whom it was designed to convey. 

Agrippina, however, did not seem inclined to go in the barge. Shepreferred proceeding to Baiæ by land. Perhaps, notwithstandingNero's apparent friendliness she felt still some misgivings, andwas afraid to trust herself entirely to his power, --or perhaps shepreferred to finish her journey by land only because, in making thepassage from Antium, she had become tired of the sea. However thismay have been, Nero acquiesced at once in her decision, and provideda sort of sedan for conveying her to Baiæ by land. In this sedan shewas carried accordingly, by bearers to Baiæ, and there lodged in theapartments provided for her. 

No favorable opportunity occurred for taking Agrippina out upon thewater until the time arrived for her return to Antium. During thetime of her stay at Baiæ, Nero devoted himself to her with the mostassiduous attention. He prepared magnificent banquets for her, andentertained her with a great variety of amusements and diversions. In his conversation he sometimes addressed her with a familiarplayfulness and gayety, and at other times he sought occasions todiscourse with her seriously on public affairs, in a private andconfidential manner. Agrippina was completely deceived by theseindications, and her heart was filled with pride and joy at thethought that she had regained the affection and confidence of herson. 

Nero and Anicetus determined finally to put their plan intoexecution by inducing Agrippina to embark on board their barge inreturning to Antium, when the time should arrive, instead of goingback in her own vessel. Their other attempts to induce her to go outupon the water had failed, and this was the only opportunity thatnow remained. It was desirable that this embarkation should takeplace in the night, as the deed which they were contemplating couldbe more effectually accomplished under the cover of the darkness. Accordingly, on the afternoon of the day on which Agrippina was toreturn, Nero prepared a banquet for her, and he protracted thefestivities and entertainments which attended it until late in theevening, so that it was wholly dark before his mother could take herleave. Anicetus then contrived to have one of the vessels of hisfleet run against the galley in which Agrippina had come fromAntium, as it lay at anchor near the shore at the place where shehad landed. The galley was broken down and disabled by thecollision. Anicetus came to Agrippina to report the accident, witha countenance expressive of much concern; but added that the bargewhich the emperor had prepared for her was at her service, andproposed to substitute that in the place of the one which had beeninjured. There seemed to be no other alternative, and Agrippina, after taking a very affectionate leave of her son, went gayly, andwholly unconscious of danger, on board the beautiful but treacherousvessel. 

It was observed that Nero exhibited an extreme degree of tenderregard for his mother in bidding her farewell on this occasion. Hehung upon her neck a long time, and kissed her again and again, detaining her by these endearments on the shore, as if reluctant tolet her go. After Agrippina's death this scene was remembered bythose who witnessed it, but in reflecting upon it they could notdecide whether these tokens of affection were all assumed, asbelonging to the part which he was so hypocritically acting, orwhether he really felt at the last moment some filial relentings, which led him to detain his mother for a time on the brink of thepit which he had been preparing for her destruction. From all, however, that we now know in respect to the personal character whichNero had formed at this period, it is probable that the former isthe correct supposition. 

The plot, dextrous as the contrivance of it had been, was notdestined to succeed. The vessel moved gently from the shore, rowedby the mariners. It was a clear starlight night. The sea was smooth, and the air was calm. Agrippina took her place upon a couch whichhad been arranged for her, under a sort of canopy or awning, theframe-work of which, above, had been secretly loaded with lead. Shewas attended here by one of her ladies named Aceronia Polla, who layat her mistress's feet, and entertained her with conversation as theboat glided along on its way. They talked of Nero--of the kindattentions which he had been paying to Agrippina, and of the variousadvantages which were to follow from the reconciliation which hadbeen so happily effected. In this manner the hours passed away, andthe barge went on until it reached the place which had beendetermined upon for breaking it down and casting Agrippina into thesea. The spot which had been chosen was so near the land as to allowof the escape of the mariners by swimming, but yet remote enough, as was supposed, to make Agrippina's destruction sure. A few of themariners were in the secret, and were in some degree prepared forwhat was to come. Others knew nothing, and were expected to savethemselves as they best could, when they should find themselves castinto the sea. 

At a given signal the fastenings of the canopy were loosened, andthe loaded structure came down suddenly with a heavy crash, carryingaway with it other parts of the vessel. One man was crushed underthe weight of the falling ruins, and instantly killed. Agrippina andthe lady in waiting upon her were saved by the posts of the bed orcouch on which Agrippina was reclining, which happened to be in sucha position that they held up the impending mass sufficiently toallow the ladies to creep out from beneath it. The breaking down, too, of the deck and bulwarks of the barge was less extensive thanhad been intended, so that Agrippina not only escaped being crushedby the ruins but she also saved herself at first from being throwninto the sea. The men then who were in the secret of the plotimmediately raised a great cry and confusion, and attempted toupset the barge by climbing up upon one side of it--while theothers, who did not understand the case, did all they could to saveit. 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 therescue of the distressed vessel. Before they arrived, however, theboat had been overturned, Agrippina and Aceronia had been throwninto the sea, and the men who were in the secret of the plot, takingadvantage of the darkness and confusion, were endeavoring to sealthe fate of their victims, by beating them down with poles and oarsas they struggled in the water. 

[Illustration: THE ATTEMPT OF ANICETUS. ]

These efforts succeeded in the case of Aceronia, for she utteredloud and continual outcries in her terror, and thus drew uponherself the blows of the assassins. Agrippina, on the other hand, had the presence of mind to keep silence. She received one heavyblow upon the shoulder, which inflicted a serious wound. In otherrespects she escaped uninjured, and succeeded, partly through thebuoyancy of her dress, and partly by the efforts that she made toswim, in keeping herself afloat until she was taken up by thefishermen and conveyed to the shore. She was taken to a villabelonging to her, which was situated not far from the place wherethe disaster had occurred. 

As soon as Agrippina had recovered a little from the terror andexcitement of this scene, and had time to reflect upon thecircumstances of it, she was convinced that what had occurred was noaccident, but the result of a deep-laid design to destroy her life. She, however, thought it most prudent to dissemble her opinion for atime. As soon therefore as she had safely reached her villa, and herwound had been dressed, she dispatched a messenger to Baiæ to informNero of what had occurred. The vessel in which she had embarked hadbeen wrecked at sea, she said, and she had narrowly escapeddestruction. 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 neededmost was repose. She had sent the messenger, she said, to inform himof what had occurred only that he might rejoice with her in thesignal interposition of divine providence by which she had beenrescued from so imminent a danger. 

In the mean time Nero was waiting impatiently and anxiously in hispalace at Baiæ, for the arrival of a messenger from Anicetus toinform him that his plot had been successful, and that his motherwas drowned. Instead of this a rumor of her escape reached him sometime before Agrippina's messenger arrived, and threw him intoconsternation. People came from the coast and informed him that thebarge in which his mother had sailed had been wrecked, and thatAgrippina had narrowly escaped with her life. The particulars werenot fully given to him, but he presumed that Agrippina must havelearned that the occurrence was the result of a deliberate attemptto destroy her, and he was consequently very much alarmed. Hedreaded the desperate spirit of resentment and revenge which hepresumed had been aroused in his mother's mind. 

He forthwith sent for Burrus and Seneca, and revealed to them allthe circumstances of the case. He made the most bitter accusationsagainst his mother, in justification of his attempt to destroy her. He had long been convinced, he said, that there could be no peaceor safety for him as long as she lived, and now, at all events, since he had undertaken the work of destroying her and made theattempt, no alternative was left to him but to go on and finish whathe had begun. "She must die now, " said he, "or she will mostassuredly contrive some means to destroy me. "

Seneca and Burrus were silent. They knew not what to say. They sawvery clearly that a crisis had arrived, the end of which would be, that one or the other must perish, and consequently the onlyquestion for them to decide was, whether the victim should be themother or the son. At length, after a long and solemn pause, Senecalooked to Burrus, and inquired whether the soldiers under hiscommand could be relied upon to execute death upon Agrippina. Burrusshook his head. The soldiers, he said, felt such a veneration forthe family of Germanicus, which was the family from which Agrippinahad sprung, that they would perform no such bloody work upon anyrepresentative of it. "Besides, " said he, "Anicetus has undertakenthis duty. It devolves on him to finish what he has begun. "

Anicetus readily undertook the task. He had, in fact, a personalinterest in it, for, after what had passed, he knew well that therecould be no safety for him while Agrippina lived. Nero seemedoverjoyed at finding Anicetus so ready to meet his wishes. "Beprompt, " said he, "in doing what you have to do. Take with you whomyou please to assist you. If you accomplish the work, I shallconsider that I owe my empire to your fidelity. "

Anicetus, having thus received his commission, ordered a smalldetachment from the fleet to accompany him, and proceeded to thevilla where Agrippina had taken refuge. He found a crowd of countrypeople assembled around the gates of the villa. They had been drawnthither by the tidings of the disaster which had happened toAgrippina, curious to learn all the particulars of the occurrence, or desirous, perhaps, to congratulate Agrippina on her escape. Whenthese peasantry saw the armed band of Anicetus approaching, theyknow not what it meant, but were greatly alarmed, and fled in alldirections. 

The guards at the gates of Agrippina's villa made some resistanceto the entrance of the soldiers, but they were soon knocked down andoverpowered; the gates were burst open, and Anicetus entered at thehead of his party of marines. Agrippina, who was upon her bed in aninner chamber at the time, heard the noise and tumult, and wasgreatly alarmed. A number of friends who were with her, hearing thefootsteps of the armed men on the stairs, fled from the chamber indismay, by a private door, leaving Agrippina alone with her maid. The maid, after a moment's pause, fled too, Agrippina saying to heras she disappeared, "Are you, too, going to forsake me?" At the samemoment, Anicetus forced open the door of entrance, and came inaccompanied by two of his officers. The three armed men, with anexpression of fierce and relentless determination upon theircountenances, advanced to Agrippina's bedside. 

Agrippina was greatly terrified, but she preserved some degree ofoutward composure, and raising herself in her bed, she lookedsteadily 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 ambetter, and shall soon be entirely well. I can not believe that hecan possibly have sent you to do me any violence or harm. "

At this instant one of the assassins struck at the wretched motherwith his club. The arm, however, of the most hardened andunrelenting monster, usually falters somewhat at the beginning, indoing such work as this, and the blow gave Agrippina only aninconsiderable wound. She saw at once, however, that all waslost--that the bitter moment of death had come, --but instead ofyielding to the emotions of terror and despair which might have beenexpected to overwhelm the heart of a woman in such a scene, herfierce and indomitable spirit aroused itself to new life and vigorin the terrible emergency. As the assassins approached her withtheir swords brandished in the air, preparing to strike her, shethrew the bed-clothes off, so as to uncover her person, and calledupon her murderers to strike her in the womb. "It is there, " saidshe, "that the stab should be given when a mother is to be murderedby her son. " She was instantly thrust through with a multitude ofwounds in every part of her body, and died weltering in the bloodthat flowed out upon the couch on which she lay. 

Anicetus and his comrades, when the deed was done, gazed for amoment on the lifeless body, and then gathering together again thesoldiers that they had left at the gates, they went back to Baiæwith the tidings. The first emotion which Nero experienced, onhearing that all was over, was that of relief. He soon found, however, that monster as he was, his conscience was not yet sostupefied, that he could perpetrate such a deed as this withoutbringing out her scourge. As soon as he began to reflect upon whathe had done, his soul was overwhelmed with remorse and horror. Hepassed the remainder of the night in dreadful agony, sometimessitting silent and motionless--gazing into vacancy, as if hisfaculties were bewildered and lost, and then suddenly starting up, amazed and trembling, and staring wildly about, as if seized with asudden frenzy. His wild and ghastly looks, his convulsivegesticulations, and his incoherent ravings and groans, indicated thehorror that he endured, and were so frightful that his officers andattendants shrunk away from his presence, and knew not what to do. 

At length they sent in one after another to attempt to calm andconsole him. Their efforts, however, were attended with littlesuccess. When the morning came, it brought with it some degree ofcomposure; but the dreadful burden of guilt which pressed uponNero's mind made him still unutterably wretched. He said that hecould not endure any longer to remain on the spot, as every thingthat he saw, the villas, the ships, the sea, the shore, and all theother objects around him, were so associated in his mind with thethought of his mother, and with the remembrance of his dreadfulcrime, that he could not endure them. 

In the mean time, as soon as the servants and attendants atAgrippina's villa found that Anicetus and his troop had gone, theyreturned to the chamber of their mistress and gazed upon thespectacle which awaited them there, with inexpressible horror. Anicetus had left some of his men behind to attend to the disposalof the body, as it was important that it should be removed fromsight without delay, since it might be expected that all who shouldlook upon it would be excited to a high pitch of indignation againstthe perpetrators of such a crime. The countenance, in the conditionof repose which it assumed after death, appeared extremelybeautiful, and seemed to address a mute but touching appeal to thecommiseration of every beholder. It was necessary, therefore, tohurry it away. Besides, the soldiers themselves were impatient. Theywished to get through with their horrid work and be gone. 

They accordingly built a funeral pile in the garden of thevilla, --using such materials for the purpose as came most readily tohand--and then took up the body of Agrippina on the bed upon whichit lay, and placed all together upon the pile. The fires werelighted. The soldiers watched by the side of it until the pile wasnearly consumed, and then went away, leaving the heart-brokendomestics 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 messagesto the senate. --Action of the senate. --Nero divorces Octavia andmarries Poppæa. --Octavia banished from Rome. --Anicetus. --Octavia'sunhappy destiny. --Charges against her. --She is put to death. --Extremedepravity. --Nero recovers from his remorse. --His variouscrimes. --Public affairs neglected. --His performances on thestage. --Musical training. --Nero's success. --His trainedapplauders. --Rules and regulations at the theater. --Races andgames. --Nero generally the victor. --His private conduct andcharacter. --His midnight brawls. --Rioting and excess. --His greatfeasts. --The artificial lake. --Immense sums of money expended byNero. --His favorites. --His excursions to Ostia. --The burning ofRome. --Nero accused of being the incendiary. --His probablemotives. --He comes to see the fire. --He celebrates the occasion by asong. 

