 Chapter 4 of Nero by Jacob Abbott. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Dion Jones, Salt Lake City, Utah. The Fate of Messalina, A.D. 48. As might naturally have been expected, there were two very different emotions awakened in the mind of Silius by the situation in which he found himself placed with Messalina. One was ambition, and the other was fear. Finding himself suddenly raised to the possession of so high a degree of consideration and influence, it was natural that he should look still higher and begin to wish for actual and official power. And then, on the other hand, his uneasiness at the dangers that he was exposed to by remaining as he was increased every day. At length a plan occurred to him which both these considerations urged him to adopt. The plan was to murder Claudius and then to marry Messalina and make himself emperor in Claudius's place. By the accomplishment of this design, he would effect, he thought, a double object. He would at once raise himself to a post of real and substantial power, and also at the same time place himself in a position of security. He resolved to propose this scheme to Messalina. Accordingly, on the first favorable opportunity, he addressed the Empress on the subject and cautiously make known his design. I wish to have you holy, mine, said he, and although the Emperor is growing old, we cannot safely wait for his death. We are, in fact, continually exposed to danger. We have gone quite too far to be safe where we are, and by taking the remaining steps necessary to accomplish fully our ends, we shall only be completing what we have begun. And by doing so, far from incurring any new penalties, we shall be taking the only effectual method to protect ourselves from the dangers which impend over us and threaten us now. Let us therefore devise some means to remove the Emperor out of our way. I will then be proclaimed Emperor in his place and be married to you. The power which you now enjoy will then come back to you again, undiminished, and under such circumstances as will render it permanently secure to you. To accomplish this will be very easy for the Emperor, superannuated, infirm, and stupid as he is, cannot protect himself against any well-planned and vigorous attempt which we may make to remove him. Though if we remain as we are, and any accidental cause should arouse him from his lethargy, we may expect to find him vindictive and furious against us to the last degree. Messalina listened to this proposal with great attention and interest, but so far as related to the proposed assassination of the Emperor, she did not seem inclined to ascent to it. Her historian says that she was not influenced in this decision by any remaining sentiments of conjugal affection or by conscientious principle of any kind, but by her distrust of Silius and her unwillingness to commit herself so entirely into his power. She preferred to keep him dependent upon her rather than to make herself dependent upon him. She liked the plan, however, of being married to him, she said, and would consent to that even while the Emperor remained alive. And so if Silius would agree to it, she was ready, she added, the next time that the Emperor went to Ostia to have this ceremony performed, that a wife and a mother, however unprincipled and corrupt, should make, under such circumstances, a proposal like this of Messalina's, is certainly very extraordinary. And to those who do not know to what extremes of recklessness and infatuation, the irresponsible despots that have arisen from time to time to rule mankind have often pushed their wickedness and crime. It must seem wholly incredible. The Roman historian who has recorded this narrative assures us that it was the very audacity of this guilt that constituted its charm in Messalina's eyes. She had become weary of and satiated with all the ordinary forms of criminal indulgence and pleasure. The work of deceiving and imposing upon her husband in order to secure for herself the gratifications which she sought was for a time sufficient to give zest and frequency to her pleasures. He was so easily deceived and she had been accustomed to deceive him so long that it now no longer afforded to her mind any stimulus or excitement to do it in any common way. But the idea of being actually married to another man while he was absent at a short distance from the city would be something striking and new, which would vary, she thought, the dull monotony of the common course of sin. The proposed marriage was finally determined upon and the mock ceremony for such a ceremony could, of course, have no legal force was duly performed at a time when Claudius was absent at Ostia inspecting the works which were in progress there. So far the pretended marriage was open and public in the actual celebration of it is not very certain, but the historians say that it was conducted with all the usual ceremonies and was attended by the usual witnesses. The service was performed by the augur a sort of soccer dodle officer on whom the duty of conducting such celebrities properly devolved. Messalina and Cilius, each in their turn, repeated the words pertaining respectively to the bridegroom and the bride. The usual sacrifice to the gods was then made and an actual banquet followed at which they're passed between the new married pair, the caresses and endearments usual on such occasions. All things in a word were conducted from the beginning to the end, as in a real and honest wedding. Together the scene thus enacted was performed in public as a serious transaction or at some private entertainment as a species of sport. It created a strong sensation among all who witnessed it and the news of it soon spread abroad and became very generally known. The more immediate friends of Claudius were very indignant at such a proceeding. They conferred together uttering to each other many murmurings and complaints and anticipating the worst results and consequences from what had occurred. Cilius, they said, was an ambitious and dangerous man and the audacious deed which he had performed was the prelude they believed to some deep ulterior design. They feared for the safety of Claudius and as they knew very well that the downfall of the emperor would involve them too in ruin, they were naturally much alarmed. It was, however, very difficult for them to decide what to do. If they were to inform the emperor of Messalina's proceedings, they considered it wholly uncertain what effect the communication would have upon him. Like almost all weak-minded men, he was impulsive and capricious in the extreme, and whether on a communication being made to him, he would receive it with indifference and unconcerned, or in case his anger should be aroused, whether it would expend itself upon Messalina or upon those who informed him against her, it was wholly impossible to foresee. At length, after various consultations and debates, a small number of the courtiers, who were most determined in their detestation of Messalina and her practices, lead themselves together and resolved upon a course of procedure by which they hoped, if possible, to effect her destruction. The leader of this company was Callistus, one of the officers of Claudius' household. He was one of the men who had been engaged with Sharia in the assassination of Caligula. Narcissus was another. This was the same Narcissus that is mentioned in the last chapter as the artful contriver with Messalina of the death of Salinas. Callis was the name of a third conspirator. He was a confidential friend and favorite of Claudius, and was very jealous, like the rest, of the influence which Cilius, through Messalina, exercised over his master. These were the principal confederates, though there were some others joined with them. The great object of the hostility of these men seems to have been Cilius rather than Messalina. This, in fact, would naturally be supposed to be the case, since it was Cilius rather than Messalina who was their rival. Some of them appear to have hated Messalina on her own account, but with the others there was apparently no wish to harm the Empress if any other way could be found of reaching Cilius. In fact, in the consultations which were held, one plan which was proposed was to go to Messalina and without even seeing any feelings of unkindness or hostility toward her to endeavor to persuade her to break off her connection with her favorite. This plan was, however, soon overruled. The plotters thought that it would be extremely improbable that Messalina would listen to any such proposition, and in case of her rejection of it, if it were made, her anger would be aroused strongly against them for making it. And then even if she should not attempt to take vengeance upon them for their presumption, she would at any rate put herself effectually upon her guard against anything else which they should attempt to do. The plan of separating Messalina and Cilius was therefore abandoned, and the determination resolved upon to take measures for destroying them both together. The course which the Confederates decided to pursue in order to effect their object was to proceed to Ostia, where Claudius still remained, and there make known to him what Messalina and Cilius had done and endeavor to convince him that this audacious conduct on their part was only the prelude to open violence against the life of the Emperor. It would seem, however, that no one of them was quite willing to take upon himself the office of making such a communication as this in the first instance to such a man. They