 Chapter 1 of Nero by Jacob Abbott. In ancient times when the city of Rome was at the height of its power and splendor, it was the custom, as it is in fact now, with the inhabitants of wealthy capitals for the principal families to possess, in addition to their city residences, rural villas for summer retreats, which they built in picturesque situations at a little distance from the city, sometimes in the interior of the country, and sometimes upon the seashore. There were many attractive places of resort of this nature in the neighborhood of Rome. Among them was Antium. Antium was situated on the seacoast, about thirty miles south of the Tiber. A bold promontory here projects into the sea, affording from its declivities the most extended and magnificent views on every side. On the north, looking from the promontory of Antium, the eye follows the line of the coast away to the mouth of the Tiber. While on the south the view is terminated at about the same distance by the promontory of Cersei, which is the second cape or promontory that marks the shore of Italy, and going southward from Rome. Toward the interior from Antium, there extends a broad and beautiful plain, bounded by wooded hills toward the shore, and by ranges of mountains in the distance beyond. On the southern side of the cape and sheltered by it was a small harbor where vessels from all the neighboring seas had been accustomed to bring in their cargoes or to seek shelter in storms from time immemorial. In fact, Antium, in point of antiquity, takes precedence probably even of Rome. The beauty and the soluprity of Antium made it a very attractive place of summer resort for the people of Rome, and in process of time, when the city attained to an advanced stage of opulence and luxury, the Roman noblemen built villas there, choosing situations in some instances upon the natural terraces and esplanades of the promontory which looked off over the sea, and in others cool and secluded retreats in the valleys on the land. It was in one of these villas that Nero was born. Nero's father belonged to a family which had enjoyed for several generations a considerable degree of distinction among the Roman nobility, though known by a somewhat whimsical name. The family name was brazenbeard, or to speak more exactly, it was Aheno Barbis, which is the Latin equivalent for that word. It is a question somewhat difficult to decide, whether in speaking of Nero's father at the present time and in the English tongue we should make use of the actual Latin name or translate the word and employ the English representative of it. That is whether we shall call him Aheno Barbis or brazenbeard. The former seems to be more in harmony with our ideas of the dignity of Roman history, while the latter, though less elegant, conveys probably to our minds a more exact idea of the import and expression of the name as it sounded in the ears of the Roman community. The name certainly was not an attractive one, though the family had contrived to dignify it some degree by assigning to it a preternatural origin. There was a tradition that in ancient times a prophet appeared to one of the ancestors of the line, and after foretelling certain extraordinary events which were to occur at some future period, stroked down the beard of his auditor with his hand and changed it to the color of brass. In miraculous attestation of the divine authority of the message, the man received the name of brazenbeard in consequence and he and his descendants ever afterward retained it. The family of the brazenbeards was one of high rank and distinction, though at the time of Nero's birth it was like most of the other prominent Roman families extremely profligate and corrupt. Nero's father especially was a very bad man. He was accused of the very worst of crimes and he led a life of constant remorse and terror. His wife, Agrippina, Nero's mother, was as wicked as he, and it is said that when the messenger came to him to announce the birth of his child, the hero of this narrative, he uttered some exclamation of ill humor and contempt and said that whatever came from him and Agrippina could not but be fraught with ruin to Rome. The rank and station of Agrippina in Roman society was even higher than that of her husband. She was the sister of the emperor. The name of the emperor, her brother, was Caligula. He was the third in the series of Roman emperors, Augustus Caesar, the successor of Julius Caesar, having been the first. The term emperor, however, had a very different meaning in those days from its present import. It seems to denote now a sovereign ruler who exercises officially a general jurisdiction which extends over the whole government of the state. In the days of the Romans it included, in theory at least, only military command. The word was imperator, which meant commander, and the station which it denoted was simply that of general in chief over the military forces of the republic. In the early periods of the Roman history every possible precaution was taken to keep the military power in a condition of very strict subordination to the authority of the civil magistrate and of law. Very stringent regulations were adopted to secure this end. No portion of the army, except such small detachments as were required for preserving order within the walls, was allowed to approach the city. Great commanders in returning from their victorious campaigns were