There was nothing in the attendant circumstances that were connectedwith the act of Nero in murdering his mother, which could palliateor extenuate the deed in the slightest degree. It was not an act ofself-defense. Agrippina was not doing him, or intending to do himany injury. It was not an act of hasty violence, prompted by suddenpassion. It was not required by any political necessity as a meansfor accomplishing some great and desirable public end. It was acool, deliberate, and well-considered crime, performed solely forthe purpose of removing from the path of the perpetrator of it anobstacle to the commission of another crime. Nero murdered hismother in cool blood, simply because she was in the way of his plansfor divorcing his innocent wife, and marrying adulterously anotherwoman. 

For some time after the commission of this great crime, the mind ofNero was haunted by dreadful fears, and he suffered continually, byday and by night, all the pangs of remorse and horror. He did notdare to return to Rome, not knowing to what height the popularindignation, that would be naturally excited by so atrocious a deed, might rise; or what might be the consequences to him if he were toappear in the city. He accordingly remained for a time on the coastat Neapolis, the town to which he had retired from Baiæ. From thisplace he sent various communications to the Roman Senate, explainingand justifying what he called the execution of his mother. Hepretended that he had found her guilty of treasonable conspiraciesagainst him and against the state, and that her death had beenimperiously demanded, as the only means of securing the publicsafety. The senators hated Nero and abhorred his crimes; but theywere overawed by the terrible power which he exercised over themthrough the army, which they knew was entirely subservient to hiswill, and by their dread of his ruthless and desperate character. They passed resolves approving of what he had done. His officers andfavorites at Rome sent him word that the memory of Agrippina wasabhorred at the capital, and that in destroying her, he wasconsidered as having rendered a great service to the state. Theserepresentations in some measure reassured his mind, and at length hereturned to the city. 

In due time he divorced Octavia, and married Poppæa. Octavia, however, still remained at Rome, residing in apartments assigned herin one of the imperial palaces. Her high birth and distinguishedposition, and, more than all, the sympathy that was felt for her inher misfortunes, made her an object of great attention. The peopleput garlands upon her statues in the public places in the city, andpulled down those which were placed at Nero's command upon those ofPoppæa. These and other indications of the popular feeling, inflamedPoppæa's hatred and jealousy to such a degree, that she suborned oneof Octavia's domestics to accuse her mistress of an ignominiouscrime. When thus accused, other women in Octavia's service were putto the rack to compel them to testify against her. They, however, persevered, in the midst of their tortures, in asserting herinnocence. Poppæa, nevertheless, insisted that she should becondemned, and at last, by way of compromising the case, Neroconsented to banish her from the city. 

She was sent to a villa on the sea-coast, in the neighborhood of theplace where Anicetus was stationed with his fleet. But Poppæa wouldnot allow her to live in peace even as an exile. She soon brought acharge against her of having formed a conspiracy against thegovernment of Nero, and of having corrupted Anicetus, with a view ofobtaining the co-operation of the fleet in the execution oftreasonable designs. Anicetus himself testified to the truth of thischarge. He said that Octavia had formed such a plan, and that shehad given herself up, in person, wholly to him, in order to inducehim to join in it. Octavia was accordingly condemned to die. 

Notwithstanding the testimony of Anicetus, Octavia was not at thetime generally believed to be guilty of the charge on which she wascondemned. It was supposed that Anicetus was induced, by promisesand bribes from Nero and Poppæa, to fabricate the story, in orderthat they might have a pretext for putting Octavia to death. Howeverthis may be, the unhappy princess was condemned, and the sentencepronounced upon her was, that she must die. 

The life of Octavia, lofty as her position was in respect to earthlygrandeur, had been one of uninterrupted suffering and sorrow. Shehad been married to Nero when a mere child, and during the wholeperiod of her connection with her husband he had treated her withcontinual unkindness and neglect. She had at length been cruellydivorced from him, and banished from her native city on charges ofthe most ignominious nature, though wholly false--and before thislast accusation was made against her there seemed to be nothingbefore her but the prospect of spending the remainder of her days ina miserable and hopeless exile. Still she clung to life, and whenthe messengers of Nero came to tell her that she must die, she wasoverwhelmed with agitation and terror. 

She begged and implored them with tears and agony, to spare herlife. She would never, she said, give the emperor any trouble, orinterfere in any way with any of his plans. She gave up willinglyall claims to being his wife, and would always consider herself asonly his sister. She would live in retirement and seclusion in anyplace where Nero might appoint her abode, and would never occasionhim the slightest uneasiness whatever. The executioners cut shortthese entreaties by seizing the unhappy princess in the midst ofthem, binding her limbs with thongs, and opening her veins. Shefainted, however, under this treatment, and when the veins wereopened the wretched victim lay passive and insensible in the handsof her executioners, and the blood would not flow. So they carriedher 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 ofAgrippina, the adulterous marriage with Poppæa, and the subsequentmurder of Octavia, are to be regarded as constituting one singlethough complicated crime, --was consummate and complete. It was acrime of the highest possible atrocity. To open the way to anadulterous marriage by the deliberate and cruel murder of a mother, and then to seal and secure it by murdering an innocentwife, --blackening her memory at the same time with an ignominywholly undeserved, constitute a crime which for unnatural andmonstrous enormity must be considered as standing at the head of allthat human depravity has ever achieved. 

Nero gradually recovered from the remorse and horror with which thecommission of these atrocities at first overwhelmed him; and inorder to hasten his relief he plunged recklessly into every speciesof riot and excess, and in the end hardened himself so completely incrime, that during the remainder of his life he perpetrated the mostabominable deeds without any apparent compunction whatever. Hekilled Poppæa herself at last with a kick, which he gave her in afit of passion at a time when circumstances were such with her thatthe violence brought on a premature and unnatural sickness. Heafterward ordered her son to be drowned in the sea, by his slaves, when he was a-fishing, because he understood that the boy, inplaying with the other children, often acted the part of an emperor. His general Burrus he poisoned. He sent him the poison underpretense that it was a medical remedy for a swelling of the throatunder which Burrus was suffering. Burrus drank the draught underthat impression and died. He destroyed by similar means in thecourse of his life great numbers of his relatives and officers ofstate, so that there was scarcely a person who was brought into anydegree of intimate connection with him that did not sooner or latercome to a violent end. 

During his whole reign Nero neglected the public affairs of theempire almost altogether, --apparently regarding the vast power, andthe immense resources that were at his command, as only means forthe more complete gratification of his own personal propensities andpassions. The only ambition which ever appeared to animate him was adesire for fame as a singer and actor on the stage. 

At the time when he commenced his career it was considered whollybeneath the dignity of any Roman of rank to appear in any publicperformance of that nature; but Nero, having conceived in his youtha high idea of his merit as a singer, devoted himself with greatassiduity to the cultivation of his voice, and, as he was encouragedin what he did by the flatterers that of course were always aroundhim, his interest in the musical art became at length an extravagantpassion. He submitted with the greatest patience to the rigoroustraining customary in those times for the development andimprovement of the voice; such as lying for long periods upon hisback, with a weight of lead upon his breast, in order to force themuscles of the chest to extraordinary exertion, for the purpose ofstrengthening them--and taking medicines of various kinds to clearthe voice and reduce the system. He was so much pleased with thesuccess of these efforts, that he began to feel a great desire toperform in public upon the stage. He accordingly began to makearrangements for doing this. He first appeared in privateexhibitions, in the imperial palaces and gardens, where only thenobility of Rome and invited guests were present. He, however, gradually extended his audiences, and at length came out upon thepublic stage, --first, however, in order to prepare the public mindfor what they would have otherwise considered a great degradation, inducing the sons of some of the principal nobility to come forwardin similar entertainments. He was so pleased with the success whichhe imagined that he met with in this career that he devoted a largepart of his time during his whole life to such performances. Ofcourse, his love of applause in his theatrical career, increasedmuch too fast to be satisfied with the natural and ordinary means ofgratifying it, and he accordingly made arrangements, most absurdly, to create for his performances a fictitious and counterfeitcelebrity. At one time he had a corps of five thousand men under payto applaud him, in the immense circuses and amphitheaters where heperformed. These men were regularly trained to the work ofapplauding, as if it were an art to be acquired by study andinstruction. It _was_ an art, in fact, as they practicedit, --different modes of applause being designated for differentspecies of merit, and the utmost precision being required on thepart of the performers, in the concert of their action, and in theirobedience to the signals. He used also to require on the days whenhe was to perform, that the doors of the theater should be closedwhen the audience had assembled, and no egress allowed on anypretext whatever. Such regulations of course excited greatcomplaint, and much ridicule; especially as the sessions at thesespectacles were sometimes protracted and tiresome to the lastdegree. Even sudden sickness was not a sufficient reason forallowing a spectator to depart, and so it was said that the peopleused sometimes to feign death, in order to be carried out to theirburial. In some cases, it was said, births took place in thetheaters, the mothers having come incautiously with the crowd towitness the spectacles, without properly considering what might bethe effect of the excitement, and then afterward not being permittedto retire. 

Besides singing and acting on the stage, Nero took part in everyother species of public amusement. He entered as a competitor forthe prize in races and games of every kind. Of course he always cameoff victor. This end was accomplished sometimes by the secretconnivance of the other competitors, and sometimes by open briberyof the judges. Nero's ridiculous vanity and self-conceit seemed tobe fully gratified by receiving the prize, without any regardwhatever to the question of deserving it. He used to come backsometimes from journeys to foreign cities, where he had beenperforming on the stage at great public festivals, and enter Rome intriumph, with the garlands, and crowns, and other decorations whichhe had won, paraded before him in the procession, in the manner inwhich distinguished commanders had been accustomed to display thetrophies of their military victories, when returning from foreigncampaigns. 

In fact it was only in the perpetration of such miserable follies asthese that Nero appeared before the public at all, and in hisprivate conduct and character he sank very rapidly, after he cameinto power, to the very lowest degree of profligacy and vice. Afterhaving spent the evening in drinking and debauchery, he would sallyforth into the streets at midnight, as has already been stated, tomingle there with the vilest men and women of the town in brawls andriots. On these excursions he would attack such peaceable parties ashe chanced to meet in the streets, and if they made resistance, heand his companions would beat them down and throw them into canalsor open sewers. Sometimes in these combats he was beaten himself, and on one occasion he came very near losing his life, having beenalmost killed by the blows dealt upon him by a certain Romansenator, whose wife he insulted as she was walking with her husbandin the street. The senator, of course, did not know him. He used togo to the theater in disguise, in company with a gang of companionsof similar character to himself, and watch for opportunities toexcite or encourage riots or tumults there. Whenever he couldsucceed in urging these tumults on to actual violence he wouldmingle in the fray, and throw stones and fragments of broken benchesand furniture among the people. 

After a while, when he had grown more bold and desperate in hiswickedness, he began to lay aside all disguise, and at last heactually seemed to take a pride and pleasure in exhibiting thescenes of riot and excess in which he engaged, in the most impudentmanner before the public gaze. He used to celebrate great feasts inthe public amphitheaters, and on the arena of the circus, andcarouse there in company with the most dissolute men and women ofthe city--a spectacle to the whole population. There was a largeartificial lake or reservoir in one part of the city, built for thepurpose of exhibiting mimic representations of the manoeuvers offleets, and naval battles, for the amusement of the people at greatpublic celebrations. There were, of course, numerous ranges of seatsaround the margin of this lake for the accommodation of thespectators. Nero took possession of this structure for some of hiscarousals, in order to obtain greater scope for ostentation anddisplay. The water was drawn off on such occasions and the gatesshut, and then the bottom of the reservoir was floored over to makespace for the tables. 

The sums of money which Nero spent in the pursuit of sensualpleasures were incalculable. In fact there were no bounds to hisextravagance and profusion. He had command, of course, of all thetreasure of the empire, and he procured immense sums besides, byfines, confiscations, and despotic exactions of various kinds; andas he undertook no public enterprises--being seldom engaged inforeign wars, and seldom attempting any useful constructions in thecity--the vast resources at his command were wholly devoted to thepurposes of ostentatious personal display, and sensualgratifications. The pomp and splendor of his feasts, hisprocessions, his journeys of pleasure, and the sums that he is saidto have lavished sometimes in money and jewels, and sometimes invillas, gardens, and equipages, upon his favorites, both male andfemale, are almost incredible. On some of the pleasure excursionswhich he took to the mouth of the Tiber, he would have the banks ofthe river lined with booths and costly tents all the way from theriver to the sea. These tents were provided with sumptuousentertainments, and with beds and couches for repose; and they wereall attended by beautiful girls who stood at the doors of theminviting Nero and his party to land, as they passed along the riverin their barges. He used to fish with a golden net, which was drawnby silken cords of a rich scarlet color. Occasionally he made grandexcursions of pleasure through Italy or into Greece, in the style ofroyal progresses. In these expeditions he sometimes had no less thana thousand carts to convey his baggage--the mules that drew thembeing all shod with silver, and their drivers dressed in scarletclothes of the most costly character. He was attended, also, onthese excursions, by a numerous train of footmen, and of Africanservants, who wore rich bracelets upon their arms, and were mountedon horses splendidly caparisoned. 