did not know how he would receive it, or against whom the first weight of his resentment and rage would fall. Finally, after much hesitation and debate, they concluded to employ a certain female for the purpose, a courtesan named Calpurnia. Calpurnia was a favorite and companion of Claudius, and as such they thought she might perhaps have an opportunity to approach him with the subject under such circumstances as to diminish the danger. At any rate, Calpurnia was easily led by such inducements as the conspirators laid before her to undertake the commission. They not only promised her suitable rewards, but they appealed also to the jealousy and hatred which such a woman would naturally feel toward Messalina, who, being a wife, while Calpurnia was only a companion and favorite, would of course be regarded as a rival and enemy. They represented to Calpurnia how entirely changed for the better her situation would be if Messalina could once be put out of the way. There would then, they said, be none to interfere with her, but her influence and ascendancy over the emperor's mind would be established on a permanent and lasting footing. Calpurnia was very easily led by these inducements to undertake the commission. There was another courtesan named Cleopatra, who it was arranged should be at hand when Calpurnia made her communication to confirm the truth of it should any confirmation seem to be required. The other conspirators also were to be near, ready to be called in and to act as occasion might require in case Calpurnia and Cleopatra should find that their statement was making the right impression. Things being all thus arranged, the party proceeded to Ostia to carry their plans into execution. In the meantime, Messalina and Cilius, wholly unconscious of the danger, gave themselves up with greater and greater boldness and unconcern to their guilty pleasures. On the day when Callistus and his party went to Ostia, she was celebrating a festival at her palace with great gaiety and splendor. It was in the autumn of the year and the festival was in honor of this season. In the countries on the Mediterranean, the gathering of grapes and the pressing of the juice for wine is the great subject of autumnal rejoicings, and Messalina had arranged a festival in accordance with the usual customs in the gardens of the palace. A wine press had been erected and grapes were gathered and brought to it. The guests whom Messalina had invited were assembled around. Some were dancing about the wine press, some were walking in the alleys, and some were seated in the neighboring bowers. They were dressed in fancy costumes and their heads were adorned with garlands of flowers. There was a group of dancing girls who were engaged as performers on the occasion to dance for the amusement of the company in honor of Bacchus, the god of wine. These girls were dressed so far as they were clothed at all in robes made of the skins of tigers and their heads were crowned with flowers. Messalina herself, however, was the most conspicuous object among the gay throng. She was robed in a manner to display most fully the graces of her person, her long hair waving loosely in the wind. She had in her hand a symbol or badge called the thersus, which was an ornamented staff or pole surmounted with a carved representation of a bunch of grapes and with other ornaments and emblems. The thersus was always used in the rites and festivities celebrated in honor of Bacchus. Silius himself dressed like the rest in a fantastic and theatrical costume, danced by the side of Messalina in the center of a ring of dancing girls, which was formed around them. In the meantime, while this gay party were thus enjoying themselves in the palace gardens at Rome, a very different scene was enacting at Ostia. Calpurnia, in her secret interview with Claudius, seizing upon a moment which seemed to her favorable for her purpose, kneeled down before him and made the communication with which she had been charged. She told him of Messalina's conduct and informed him particularly how she had at last crowned the dishonor of her husband by openly marrying Silius or at least pretending to do so. Your friends believe, she added, that she and Silius entertain still more criminal designs and that your life will be sacrificed unless you immediately adopt vigorous and decided measures to avert the danger. Claudius was very much amazed and was also exceedingly terrified at this communication. He trembled and turned pale, then looked wild and excited, and began to make inquiries in an incoherent and distracted manner. Calpurnia called in Cleopatra to confirm her story. Cleopatra did confirm it, of course, in the fullest and most unqualified manner. The effect which was produced upon the mind of the Emperor seemed to be exactly what the conspirators had desired. He evened no disposition to justify or to defend Messalina or to be angry with Calpurnia and Cleopatra for making such charges against her. His mind seemed to be wholly absorbed with a sense of the dangers of his situation, and Narcissus was accordingly sent for to come in. Narcissus, when appealed to, acknowledged, though with well-famed reluctance and hesitation, the truth of what Calpurnia had declared, and he immediately began to apologize for his own remissness in not having before made the case known. He spoke with great moderation of Messalina and also of Silius as if his object were to appease rather than to inflame the anger of the Emperor. He, however, admitted he said that it was absolutely necessary that something decisive should be done. Your wife is taken from you, said he, and Silius is master of her. The next thing will be that he will be master of the Republic. He may even already have gained the Praetorian Guards over to his side, in which case all is lost. It is absolutely necessary that some immediate and decisive action should be taken. Claudius in great trepidation immediately called together such of his prominent counselors and friends, as were at hand at Ostia, to consult on what was to be done. Of course it was principally the conspirators themselves that appeared at this council. They crowded around the Emperor and urged him immediately to take the most decisive measures to save himself from the impending danger, and they succeeded so well in working upon his fears that he stood before them in stupid amazement, wholly incapable of deciding what to say or do. The conspirators urged upon the Emperor the necessity of first securing the guard. This body was commanded by an officer named Geda, on whom Narcissus said no reliance could be placed, and he begged that Claudius would immediately authorize him, Narcissus, to take the command. The object of the Confederates, and thus wishing to get command of the guard, was perhaps to make sure of the prompt and immediate execution of any sentence which they might succeed in inducing the Emperor to pronounce upon Cilius or Messalina before he should have the opportunity of changing his mind. The Emperor turned from one advisor to another, listening to their various suggestions and plans, but he seemed bewildered and undecided, as if he knew not what to do. It was, however, at length, determined to proceed immediately to Rome. The whole party accordingly mounted into their carriages Narcissus taking his seat by the side of the Emperor in the Imperial chariot in order that he might keep up the excitement and agitation in his master's mind by his conversation on the way. In the meantime, there were among those who witnessed these proceedings at Ostia some who were disposed to take sides with Messalina and Cilius in the approaching struggle, and they immediately dispatched a special messenger to Rome to warn the Empress of the impending danger. This messenger rode up along the banks of the Tiber with all speed and in advance of the Emperor's party. On his arrival in the city, he immediately repaired to the palace gardens and communicated his errand to Messalina and her company in the midst of their festivities. Claudius had been informed, he said, against her and Cilius, and was almost beside himself with resentment and anger. He was already on his way to Rome, the messenger added, coming to wreak vengeance upon them, and he warned them to escape for their lives. This communication was made, of course, in the first instance somewhat privately to the party's principally concerned. It, however, put a sudden stop to all the hilarity and joy, and the tidings were rapidly circulated around the gardens. One man climbed into a tree and looked off in the direction of Ostia. The others asked him what he saw. I see a great storm arising from the sea at Ostia, said he, and coming hither, and it is time for us to save ourselves. In a word, the Bacchanalian games and sports were all soon broken up in confusion, and the company made their escape from the scene each by a different way. Cilius immediately resumed his ordinary dress and went forth into the city, where, under an assumed appearance of indifference and unconcern, he walked about in the forum as if nothing unusual had occurred. Messalina herself fled to the house of a friend named Lucalus, and passing immediately through the house sought a hiding place in the gardens. Here her mind began to be overwhelmed with anguish, remorse, and terror. Her sins, now that a terrible retribution for them seemed to be impending, rose before her in all their enormity, and she knew not what to do. She soon reflected that there could be no permanent safety for her where she was for the