obliged to halt and encamp at some distance from the gates, and there await the orders of the Roman senate. The senate was, in theory, the great repository of political power. This senate was not, however, as the word might seem in modern times, to denote a well-defined and compact body of legislators designated individually to the office, but rather a class of hereditary nobles, very numerous, and deriving their power from immemorial usage, and from that strange and unaccountable feeling of deference and awe, with which the mass of mankind always look up to and established, and especially an ancient aristocracy. The senate were accustomed to convene at stated times in assemblages which were sometimes conducted with a proper degree of formality and order, and sometimes, on the other hand, exhibited scenes of great tumult and confusion. Their power, however, whether regularly or irregularly exercised, was supreme. They issued edicts, they enacted laws, they allotted provinces, they made peace, and they declared war. The armies and the generals who commanded them were the agents employed to do their bidding. The Roman armies consisted of vast bodies of men, which, when not in actual service, were established in permanent encampments in various parts of the empire, wherever it was deemed necessary that troops should be stationed. These great bodies of troops were the celebrated Roman legions, and they were renowned throughout the world for their discipline, their admirable organization, the celerity of their movements, and for the indomitable courage and energy of the men. Each legion constituted, in fact, a separate and independent community. Its camp was its city, its general was its king. In time of war, it moved, of course, from place to place as the exigencies of the service required, but in time of peace it established itself with great formality in a spacious and permanent encampment, which was laid out with great regularity and fortified with ramparts and fosters. Within the confines of the camp, the tents were arranged in rows with broad spaces for streets between them. And in a central position, before a space which served the purpose of a public square, the rich and ornamented pavilions of the commander and chief and of the other generals rose above the rest like the public edifices of a city. The encampment of a Roman legion was, in fact, an extended and populous city, only that the dwellings consisted of tents, instead of being formed of solid and permanent structures of wood or stone. Roman legions were encamped in this way in various places throughout the empire, wherever the senate thought proper to station them. There were some in Syria and the east, some in Italy, some on the banks of the Rhine, and it was through the instrumentality of the vast force thus organized that the Romans held the whole European world under their sway. The troops were satisfied to yield submission to the orders of their commanders since they received through them, in return, an abundant supply of food and clothing, and lived ordinarily lives of ease and indulgence. In consideration of this, they were willing to march from place to place wherever they were ordered, and to fight any enemy when brought into the field. The commanders obtained food and clothing for them by means of the tribute which they exacted from conquered provinces and from the plunder of sacked cities in times of actual war. These armies were naturally interested in preserving order and maintaining in general the authority of law throughout the communities which they controlled, for without law and order the industrial pursuits of men could not go on. And of course they were well aware that if in any country production were to cease, tribute must soon cease too. In reading history we find indeed it must be confessed that a fearful proportion of the narrative which describes the achievements of ancient armies is occupied with detailing deeds of violence, raping, and crime. But we must not infer from this that the influence of these vast organizations was wholly evil. Such extended and heterogeneous masses of population as those which were spread over Europe and Asia in the days of the Romans could be kept subject to the necessary restraints of social order only by some very powerful instrumentality. The legions organized by the Roman senate and stationed here and there throughout the extended territory constituted this instrumentality. But still during far the greater portion of the time the power which a legion wielded was power in repose. It accomplished its end by its simple presence and by the sentiment of awe which its presence inspired. And the nations and tribes within the circle of its influence lived in peace and pursued their industrial occupations without molestation protected by the consciousness which everywhere pervaded the minds of men that the Roman power was at hand. The legion hovered as it were like a dark cloud in their horizon silent and in repose but containing as they well knew the latent elements of thunder which might at any time burst upon their heads. Thus in its ordinary operation its influence was good. Occasionally and incidentally periods of commotion would occur when its action was violent, cruel and mercilessly evil. Unfortunately however for the credit of the system in the opinion of mankind in subsequent ages there was in the good which it affected nothing to