One of the most remarkable of the events which occurred duringNero's reign was what was called the burning of Rome, --a greatconflagration, by which a large part of the city was destroyed. Itwas very generally believed at the time that this destruction wasthe work of Nero himself, --the fruit of his reckless and willfuldepravity. There is, it is true, no very positive proof that thefire was set by Nero's orders, though one of the historians of thetime states that confidential servants belonging to Nero's householdwere seen, when the fire commenced, going from house to house withcombustibles and torches, spreading the flames. He was himself atAntium at the time, and did not come to Rome until the fire had beenraging 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 aconflagration. He intended, perhaps, only to destroy a few buildingsthat covered ground which he wished to occupy for the enlargement ofhis palaces; though it was said by some writers that he reallydesigned to destroy a great part of the city, with a view toimmortalize his name by rebuilding it in a new and more splendidform. With these motives, if these indeed were his motives, therewas doubtless mingled a feeling of malicious gratification at anything that would terrify and torment the miserable subjects of hispower. When he came to Rome from Antium at the time that theconflagration was at its height, he found the whole city a scene ofindescribable terror and distress. Thousands of the people had beenburned to death or crushed beneath the ruins of the fallen houses. The streets were filled with piles of goods and furniture burnt andbroken. Multitudes of men, though nearly exhausted with fatigue, were desperately toiling on, in hopeless endeavors to extinguish theflames, or to save some small remnant of their property, --anddistracted mothers, wild and haggard from terror and despair, wereroaming to and fro, seeking their children, --some moaning inanguish, and some piercing the air with loud and frantic outcries. Nero was entertained by the scene as if it had been a great dramaticspectacle. He went to one of the theaters, and taking his place uponthe stage he amused himself there with singing and playing acelebrated composition on the subject of the burning of Troy. Atleast it was said and generally believed in the city that he did so, and the minds of the people were excited against the inhuman monsterto the highest pitch of indignation. In fact, Nero seems to havethought at last that he had gone too far, and he began to makeefforts in earnest to relieve the people from some portion of theirdistress. He caused great numbers of tents to be erected in theparade-ground for temporary shelter, and brought fresh supplies ofcorn into the city to save the people from famine. These measures ofmercy, however, came too late to retrieve his character. The peopleattributed the miseries of this dreadful calamity to his desperatemaliciousness, 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. --Hisquarrel with Nero. --Lateranus. --Celebrity of his name. --The churchof St. John Lateran. --Fenius Rufus. --A woman in the secret. --Plansand arrangements of the conspirators. --Bold proposals of Flavius. --Thepalace to be set on fire. --Epicharis impatient. --She goes to thefleet. --She communicates with Proculus at Misenum. --Proculus revealsthe plot to Nero. --Nero perplexed. --Epicharis imprisoned. --A newplan. --Piso's objections. --Reasons. --Final arrangements agreedupon. --Nero to be slain in the theatre. --The several partsassigned. --Scevinus. --Excitement of Scevinus. --His knife. --He giveshis knife to Milichus to be ground. --Milichus confers with hiswife. --Their suspicions. --Revelations made by Milichus. --Scevinus'sdefense. --He denies the allegations of his accuser. --Neroperplexed. --The truth at last discovered. --Scevinus and Natalis makea full confession. 

Although the people of Rome were generally so overawed by the terrorof Nero's power, that for a long period no one dared to make anyopen resistance to his will, still his excesses and crueltiesexcited in the minds of men a great many secret feelings ofresentment and detestation. At one period in the course of his reigna very desperate conspiracy was formed by some of the leading men ofthe state, to dethrone and destroy the tyrant. This plot was a veryextensive and a very formidable one. It was, however, accidentallydiscovered before it was fully mature, and thus was unsuccessful. Itis known in history as Piso's Conspiracy--deriving its name fromthat of the principal leader of it, Caius Calpurnius Piso. 

It is not supposed, however, that Piso was absolutely the originatorof the conspiracy, nor is it known, in fact, who the originator ofit was. A great number of prominent men were involved in theplot--men who, possessing very different characters, and occupyingvery different stations in life, were probably induced by variousmotives to take part in the conspiracy. A conspiracy, however, ofthis kind, against so merciless a tyrant as Nero, is an enterpriseof such frightful danger, and is attended, if unsuccessful, withsuch awful consequences to all concerned in it, that men will seldomengage in such a scheme until goaded to desperation, and almostmaddened, 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 weshould now consider rather inadequate causes. For example, one ofthe men most active in this secret league, was the celebrated Latinpoet Lucan. In the early part of his life, Lucan had been one ofNero's principal flatterers, having written hymns and sonnets in hispraise. At length, as it was said, some public occasion occurred inwhich verses were to be recited in public, for a prize. Nero, whoimagined himself to excel in every human art or attainment, offeredsome of his own verses in the competition. The prize, however, wasadjudged to Lucan. Nero's mind was accordingly filled with envy andhate toward his rival, and he soon found some pretext for forbiddingLucan ever to recite any verses in public again. This of courseexasperated Lucan in his turn, and was the cause of his joining inthe conspiracy. 

Another of the conspirators was a certain Roman nobleman, whosefamily name has since become very widely known in all parts of thecivilized world, through an estate in the city with which it wasassociated, --which estate, and certain buildings erected upon it, became subsequently greatly celebrated in the ecclesiastical historyof Rome. The name of this nobleman was Plautius Lateranus. WhenLateranus was put to death at the detection of the conspiracy, inthe manner to be presently described, his estate was confiscated. The palace and grounds thus became the property of the Romanemperors. In process of time, the emperor Constantine gave the placeto the pope, and from that period it continued to be the residenceof the successive pontiffs for a thousand years. A church was builtupon the ground, called the Basilica of St. John of Lateran, wheremany ancient councils were held, known in ecclesiastical history asthe councils of the Lateran. This church is still used for some ofthe ceremonies connected with the inauguration of the pope, but thepalace is now uninhabited. It presents, however, in its ruins, avast and imposing, though desolate aspect. 

Lateranus was an unprincipled and dissolute man, and in consequenceof certain crimes which he committed in connection with Messalina, during the reign of Claudius, he had been condemned to death. Thesentence of death was not executed, though Lateranus was deprived ofhis rank, and doomed to live in retirement and disgrace. At thedeath of Claudius, and the accession of Nero, Lateranus was fullypardoned and restored to his former rank and position, throughNero's instrumentality. It might have been supposed that gratitudefor these favors would have prevented Lateranus from joining such aconspiracy as this against his benefactor, but gratitude has verylittle place in the hearts of those who dwell in the courts andpalaces of such tyrants as Nero. 

The man on whom the conspirators relied most for efficient militaryaid, so far as such aid should be needed in their enterprise, was acertain Fenius Rufus, a captain of the imperial guards. He was a manof very resolute and decided character, and was very highly esteemedby the people of Rome. He was not one of the originators of theplot, but joined it at a later period; and when the news of hisaccession to it was communicated to the rest, it gave them greatencouragement, as they attached great importance to the adhesion ofsuch a man to their cause. They now immediately began to takemeasures for executing their plans. 

There was a woman in the secret of this conspiracy, though how sheobtained a knowledge of it no one seemed to know. Her name wasEpicharis. While the execution of the plans of the confederates wasdelayed, Epicharis came to the principal conspirators privately, first to one and then to another, and urged them to action. None ofthe members of the plot would admit that they had given her anyinformation on the subject, and how she obtained her information noone could tell. She was a woman of bad character, and as such womenoften are, she was violent and implacable in her hatred. She hatedNero, and was so impatient at the delay of the conspirators thatshe made repeated and earnest efforts to urge them on. 

The conspirators in the mean time held various secret meetings tomature their plans, and to complete the preparation for theexecution of them. They designed to destroy Nero by some violentmeans, 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 wastall and graceful in form, and his personal appearance was in everyrespect prepossessing. His rank was very high, and he was held ingreat estimation by all the people of the city for the many generousand noble qualities that he possessed. He was allied, too, to themost illustrious families of Rome, and he occupied in all respectsso conspicuous a position, and was so much an object of popularfavor, that the conspirators believed that his elevation to theempire could easily be effected, if Nero himself could once be putout of the way. To effect the assassination of Nero, therefore, wasthe first step. 

After much debate, and many consultations in respect to the bestcourse to be pursued, it was decided to accept the offer of acertain Subrius Flavius, who undertook to kill the emperor in thestreets, at night, at some time when he was roaming about in hiscarousals. Flavius, in fact, was very daring and resolute in hisproposals, though wanting, as it proved in the end, in thefulfillment of them. He offered to stab Nero in the theater, when hewas singing on the stage, in the midst of all the thousands ofspectators convened there. This the conspirators thought, it seems, an unnecessarily bold and desperate mode of accomplishing the end inview, and the plan was accordingly overruled. Flavius then proposedto 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 attentionof the guards who had accompanied Nero should be drawn toward thefire, to assassinate the emperor in the streets. This plan wasacceded to by the conspirators, and it was left to Flavius to selecta favorable time for the execution of it. 

Time passed on, however, and nothing was done. The favorable timewhich Flavius looked for did not appear. In the meanwhile Epicharisbecame more and more impatient of the delay. She urged theconspirators to do their work, and chided in the strongest termstheir irresolution and pusillanimity. At length finding that herinvectives and reproaches were of no avail, she determined to leavethem, and to see what she could do herself toward the attainment ofthe end. 

She accordingly left Rome and proceeded southwardly along the coasttill she came to Misenum, which, as has already been said, was thegreat naval station of the empire at this time. Epicharis went tosome of the officers of the fleet, many of whom she knew, --and in avery secret and cautious manner made known to them the nature of theplot which had been formed at Rome for the destruction of Nero andthe elevation of Piso to the empire in his stead. Before, however, communicating intelligence of the conspiracy to any personswhatever, Epicharis would converse with them secretly andconfidentially to learn how they were affected toward Nero and hisgovernment. If she found them well disposed she said nothing. If onthe other hand any one appeared discontented with the government, orhostile to it in any way, she would cautiously make known to himthe plans which were concocting at Rome for the overthrow of it. Shetook care, however, in these conversations to have never more thanone person present with her at a time, and she revealed none of thenames of the conspirators. 

Among the other officers of the fleet was a certain Proculus, whowas one of the first with whom Epicharis communicated. Proculus wasone of the men who had been employed by Nero in his attempts toassassinate Agrippina his mother, and for his services on thatoccasion had been promoted to the command of a certain number ofships, 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 haddeserved. The perpetration of so horrible a crime as the murder ofthe emperor's mother, merited, in his opinion, as he said toEpicharis, a much higher recompense than the command of a thousandmen. Epicharis thought so too. She talked with Proculus about hiswrongs, and the injuries which he suffered from Nero's ingratitudeand neglect, until she fancied that he was in a state of mind whichwould prepare him to join in the plans of the conspirators, and thenshe cautiously unfolded them to him. 

Proculus listened with great apparent interest to Epicharis'scommunication, and pretended to enter very cordially into the planof the conspiracy; but as soon as the interview was ended heimmediately left Misenum, and proceeded immediately to Rome, wherehe divulged the whole design to Nero. 

Nero was exceedingly alarmed, and sent officers off at once to seizeEpicharis and bring her before him. Epicharis, when questioned andconfronted with Proculus, resolutely denied that she had ever heldany such conversation with Proculus as he alledged, and feigned theutmost astonishment at what she termed the impudence of hisaccusation. She called for witnesses and proofs. Proculus of coursecould produce none, for Epicharis had taken care that there shouldbe no third person present at their interviews. Proculus could noteven give the names of any of the conspirators at Rome. He couldonly persist in his declaration that Epicharis had really disclosedto him the existence of the conspiracy, and had proposed to him tojoin in it; while she on the contrary as strenuously and positivelydenied it. Nero was perplexed. He found it impossible to determinewhat to believe. He finally dismissed Proculus, and sent Epicharisto prison, intending that she should remain there until he couldmake a more full examination into the case, and determine what todo. 

In the mean time the conspirators became considerably alarmed whenthey heard of the arrest of Epicharis, and though they knew thatthus far she had revealed nothing, they could not tell how soon herfidelity and firmness might yield under the tortures to which shewas every day liable to be subjected; and as there appeared to benow no prospect that Flavius would ever undertake to execute hisplan, they began to devise some other means of attaining the end. 

It seems that Piso possessed at this time a villa and country-seatat Baiæ, on the coast south of Rome, and near to Misenum, and thatNero was accustomed sometimes to visit Piso here. It was nowproposed by some of the conspirators that Piso should invite Nero tovisit him at this villa, as if to witness some spectacles or showswhich should be arranged for his entertainment there, and that thenpersons employed for the purpose should suddenly assassinate him, when off his guard, in the midst of some scene of convivialpleasure. Piso, however, objected to this plan. He conceived, hesaid, that it would be dishonorable in him to commit an act ofviolence upon a guest whom he had invited under his roof, as hisfriend. He was willing to take his full share of the responsibilityof destroying the tyrant in any fair and manly way, but he would notviolate the sacred rites of hospitality to accomplish the end. 

So this plan was abandoned. It was supposed, however, that Piso hadanother and a deeper reason for his unwillingness that Nero shouldbe assassinated at Baiæ than his regard for his honor as a host. Hethought, it was said, that it would not be safe for him to be awayfrom Rome when the death of Nero should be proclaimed in thecapitol, lest some other Roman nobleman or great officer of stateshould suddenly arise in the emergency and assume the empire. Therewere, in fact, one or two men in Rome of great power and influence, of whom Piso was specially jealous and he was naturally very muchdisposed to be on his guard against opening any door of opportunityfor them to rise to power. To commit a great crime in order tosecure his own aggrandizement, and yet to manage the commission ofit in such a way as not only to shut himself off from the expectedbenefit, but to secure that benefit to a hated rival, would havebeen a very fatal misstep. So the plan of destroying Nero at Baiæwas overruled. 