advanced guards of Claudius, which were even then entering the city and commencing their arrest, would be sure soon to discover the place of her retreat and bring her before her exasperated husband. She concluded that rather than wait for this, it would be better for her to go before him herself voluntarily, and by throwing herself upon his mercy endeavor to soften and appease him. She, accordingly in her distraction, determined to pursue this course. She came forth from her hiding place in Lucalus's gardens and went to seek her children, intending to take them with her, that the sight of them might help to move the heart of their father. Her children were two in number. Octavia, who has already been mentioned, was the eldest, being now about ten or twelve years of age. The other was a boy several years younger. His name was Britannicus. In the meantime, the city was thrown quite into a state of commotion by the approach of Claudius and by the tidings which had spread rapidly through the streets of what had occurred. The soldiers whom Claudius had sent forward were making arrests in the streets and searching the houses. In the midst of this excitement, Messalina, with her children, attended by one of the Vestal Versions, named Vibidia, whom she had prevailed upon to accompany her and plead her cause, came forth from her palace on foot and proceeded through the streets. Her hair disheveled, her dress in disorder, and her whole appearance marked by every characteristic of humiliation, abasement, and woe. When she reached the gate of the city, she mounted into a common cart which she found there and in that manner proceeded to meet her angry husband, leaving her children with Vibidia, the Vestal, to follow behind. She had not proceeded very far before she met the emperor's train approaching. As soon as she came near enough to the carriage of Claudius to be heard, she began to utter loud entreaties and lamentations, begging her husband to hear before he condemned her. Here your unhappy wife said she, hear the mother of Britannicus and Octavia. Narcissus and the others who were near, interposed to prevent her from being heard. They talked continually to the emperor and produced a written memorial and other papers for him to read, which contained, they said, a full account of the whole transaction. Claudius, taking very little notice of his wife, pursued his way toward the city. She followed in his train. When they drew near to the gates, they met Vibidia and the children. Vibidia attempted to speak, but Claudius would not listen. She complained in a mournful tone that for him to condemn his wife unheard would be unjust and cruel. But Claudius was unmoved. He told Vibidia that Messalina would in due time have a suitable opportunity to make her defense, and that in the meantime, the proper duty of a Vestal virgin was to confine herself to the functions of her sacred office. Thus he sent both her and the children away. As soon as the party arrived in the city, Narcissus conducted the emperor to the house of Cilius and entering it, he showed to the emperor there a great number of proofs of the guilty favoritism which the owner of it had enjoyed with Messalina. The house was filled with valuable presents, the tokens of Messalina's love, consisting many of them of costly household treasures which had descended to Claudius in the imperial line, and which were of such a character that the alienation of them by Messalina in such a way was calculated to fill the heart of Claudius with indignation and anger. The emperor then proceeded to the camp. Cilius and several of his leading friends were arrested and brought together before a sort of military tribunal summoned on the spot to try them. The trial was of course very brief and very summary. They were all condemned to death and were led out to instant execution. This being done, the emperor returned with his friends to the city and repaired to his palace. His mind seemed greatly relieved. He felt that the crisis of danger was passed. He ordered supper to be prepared and when it was ready he seated himself at table. He congratulated himself and his friends on the escape from the perils that had surrounded them, which they had so happily accomplished. Narcissus and the others began to tremble, lest after all Messalina should be spared, and they knew full well that if she should be allowed to live, she would soon, by her artful management, regain her ascendancy over the emperor's mind and that in that case she would give herself no rest until she had destroyed all those who had taken any part in affecting the destruction of Cilius. They began to be greatly alarmed therefore for their own safety. In the meantime, messages came in from Messalina who, when the emperor entered the city, had returned to her former place of refuge in the gardens of Lucalus. At length a letter or memorial came. On reading what was written it was found that Messalina was assuming a bolder tone. Her letter was a remonstrance rather than a petition as if she were designing to try the effect of bravery and assurance and to see if she could not openly re-assume the ascendancy and control, which she had long exercised over the mind of her husband. Claudius seemed inclined to hesitate and waver. His anger appeared to be subsiding with his fears and the wine which he drank freely at the table seemed to conspire with the other influences of the occasion to restore his wanted good humor. He ordered that in reply to Messalina's letter a messenger should go and inform her that she should be admitted the next day to see him and to make her defense. Narcissus and his confederates were greatly alarmed and determined immediately that this must not be. Narcissus had been placed it would seem according to the wish of the conspirators at the outset in command of the guard and he accordingly had power to prevent the emperor's determination from being carried into effect. Provided that he should dare to take the responsibility of acting, it was a moment of great anxiety and suspense. He soon however came strongly to the conclusion that though it would be very dangerous for him to act, yet that not to act would be certain destruction. Since if Messalina were allowed to live, it would be absolutely certain that they all must die. Accordingly, summoning all his resolution, he hurried out of the banqueting room and gave orders to the officers on duty there in the emperor's name to proceed to the gardens of Lucalus and execute sentence of death on Messalina without any delay. Messalina was with her mother Lepida in the gardens awaiting her answer from the emperor. When the band of soldiers came, Messalina and her mother had never been agreed and now for a long time had had no intercourse with each other. The daughter's danger had however reawakened the instinct of maternal love in the mother's heart and Lepida had come to see her child in this the hour of her extremity. She came, however, not to console or comfort her child or to aid her in her efforts to save her life, but to provide her with the means of putting an end to her own existence as the only way now left to her of escape from the greater disgrace of public execution. She accordingly offered a panyard to Messalina in the gardens and urged her to take it. Death by your own hand said she is now your only refuge. You must die. It is impossible that this tragedy can have any other termination. And to wait quietly here for the stroke of the executioner is base and ignoble. You must die. And all that now remains to you is the power to close the scene with dignity and with becoming spirit. Messalina manifested the greatest agitation and distress, but she could not summon resolution to receive the panyard. In the midst of this scene, the band of soldiers appeared entering the garden. The mother pressed the panyard upon her daughter saying, Now is the time. Messalina took the weapon and pointed it toward her breast, but had not firmness enough to strike it home. The officer approached her at the head of his men with his sword drawn in his hand. Messalina, still irresolute, made a feeble and ineffectual effort to give herself a wound, but failed of inflicting it. And then the officer, who had by this time advanced to the spot where she was standing, put an end to her dreadful mental struggles by cutting her down and killing her at a single blow. When tidings were brought back to Narcissus that his commands had been obeyed, he went again to the presence of Claudius and reported to him simply that Messalina was no more. He made no explanations and the emperor asked for none, but went on with his supper as if nothing had occurred and never afterward expressed any curiosity or interest in respect to Messalina's fate. As soon as the excitement produced by these transactions had in some degree subsided, various plans and intrigues were commenced for providing the emperor with another wife. There were many competitors for the station, all of whom were eager to occupy it. For though Claudius was old, imbecile and ugly, still he was the emperor and all those ladies of his court who thought that they had any prospect of success aspired to the possession of his hand as the summit of earthly ambition. Among the rest, Agrippina appeared. She was Claudius's niece. This relationship was, in one respect, a bar to her success since the laws prohibited marriage within that degree of consanguinity. In another respect, however, the relationship was greatly in Agrippina's favor. For under the plea of it, she had constant access to the