narrate while every deed of violence and crime which was perpetrated by its agency furnished materials for an entertaining and exciting story. The good which was accomplished extended perhaps through a long but monotonous period of quiescence and repose. The evil was brief but was attended with a rapid succession of events and varied by innumerable incidents so that the historian was accustomed to pass lightly over the one with a few indifferent words of cold description while he employed all the force of his genius in amplifying and adorning the narratives which commemorated the other. Thus violent and oppressive as the military rulers were by whom in ancient times the world was governed they were less essentially and continuously violent and oppressive than the general tenor of history makes them seem and their crimes were in some degree at least compensated for and redeemed by the really useful function which they generally fulfilled of restraining and repressing all disorder and violence except their own. The Roman legions in particular were for many centuries kept intolerable subjection to the civil authorities of the capital but they were growing stronger and stronger all the time and becoming more and more conscious of their strength. Every new commander who acquired renown by his victories added greatly to the importance and influence of the army in its political relations. The great Julius Caesar in the course of his foreign conquests and of his protracted and terrible wars with Pompeii and with his other rivals made enormous strides in this direction. Every time that he returned to Rome at the head of his victorious legions he overawed the capital more and more. Octavius Caesar the successor of Julius known generally in history by the name of Augustus completed what his uncle had begun. He made the military authority though still nominally and in form subordinate in reality paramount and supreme the senate indeed continued to assemble and to exercise its usual functions consoles and other civil magistrates were chosen and invested with the insignia of supreme command and the customary forms and usages of civil administration in which the subordination of the military to the civil power was fully recognized were all continued still the actual authority of the civil government was wholly overawed and overpowered and the haughty imperator dictated to the senate and directed the administration just as he pleased it required a great genius in the commanders to bring up the army to this position of ascendancy and power but once up it sustained itself there without the necessity of ability of any kind or of any lofty qualities whatever in those subsequently placed at the head in fact the reader of history has often occasioned to be perfectly amazed at the lengths to which human endurance will go when a governmental power of any kind is once established in tolerating imbecility and folly in the individual representatives of it it seems to be immaterial whether the dominant power assumes the form of a dynasty of kings a class of hereditary nobles or a line of military generals it requires genius and statesmanship to instate it but once instated no degree of stupidity folly or crime in those who willed it seems sufficient to exhaust the spirit of submission with which man always bows to established power a spirit of submission which is so universal and so patient and enduring and which so transcends all the bounds of expediency and of reason as to seem like a blind instinct implanted in the very soul of man by the author of his being a constituent and essential part of his nature as a gregarious animal in fact without some such instinct it would seem impossible that those extended communities could be formed and sustained without which man if he could exist at all could certainly never fully develop his capacities and powers however this may be in theory it is certain in fact that the work of bringing up the military power of ancient Rome to its condition of supremacy over all the civil functions of government was the work of men of the most exalted capacities and powers marius and silla pompe and caesar anthony and augustus events in all their deeds a high degree of suggestivity energy and greatness of soul mankind though they may condemn their vices and crimes will never cease to admire the grandeur of their ambition and the magnificence comprehensiveness and efficiency of their plans of action the whole known world was the theater of their contests and the armies which they organized and disciplined and which they succeeded at length in bringing under the control of one central and consolidated command formed the most extended and imposing military power that the world had ever seen it was not only vast in extent but permanent and self-sustaining in character a wide and complicated but most effectual system was adopted for maintaining it its discipline was perfect its organization was complete it was equally trained to remain quietly at home in its city like encampments in time of peace or to march or bivouac or fight in time of war such a system could be formed only by men possessed of mental powers of the highest character but once formed it could afterwards sustain itself and not only so but it was found capable of holding up by its own inherent power the most imbecile and incompetent men as the nominal rulers of it Caligula for example the brother