At length one more, and as it proved a final scheme, was formed foraccomplishing the purpose of the conspiracy. It was determined toexecute Nero in Rome, at a great public celebration which was thenabout to take place. It seems that it was sometimes customary inancient times for persons who had any request or petition to make toan emperor or king, to avail themselves of the occasion of suchcelebrations to present them. Accordingly it was determined thatLateranus should approach Nero at a certain time during thecelebration of the games, as if to offer a petition, --the otherconspirators being close at hand, and ready to act at a moment'swarning. Lateranus, as soon as he was near enough, was to kneel downand suddenly draw the emperor's robes about his feet, and thenclasp the feet thus enveloped, in his arms, so as to render Nerohelpless. The other conspirators were then to rush forward and killtheir victim with their daggers. In the mean time while Lateranusand his associates were perpetrating this deed in the circus wherethe games were to be exhibited, Piso was to station himself in acertain temple not far distant, to await the result; while Fenius, the officer of the guard, who has already been mentioned as thechief military reliance of the conspirators, was to be posted inanother part of the city, with a military cavalcade in array, readyto proceed through the streets and bring Piso forth to be proclaimedemperor as soon as he should receive the tidings that Nero had beenslain. It is said that in order to give additional éclat andpopularity to the proceeding, it was arranged that Octavia, adaughter of Claudius, the former emperor, was to be brought forwardwith Piso in the cavalcade, as if to combine the influence of herhereditary claims, whatever they might be, with the personalpopularity of Piso in favor of the new government about to beestablished. 

Thus every thing was arranged. To each conspirator, his ownparticular duty was assigned, and, as the day approached for theexecution of the scheme, every thing seemed to promise success. Itis obvious, however, that, as the affair had been arranged, allwould depend upon the resolution and fidelity of those who had beendesignated to stab the emperor with their daggers, when Lateranusshould have grasped his feet. The slightest faltering or fear atthis point, would be fatal to the whole scheme. The man on whom theconspirators chiefly relied for this part of their work, was acertain desperate profligate, named Scevinus, who had been one ofthe earliest originators of the conspiracy, and one of the mostdauntless and determined of the promoters of it, so far as words andprofessions could go. He particularly desired that the privilege ofplunging the first dagger into Nero's heart should be granted tohim. He had a knife, he said, which he had found in a certain templea long time before, and which he had preserved and carried about hisperson constantly ever since, for some such deed. So it was arrangedthat Scevinus should strike the fatal blow. 

As the time drew nigh, Scevinus seemed to grow more and more excitedwith the thoughts of what was before him. He attracted the attentionof the domestics at his house, by his strange and mysteriousdemeanor. He held a long and secret consultation with Natalis, another conspirator, on the day before the one appointed for theexecution of the plot, under such circumstances as to increase stillmore the wonder and curiosity of his servants. He formally executedhis will, as if he were approaching some dangerous crisis. He madepresents to his servants, and actually emancipated one or two of hisfavorite slaves. He talked with all he met, in a rapid andincoherent manner, on various subjects, and with an air of gayetyand cheerfulness which it was obvious to those who observed him wasall assumed; for, in the intervals of these conversations, and atevery pause, he relapsed into a thoughtful and absent mood, as if hewere meditating some deep and dangerous design. 

That night, too, he took out his knife from its sheath, and gave itto one of his servants, named Milichus, to be ground. He directedMilichus to be particularly attentive to the sharpening of thepoint. Before Milichus brought back the knife, Scevinus directed himto prepare bandages such as would be suitable for binding up woundsto stop the effusion of blood. Milichus observed all thesedirections, and, having made all the preparations required, according to the orders which Scevinus had given him--keeping theknife, however, still in his possession--he went to report the wholecase to his wife, in order to consult with her in respect to themeaning of all these mysterious indications. 

[Illustration: THE KNIFE. ]

The wife of Milichus soon came to the conclusion, that these strangeproceedings could denote nothing less than a plot against the lifeof the emperor; and she urged her husband to go early the nextmorning, and make known his discovery. She told him that it wasimpossible that such a conspiracy should succeed, for it must beknown to a great many persons, some one of whom would be sure todivulge it in hope of a reward. "If you divulge it, " she added, "youwill secure the reward for yourself; and if you do not, you will besupposed to be privy to it, when it is made known by others, and sowill be sacrificed with the rest to Nero's anger. "

Milichus was convinced by his wife's reasonings, and on thefollowing morning, as soon as the day dawned, he rose and repairedto the palace. At first he was refused admittance, but on sendingword to the officer of the household, that he had intelligence ofthe most urgent importance to communicate to Nero, they allowed himto 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 spokeof the long and mysterious consultation which Scevinus and Natalishad held together on the preceding day; he described the singularconduct and demeanor which Scevinus had subsequently manifested, theexecution of his will, his wild and incoherent conversation, hisdirections in respect to the sharpening of the knife and thepreparation of the bandages; and, to crown his proofs, he producedthe knife itself, which he had kept for this purpose, and which thusfurnished, in some sense, an ocular demonstration of the truth ofwhat he had declared. 

Officers were immediately sent to seize Scevinus, and to bring himinto the presence of the emperor. Scevinus knew, of course, that theonly possible hope for him was in a bold and resolute denial of thecharge made against him. He accordingly denied, in the most solemnmanner, that there was any plot or conspiracy whatever, and heattempted to explain all the circumstances which had awakened hisservant's suspicions. The knife or dagger which Milichus hadproduced, was an ancient family relic, he said, --one which he hadkept for a long time in his chamber, and which his servant hadobtained surreptitiously, for the purpose of sustaining his falseand malicious charge against his master. As to his will, he oftenmade and signed a will anew, he said, as many other persons wereaccustomed to do, and no just inference against him could be drawnfrom the circumstance that he had done this on the preceding day;and in respect to the bandages and other preparation for thedressing of wounds which Milichus alledged that he had ordered, hedenied the statement altogether. He had not given any such orders. The whole story was the fabrication of a vile slave, attempting, bythese infamous means, to compass his master's destruction. Scevinussaid all this with so bold and intrepid a tone of voice, and withsuch an air of injured innocence, that Nero and his friends werehalf disposed to believe that he was unjustly accused, and todismiss him from custody. This might very probably have been theresult, and Milichus himself might have been punished for making afalse and malicious accusation, had not the sagacity of his wife, who was all the time watching these proceedings with the mostanxious interest, furnished a clew which, in the end, brought thewhole truth to light. 

She called attention to the long conference which Scevinus had heldwith Natalis on the preceding day. Scevinus was accordinglyquestioned concerning it. He declared that his interview was nothingbut an innocent consultation about his own private affairs. He wasquestioned then about the particulars of the conversation. Of coursehe was compelled to fabricate a statement in reply. Natalis himselfwas then sent for, and examined, apart from Scevinus, in regard tothe conversation they had held together. Natalis, of course, fabricated a story too, --but, as usual with such fabrications, thetwo accounts having been invented independently, were inconsistentwith each other. Nero was immediately convinced that the men wereguilty, and that some sort of plot or conspiracy had been formed. Heordered that they should both be put to the torture in order tocompel them to confess their crime, and disclose the names of theiraccomplices. In the mean time they were sent to prison, and loadedwith irons, to be kept in that condition until the instruments oftorture could be prepared. 

When at length they were brought to the rack, the sight of thehorrid machinery unmanned them. They begged to be spared, andpromised to reveal the whole. They acknowledged that a conspiracyhad been formed, and gave the names of all who had participated init. They explained fully, too, the plans which had been devised, andas in this case, though they were examined separately, theirstatements agreed, Nero and his friends were convinced of the truthof their declarations, and thus at last the plot was fully broughtto light. Nero himself was struck with consternation and terror atdiscovering 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 andexecutions. --General panic. --Death of Piso. --The conspiratorsdiscouraged. --Epicharis at the torture. --Her death. --The conspiratorstried before Nero. --Flavius. --Demeanor of Rufus in the garden. --He isaccused. --Rufus begs for his life. --His execution. --Flavius isaccused. --His desperation. --The execution of Flavius. --The executioner'sfears. --Seneca. --His character and public position. --Evidence againstSeneca. --His journey to Rome. --Seneca arrested. --His defence. --Theofficer's report. --Nero decides that Seneca must die. --The death ofSeneca. --Grief and despair of Paulina. --They save Paulina's life. --Theconsul Vestinus. --Large force sent to arrest Vestinus. --Vestinusarrested. --His extraordinary fate. --Nero is pleased. --The guests atVestinus's supper. --Appearances of public rejoicing. --Nero grants giftsto the army. --Nature of despotic government. --Secret of theirpower. --Doubt in respect to Piso's conspiracy. 

As soon as Nero had obtained all the information which he and hisofficers could draw from Scevinus and Natalis, and had sent to allparts of the city to arrest those whom the forced disclosures ofthese witnesses accused, he thought of Epicharis, who, it will berecollected, had been sent to prison, and who was still inconfinement there. He ordered Epicharis to be told that concealmentwas no longer possible, --that Scevinus and Natalis had divulged theplot in full, and that her only hope lay in amply confessing allthat she knew. 

This announcement had no effect upon Epicharis. She refused to admitthat she knew any thing of any conspiracy. 

Nero then ordered that she should be put to the torture. The engineswere prepared and she was brought before them. The sight of themproduced no change. She was then placed upon the wheel, and herfrail and delicate limbs were stretched, dislocated, and broken, until she had endured every form of agony which such engines couldproduce. Her constancy remained unshaken to the end. At length, whenshe was so much exhausted by her sufferings that she could no longerfeel the pain, she was taken away to be restored by medicaments, cordials, and rest, in order that she might recover strength toendure 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 outbodies of armed men, and stationed them on the walls of the city andin 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 aseach one saw that the only hope for safety to himself was in freelydenouncing others, the names of supposed confederates were revealedin great numbers, and as fast as these names were obtained the menwere seized and imprisoned or executed--the innocent and the guiltytogether. 

On the very first announcement that the plot had been discovered, those of the conspirators who were still at large made all haste tothe house of Piso. They found him prostrate in consternation anddespair. They urged him immediately to come forth, and to puthimself 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. Theconspirators could not arouse him to action. They were obliged toretire and leave him to his fate. He opened the veins in his arm, and bled to death while the soldiers whom Nero had sent werebreaking into his house to arrest him. 

Being thus deprived of their leader, the conspirators gave up allhope of effecting the revolution, and thought only of the means ofscreening 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 againto the torture. She was utterly helpless, --her limbs having beenbroken by the execution of the day before. The officers accordinglyput her into a sort of sedan chair, or covered litter, in order thatshe might be carried by bearers to the place of torture. She wasborne in this way to the spot, but when the executioners opened thedoor of the chair to take her out, they beheld a shocking spectacle. Their wretched victim had escaped from their power. She was hangingby the neck, dead. She had contrived to make a noose in one end ofthe cincture with which she was girded, and fastening the other endto some part of the chair within, she had succeeded in bringing theweight of her body upon the noose around her neck, and had diedwithout disturbing her bearers as they walked along. 

[Illustration: BRINGING EPICHARIS TO THE TORTURE. ]

In the mean time the various parties that were accused were seizedin great numbers, and were brought in for trial before a sort ofcourt-martial which Nero himself, with some of his principalofficers, held for this purpose in the gardens of the palace. Thenumber of those accused was so large that the avenues to the gardenwere blocked up with them, and with the parties of soldiers thatconducted them, and multitudes were detained together at the gates, in a state, of course, of awful suspense and agitation, waitingtheir turns. It happened singularly enough that among those whomNero summoned to serve on the tribunal for the trial of theprisoners were two of the principal conspirators, who had not yetbeen accused. These were Subrius Flavius and Fenius Rufus, whom thereader will perhaps recollect as prominent members of the plot. Flavius was the man who had once undertaken to kill the emperor inthe streets, and while standing near him at the tribunal, he madesigns to the other conspirators that he was ready to stab him to theheart now, if they would but say the word. But Rufus restrainedhim, anxiously signifying to him that he was by no means to attemptit. Rufus in fact seems to have been as weak-minded and irresoluteas Flavius was desperate and bold. 

In fact although Rufus, when summoned to attend in the garden, forthe trial of the conspirators, did not dare to disobey, he yet foundit very difficult to summon resolution to face the appalling dangersof his position. He took his place at last among the others, andwith a forced external composure which ill concealed the desperateagitation and anxiety which reigned in his soul, he gave himself tothe work of trying and condemning his confederates and companions. For a time no one of them betrayed him. But at length during theexamination of Scevinus, in his solicitude to appear zealous inNero's cause he overacted his part, so far as to press Scevinus tooearnestly with his inquiries, until at length Scevinus turnedindignantly toward him saying--

"Why do _you_ ask these questions? No person in Rome knows moreabout this conspiracy than you, and if you feel so devoted to thishumane and virtuous prince of yours, show your gratitude by tellinghim, yourself, the whole story. "

Rufus was perfectly overwhelmed at this sudden charge, and could notsay a word. He attempted to speak, but he faltered and stammered, and then sank down into his seat, pale and trembling, and coveredwith confusion. Nero and the other members of the tribunal wereconvinced of his guilt. He was seized and put in irons, and afterthe same summary trial to which the rest were subjected, condemnedto die. He begged for his life with the most earnest and piteouslamentations, but Nero was relentless, and he was immediatelybeheaded. 

The conspirator Flavius displayed a very different temper. When hecame to be accused, at first he denied the charge, and he appealedto his whole past character and course of life as proof of hisinnocence. Those who had informed against him, however, soonfurnished incontestable evidence of his guilt, and then changing hisground, he openly acknowledged his share in the conspiracy andgloried in it even in the presence of Nero himself. When Nero askedhim how he could so violate his oath of allegiance and fidelity asto conspire against the life of his sovereign, he turned to him withlooks of open and angry defiance and said--

"It was because I hated and detested you, unnatural monster as youare. There was a time when there was not a soldier in your servicewho was more devoted to you than I. But that time has passed. Youhave drawn upon yourself the detestation and abhorrence of allmankind by your cruelties and your crimes. You have murdered yourmother. You have murdered your wife. You are an incendiary. And notcontent with perpetrating these enormous atrocities, you havedegraded yourself in the eyes of all Rome to the level of the lowestmountebank and buffoon, so as to make yourself the object ofcontempt as well as abhorrence. I hate and defy you. "

Nero was of course astonished and almost confounded at hearing suchwords. He had never listened to language like this before. Hisastonishment was succeeded by violent rage, and he ordered Flaviusto be led out to immediate execution. 