emperor and was extremely assiduous in her attentions to him. She succeeded at length in inspiring him with some sentiment of love and he determined to make her his wife. The senate were easily induced to alter the laws in order to enable him to do this and Claudius and Agrippina were married. Claudius not only thus made the mother of our hero his wife, but he adopted her son as his son and heir, changing at the same time the name of the boy. In place of his former plebeian appellation of Ahenobarbis, he gave him now the imposing title of Nero, Claudius, Caesar, Drusus, Germanicus. He has since generally been known in history, however, by the simple pronomen Nero. CHAPTER V In the preceding chapters, young Nero himself, as we shall henceforth call him, had been growing up an active and intelligent but an indulged and ungoverned boy. His own father died when he was about three years old. This, however, was an advantage probably rather than a loss to the boy, as Brazenbeard was an extremely coarse, cruel and unprincipled man. He once killed one of his slaves for not drinking as much as he ordered him. Writing one day in his chariot through a village, he drove wantonly and purposely over a boy and killed him on the spot. He defrauded all who dealt with him and was repeatedly prosecuted for the worst of crimes. He treated his wife with great brutality. As has already been said, he received the announcement of the birth of his son with derision, saying that nothing but what was detestable could come from him and Agrippina. And when they asked him what name they should give the child, he recommended to them to name him Claudius. This was said in contempt, for Claudius was at that time despised by everyone as a deformed and stupid idiot, though he was subsequently made emperor in the manner that has been already explained. The manifestation of such a spirit at such a time, on the part of her husband, pained Agrippina exceedingly. But the more it pained her, the more Brazenbeard was gratified and amused. The death of such a father could, of course, be no calamity. When Agrippina, Nero's mother, was banished from Rome by the order of Caligula, Nero himself did not accompany her, but remained behind under the care of his aunt Lepida, with whom he lived for a time in comparative neglect and obscurity. Though he belonged to one of the most aristocratic families of Rome, his mother being a descendant and heir of the Caesars, he spent some years in a situation of poverty and disgrace. His education was neglected, as he received no instruction at this time except from a dancing master and a barber, who were his only tutors. Of course, the formation of his moral character was wholly neglected. Nor, in fact, considering the character of those by whom he was surrounded, would it have been possible that any favorable influence should have been exerted upon him, if the attempt had been made. At length, when Caligula died and Agrippina was recalled from her banishment by Claudius and reinstated in her former position at Rome, Nero emerged from his obscurity and, henceforth, lived with his mother in luxury and splendor in the capital. Nero was a handsome boy and he soon became an object of great popular favor and regard. He often appeared in public at entertainments and celebrations, and when he did so, he was always specially noticed and caressed. His companion, and in some respects his rival and competitor at such times, was Britannicus, the son of Claudius and Messalina. Britannicus was two or three years younger than Nero, and being the son of the emperor was, of course, a very prominent and conspicuous object of attention whenever he appeared. But the rank of Nero was scarcely less high since his mother was descended directly from the imperial family, while in age and personal appearance and bearing he was superior to his cousin. One instance is specially noticed by the historians of those days in which young Nero was honored with an extraordinary degree of public attention and regard. It was on the occasion of celebrating what might be called the centennial games. These games were generally supposed to be celebrated at each recurrence of a certain astronomical period of about 100 years duration called an age, but in reality it was at irregular, though very distant, intervals that they were observed. Claudius instituted a celebration of them early in his reign. There had been a celebration of them in the reign of Augustus not many years before, but Claudius, wishing to signalize his own reign by some great entertainment and display, extended that Augustus had made a miscalculation and had observed the festival at the wrong time and he ordained accordingly that the celebration should take place again. The games and shows connected with this festival extended through three successive days. They consisted of sacrifices and other religious rites, dramatic spectacles, athletic games, and military and gladiatorial shows. In the course of these diversions there was celebrated on one of the days what was called the Trojan Game, in which young boys of leading and distinguished families appeared on horseback in a circus or ring where they performed certain evolutions and feats of horsemanship and mock conflicts in the midst of the tens of thousands of spectators who thronged the seats around. Of course Britannicus and Nero were the most prominent and conspicuous of the boys on this occasion. Nero, however, in the estimation of the populace bore off the palm. He was received with the loudest acclamations by the whole assembly while Britannicus attracted far less attention. This triumph filled Agrippina's heart with pride and pleasure, while it occasioned to Messalina the greatest vexation and chagrin. It made Agrippina more than ever before the object of Messalina's hatred and hostility, and the Empress would very probably before long have found some means of destroying her rival had she not soon after this become involved. In the difficulties arising out of her connection with Cilius, which resulted so soon in her own destruction. The people, however, were filled with admiration of Nero, and they applauded his performance with the utmost enthusiasm. He was, for a time, a subject of conversation in every circle throughout the city, and many tales were told of his history and his doings, among other things which were related of him. The story was circulated that Messalina became so excited against him in her jealousy and envy that she sent two assassins to murder him in his sleep, and that the assassins coming to him in a garden where he was lying asleep upon a pillow were just putting their cruel orders into execution when they were driven away by a serpent that appeared miraculously at the moment to defend the child darting out at the assassins from beneath the pillow. Others said that it was in his infancy that this occurrence took place, and that there were two serpents instead of one, and that they guarded the life of their charge lying with him in his cradle. One of the historians of the time states that neither of these stories was really true, but that they both originated in the fact that Nero was accustomed to wear when a boy, a bracelet made of a serpent skin, small and of beautiful colors, and fastened, as they said, around the wearer's wrist with a clasp of gold. However the fact may be in respect to Messalina's allowing her jealousy of Agrippina to carry her so far as to make direct attempts upon his life, there is no doubt that she lived in continual fear of the influence both of Nero and of his mother on the mind of the emperor. And Agrippina was consequently compelled to submit to many indignities which the position and the power of Messalina enabled her to impose upon her enemies and rivals. At length however the fall of Messalina and the entire revolution in the situation and prospects of Agrippina which was consequent upon it changed altogether the position of Nero. It might have been expected, it is true, even after the marriage of Claudius with Agrippina, that Britannicus would have still maintained altogether the highest place in the emperor's regard since Britannicus was his own son while Nero was only the son of his wife. But Agrippina was artful enough to manage her indolent and stupid husband just as she pleased, and she soon found means to displace Britannicus and to raise Nero in his stead to the highest place in precedence and honor. She persuaded Claudius to adopt Nero as his own son, as was stated in the last chapter. She obtained a decree of the senate approving and confirming this act. She then removed Britannicus from the court and shut him up in seclusion in a nursery under pretense of tender regard for his health and safety. In a word she treated Britannicus in all respects like a little child and kept him holy in the background while she brought her own son, though he was but little older than the other very prominently forward as a young man. In those ancient days as now there was an appropriate dress for youth, which was changed for that of a man when the subject arrived at maturity. The garment which was most distinctively characteristic of adult age among the Romans was called the toga, and it was assumed by the Roman youth, not as the dress of a man is by young persons now in a private and informal manner, according as the convenience or fancy of the individual may dictate, but publicly and with much ceremony and always at the time when the party arrived at the period of legal majority. So that assuming the toga marked always a very