of agrippina and the reigning emperor at the time of Nero's birth was a man wholly unfit to exercise any high command he was elevated to the post by the influence of the army simply because he was the most prominent man among those who had hereditary claims to the succession and was thus the man whom the army could most easily place in the office of chieftain and retain most securely there his life however in the lofty station to which accident thus raised him was one of continual folly vice and crime he lived generally at Rome where he expended the immense revenues that were at his command in the most wanton and senseless extravagance in the earlier part of his career the object of much of his extravagance was the gratification of the people but after a time he began to seek only gratifications for himself and at length he events the most wanton spirit of malignity and cruelty toward others he seemed at last actually to hate the whole human species and to take pleasure in teasing and tormenting men whenever an occasion of any kind occurred to afford him the opportunity they were accustomed in those days to have spectacles and shows in vast amphitheaters which were covered when the sun was hot with awnings sometimes when an amphitheater was crowded with spectators and the heat of the sun was unusually powerful caligula would order the awnings to be removed and the doors to be kept closed so as to prevent the egress of the people and then he would amuse himself with the indications of discomfort and suffering which so crowded a concourse in such an exposure would necessarily exhibit he kept wild animals for the combats which took place in these amphitheaters and when it was difficult to procure the flesh of sheep and oxen for them he would feed them with men throwing into their dens for this purpose criminals and captives some persons who offended him he ordered to be branded in the face with hot irons by which means they were not only subjected to cruel torture at the time but were frightfully disfigured for life sometimes when the sons of noble or distinguished men displeased him or when under the influence of his caprice or malignity he conceived some feeling of hatred toward them he would order them to be publicly executed and he would require their parents to be present and witness the scene at one time after such an execution he required the wretched father of his victim to come up and sup with him at his palace and while at supper he talked with his guest all the time in a light and jocular and mirthful manner in order to trifle with and insult the mental anguish of the sufferer at another time when he had commanded a distinguished senator to be present at the execution of his son the senator said that he would go in obedience to the emperor's orders but humbly asked permission to shut his eyes at the moment of the execution that he might be spared the dreadful anguish of witnessing the dying struggles of his son the emperor in reply immediately condemned the father to death for daring to make so audacious a proposal of course the connection of agrippina the mother of nero with such a sovereign as this while it gave her a very high social position in the roman community could not contribute much to her happiness in fact all who were connected with caligula in any way lived in continual terror for so wanton and capricious was his cruelty that all who were liable to come under his notice at all were in constant danger agrippina herself at one time incurred her brother's displeasure though she was fortunate enough to escape with her life caligula discovered or pretended to discover a conspiracy against him and he accused agrippina and another of his sisters named la villa of being implicated in it caligula sent a soldier to the leader of the conspiracy to cut off his head and then he banished his sisters from Rome and shut them up in the island of pontia telling them when they went away to beware for he had swords for them as well as islands in case of need at length caligula's terrible tyranny was brought to a sudden end by his assassination and agrippina in consequence of this event was not only released from her thralldom but raised to a still higher eminence than she had enjoyed before the circumstances connected with these events will be related in the next chapter end of chapter one chapter two of nero by jacob abbot this libovox recording is in the public domain recording by deon john's celic city utah the assassination of caligula ad 40 to 41 the emperor caligula came to his death in the following manner of course his wanton and remorseless tyranny often awakened very deep feelings of resentment and very earnest desires for revenge in the hearts of those who suffered by it but yet so absolute and terrible was his power that none dared to murmur or complain the resentment however which the cruelty of the emperor awakened burned the more fiercely for being thus restrained and suppressed and many covert threats were made and many secret plots were formed from time to time against the tyrant's life among others who cherished such designs there was a man named cassius sharia an officer of the army who though not of high rank was nevertheless a man of considerable distinction he was a captain or as it was styled in those days a centurion his command therefore was small but it was in the praetorian cohort as it was called a sort of bodyguard of