The centurion to whom the execution was committed conducted Flaviuswithout the city to a field, and then set the soldiers at work todig the grave, as was customary at military executions, while hemade the other necessary preparations. The soldiers, in their haste, shaped the excavation rudely and imperfectly. Flavius ridiculedtheir work, asking them, in a tone of contempt, if they consideredthat the proper way to dig a military grave. And when at length, after all the preparations had been made, and the fatal moment hadarrived, the tribune who was in command called upon him to uncoverhis neck and stand forth courageously to meet his fate--he repliedby 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 suchcircumstances, was of course a very dreadful duty, even for a Romansoldier, and the executioner faltered greatly in the performance ofit. The decapitation should have been effected by a single blow; butthe officer found his strength failing him when he came to strike, so that a second blow was necessary to complete the severance of thehead from the body. The tribune was afraid that this, whenrepresented to Nero, might bring him under suspicion, as if itindicated some shrinking on his part from a prompt and vigorousaction in putting down the conspiracy; and so on his return to Nerohe 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 todispatch him. "

But perhaps the most melancholy of all the results of this mostunfortunate conspiracy, was the fate of Seneca. Seneca, it will beremembered, had been Nero's instructor and guardian in former years, and subsequently one of his chief ministers of state. He was nowalmost seventy years of age, and besides the veneration in which hewas held on this account, and the respect that was paid to theexalted position which he had occupied for so long a period, he wasvery highly esteemed for his intellectual endowments and for hisprivate character. His numerous writings, in fact, had acquired forhim an extensive literary fame. 

But Nero hated him. He had long wished him out of the way. It wascurrently reported, and generally believed, that he had attempted topoison him. However this may be, he certainly desired to find someoccasion of proceeding against him, and such an occasion wasfurnished by the developments connected with this conspiracy. 

Natalis, in the course of his testimony, said that he supposed thatSeneca was concerned in the plot, for he recollected that he wasonce sent to him, while he was confined to his house by illness, with a message from Piso. The message was, that Piso had repeatedlycalled at his, that is, Seneca's house, but had been unable toobtain admittance. The answer which Seneca had returned was, thatthe reason why he had not received visitors was, that the state ofhis health was very infirm, but that he entertained none butfriendly feelings toward Piso, and wished him prosperity andsuccess. 

Nero determined to consider this as proof that Seneca was privy tothe conspiracy, and that he secretly abetted it. At least hedetermined, for a first step, to send an officer with a band ofarmed men to arrest him, and to lay the crime to his charge. Senecawas not in the city at this time. He had been absent in Campania, which was a beautiful rural region, south of Rome, back fromMisenum. He was, however, that very day on his return to Rome, andSilvanus, the officer whom Nero sent to him, met him on the way, ata villa which he possessed a few miles from Rome. The name of thisvilla was Nomentanum. [C] Seneca had stopped at the villa to spendthe night, and was seated at the table with Paulina his wife, whenSilvanus and his troop arrived. 

[Footnote C: See map. Frontispiece. ]

The soldiers surrounded the house, so as to prevent all possibilityof escape, and posted sentinels at the doors. Silvanus and some ofhis associates then went in, and entering the hall where Seneca wasat supper, they informed him for what purpose they were come. Silvanus repeated what Natalis had testified in respect to themessages which had passed between Seneca and Piso. Seneca admittedthat the statement was true, but he declared that the word which hehad sent to Piso was only an ordinary message of civility andfriendliness; it meant nothing more. Finding that no fartherexplanation could be obtained, Silvanus left Seneca in his villa, with a strong guard posted around the house, and returned to Rome toreport to Nero. 

When Nero had heard the report, he asked Silvanus whether Senecaappeared sufficiently terrified by the accusation to make itprobable that he would destroy himself that night. [D] Silvanusanswered no. "He displayed, " said he, "no marks of fear. There wasno agitation, no sign of regret, no token of sorrow. His words andlooks bespoke a mind calm, confident and firm. "

[Footnote D: It seems to have been considered by public men in thosedays, that to resolve on self-destruction was a much more honorablecourse to pursue in an extreme emergency like this, than to wait tobe condemned and executed by the officers of the law. The attempt tofrighten a man into the act of killing himself was accordingly _one_of the various modes which a tyrant might resort to, to remove thosewho were obnoxious to him. ]

"Go to him, " rejoined Nero, "and tell him that he must make up hismind to die. "

Silvanus was thunderstruck at receiving this order. He could notbelieve it possible that Nero would really put to death a man sovenerable in years and wisdom, who had been to him all his life, inthe place of a father. Instead of proceeding directly to Seneca'shouse he went to consult with the captain of the guard, who, thoughreally one of the conspirators, had not yet been accused, and wasstill at liberty, though trembling with apprehension at theimminence of his danger. The captain, after hearing the case, saidthat nothing was to be done but to deliver the message. Silvanusthen went to Seneca's villa, but not being able to endure thethought of being himself the bearer of such tidings, sent in acenturion with the message. 

Seneca received it with calm composure, and immediately madepreparations for terminating his life. His wife Paulina insisted onsharing his fate. He gathered his friends around him to give themhis parting counsels and bid them farewell, and ordered his servantsto make the necessary preparations for opening his veins. Thenensued one of those sad and awful scenes of mourning and death, withwhich the page of ancient history is so often darkened--formingpictures, as they do, too shocking to be exhibited in full detail. The calm composure of Seneca, was contrasted on the one hand withthe bitter anguish and loud lamentations of his domestics andfriends, and on the other with Paulina's mute despair. When theveins were opened, the blood at first would not flow, and variousartificial means were resorted to, to accelerate the extinction oflife; at last, however, Seneca ceased to breathe. The domestics ofthe 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 layinsensible and helpless before them, and thus stopping the farthereffusion of blood, they watched over her with assiduous care, inhopes to restore her. They succeeded. They brought her back to life, or rather to a semblance of life; for she never really recovered soas to be herself again, during the few lonely and desolate yearsthrough which she afterward lingered. 

There was another Roman citizen of the highest rank who fell aninnocent victim to the angry passions which the discovery of thisplot awakened in Nero's mind. It was the consul Vestinus. Vestinuswas a man of great loftiness of character, and had never evincedthat pliancy of temper, and that submissiveness to the imperialwill, which Nero required. His position, too, as consul, which wasthe highest civil office in the commonwealth, gave him a vastinfluence over the people of Rome, so that Nero feared as well ashated him. In fact, so great was his independence of character, andhis intractability, as it was sometimes called, that theconspirators, after mature deliberation, had concluded not topropose to him to engage in the plot. But, though he was thusinnocent, Nero did not certainly know the fact, and, at any rate, such an opportunity to effect the destruction of a hated rival, wastoo good to be lost. Very soon, therefore, after the disclosure ofthe conspiracy had been made, Nero sent a tribune, at the head offive hundred men, to arrest the consul. 

This large force was designated for the service, partly because, --onaccount of the high rank and office of the accused, --Nero did notknow what means of resistance the consul might be able to command, and partly because his house, which was situated in the most publicpart of the city, overlooking the Forum, was in itself a sort ofcitadel, of which the various officers of Vestinus's household, andhis numerous retainers, constituted a sort of garrison. It happenedthat, at the time when Nero sent his troop to make the arrest, Vestinus was entertaining a large party of friends at supper. Thefestivities were suddenly interrupted, and the whole company werethrown into a state of the most frightful excitement and confusion, by the sudden onset of this large body of armed men, who besiegedthe doors, blocked up all the avenues of approach, and, surroundingand guarding the house on every side, shut all the inmates in, as ifthey were investing the castle of an enemy. Certain soldiers of theguard were then sent in to Vestinus in the banqueting-room, toinform him that the tribune wished to speak with him on importantbusiness. 

The consul knew the character of Nero, and the feelings which thetyrant entertained toward him too well, and saw too clearly theadvantage which the discovery of the conspiracy gave to Nero, not toperceive at once that his fate was sealed; and the action which hetook in this frightful emergency comported well with hisinsubmissive and intractable character. Instead of obeying thesummons of the tribune, he repaired immediately to a privateapartment, summoned his physician, directed a bath to be prepared, ordered the physician to open his veins, lay down in the bath topromote the flowing of the blood, and in a few minutes ceased tobreathe. 

The announcement of the consul's death, when it came to be reportedto Nero, of course gave him great satisfaction. He continued theguards, however, still about the house, keeping the guestsimprisoned in the banqueting-room for many hours. Of course, duringall this time, the minds of these guests were in a state of extremedistress and apprehension, inasmuch as every one of them mustnecessarily have felt in immediate danger. When the anxiety andagitation which they felt, was reported to Nero, he was greatlyentertained by it, and said that they were paying for their consularsupper. 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 inconsequence of this conspiracy, was very large; so that the streetswere filled with executions and with funeral processions for manydays. Universal grief and panic prevailed, and yet no one dared tomanifest the slightest indications of sorrow or of fear. The peoplesupposed that pity for the sufferers, or anxiety for themselves, would be interpreted as proofs that they had been concerned in theconspiracy; for multitudes of those who had been put to death, werecondemned on pretexts and pretended proofs of the most frivolouscharacter. Every one, therefore, even of those whose nearest anddearest friends had been killed, was compelled to assume all theappearances of extravagant joy that so wicked a plot against thelife of so wise and excellent a prince, had been exposed, and theguilty devisers of it brought to punishment. Parents whose sons hadbeen slain, and wives and children who had lost their husbands andfathers, were thus compelled to unite in the congratulations andexpressions of joy which were everywhere addressed to the emperor. Processions were formed, addresses were made, sacrifices wereoffered, games, spectacles, and illuminations without number werecelebrated, to testify to the general rejoicing; and thus the citypresented all the outward appearances of universal gladness and joy, while, in truth, the hearts of men were everywhere overwhelmed withanxiety, grief, and fear. 

When at length a sufficient number of the citizens of Rome had beendestroyed, Nero assembled the army, and after making an address tothe troops on the subject of the conspiracy, and on his happy escapefrom the danger, he divided an immense sum of money from the publictreasury among the soldiers, so as to give a very considerablelargess to each man. He also distributed among them a vast amount ofprovisions from the public granaries. This act, and the connectionbetween Nero and the troops which it illustrates, explain what wouldotherwise seem an inscrutable mystery, namely, how it can bepossible for one man to bring the immense population of such anempire as that of ancient Rome so entirely under his power, that anynumber of the most prominent and influential of the citizens shallbe seized and beheaded, or thrust through the heart with swords anddaggers 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 betweenthem by which he says, "Help me to control, to domineer over, and toplunder the industrial classes of society, and I will give you alarge share of the spoil, " and the work is very easy. Thegovernments that have existed in the world have generally beenformed on this plan. They have been simply vast armies authorized tocollect their own pay by the systematic plunder of the millionswhose peaceful industry feeds and clothes the world. The remedywhich mankind is now beginning to discover and apply is equallysimple. The millions who do the work are learning to keep the armsin their own hands, and to forbid the banding together of masses oftroops for the purpose of exalting pride and cruelty to a positionof absolute and irresponsible power. 

In Nero's case, so great was the awe which the terrible power of theRoman legions inspired, that even the Senate bowed humbly before it, and joined in the general adulation of the hated tyrant. Theydecreed oblations and public thanksgivings; they erected new templesto express their gratitude to the gods for so signal a deliverance;they instituted new games and festivities to express the generaljoy, and erected statues and monuments in honor of those who hadcontributed to the discovery of the plot. The knife or dagger whichMilichus had produced as the one by which Nero was to have beenslain, was preserved as a sacred relic. A suitable inscription wasplaced upon it, and it was deposited, with all solemnity, in one ofthe temples of the city, there to remain a memorial of the event forall future generations. In a word, the tyrant's escape from deathcalled forth all the outward manifestations of joy which could havebeen deserved by the greatest public benefactor. 

And yet, notwithstanding all this, such was the estimate whichpublic sentiment really entertained of the true character of Nero, that it was considered extremely doubtful at the time, and has, infact, been so considered ever since, whether there ever was anyconspiracy at all. It was very extensively believed that the wholepretended discovery of the plot was an ingenious device on the partof Nero, to furnish him with plausible pretexts for destroying agreat number of men who were personally obnoxious to him. And wereit not almost impossible to believe that such monstrous wickednessand tyranny as that of Nero could riot so long over Romans withoutarousing them to some desperate attempts to destroy him, we mightourselves adopt this view, and suppose that this celebrated plot waswholly a fabrication. 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE EXPEDITION INTO GREECE. 

A. D. 65

Nero becomes more depraved and abandoned than ever. --Nero appears onthe public stage. --Estimation in which players were held. --Action ofthe Senate. --Theatrical excitements. --Humiliating demeanor of theemperor. --Rewards and honors conferred upon Nero. --The Olympicgames. --The plain. --Rules. --Preliminary arrangements of the Olympicgames. --Various contests and spectacles at the Olympic games. --Nerosets out for Greece. --His retinue. --Nero's progress throughGreece. --Crowds of auditors. --Nero is received with greatapplause. --The crown of olive leaves. --Ceremonies. --Sacrifices andfestivities. --Nero at Olympia. --His chariot race. --Nero receives theprizes. --Nero sends despatches to Rome. --His plan for cutting throughthe Isthmus of Corinth. --Breaking ground. --The golden pick-axe. --Heliuscalls upon Nero to return to Rome. --Nero returns. --His train. --Hisprizes. --His voyage. --Danger of shipwreck. --Journey to Rome. --Histriumphal entry into Rome. --His proceedings. --He continues the trainingof his voice. --The _Phonascus_. --Public performances. --Pecuniaryembarassments. --Bessus's story. --Nero sends to Egypt for thetreasure. --His disappointment. --The dream. 