important era of life, this distinction Agrippina caused to be conferred upon Nero by a special edict when he was only 14 years of age, which was at a very much earlier period than usual. On the occasion of thus advancing him to the dress and to the legal capabilities of manhood, Agrippina brought him out in a special manner before the people of Rome at a great public celebration. And the more effectually to call public attention to him as a young prince of the highest distinction in the imperial family, she induced Claudius to bestow a larges upon the people and a donative upon the army, that is a public distribution of money to the citizens and to the soldiers in Nero's name. All this time Britannicus was kept shut up in the private apartments of the palace with nurses and children. The tutors and attendants whom Messalina, his mother provided for him were one by one removed and their places supplied by others whom Agrippina selected for the purpose and whom she could rely upon to second her views. When inquired of in respect to Britannicus by those who had known him before during his mother's lifetime, she replied that he was a weak and feeble child subject to fits and thus necessarily kept secluded from society. Sometimes indeed on great public occasions both Nero and Britannicus appeared together, but even in these cases the arrangements were so made as to impress the public mind more forcibly than ever with an idea of the vast superiority of Nero in respect to rank and position. On one such occasion, while Britannicus was carried about clothed in the dress of a child and with attendance characteristic of the nursery, Nero rode on horseback richly appareled in the triumphal robes of a general returning from a foreign campaign. Agrippina was one day made very angry with Britannicus for what might seem a very trifling cause. It seems that Britannicus though young was a very intelligent boy and that he understood perfectly the policy which his stepmother was pursuing toward him and was very unwilling to submit to be thus supplanted. One day when he and Nero were both abroad attending some public spectacle or celebration, they met and Nero accosted his cousin calling him Britannicus. Britannicus in returning the salutation addressed Nero familiarly by the name Domitius Ahenobarbis having been his name before he was adopted by Claudius. Agrippina was very indignant when she heard of this. She considered the using of this name by Britannicus as denoting on his part a refusal to acknowledge his cousin as the adopted son of his father. She immediately went to Claudius with earnest and angry complainings. Your own edict said she sanctioned and confirmed by the Senate is disavowed and annulled and my son is subjected to public insult by the impertinence of this child. Agrippina father represented to Claudius that Britannicus never would have thought of addressing her son in such a manner of his own accord. His doing it must have arisen from the influence of some of the persons around him who were hostile to her. And she made use of the occasion to induce Claudius to give her authority to remove all that remained of the child's instructors and governors who could be suspected of a friendly interest in his cause and to subject him to new and more rigorous restrictions than ever. One of the most imposing of all the spectacles and celebrations which Claudius instituted during his reign was the one which signalized the opening of the canal by which the Fuscene Lake was drained. The Fuscene Lake was a large but shallow body of water at the foot of the Apennines near the sources of the Tiber. It was subject to periodic inundations by which the surrounding lands were submerged. An engineer had offered to drain the lake in consideration of receiving for pay the lands which would be laid dry by the operation. But Claudius, who seemed to have quite a taste for such undertakings, preferred to accomplish the work himself. The canal by which the water should be conveyed away was to be formed in part by a deep cut and partly by a tunnel through a mountain. And in as much as in those days the power now chiefly relied upon for making such excavations, namely the explosive force of gunpowder was not known. Any extensive working in solid rock was an operation of immense labor. When the canal was finished, Claudius determined to institute a grand celebration to signalize the opening of it for drawing off the water. And as he could not safely rely on the hydraulic interest of the spectacle for drawing such a concourse to the spot as he wished to see there, he concluded to add to the entertainment a show more suited to the taste and habits of the times. He made arrangements accordingly for having a naval battle fought upon the lake for the amusement of the spectators just before the opening of the canal, which was to draw off the water. Thus the battle was to be the closing scene in which the history and existence of the lake were to be terminated forever. Ships were accordingly built and an immense number of men were designated and set apart for fighting the battle. These men consisted of convicts and prisoners of war, men whom it was in those days considered perfectly just and right to employ in killing one another for the amusement of the emperor and his guests. A sort of bulwark was built all around the shore and the emperor's guards were stationed upon it to prevent the escape of the combatants and to turn them back to their duty if any of them should attempt when pressed hard in the battle to escape to the land. The fleet of galleys was divided into two antagonistic portions and the men in each were armed completely as in a case of actual war. At the appointed time hundreds of thousands of people assembled from all the surrounding country to see the site. They lined the shores on every side and crowned all the neighboring heights. The contest of course might be waged with all the fury and fatal effect of a real battle without endangering the spectators at all, as there were in those days no flying bullets or other swift winged missiles like those which in modern times takes a wide arrange beyond the limits of the battle. The deadly effect of all that was done in an ancient combat was confined of course to those immediately engaged. Then there was besides nothing to intercept the vision. No smoke was raised to obscure the view, but the atmosphere above and around the combatants remained as pure and transparent at the end of the combat as at the beginning. A real battle was accordingly regarded by the Romans as the most sublime and imposing of spectacles and hundreds of thousands of spectators flocked to witness the one which Claudius arranged for them on the Fusine Lake. He himself presided, dressed in a coat of mail, and Agrippina sat by his side, clothed in a magnificent robe, which the historian states was woven from threads of gold without the admixture of any other material. The signal was given and the battle was commenced. There was some difficulty experienced as usual in such cases in getting the men to engage, but they became sufficiently ferocious at last to satisfy all the spectators and thousands were slain. At length the emperor gave orders that the battle should cease, and the survivors were informed that their lives were spared. It was fortunate on the whole for Claudius that he did not rely wholly on the simple drawing off of the water from the lake for the amusement of the immense assemblage that he had convened, for it was found when after the close of the battle the canal was opened that the water would not run. The engineers had made some mistake in their measurements or their calculations and had left the bed of the canal in some part of its course too high so that the water, when the sluices were opened instead of flowing off into the river to which the canal was intended to conduct it, remained quietly in the lake as before. The assembly dispersed and the work on the canal was resumed with a view of making it deeper. In the course of a year the excavation was completed and all was made ready for a new trial. Claudius summoned a new assembly to witness the operation and at this time instead of a naval conflict he made provision for a great combat of gladiators to be fought on immense floating platforms which were built upon the lake near the outlet which the engineers had made. In the end however the second attempt to make the water flow proved more unfortunate than the first. The channel had been made very deep and wide so that the water was inclined to move when once put in motion with the utmost impetuosity and force and it so happened that in some way or other the means which the engineer had relied upon for controlling it were insufficient. And when the gates were opened everything suddenly gave way. The water rushed out in an overwhelming torrent as in an inundation and undermined and carried away the platforms and stagings which had been erected for the seats of the spectators. A scene of indescribable tumult and confusion ensued the emperor and empress with the guests and spectators fled precipitously together and all narrowly escaped being carried down into the canal. It is by no means difficult to imagine what sort of a character a boy must necessarily form brought up under such influences and surrounded by such scenes as those which thus prevailed at the court of Claudius. It proved in the end that Nero experienced the full effect of them. He became proud, vain, self-willed, cruel and accustomed to yield himself without restraint to all those