the commander-in-chief and consequently a very honorable core sharia was thus a man of considerable distinction on account of the post which he occupied and his duties as captain in the lifeguards brought him very frequently into communication with the emperor he was a man of great personal bravery too and was on this account held in high consideration by the army he had performed an exploit at one time some years before in germany which had gained him great fame it was at the time of the death of augustus the first emperor some of the german legions and among them one in which sharia was serving had seized upon the occasion to revolt they alleged many and grievous acts of oppression as the grounds of their revolt and demanded redress for what they had suffered and security for the future one of the first measures which they resorted to in the frenzy of the first outbreak of the rebellion was to seize all the centurions in the camp and to beat them almost to death they gave them 60 blows each one for each of their number and then turned them bruised wounded and dying out of the camp some day threw into the rhyme they revenged themselves thus on all these centurions but one that was sharia sharia would not suffer himself to be taken by them but seizing his sword he fought his way through the myths of them slaying some and driving others before him and thus made his escape from the camp this feat gained him great renown one might imagine from this account that sharia was a man of great personal superiority in respect to size and strength in as much as extraordinary muscular power as well as undaunted courage would seem to be required to enable a man to make his way against so many enemies but this was not the fact sharia was of small stature and of a slender and delicate form he was modest and unassuming in his manners too and of a very kind and gentle spirit he was thus not only honored and admired for his courage but he was generally beloved for the amiable and excellent qualities of his heart the possession of such qualities however could not be expected to recommend him particularly to the favor of the emperor in fact in one instance it had the contrary effect Caligula assigned to the centurions of his guard at one period some duties connected with the collection of taxes sharia instead of practicing the extortion and cruelty common on such occasions was merciful and considerate and governed himself strictly by the rules of law and of justice in his collections the consequence necessarily was that the amount of money received was somewhat diminished and the emperor was displeased the occasion was however not one of sufficient importance to awaken in the monarch's mind any very serious anger and so instead of inflicting any heavy punishment upon the offender he contented himself with attempting to tease and torment him with sundry vexatious indignities and annoyances it is the custom sometimes in camps and at other military stations for the commander to give every evening what is called the parole or password which consists usually of some word or phrase that is to be communicated to all the officers and as occasion may require to all the soldiers whom for any reason it may be necessary to send to and fro about the precincts of the camp during the night the sentinels also i'll have the password and accordingly whenever any man approaches the post of a sentinel he is stopped and the parole is demanded if the stranger gives it correctly it is presumed that all is right and he is allowed to pass on since an enemy or a spy would have no means of knowing it now whenever it came to chariots turn to communicate the parole the emperor was accustomed to give him some ridiculous or indecent phrase intended not only to be offensive to the purity of charia's mind but designed also to exhibit him in a ridiculous light to the subordinate officers and soldiers to whom he would have to communicate it sometimes the password thus given was some word or phrase holy unfit to be spoken and sometimes it was the name of some notorious and infamous woman but whatever it was charia was compelled by his duty as a soldier to deliver it to all the core and patiently to submit to the laughter and derision which his communication awakened among the vile and wicked soldiery if there was any dreadful punishment to be inflicted or cruel deed of any kind to be performed caligula took great pleasure in assigning the duty to charia knowing how abhorrent to his nature it must be at one time a senator of great distinction named propitius was accused of treason by one of his enemies his treason consisted as the accuser alleged of having spoken injurious words against the emperor propitius denied that he had ever spoken such words the accuser whose name was timidius cited a certain quintilia an actress as his witness propitius was accordingly brought to trial and quintilia was called upon before the judges to give her testimony she denied that she had ever heard propitius utter any such sentiment as timidius attributed to him timidius then said that quintilia was testifying falsely he declared that she had heard propitius utter such words and demanded that she should be put to the torture to compel her to acknowledge it the emperor acceded to this demand and commanded charia to put the actress to the torture it is of course always difficult to ascertain the precise truth in respect to such