As the excitement which had been produced by the discovery, real orpretended, of Piso's conspiracy, and by the innumerable executionswhich were attendant upon it, passed away, Nero returned to hisusual mode of life, and in fact abandoned himself to the indulgenceof 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 anddetestation. The only ambition which seemed to animate him was toexcel, or rather to have the credit of excelling, as a player andsinger on the public stage. 

Not long after the period of the conspiracy described in the lasttwo chapters, and when the excitement connected with it had in somemeasure subsided, the attention of the public began to be turnedtoward a great festival, the time for which was then approaching. This festival was celebrated with spectacles and games of variouskinds, which were called the quinquennial games, from thecircumstance that the period for the celebration of them recurredonce in five years. A principal part of the performances on theseoccasions consisted of contests for prizes, which were offered forthose who chose to compete for them. Some of these prizes were forthose who excelled in athletic exercises, and in feats of strengthand dexterity, while others were for singers and dancers, and otherperformers on the public stage. Nero could not resist the temptationto avail himself of this grand occasion for the display of hispowers, and he prepared to appear among the other actors andmountebanks as a competitor for the theatrical prizes. 

Performers on the public stage were regarded in ancient days much asthey are now. They were applauded, flattered, caressed, and mostextravagantly paid; but after all they formed a social classdistinct from all others, and of a very low grade. Just as now greatpublic singers are rewarded sometimes with the most princelyrevenues, --not twice or three times, but _ten_ times perhaps theamount ever paid to the highest ministers of state, --and receive themost flattering attentions from the highest classes of society, andare followed by crowds in the public streets, and enter citiesescorted by grand processions, while yet there is scarce arespectable citizen of the better class who would not feel himselfdemeaned at seeing his son or his daughter on the stage by theirside. 

In the same manner public sentiment was such in the city of Rome, inNero's day, that to see the chief military magistrate of thecommonwealth publicly performing on the stage, and entering into aneager competition with the singing men and women, the low comedians, the dancers, the buffoons, and other such characters, that figuredthere, was a very humiliating spectacle. In fact, when the time forthe quinquennial celebration approached, the government attempted toprevent the necessity of the emperor's actual appearing upon thestage, by passing in the Senate, among other decrees relating to thecelebrations, certain votes awarding honorary crowns and prizes toNero, by anticipation, --thus acknowledging him to be the firstwithout requiring the test of actual competition. But this did notsatisfy Nero. In fact, the honor of being publicly proclaimed victorwas not probably the chief allurement which attracted him. He wishedto enjoy the excitement and the pleasure of the contest, --to see thevast audience assembled before him, and held in charmed andenraptured attention by his performance; and to listen to and enjoythe triumphant grandeur of the applause which rolled andreverberated in the great Roman amphitheaters on such occasions withthe sound of thunder. In a word it was the vanity of personaldisplay, rather than ambition for an honorable distinction, thatconstituted the motive which actuated him. 

He consequently disregarded the honorary awards which the Senate haddecreed him, and insisted on actually appearing on the stage. Hisfirst performance was the reciting of a poem which he had composed. The poem was received, of course, with unbounded applause. Afterwardhe appeared on the stage in competition with the harpers and othermusical performers. The populace applauded his efforts with thegreatest enthusiasm, while the more respectable citizens weresilent, or spoke to each other in secret murmurs of discontent anddisapproval. There were a great many rules and restrictions whichthe candidates in these contests were required to observe; andthough they were all proper enough for the class of men for whomthey were intended, were yet such that the emperor, in subjectinghimself 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 wouldadvance to the front of the stage, and there, after the mannercustomary among the players of that day, would kneel down in animploring attitude, with his hands raised, as if humbly soliciting afavorable sentence from the audience, as his judges, and tremblinglywaiting their decision. This, considering that the suppliantperformer was the greatest potentate on earth, officiallyresponsible for the government of half the world, and the audiencebefore whom he was kneeling was mainly composed of the lowest rabbleof the city, seemed to every respectable Roman, absurd andridiculous to the last degree. 

Nevertheless, the fame of these exploits performed by Nero as apublic actor, spread gradually throughout the empire, and thesubject attracted special attention in the cities of Greece, wheregames and public spectacles of every kind were celebrated with thegreatest pomp and splendor. Several of these cities sent deputationsto Rome, with crowns and garlands for the emperor, which they haddecreed to him in honor of the skill and superiority which he haddisplayed in the histrionic art. Nero was extremely gratified athaving such honors conferred upon him. He received the deputationswhich brought these tokens, with great pomp and parade, as if theyhad been embassadors from sovereign princes or states, sent totransact business of the most momentous concern. He gave themaudience, in fact, before all others, and entertained them withfeasts and spectacles, and conferred upon them every other mark ofpublic consideration and honor. On one occasion, at a feast to whichhe had invited such a company of embassadors, one of them asked himto favor them with a song. The emperor at once complied, and sang asong for the entertainment of the company at the table. He wasrapturously applauded, and was so delighted with the enthusiasmwhich his performance awakened, as to exclaim that the Greeks were, after all, the only people that really had a taste for music; nonebut they, he said, could understand or appreciate a good song. 

The most renowned of all the celebrations of the ancient Greeks werethe Olympic games. These games constituted a grand nationalfestival, which was held once in four years on a plain in thewestern part of the Peloponnesus, called the Olympian Plain. Thisplain was but little more than a mile in extent, and was bordered onone side by rocky hills, and on the other by the waters of a river. Here suitable structures were erected for the exhibition of thespectacles and games, and for the accommodation of the spectators, and when the period for the celebrations arrived, immense multitudesassembled from every part of Greece to witness the solemnities. Thespectators, however, were all men; for with the exception of a fewpriestesses who had certain official duties to perform, no femaleswere allowed to be present. The punishment for an attempt to evadethis law was death; for if any woman attempted to witness the scenein 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 everoccurred, and in that case the woman was pardoned in considerationof the fact that her father, her brothers, and her son had all beenvictors in the games. 

The games continued for five days. The general arrangements weremade, and the umpires were appointed, by the government of Elis, which was the state in which the Olympian plain was situated. Therewas a gymnasium in the vicinity, where those who intended to enterthe lists as competitors were accustomed to put themselves intraining. This training occupied nearly a year, and for thirty daysprevious to the public exhibition the exercises were conducted atthis gymnasium in the same manner and form as at the gamesthemselves. There was a large and regularly organized policeprovided to preserve order, and umpires appointed with greatformality, to decide the contests and make the awards. These umpireswere inducted into office by the most solemn oaths. They boundthemselves by these oaths to give just and true decisions withoutfear or favor. 

The festival was opened, when the time arrived, in the evening, bythe offering of sacrifices, --the services being conducted in themost imposing and solemn manner. On the following morning atdaybreak the games and contests began. These consisted of races--inchariots, on horseback, and on foot, --the runners being in thelatter case sometimes dressed lightly, and sometimes loaded withheavy armor;--of matches in leaping, wrestling, boxing, and throwingthe discus;--and finally, of musical and poetical performances ofvarious kinds. To obtain the prize in any of these contests wasconsidered throughout the whole Grecian world as an honor of thehighest degree. 

The period for the celebration of these games began to draw nigh, asit happened, not long after the time when the deputations fromGreece came to Nero with the compliments and crowns decreed to himin token of their admiration of his public performances atRome, --and it is not at all surprising that his attention andinterest were strongly awakened by the approach of so renowned afestival. In short he resolved to go to Greece, and display hispowers before the immense and distinguished audiences that were toassemble on the Olympic plains. 

He accordingly organized a very large retinue of attendants andfollowers, and prepared to set out on his journey. This retinue wasin numbers quite an army; but in character it was a mere troop ofactors, musicians and buffoons. It was made up almost wholly ofpeople connected in various ways with the stage, so that the baggagewhich followed in its train, instead of being formed of arms andmunitions of war, as was usual when a great Roman commander hadoccasion to pass out of Italy, consisted of harps, fiddles, masks, buskins, and such other stage property as was in use in thosetimes, --while the company itself was formed almost entirely ofcomedians, singers, dancers, and wrestlers, with an immense retinueof gay and dissipated men and women, who exemplified every possiblestage of moral debasement and degradation. With this company Nerocrossed to the eastern shore of Italy, and there, embarking on boardthe vessels which had been prepared for the voyage, he sailed overthe Adriatic sea to the shores of Greece. 

He landed at Cassiope, a town in the northern part of the island ofCorcyra. Here there was a temple to Jupiter, and the first of Nero'sexploits was to go there and sing, being impatient, it would seem, to give the people of Greece a specimen of his powers immediately onlanding. After this he passed over to the continent, and thenceadvanced into the heart of Greece, playing, singing, and acting inall the cities through which he passed. As there were yet somemonths to elapse before the period for celebrating the Olympicgames, Nero had ample time for making this tour. He was of courseeverywhere received with the most unbounded applause, for of coursethose only, in general, who were most pleased with such amusements, and were most inclined to approve of Nero's exhibiting himself as aperformer, came together in the assemblies which convened to hearhim. Thus it happened that the virtuous, the cultivated, and therefined, remained at their homes; while all the idle, reckless, and dissolute spirits of the land flocked in crowds to theentertainments which their imperial visitor offered them. These men, of course, considered it quite a triumph for them that sodistinguished a potentate should take an active part in ministeringto their pleasures; and thus wherever Nero went he was sure to beattended by crowds, and his performances, whether skillful or not, could not fail of being extravagantly extolled in conversation, andof eliciting in the theaters thunders of applause. The consequencewas that Nero was delighted with the enthusiasm which hisperformances seemed everywhere to awaken. To be thus received andthus applauded in the cities of Greece, seemed to satisfy hishighest ambition. 

It has always been considered a very extraordinary proof of mentaland moral degradation on the part of Nero, that he could thusdescend from the exalted sphere of responsibility and duty to whichhis high official station properly consigned him, in order to minglein such scenes and engage in such contests as were exhibited in theordinary theaters and circuses in Greece. It is however not sosurprising that he should have been willing to appear as acompetitor at the Olympic games: so prominent were these games aboveall the other athletic and military celebrations of that age, and sogreat was the value attached to the honor of a victory obtained inthem. There was, it is true, no value in the prize itself, that wasbestowed upon the victors. There was no silver cup, or golden crown, or sum of money staked upon the issue. The only direct award was acrown of olive leaves, which, at the close of the contest, wasplaced upon the head of the victor. Everything pertaining to thiscrown was connected with the most imposing and peculiar ceremonies. The leaves from which the garland was made were obtained from acertain sacred olive-tree, which grew in a consecrated grove inOlympia. The tree itself had been originally brought, it was said, from the country of the Hyperboreans, by Hercules, and planted inOlympia, where it was sacredly preserved to furnish garlands for thevictors in the games. The leaves were cut from the tree by a boychosen for the purpose. He gathered the leaves by means of a goldensickle, which was set apart expressly to this use. When the timearrived for the crowning of the victor, the candidate was broughtforward in presence of a vast concourse of spectators, and placedupon a tripod, which was originally formed of bronze, but insubsequent ages was wrought in ivory and gold. Branches ofpalm-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 wasthen placed upon his head, and the festival ended with processionsand sacrifices and a public banquet given in honor of the occasion. On his return to his own country, the victor entered the capital bya triumphal procession, and was usually rewarded there by immunitiesand 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 wereproceeding thither from every part of Greece, and there entered intocompetition with all the common singers and players of the time. Theprize for excellence in music was awarded to him. It was, however, generally understood that the judges were bribed to decide in hisfavor. Nero entered as a competitor, too, in the chariot race; andhere he was successful in winning the prize; though in this case itwas decreed to him in plain and open violation of all rule. Heundertook to drive ten horses in this race; but he found the teamtoo much for him to control. The horses became unmanageable; Nerowas thrown out of his carriage and was so much hurt that he couldnot finish the race at all. He, however, insisted that accidents andcasualties were not to be taken into the account, and that inasmuchas he should certainly have outran his competitors if he had notbeen prevented by misfortune, he claimed that the judges shouldaward him the prize. Greatly to his delight the judges did so. It istrue they were bound by the most solemn oaths to make just and truedecisions; but it has been seldom found in the history of the worldthat official oaths constitute any serious barrier against thedemands or encroachments of emperors or kings. 

When the games were ended Nero conferred very rich rewards upon allthe judges. 

These successes at the Olympic games, nominal and empty as theyreally were, seemed to have inflamed the emperor's vanity andambition more than ever. Instead of returning to Rome he commencedanother tour through the heart of Greece, singing and playing in allthe cities where he went, and challenging all the most distinguishedactors and performers to meet him and contend with him for prizes. 

Of course the prizes were always awarded to Nero on this tour, asthey had been at the Olympic games. Nero sent home regulardespatches after each of his performances, to inform the RomanSenate of his victories, just as former emperors had been accustomedto send military bulletins to announce the progress of their armies, and the conquests which they had gained in battle; and with a degreeof vanity and folly which seems almost incredible, he called uponthe Senate to institute religious celebrations and sacrifices inRome, and great public processions, in order to signalize andcommemorate these great successes, and to express the gratitude ofthe people to the gods for having vouchsafed them. Not satisfiedwith expecting this parade of public rejoicing in Rome, he calledupon the Senate to ordain that similar services should be held inall the cities and towns throughout the empire. 

During the visit of Nero to Greece, he engaged in one undertakingwhich might be denominated a useful enterprise, though he managed itwith such characteristic imbecility and folly, that it ended, asmight have been foreseen, in a miserable failure. The plan which heconceived, was to cut through the Isthmus of Corinth, so as to opena ship communication between the Ionian and the Ægean seas. Such acanal, he thought, would save for many vessels the long anddangerous voyage around the Peloponnesus, and thus prevent many ofthe wrecks which then annually took place on the shores of thePeninsula, and which were often attended with the destruction ofmuch property and of many lives. 