wicked propensities and passions which under such circumstances always gained dominion over the human soul. Besides Britannicus it will be recollected that Messalina had left another child, a daughter named Octavia, who was two or three years younger than her brother and of course about five years younger than Nero. Agrippina did not pursue the same course of opposition and hostility toward her, which she had adopted in regard to Britannicus. She determined at the outset upon a very different plan. Britannicus was necessarily a rival and competitor for Nero and every step in advance which he should make could not operate otherwise than as an impediment and obstacle to Nero's success, but Octavia, as Agrippina thought, might be employed to further and aid her designs by being betrothed and in due time married to her son. The advantages of such a scheme were very obvious, so obvious in fact that the design was formed by Agrippina at the very beginning, even before her own marriage with the emperor was fully affected. There was one serious obstacle in the way and that was that Octavia was already betrothed to a very distinguished young nobleman named Lucius Salinas. Agrippina, after having by various skillful maneuvers succeeded in enlisting the public officers who would act as judges in his case, caused Salinas to be accused of infamous crimes. The historians say that the evidence which was adduced against him was of the most trivial character. Still, he was condemned. He seems to have understood the nature and the cause of the hostility which had suddenly developed itself against him and to have felt at once all the hopelessness of his condition. He killed himself in his despair on the very night of the marriage of Claudius with Agrippina. The empress found afterward no serious difficulty in accomplishing her design. She obtained the emperor's consent to a betrothal of Nero to Octavia, but as they were yet too young to be married, the ceremony was postponed for a short time. At length, in about five years after the marriage of Agrippina herself, Nero and Octavia were married. Nero was at that time about sixteen years of age. His bride, of course, was only eleven. End of Chapter 5. Chapter 6 of Nero by Jacob Abbott. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Dion Giants, Salt Lake City, Utah. Nero, an emperor, AD 54. About one year after Nero's marriage to Octavia, the emperor Claudius was suddenly taken sick. On learning this, Agrippina was very much excited and very much pleased. If the sickness should result in the emperor's death, her son, she thought, would immediately succeed him. Everything had been long since fully arranged for such a result, and all was now ready, she imagined, for the change. It is true that Nero was still very young, but then he was uncommonly mature, both in mind and in person, for one of his years, and the people had been accustomed for some time to look upon him as a man. Among other means which Agrippina had resorted to, for giving an appearance of manliness and maturity to the character of her son, she had brought him forward in the Roman Forum as a public advocate. And he had made orations there in several instances with great success. He had been well instructed in those studies which were connected with the art of oratory, and as his person and manners were agreeable and his countenance intelligent and pre-possessing, and especially as the confidence which he felt in his powers gave him an air of great self-possession and composure, the impression which he made was very favorable. The people were in fact predisposed to be pleased with and to applaud the efforts of a young orator so illustrious in rank and station, and the ability which he displayed, although he was so young, was such as to justify unquestionably, in some degree, the honors that they paid him. Agrippina, therefore, supposing that her son was now far enough advanced in public consideration to make it in some degree certain that he would be the emperor's successor, was ready at any time for her husband to die. His sickness, therefore, filled her mind with excitement and hope. There was another motive, too, besides her ambitious desires for the advancement of her son that made her desirous that Claudius should not live. She had been now for several months somewhat solicitous and anxious about her own safety. Her influence over Claudius, which was at first so absolute and supreme, had afterward greatly declined, and within a few months she had begun to fear that she might be losing it entirely. In fact, she had some reason for believing that Claudius regarded her with concealed hostility and hate and was secretly revolving plans for deposing both her and her son from the high ascendancy to which they had raised themselves and for bringing back his own son to his proper prominence in Nero's place. Agrippina, too, in the myths of her ambitious projects and plans, led a life of secret vice and crime, and feeling guilty and self-condemned, every trivial indication of danger excited her fears. Someone informed her that Claudius, one day, when speaking of a woman who had been convicted of crime, said that it had always been his misfortune to have profligate wives, but that he always brought them in the end to the punishment that they deserved. Agrippina was greatly terrified at this report. She considered it a warning that Claudius was meditating some fatal proceedings in respect to her. Agrippina observed, too, as she thought, various indications that Claudius was beginning to repent of having adopted Nero, and thus displaced his own son from the line of inheritance and that he was secretly intending to restore Britannicus to his true position. He treated the boy with greater and greater attention every day and at one time, after having been conversing with him and expressing an unusual interest in his health and welfare, he ended by saying, go on improving my son and grow up as fast as you can to be a man. I shall be able to give a good account of all that I have done in regard to you in due time. Trust to me and you will find that all will come out right in the end. At another time, he told Britannicus that pretty soon he should give him the toga and bring him forward before the people as a man, and then at last said he, the Romans will have a prince that is genuine. Agrippina was not present. It is true when these things were said and done, but everything was minutely reported to her and she was filled with anxiety and alarm. She began to be afraid that unless something should speedily occur to enable her to realize her hopes and expectations, they would end in nothing but bitter and cruel disappointment after all. Such being the state of things, Agrippina was greatly pleased at the news when she heard that her husband was sick. She most earnestly hoped that he would die and immediately began to consider what she could do to ensure or to hasten such a result. She thought of poison and began to debate the question in her mind whether she should dare to administer it. Then if she were to decide to give her husband poison, it was a very serious question what kind of poison she should employ. If she were to administer one that was sudden and violent in its operation, the effect which it would produce might attract attention and her crime be discovered. On the other hand, if she were to choose one that was more moderate and gradual in its power, so as to produce a slow and lingering death, time would be allowed for Claudius to carry into effect any secret designs that he might be forming for disavowing Nero as his son and fixing the succession upon Britannicus. And Agrippina well knew that if Claudius were to die, leaving things in such a state that Britannicus should succeed him, the downfall and ruin both of herself and her son would immediately and inevitably follow. There was at that time in Rome a celebrated mistress of the art of poisoning named Locusta. She was in prison having been condemned to death for her crimes, though condemned she had been kept back from execution by the influence of Agrippina on account of the skill which she possessed in her art, and which Agrippina thought it possible that she might have occasion at some time to make use of. This Locusta she now determined to consult. She accordingly went to her and asked her if she did not know of any poison which would immediately take effect upon the brain and mind so as to incapacitate the patient at once from all mental action. While yet it should be gradual and slow in its operations on the vital functions of the body. Locusta answered in the affirmative such characters were always prepared to furnish any species of medicaments that their customers might call for. She compounded a potion which she said possessed the properties which Agrippina required and Agrippina receiving it from her hands went away. Agrippina then went to Holetus the servant who waited upon the emperor and gave him his food and contrived some means to induce him to administer the dose. Holetus was the emperor's taster as it was termed that is it was his duty to taste first himself every article of food or drink which he offered to his master for the express purpose of making it sure that nothing was poisoned. It is obvious however that many ways might be devised for evading such a precaution as this and Holetus and Agrippina arranged it that the poison in this case should be put upon a dish of mushrooms and served to the emperor at his supper. The taster was to avoid by means of some dexterous management