transactions as those that are connected with plots and conspiracies against tyrants since every possible precaution is of course taken by all concerned to conceal what is done it is probable however in this case that propitius had cherished some hostile designs against caligula if he had not uttered injurious words and that quintilia was in some measure in his confidence it is even possible that charia may have been connected with them in some secret design for it is said that when he received the orders of caligula to put quintilia to the torture he was greatly agitated and alarmed if he should apply the torture severely he feared that the unhappy sufferer might be induced to make confessions or statements at least which would bring destruction on the men whom he most relied upon for the overthrow of caligula on the other hand if he should attempt to spare her the effect would be only to provoke the anger of caligula against himself without at all shielding or saving her as however he was proceeding to the place of torture in charge of his victim with his mind in this state of anxiety and indecision his fears were somewhat relieved by a private signal given to him by quintilia by which she intimated to him that he need feel no concern that she would be faithful and true and would reveal nothing whatever might be done to her this assurance while it elade in some degree charia's anxieties and fears must have greatly increased the mental distress which he endured at the idea of leading such a woman to the awful suffering which awaited her he could not however do otherwise than to proceed having arrived at the place of execution the wretched quintilia was put to the rack she bore the agony which she endured while her limbs were stretched on the torturing engine and her bones broken with patient submission to the end she was then carried fainting helpless and almost dead to caligula who seemed now satisfied he ordered the unhappy victim of the torture to be taken away and directed that propitias should be acquitted and discharged of course while passing through this scene the mind of charia was in a tumult of agitation and excitement the anguish of mind which he must have felt in his compassion for the sufferer mingling and contending with the desperate indignation which burned in his bosom against the author of all these miseries he was wrought up in fact to such a state of frenzy by this transaction that as soon as it was over he determined immediately to take measures to put caligula to death this was a very bold and desperate resolution caligula was the greatest and most powerful potentate on earth charia was only a captain of his guard without any political influence or power and with no means whatever of screening himself from the terrible consequences which might be expected to follow from his attempt whether it should succeed or fail so thoroughly however was he now aroused that he determined to brave every danger in the attainment of his end he immediately began to seek out among the officers of the army such men as he supposed would be most likely to join him men of courage resolution and faithfulness and those who from their general character or from the wrongs which they had individually endured from the government were to be supposed especially hostile to caligula's domination from among these men he selected a few and to them he cautiously unfolded his designs all approved of them some it is true declined taking any active part in the conspiracy but they assured charia of their good wishes and promised solemnly not to betray him the number of the conspirators daily increased there was however at their meetings for consultation some difference of opinion in respect to the course to be pursued some were in favor of acting promptly and at once the greatest danger which was to be apprehended they thought was in delay as the conspiracy became extended someone would at length come to the knowledge of it they said who would betray them others on the other hand were for proceeding cautiously and slowly what they most feared was rash and inconsiderate action it would be ruinous to the enterprise as they maintained for them to attempt to act before their plans were fully matured charia was of the former opinion he was very impatient to have the deed performed he was ready himself he said to perform it at any time his personal duties as an officer of the guard gave him frequent occasions of access to the emperor and he was ready to avail himself of any of them to kill the monster the emperor went often he said to the capital to offer sacrifices and he could easily kill him there or if they thought that that was to public an occasion he could have an opportunity in the palace at certain religious ceremonies which the emperor was accustomed to perform there and at which charia himself was usually present or he was ready to throw him down from a tower where he was accustomed to go sometimes for the purpose of scattering money among the populace below charia said that he could easily come up behind him on such an occasion and hurl him suddenly over the parapet down to the pavement below all these plans however seemed to the conspirators too uncertain and dangerous and charia's proposals were accordingly not agreed to at length the time drew near when Caligula was to leave Rome to proceed to Alexandria in Egypt and the conspirators perceived that they must