The plan might thus have been a very good one, had any proper andefficient means been adopted for carrying it into execution; but inall that he did in this respect, Nero seems to have looked nofarther than to the performance of pompous and empty ceremonies incommencing the work. He convened a great public assembly on theground. He entertained this assembly with spectacles and shows. Hethen placed himself at the head of his life-guards, and, after aspeech of great promise and pretension, he advanced at the head of aprocession, singing and dancing by the way, to the place where thefirst ground was to be broken. Here he made three strokes with agolden pick-axe, which had been provided for the occasion, andputting the earth which he had loosened into a basket, he carried itaway to a short distance, and threw it out upon the ground. Thisceremony was meant for the commencement of the canal; and when itwas over, the company dispersed, and Nero was escorted by his guardsback to the city of Corinth, which lay at a few miles' distance fromthe scene. 

Nothing more was ever done. Nero issued orders, it is true, that allthe criminals, convicts, and prisoners in Greece, should betransported to the Isthmus, and set to work upon this canal; andsome Jewish captives were actually employed there for a time; but, for some reason or other, nothing was done. The actual work wasnever seriously undertaken. 

In the mean time, Nero had left the government at Rome in the handsof a certain ignoble favorite, named Helius, who, being placed incommand of the army during his master's absence, held the lives andfortunes of all the inhabitants at his supreme disposal, and, asmight have been expected, he pursued such a career of cruelty andoppression, in his attempts to overawe and subject those who wereunder his power, that a universal feeling of hostility and hatredwas awakened against him. Things at last assumed so alarming anattitude, that Helius was terrified in his turn, and at length hebegan to send for Nero to come home. Nero at first paid no attentionto these requests. The danger, however, increased; the crisis becameextremely imminent, so that a general insurrection was anticipated. Helius sent messengers after messengers to Nero, imploring him toreturn, if he wished to save himself from ruin;--but all the answerthat 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 heshould come back worthy of himself, after having fully accomplishedhis victories. At last Helius, growing desperate in view of theimpending danger, left Rome, and, traveling with all possibledispatch, night and day, came to Nero in Greece, and there made suchstatements and disclosures in respect to the condition of things atRome, 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 innumerablehorde of singers, dancers, poets, actors, and mountebanks in histrain. He brought with him the prizes which he had won in thevarious cities of Greece. The number of these prizes, it was said, was more than eighteen hundred. On his way through Greece, whenabout to return to Rome, he went to Delphi, to consult the sacredoracle there, in respect to his future fortunes. The reply of thePythoness was, "_Beware of seventy-three. _" This answer gave Nerogreat satisfaction and pleasure. It meant, he had no doubt, that hehad no danger to fear until he should have attained to the age ofseventy-three; and as he was yet not quite thirty, the response ofthe oracle seemed to put so far away the evil day, that he thoughthe might dismiss it from his mind altogether. So he repaid theoracle 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 returnto Italy encountered a terrible storm, by which they were dispersed, and many of them were destroyed. Nero himself had a very narrowescape, as the ship which he was in came very near being lost. Tosee him in this danger seems greatly to have pleased some of hisattendants, for so imperious and cruel was his temper, that he wasgenerally hated by all who came under his power. These men hated himso intensely that they were willing, as it would appear, to perishthemselves, for the pleasure of witnessing his destruction; and inthe 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 hiscompany, and organizing a new escort, he advanced toward Rome, in agrand triumphal march, displaying his prizes and crowns in all thegreat cities through which he passed, and claiming universal homage. When he arrived at the gates of Rome, he made preparations for agrand triumphal entry to the city, in the manner of great militaryconquerors. A breach was made in the walls for the admission of theprocession. Nero rode in the triumphal chariot of Augustus, with adistinguished Greek harpist by his side, who wore an Olympic crownupon his head, and carried another crown in his hand. Before thischariot marched a company of eighteen hundred men, each of themcarrying one of the crowns which Nero had won, with an inscriptionfor the spectators to read, signifying where the crown had been won, the name of the emperor's competitor, the title of the song which hehad sung, and other similar particulars. In this way he traversedthe principal streets, exhibiting himself and his trophies to thepopulace, and finally when he arrived at his house, he entered itwith great pomp and parade, and caused the crowns to be hung up uponthe innumerable statues of himself which had been erected in thecourts and halls of the building. Those which he valued most highlyhe placed conspicuously around his bed in his bedchamber, in orderthat they might be the last objects for his eyes to rest upon atnight, and the first to greet his view in the morning. 

As soon as he became established in Rome again, he began to form newplans for developing his powers and capacities as a musician, in thehope of gaining still higher triumphs than those to which he hadalready attained. Far from giving his time and attention to thepublic business of the empire, he devoted himself with new zeal andenthusiasm to the cultivation of his art. In doing this it wasnecessary, according to the customs and usages in respect to thetraining of musicians that prevailed in those days, that he shouldsubmit to rules and exercises most absurd and degrading to oneholding such a station as his; and as accounts of his mode of lifecirculated among the community, he became an object of generalridicule and contempt. In order to strengthen his lungs and improvehis voice he used to lie on his back with a plate of lead upon hischest, that the lungs, working under such a burden, might acquirestrength by the effort. He took powerful medicines, such as weresupposed in those days to act upon the system in such a manner as toproduce clearness and resonance in the tones of the voice. Hesubjected himself to the most rigid rules of diet, --and gave up thepractice of addressing the senate and the army, which the Romanemperors often had occasion to do, for fear that speaking so loudmight strain his voice and injure the sweetness of its tones. He hada special officer in his household, called his _Phonascus_, meaninghis voice-keeper. This officer was to watch him at all times, caution him against speaking too loud or too fast, --prescribe forhim, and in every way take care that his voice received nodetriment. During all this time Nero was continually performing inpublic, and though his performances were protracted and tedious tothe last degree, all the Roman nobility were compelled always toattend them, under pain of his horrible displeasure. 

As Nero went on thus in the career which he had chosen, --neglectingaltogether the affairs of government, and giving himself up more andmore every year to the most expensive dissipation, his financesbecame at length greatly involved, and he was compelled to resort toevery possible form of extortion, in order to raise the money thathe required. His pecuniary embarrassments became, at length, veryperplexing, and they were finally very much increased by theextraordinary folly which he displayed in giving credence to thedreams and promises of a certain adventurer who came to him fromAfrica. The name of this man was Bessus. He was a native ofCarthage. He came, at one time, to Rome, and having contrived, bymeans of presents and bribes which he offered to the officers ofNero's household, to obtain an audience of the emperor, he informedhim that he had intelligence of the highest importance tocommunicate, which was, that on his estate in Africa, there was alarge cavern, in which was stored an immense treasure. This treasureconsisted, he said, of vast heaps of golden ingots, rude andshapeless in form, but composed of pure and precious metal. Thecavern, he said, which contained these stores, was very spacious, and the gold lay piled in it in heaps, and sometimes in solidcolumns, towering to a prodigious height. These treasures had beendeposited there, he said, by Dido, the ancient Carthaginian queen, and they had remained there so long, that all knowledge of them hadbeen lost. They had been reserved, in a word, for Nero, and were allnow at his disposal, ready to be brought out and employed inpromoting the glory and magnificence of his reign. 

Nero readily gave credit to this story, and inasmuch as in theexuberance of his exultation he made known this wonderful discoveryto those around him, the tidings of it soon spread throughout thecity, and produced the most intense excitement among all classes. Nero immediately began to fit out an expedition to proceed toAfrica, and bring the treasure home. Galleys were equipped to conveyit, and a body of troops was designated to escort it, and suitableofficers appointed to proceed with Bessus to Carthage, andsuperintend the transportation of the metal. These preparationsnecessarily required some time, and during the interval Bessus wasof course the object at Rome of universal attention and regard. Nerohimself, finding that he was about to enter upon the possession ofsuch inexhaustible treasures, dismissed all concern in respect tohis finances, and launched out into wilder extravagance than ever. He raised money for the present moment, by assigning shares in thetreasure at exorbitant rates of discount, and thus borrowed andexpended with the most unbounded profusion. 

At length the expedition sailed for Carthage, taking Bessus withthem, --but all search for the cavern, when they arrived, wasunavailing. It proved that all the evidence which Bessus had of theexistence of the cave, and of the heaps of gold contained in it, wasderived from certain remarkable dreams which he had had, --and thoughNero's commissioners dug into the ground most faithfully in everyplace on the estate which the dreams had indicated, no treasure, andnot even the cavern, could ever be found. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

NERO'S END. 

A. D. 66. 

Galba. --His history. --His province. --Revolt of Vindex. --Embassadorssent to Galba. --Debates in the council. --Galba joins Vindex. --News ofthe rebellion meets Nero at Naples. --The proclamation of Vindex. --Nero'sire. --Nero plans new performances. --The new instruments. --Galba joinsthe insurrection. --Nero appalled. --His plans for vengeance. --He isrestrained. --He attempts to raise an army. --Slaves. --Nero's hopelesscondition. --His plans for escape. --The arrival of the cargoes of sandfrom Egypt. --His distraction and terror. --Nero proposes to fly toEgypt. --He sinks into hopeless despair. --The night. --He is deserted byhis guards. --He calls for a gladiator. --Phaon proposes a place ofretreat. --Nero's flight from the city. --Incidents. --He refuses to beburied before he is dead. --He gets through the wall. --He isconcealed. --Phaon counsels Nero to kill himself. --Nero is condemned bythe Senate. --The daggers. --Armed men come to arrest Nero at Phaon'shome. --The soldiers attempt to save Nero. --He dies. --Galba's march toRome. --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 verydistinguished commander, and had risen from one post of influenceand honor to another, until he became one of the most considerablepersonages in the state. Nero at length appointed him to the commandof a very large and important province in Spain. At this stationGalba remained some years, and he was here, attending regularly tothe duties of his government, at the time when Nero returned fromhis expedition into Greece. Galba himself, and all the othergovernors around him, felt the same indignation at Nero's crueltiesand crimes, and the same contempt for his low and degrading vanityand folly, that prevailed so generally at Rome. In fact, feelings ofexasperation and hatred against the tyrant, began to extenduniversally throughout the empire. The people in every quarter, infact, seemed ripe for insurrection. 

While things were in this state, a messenger arrived one day atGalba's court, from a certain chieftain of the Gauls, named JuliusVindex. This messenger came to announce to Galba that Vindex hadrevolted against the Roman government in Gaul. He declared, however, that it was only _Nero's_ power that Vindex intended to resist, andpromised that if Galba would himself assume the supreme command, Vindex would acknowledge allegiance to him, and would do all in hispower to promote his cause. He said, moreover, that such was thedetestation in which Nero was universally held, that there was nodoubt that the whole empire would sustain Galba in effecting such arevolution, if he would once raise his standard. At the same timethat this messenger came from Vindex, another came from the Romangovernor of the province of Gaul, where Vindex resided, to informGalba of the revolt, and asking for a detachment of troops toassist him in putting it down. Galba called a council, and laid thesubject before them. 

After some debate one of the councillors rose and said that therewas no more danger in openly joining Vindex in his rebellion, thanthere was in debating, in such a council, what they should do. "Itis just as treasonable, " said he, "to doubt and hesitate whether tosend 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 youchoose to be considered as aiding the revolution, you shouldinstantly send off troops to put it down. "

Galba was much impressed with the wisdom of this advice. He feltstrongly inclined to favor the cause of Vindex and the rebels, andon further reflection he secretly determined to join them, and totake measures for raising a general insurrection. He did not, however, make known his determination to any one, but dismissed thecouncil without declaring what he had concluded to do. Soonafterward he sent out to all parts of the province, and ordered ageneral mustering of the forces under his command, and of all thatcould be raised throughout the province, requiring them to meet at acertain appointed rendezvous. The army, though not openly informedof it, suspected what the object of this movement was to be, andcame forward to the work, with the utmost alacrity and joy. 

In the mean time the tidings of Vindex's revolt traveled rapidly toRome, and thence to Naples, where Nero was at this time performingon the public stage. Nero seemed to be very much delighted to hearthe news. He supposed that the rebellion would of course be veryeasily suppressed, and that when it was suppressed he could make itan excuse for subjecting the province in which it had occurred tofines and confiscations that would greatly enrich his treasury. Hewas extremely pleased therefore at the tidings of the revolt, andabandoned himself to the theatrical pursuits and pleasures in whichhe was engaged, more absolutely and recklessly than ever. 

In the mean time fresh messengers arrived at short intervals fromRome, to inform Nero of the progress of the rebellion. The news wasthat Vindex was gaining strength every day, and was issuingproclamations to the people calling upon them everywhere to rise andthrow off the ignoble yoke of oppression which they were enduring. In these proclamations the emperor was called Brazenbeard, anddesignated as a "wretched fiddler. " These taunts excited Nero's ire. He wrote to the Senate at Rome calling upon them to adopt somemeasures for putting down this insolent rebel, and having dispatchedthis letter, he seemed to dismiss the subject from his mind, andturned his attention anew to his dancing and acting. 

His mind was, however, soon disturbed again, for fresh messengerscontinued to come, each bringing reports more alarming than those ofhis predecessor. The rebellion was evidently gaining ground. Nerowas convinced that something must be done. He accordingly brokeaway, though with great reluctance, from his amusements at Naples, and proceeded to Rome. On his arrival at the capital he called acouncil of some of his principal ministers of state, and after ashort consultation on the subject of the rebellion--in which, however, nothing was determined upon--he proceeded to produce somenewly-invented musical instruments which he had brought with himfrom Naples, and in which he was greatly interested. After showingand explaining these instruments to the councilors, he promised themthat he would give them the pleasure before long of hearing aperformance 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 hisapartment. On retiring to rest, however, he found that he could notsleep. His thoughts were running on the musical instruments which hehad been showing, and on the pleasure which he anticipated in apublic performance with them. At length, at a very late hour, hesent for his councilors to come again to his apartment. They came, full of excitement and wonder, supposing that they were thussuddenly summoned on account of some new and very momentous tidingswhich had been received from Gaul. They found, however, that Neroonly wished to give some further account of the instruments which hehad shown them, and to ask their opinions of certain improvementswhich had occurred to him since they went away. 