the taking of any portion of the fatal ingredients himself. The plan thus arranged was put into execution. The emperor ate the mushrooms and Agrippina tremblingly awaited the result. She was however disappointed in the effect that was produced whether the mixture that Locusta had prepared was not sufficiently powerful or whether Holetus in his extreme anxiety not to get any of the poisonous ingredients himself failed to administer them effectually to his intended victim. The emperor seemed to continue afterward much as he had been before still sick but without any new or more dangerous symptoms. Of course Agrippina was in a state of great solicitude and apprehension having incurred the terrible guilt and danger necessarily involved in an attempt to poison her husband. She could not draw back the work that was begun must be carried through now she thought at all hazards to its termination and she immediately set herself at work to devise some means of reaching her victim with poison which would avoid the taster altogether. And thus not be liable to any interference on his part dictated either by his fidelity to his master or his fears for himself. She went accordingly to the emperor's physician and found means to enlist him in her cause and a plan was formed between them which proved effectual in accomplishing her designs. The manner in which they contrived it was this the physician at a time when the emperor was lying sick and in distress upon his couch came to him and proposed that he should open his mouth and allow the physician to touch his throat with the tip of a feather to promote vomiting which he said he thought would relieve him. The emperor yielded to this treatment and the feather was applied. It had previously been dipped in a very virulent and fatal poison. The poison thus administered took effect and Claudius after passing the night in agony died early in the morning. Of course Agrippina when her husband's dying struggles were over and she was satisfied that life was extinct, experienced for the moment a feeling of gratification and relief. It might have been expected however that the pangs of remorse after the deed was perpetrated would have followed very hard upon the termination of her suspense and anxiety. But it was not so. Much still remained to be done and Agrippina was fully prepared to meet all the responsibilities of the crisis. The death of her husband took place very early in the morning. The poisoning operations having been performed in the night and having accomplished their final effect about the break of day. Agrippina immediately perceived that the most effectual means of accomplishing the end which she had in view was not to allow of any interval to elapse between the announcement of the emperor's death and the bringing forward of her son for induction into office as his successor. Since during such an interval if one were allowed the Roman people would of course discuss the question whether Britannicus or Nero should succeed to power and a strong party might possibly organize itself to enforce the claims of the former. She determined therefore to conceal the death of her husband until noon. The hour most favorable for publicly proclaiming any great event and then to announce the death of the father and the accession of the adopted son together. She accordingly took prompt and decisive measures to prevent its being known that the emperor was dead. The immediate attendance at his bedside could not indeed be easily deceived but they were required to be silent in respect to what had occurred and to go on with all their services and administrations just as if their patient were still alive. Visitors were excluded from the room. And messengers were kept coming to and fro with baths, medicaments and other appliances such as a desperate crisis in a sick chamber might be supposed to require. The Senate was convened to in the course of the morning and Agrippina as if in great distress sent a message to them informing them of her husband's dangerous condition. And in treating them to join with the chief civil and religious functionaries of the city in offering vows, supplications and sacrifices for his recovery. She herself in the meantime went from room to room about the palace overwhelmed to all appearance with anxiety and grief. She kept Britannicus and his sisters all the time with her folding the boy in her arms with an appearance of the fondest affection and telling him how heartbroken she was at the dangerous condition of his father. She kept Britannicus thus constantly near to her in order to prevent the possibility of his being seized and carried away to the camp by any party that might be disposed to make him emperor rather than Nero when it should be known that Claudius had ceased to reign. As an additional defense against this danger, Agrippina brought up a cohort of the lifeguards around the palace and caused them to be stationed in such a manner that every avenue of approach to the edifice was completely secured. The cohort which she selected was one that she thought she could most safely rely upon not only for guarding the palace while she remained within it, but for proclaiming Nero as emperor when she should at last be ready to come forth and announce the death of her husband. And at length about noon she deemed that the hour had arrived and after placing Britannicus and his sisters in some safe custody within the palace she ordered the gates to be thrown open and prepared to come forth to announce the death of Claudius and to present Nero to the army and to the people of Rome as his rightful successor. She was aided and supported in these preparations by a number of officers and attendants among whom were the two whom she had determined upon as the two principal ministers of her son's government. These were Seneca and Burris. Seneca was to be minister of state and Burris the chief military commander. Both these men had long been in the service of Agrippina and of Nero. Seneca was now over 50 years of age. He was very highly distinguished as a scholar and returitition while he lived and his numerous writings have given him great celebrity sense in every age. He commenced his career in Rome as a public advocate in the forum during the reign of Caligula. After Caligula's death he incurred the displeasure of Claudius in the first year of that emperor's reign and he was banished to the island of Corsica where he remained in neglect and obscurity for about eight years. When at length Messalina was put to death and the emperor married Agrippina, Seneca was pardoned and recalled through Agrippina's influence and after that he devoted himself very faithfully to the service of the Empress and of her son. Agrippina appointed him Nero's preceptor and gave him the direction of all the studies which her son pursued in qualifying himself for the duties of a public orator. And now that she was about attempting to advance her son to the supreme command she intended to make the philosopher his principal secretary and minister of state. Burris was the commander of the lifeguards or as the office was called in those days prefect of the Praetorium. The lifeguards or bodyguards whose duty consisted exclusively in attending upon escorting and protecting the emperor consisted of ten cohorts each containing about a thousand men. The soldiers designated for this service were of course selected from the whole army and as no expense was spared in providing them with arms, accoutrements and other appointments, they formed the finest body of troops in the world. They received double pay and enjoyed special privileges and every arrangement was made to secure their entire subservience to the will and attachment to the person of the reigning emperor. Of course such a core would be regarded by all the other divisions of the army as entirely superior in rank and consideration to the ordinary service. And the general who commanded them would take precedence of every other military commander being second only to the emperor himself. Agrippina had contrived to raise Burris to this position through her influence with Claudius. He was a friend to her interests before and he became still more devoted to her after receiving such an appointment through her instrumentality. Agrippina now depended upon Burris to carry the Praetorium cohorts in favor of her son. Accordingly at noon of the day on which Claudius died when all things were ready the palace gates were thrown open and Agrippina came forth with her son accompanied by Burris and by other attendants. The cohort on duty was drawn up under arms at the palace gates. Burris presented Nero to them as the successor of Claudius and at a signal from him they all responded with shouts and acclamations. Some few of the soldiers did not join in this cheering but looked on in silence and then inquired of one another what had become of Britannicus. But there were none to answer this question and as no one appeared to proclaim Britannicus or to speak in his name the whole cohort finally acquiesced in the decision to which the majority at the instigation of Burris seemed inclined. A sort of chair or open peliquin was provided and Nero was mounted upon it. He was born in this way by the soldiers through the streets of the city escorted by the cohort on the way till he reached the camp. As the procession moved along the air was filled with the shouts and acclamations of the soldiers and of the people. When the party arrived at the camp Nero was presented to the army and the officers and soldiers being drawn up