prepare to act or else abandon their design altogether it had been arranged that there was to be a grand celebration at Rome previous to the emperor's departure this celebration which was to consist of games and sports and dramatic performances of various kinds was to continue for three days and the conspirators determined after much consultation and debate that Caligula should be assassinated on one of those days after coming to this conclusion however in general their hearts seemed to fail them in fixing the precise time for the perpetration of the deed and two of the three days passed away accordingly without any attempt being made at length on the morning of the third day charia called the chief conspirators together and urged them very earnestly not to let the present opportunity pass away he represented to them how greatly they increased the danger of their attempts by such delays and he seemed himself so full of determination and courage and addressed them with so much eloquence and power that he inspired them with his own resolution and they decided unanimously to proceed the emperor came to the theater that day at an unusually early hour and seemed to be in excellent spirits and in an excellent humor he was very complacent to all around him and very lively affable and gay after performing certain ceremonies by which it devolved upon him to open the festivities of the day he proceeded to his place with his friends and favorites about him and charia with the other officers that day on guard at a little distance behind him the performances were commenced and everything went on as usual until toward noon the conspirators kept their plans profoundly secret except that one of them when he had taken his seat by the side of a distinguished senator asked him whether he had heard anything new the senator replied that he had not I can then tell you something said he which perhaps you have not heard and that is that in the piece which is to be acted today there is to be represented the death of a tyrant hush said the senator and he quoted a verse from Homer which meant be silent lest some greek should overhear it had been the usual custom of the emperor at such entertainments to take a little recess about noon for rest and refreshments it devolved upon charia to wait upon him at this time and to conduct him from his place in the theater to an adjoining apartment in his palace which was connected with the theater where there was provided a bath and various refreshments when the time arrived and charia perceived as he thought that the emperor was about to go he himself went out and stationed himself in a passageway leading to the bath intending to intercept and assassinate the emperor when he should come along the emperor however delayed his departure having fallen into conversation with his courtiers and friends and finally he said that on the whole as it was the last day of the festival he would not go out to the bath but would remain in the theater and then ordering refreshments to be brought to him there he proceeded to distribute them with great urbanity to the officers around him in the meantime charia was patiently waiting in the passageway with his sword by his side already for striking the blow the moment that his victim should appear of course the conspirators who remained behind were in a state of great suspense and anxiety and one of them named minucianus determined to go out and inform charia of the change in caligula's plans he accordingly attempted to rise but caligula put his hand upon his robe saying sit still my friend you shall go with me presently minucianus accordingly dissembled his anxiety and agitation of mind still a little longer but presently watching an opportunity when the emperor's attention was otherwise engaged he rose and assuming an unconcerned and careless error he walked out of the theater he found charia in his ambuscade in the passageway and he immediately informed him that the emperor had concluded not to come out charia and minucianus were then greatly at a loss what to do some of the other conspirators who had followed minucianus out now joined them and a brief but very earnest and solemn consultation ensued after a moment's hesitation charia declared that they must now go through with their work at all hazards and he professed himself ready if his comrades would sustain him in it to go back to the theater and stab the tyrant there in his seat in the midst of his friends minucianus and the others concurred in this design and it was resolved immediately to execute it the execution of the plan however in the precise form in which it had been resolved upon was prevented by a new turn which affairs had taken in the theater for while minucianus and the two or three conspirators who had accompanied him were debating in the passageway the others who remained knowing that charia was expecting caligula to go out conceived the idea of attempting to persuade him to go and thus to lead him into the snare which had been set for him they accordingly gathered around and without any appearance of concert or of eagerness began to recommend him to go and take his bath as usual he seemed at length disposed to yield to these persuasions and rose from his seat and then the whole company attending and following him he proceeded toward the doors which conducted to the palace the conspirators went before him and under pretence of clearing