Nero did not, however, remain very long in this state of insane andstupid unconcern; for on the evening of the following day a courierarrived from the north with the appalling intelligence that Vindexhad made himself master of Gaul, and that Galba, the most powerfulgeneral in the Roman army, had joined the insurrection with all thelegions under his command, and that he was now advancing toward Romeat 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. Heremained for some time silent and motionless, as if made completelysenseless with consternation. When at length he came to himselfagain, he fell into a perfect frenzy of rage and terror. Heoverturned the supper table, tore his garments, threw down twovaluable cups to the floor and broke them to pieces, and then beganto dash his head against the wall, as if he were perfectly insane. He said he was undone. No man had ever been so wretched. Hisdominions were to be seized from him while he yet lived, and heldby an usurper; he was utterly ruined and undone. 

After a little time had elapsed the agitation and excitement of hismind took another direction, that of furious anger against thegenerals and officers of his army, --not only those who had actuallyrebelled, but all others, for he was jealous and suspicious of all, and said that he believed that the whole army was engaged in theconspiracy. He was going to send out orders to the various provincesand encampments, for the assassination of great numbers of theofficers, --such as he imagined might be inclined to turn againsthim, --and he would probably have done so if he had not beenrestrained by the influence of his ministers of state. He alsoproposed to seize and kill all the Gauls then in Rome, as a mode oftaking vengeance on their countrymen for joining Vindex in hisrebellion, and could scarcely be prevented from doing this by theurgent remonstrances of all his friends. 

After a time Nero so far recovered his self-possession that he beganto make preparations for organizing an army, with the design ofmarching against the rebels. He accordingly ordered troops to beenlisted and arms and ammunition to be provided, --assessing at thesame time heavy taxes upon the people of Rome to defray the expense. All these arrangements, however, only increased the generaldiscontent. The people saw that the preparations which the emperorwas making were wholly inadequate to the crisis, and that noefficient military operations could ever come from them. In thefirst place, he could obtain no troops, for no men fit for soldierswere willing to enlist, --and so he undertook to supply thedeficiency by requiring every master of slaves to send him a certainnumber of his bondmen, and these bondmen he freed and then enrolledthem in his army, in lieu of soldiers. Moreover, in making provisionfor the wants of his army, instead of devoting his chief attentionto securing a sufficiency of arms, ammunition, military stores, andother such supplies as were required in preparing for an efficientcampaign, he seemed only interested in getting together actors, dancers, musical instruments, and dresses for performers on thepublic stage. In excuse for this course of procedure, Nero saidfrankly that he did not expect that his expedition would lead toany important military operations. As soon as he reached the rebelarmies his intention was, he said, to throw himself upon their senseof justice and their loyalty. He would acknowledge whatever had beenwrong in his past government, and promise solemnly that his sway infuture should be more mild and beneficent; and he had no doubt thatthus the whole disturbance would be quelled. The revolted troopswould at once return to their duty, and the musical and theatricalpreparations which he was making were intended for a series of grandfestivities to celebrate the reconciliation. 

Of course such insane and hopeless folly as this awakened asentiment of universal contempt and indignation among the people ofRome. The greatest excitement and confusion prevailed throughout thecity; and, as is usual in times of public panic, money andprovisions were hid away by those who possessed them, in secrethoards; and this soon occasioned a great scarcity of food. Thecity, in fact, was threatened with famine. In the midst of thealarm and anxiety which this state of things occasioned, two shipsarrived from Egypt, at Ostia, and the news produced a generalrejoicing, --it being supposed, of course, that the ships were ladenwith 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. Thisincident seemed to fill the cup of public indignation to the brim;and, as news arrived just at this time that the rebellion hadextended into Germany, and that all the legions in the Germanprovinces had gone over to Galba, Nero's power began to beconsidered at an end. Tumults prevailed everywhere throughout thecity, and assemblies were held, threatening open defiance to theauthority of the emperor, and declaring the readiness of the peopleto acknowledge Galba so soon as he should arrive. 

Nero was now more terrified than ever. He knew not what to do. Hefled from his palace, and sought a retreat in certain gardensnear--acting in this, however, under the influence of a blind andinstinctive fear, rather than from any rational hope of securing hissafety by seeking such a place of refuge. 

In fact, he was now perfectly distracted with terror. He procuredsome poison before he left his palace, and carried it in a smallgolden box with him to the gardens; but he had not strength orresolution to take it. He then conceived of the plan of flying fromRome altogether. He would go at once to Ostia, he said, and thereembark on board a ship and sail for Egypt, where, it might besupposed, he would be out of the reach of his enemies. He asked hisofficers 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 asa suppliant, and, falling upon his knees before the conqueror, wouldimplore 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, andsolemnly promising never to be guilty of such excesses again, ifthey would pardon and protect him. The by-standers told him thatsuch a proceeding was wholly out of the question; for if he were togo forth for such a purpose from his retreat, the people were insuch a frenzy of excitement against him, that they would tear himto pieces before he could reach the Rostra. In a word, thedistracted thoughts of the wretched criminal turned this way andthat, in the wild agitation with which remorse and terror filled hismind, vainly seeking some way of escape from the awful dangers whichwere circling and narrowing so rapidly around him. There was, infact, no hope now left for him--no refuge, no protection, nopossibility of escape; and so, after suddenly seizing, and assuddenly abandoning, one impracticable scheme after another, hismind became wholly bewildered, and he sank down, at length, into acondition 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 werestationed as usual at their respective posts in various parts of thecity and at the palace gates. Nero retired to rest. He found, however, that he could not sleep. At midnight he rose, and cameforth from his apartment. He was surprised to find that there was nosentinel at the door. On farther examination he found to hisamazement that the palace guards had been wholly withdrawn. He wasthunderstruck at making this discovery. He returned into the palaceand aroused some of the domestics, and then went forth with them tothe residences of some of his chief ministers, who resided near, toask for help. He could, however, nowhere gain admission. He foundthe houses all closely shut up, and by all his knocking at the doorshe could get no answer from any persons within. He then came back ingreat distress and alarm to his own apartment. He found that it hadbeen broken into during the short time that he had been gone, andrifled of every thing valuable that it contained. Even his goldenbox of poison had been carried away. In a word the great sovereignof half the world found that he had been abandoned by all hisadherents, and left in a condition of utter and absolute exposure. The guards had concluded to declare for Galba, and had accordinglygone away, leaving the fallen tyrant to his fate. 

Nero called desperately to his servants to send for a gladiator tothrust him through with a sword, but no one would go. "Alas!" heexclaimed, "has it come to this? Am I so utterly abandoned that Ihave not even enemies left who are willing to kill me?"

After a little time he began to be a little more composed, andexpressed a wish that he knew of some place in the environs of thecity where he could go and conceal himself for a little time untilhe could determine what to do. One of the servants of his householdnamed Phaon, told him that he had a country-house near the city, where, perhaps, Nero might hide. Nero immediately resolved to gothere. The better to conceal his flight he disguised himself in meanapparel, and tied a handkerchief about his face; and then, mountingon horseback in company with two or three attendants, he proceededout of the city. As he went, it thundered and lightened from time totime, and Nero was greatly terrified. He supposed that the commotionof the elements was occasioned by the spirits of those whom he hadmurdered coming now to persecute and torment him in the hour of hisextremity. 

He passed, during his ride, a station of the guard which happened tobe on his way, and heard the soldiers cursing him as he went by, and expressing joy at his downfall. Soon after this he overheard apassenger whom his party met on the road, say to his companion, whenhe saw Nero and his attendants riding by, "These men no doubt aregoing in pursuit of the emperor. " Another man whom they met on theway stopped them to ask what news there was in town about theemperor. In these occurrences, though they of course tended toincrease the agitation and excitement of Nero's mind, there wasnothing particularly alarming; but at length an incident happenedwhich frightened the fugitive extremely. He was passing a placewhere a carcass lay by the side of the road. Some soldiers of theguard were standing near. The horse that Nero rode was startled atthe sight of the carcass, and springing suddenly shook down thehandkerchief from Nero's face. One of the soldiers by this meansobtained a view of his countenance, and exclaimed that that was theemperor. Nero was so much alarmed at this that he hastened on, andas soon as he was out of the view of the men who had seen him, heleaped from his horse, and calling upon his attendants to dismounttoo and follow him, he ran into an adjoining thicket, among bushesand briers, and thence the whole party made their way circuitouslyround to the rear of Phaon's grounds. Here they stopped and hidthemselves till they could contrive some way to get through or overthe 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 openingcould be made in the wall. But Nero refused to do this, saying thathe would not be buried before he was dead. So he remained hid in thethickets 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, itwould not have been possible for Phaon, with the means at hiscommand, to have effected a passage. As it was, he succeeded, thoughwith difficulty, in loosening some of the stones, so as gradually tomake an opening. 

Nero was engaged, while this work was going on, in pulling thebriers out of his clothes and flesh, and being thirsty, he went downto a ditch that was near, and drank, taking up the water in hishands. As he drank, he groaned out, "Oh, can it be that I have cometo this!"

[Illustration: PHAON AT THE WALL. ]

In the mean time, Phaon went on with his work, and soon succeeded inmaking a hole in the wall sufficient for his purpose, and then themen dragged Nero through. They brought him into the house, and shuthim up in a small and secret apartment there. 

Nero now felt relieved from the extreme terror which he had sufferedduring his flight; but the feelings of terror subsided in his mind, only to give place to the still more dreadful pangs of remorse andhorror. He moaned continually in his anguish, and incessantlyrepeated the words, "My father, my mother, and my wife doom me todestruction. " These were indeed the words of one of the tragedieswhich he had been accustomed to act upon the stage, but theyexpressed the remorse and anguish of his mind so truly, that theyrecurred continually to his lips. Phaon and the men who had broughthim to the house, finding it impossible to calm him, and seeing nohope of his final escape from death, and perhaps, moreover, wishingto relieve themselves of what was now fast becoming a seriousburthen to them, recommended to him to kill himself, --and thus, asthey said, since he must die, die like a man. Finally, Nero seemedto yield to their urgings. He said that he would kill himself asthey desired. They might go out and dig a grave for him, and preparewood and water for washing the body. While giving these orders hemoaned and groaned continually, as if in a state of delirium. 

In the mean time the morning had come, and at Rome all wasexcitement and commotion. The Senate came together and proclaimedGalba emperor. They also passed a decree pronouncing Nero an enemyto the state, and sentencing him to be punished as such in theancient manner. When this news transpired, a friend of Phaon wrote aletter to him, giving an account of what the Senate had done, andsent it off with the utmost haste by a trusty messenger. Themessenger arrived at Phaon's house, and brought the letter in. Neroseized it from Phaon's hands, and read it. "What is the ancientmanner?" he asked, in a tone of great anxiety and terror. They toldhim that it was to be stripped naked, and then to be secured byhaving his head fastened in a pillory, and in that position to bewhipped to death. At hearing this, Nero broke forth in fresh groansand lamentations. He could not endure such a death as that, he said, and he would kill himself, therefore, at once, if they would givehim a dagger. 

There were daggers at hand. Nero took them, examined the points ofthem with a trembling touch, seemed undecided, and finally put themaway again, saying that his hour was not yet quite come. Presentlyhe took one of the daggers again, and made a new attempt to awakenin himself sufficient resolution to strike the blow, but his couragefailed him. He moaned and raved all this time in the most incoherentand distracted manner. He even begged that one of the attendants whowere with him would take the dagger and kill himself first, in orderto encourage Nero by letting him see that it was not after all sodreadful a thing to die. But no one of the attendants seemedsufficiently devoted to his master to be willing to render him sucha service as this. 

In the midst of this perplexity and delay a noise was heard as ofhorsemen riding up to the door. Nero was terrified anew at thesound. They were coming, he said, to seize him. He immediately drewone of the daggers, and putting it to his throat, attempteddesperately to nerve himself to the work of driving it home. But hecould 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 beggedthat he would kill him. The man took the dagger with greatreluctance, but presently gave the fatal stab, and Nero sank downupon the ground mortally wounded. 

At this moment the door was suddenly opened, and the soldiers thathad just arrived came in. They had been sent by the Senate to searchfor the fugitive and bring him back to Rome. The centurion whocommanded these men, advanced into the room, and looked at thefallen emperor, as he lay upon the floor, weltering in his blood. Hehad been commanded to bring the prisoner to the city, if possible, alive; and he accordingly ordered the soldiers to come to the dyingman and endeavor to stanch his wounds and save him. But it was toolate. Nero stared at them as they advanced to take hold of him, witha wild and frightful expression of countenance, which shocked allwho saw him, and in the midst of this agony of terror, he sank downand died. 

The news of the tyrant's death spread with the utmost rapidity inall directions. A courier immediately set off for the north to carrytidings of the event to Galba. People flocked from all quarters tothe house of Phaon to gaze on the lifeless body, and to exult in themonster's death. The people of the city gave themselves up to thewildest and most extravagant joy. They put on caps such as were wornby manumitted slaves when first obtaining their freedom, and roamedabout the city expressing in every possible way the exultation theyfelt at their deliverance, and breaking down and destroying thestatues of Nero wherever they could find them. 

In the mean time Galba was steadily advancing on the way to Rome. Indue time he made his entry into the city, and embassadors came tohim there from all parts of the Roman world to acknowledge him asthe reigning emperor. At this time he was seventy-three years old. So that the number seventy-three of which the oracle had warned Neroto 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 toensure consistent spelling and punctuation in this etext; otherwise, every effort has been made to remain true to the original book. 

2. The chapter summaries in this text were originally published asbanners in the page headers, and have been moved to beginning of thechapter for the reader's convenience.