before him he delivered a brief speech which Seneca had prepared for the occasion. The principal point in this speech and the one on which its effect was expected to depend was a promise of a large distribution of money. The soldiers always expected such a donative on the accession of any new emperor but Nero in order to suppress any latent opposition which might be felt against his claims made his proposed distribution unusually large. The soldiers readily yielded to the influence of this promise and with one accord proclaimed Nero emperor. The senate was soon afterward convened and partly through the influence of certain prominent members whom Agrippina had taken measures to secure in her interest and partly through the general conviction that as things were the claims of Britannicus could not be successfully maintained. The choice of the army was confirmed and as the tidings of what had taken place at the capital gradually spread through Italy and to the remote portions of the empire the provinces and the various legions at their encampments one after another acquiesced in the result. Both because on the one hand they had no strong motive for dissenting and on the other they had individually no power to make any effectual resistance thus Nero at the age of seventeen became emperor of Rome and as such the almost absolute monarch of nearly half the world. It was however by no means the design of Agrippina that her son should actually wield himself all this power. Her motive in all her maneuvers for bringing Nero to this lofty position was a personal not a maternal ambition. She was herself to reign not he and she had brought him forward as the nominal sovereign only in order that she might herself exercise the power by acting in his name. Her plan was to secure her own ascendancy by so arranging and directing the course of affairs that the young emperor himself should have as little as possible to do with the duties of his office and that instead of direct action on his part. All the functions of the government should be fulfilled by officers of various grades whom she was herself to appoint and to sustain and who since they would know that they were dependent on Agrippina's influence for their elevation would naturally be subservient to her will. Nero being so young she thought that he could easily be led to acquiesce in such management as this especially if he were indulged in the full enjoyment of the luxuries and pleasures innocent or otherwise which his high station would enable him to command. And which are usually so tempting to one of his character and years the first of Agrippina's measures was to make arrangement for a most imposing and magnificent funeral as the testimonial of the deep conjugal affection which she entertained for her husband and the profound grief with which she was affected by his death. The most extensive preparations were made for this funeral and the pomp and parade which were displayed in Rome on the day of the ceremony had never been surpassed. It was said by any similar spectacle on any former occasion in the course of the services that were performed. A funeral oration was delivered by Nero to the immense concourse of people that were convened the oration was written by Seneca. It was a high panegyric upon the virtues and the renown of the deceased and it represented in the brightest colors and with great magnificence of diction his illustrious birth the high offices to which he had attained his taste for the liberal arts and the peace and tranquility which had prevailed throughout the empire during his reign. To write a panegyric upon such a man as Claudius had been must surely have proved a somewhat difficult task but Seneca accomplished it very adroitly and the people aided by the solemnity of the occasion listened with proper gravity until at length the orator began to speak of the judgment and the political wisdom of Claudius and then the listeners found that they could preserve their decorum no longer the audience looked at each other and there was a general laugh. The young orator though for the moment somewhat disconcerted at this interruption soon recovered himself and went on to the end of his discourse. After these funeral ceremonies had been performed the Senate was convened and Nero appeared before them to make his inaugural address. This address also was of course prepared for him by Seneca under directions from Agrippina who after revolving the subject fully in her mind had determined what it would be most politic to say. She knew very well that until the power of her son became consolidated and settled it became him to be modest in his pretensions and claims and to profess great deference and respect for the powers and prerogatives of the Senate. In the speech therefore which Nero delivered in the Senate chamber he said that in assuming the imperial dignity which he had consented to do in obedience to the will of his father the late emperor to the general voice of the army and the universal suffrages of the people. He did not intend to usurp the civil powers of the state but to leave to the Senate and to the various civil functionaries of the city their rightful and proper jurisdiction. He considered himself as merely the commander in chief of the armies of the Commonwealth and as such his duty would be simply to execute the national will. He promised moreover a great variety of reforms in the administration all tending to diminish the authority of the prince and to protect the people from danger of oppression by military power. In a word it was his settled purpose he said to restore the government to its pristine simplicity and purity and to administer it in strict accordance with the true principles of the Roman constitution as originally established by the founders of the Commonwealth. The professions and promises which Nero thus made to the Senate or rather which he recited to them at the dictation of his mother and of Seneca gave great satisfaction to all who heard them. All opposition to the claims which he advanced disappeared and the heart of Agrippina was filled with gladness and joy at finding that all her plans had been so fully and successfully realized. The official authority of Nero being thus generally acknowledged Agrippina began immediately to pursue a system of policy designed to secure the possession of all real power for herself leaving only the name and semblance of it to her son. If she appeared in all public places with him sharing with him the pomp and parade and insignia of office as if she were associated with him in official power she received and opened the dispatches and sent answers to them. She considered and decided questions of state and issued her orders. She caused several influential persons whom she supposed likely to take part with Britannicus or at least secretly to favor his claims to be put to death either by violence or by poison. And she would have caused the death of many others in this way if Burrus and Seneca had not interposed their influence to prevent it. She did all these things in a somewhat covert and cautious manner acting generally in Nero's name so as not to attract too much attention at first to her measures. There was danger she knew of awakening resistance and opposition as public sentiment among the Romans had always been entirely averse to the idea of the submission of men in any form to the government of women. Agrippina accordingly did not attempt openly to preside in the Senate chamber but she made arrangements for having the meetings of the Senate sometimes held in an apartment of the palace where she could attend during the sitting in an adjoining cabinet concealed from view by a screen or eras and thus listen to the debate. Even this however was strongly objected to by some of the senators. They considered this arrangement of Agrippina's to be present at their debates as intended to intimidate them into the support of such measures as she might recommend or be supposed to favor and thus as seriously interfering with the freedom of their discussions. On one occasion Agrippina made a bolder experiment still by coming into the hall where a company of foreign ambassadors were to have audience as if it were a part of her official duty to join in receiving them. Her son the emperor and the government officers around him were confounded when they saw her coming and at first did not know what to do. Seneca however with great presence of mind said to Nero your mother is entering go and receive her. Hereupon Nero left his chair of state and accompanied by his ministers went to meet his mother and received her with great deference and respect. And the attention of all present was wholly devoted to Agrippina while she remained as to a very distinguished and highly honored guest the business which had called them together being suspended on her account until she withdrew. Notwithstanding some occasional difficulties and embarrassments of this kind everything went on for a time very prosperously in accordance with Agrippina's wishes and plans Nero was very young and little disposed at first to thwart or to resist his mother's measures. He was however all the time growing older and he soon began to grow restive under the domination which Agrippina exercised over him and to form plans and determinations of his own. There followed as might have been expected a terrible conflict for the possession of power between him and his mother. The history and the termination of this struggle will form the subject of the two following chapters. End of chapter 6