the way for him they contrived to remove to a little distance all whom they thought would be most disposed to render him any assistance the consultations of charia and those who were with him in the inner passageway were interrupted by the coming of this company among those who walked with the emperor at this time were his uncle claudius and other distinguished relatives caligula advanced along the passage walking in company with these friends and wholly unconscious of the fate that awaited him but instead of going immediately toward the bath he turned aside first into a gallery or corridor which led into another apartment where there were assembled a company of boys and girls that had been sent to him from asia to act and dance upon the stage and who had just arrived the emperor took great interest in looking at these performers and seemed desirous of having them go immediately into the theater and let him see them perform while talking on this subject charia and the other conspirators came into the apartment determined now to strike the blow charia advanced to the emperor and asked him in the usual manner what should be the parole for that night the emperor gave him in reply such and one as he had often chosen before to insult and degrade him charia instead of receiving the insult meekly and patiently in his usual manner uttered words of anger and defiance in reply and drawing his sword at the same instant he struck the emperor across the neck and felt him to the floor caligula filled the apartment with his cries of pain and terror the other conspirators rushed in and attacked him on all sides his friends so far as the adherents of such a man can be called friends fled in dismay as for caligula's uncle claudias it was not to have been expected that he would have rendered his nephew any aid for he was a man of such extraordinary mental imbecility that he was usually considered as not possessed even of common sense and all the others who might have been expected to defend him either fled from the scene or stood by in consternation and amazement leaving the conspirators to wreak their vengeance on the wretched victim to the full in fact though while a desperate lives and retains his power thousands are ready to defend him and to execute his will however much in heart they may hate and attest him yet when he is dead or when it is once certain that he is about to die and instantaneous change takes place and everyone turns against him the multitudes in and around the theater and the palace who had an hour before trembled before this mighty potentate and seemed to live only to do his bidding were filled with joy to see him brought to the dust the conspirators when the success of their plans and the death of their oppressor was once certain abandoned themselves to the most extravagant joy they cut and stabbed the fallen body again and again as if they could never enough wreak their vengeance upon it they cut off pieces of the body and bit them with their teeth in their savage exultation and triumph at length they left the body where it lay and went forth into the city where all was now of course tumbled and confusion the body remained where it had fallen until late at night then some attendants of the palace came and conveyed it away they were sent it was said by sesonia the wife of the murdered man sesonia had an infant daughter at this time and she remained herself with the child in a retired apartment of the palace while these things were transpiring distracted with grief and terror at the tidings that she heard she clung to her babe and made the arrangements for the interment of the body of her husband without leaving its cradle she imagined perhaps that there was no reason for supposing that she or the child were in any immediate danger and accordingly she took no measures toward effecting and escape if so she did not understand the terrible frenzy to which the conspirators had been aroused and for which the long series of cruelties and indignities which they had endured from her husband had prepared them for at midnight one of them broke into her apartment stabbed the mother in her chair and taking the innocent infant from its cradle killed it by beating its head against the wall atrocious as this deed may seem it was not altogether wanton and malignant cruelty which prompted it the conspirators intended by the assassination of caligula not merely to wreak their vengeance on a single man but to bring to an end a hated race of tyrants and they justified the murder of the wife and child by the plea that stern political necessity required them to exterminate the line in order that no successor might subsequently arise to re-establish the power and renew the tyranny which they had brought to an end the history of monarchies is continually presenting us with instances of innocent and helpless children sacrificed to such a supposed necessity as this end of chapter two chapter three of Nero by Jacob Abbott this lipovox recording is in the public domain recording by deon gines celic city utah the accession of claudius ad 41 to 47 in the assassination of caligula the conspirators who combined to perpetrate the deed had a much deeper design than that of merely gratifying their personal resentment and rage against an individual tyrant they wished to affect a permanent change in the government by putting down the army from the position of supreme and despotic authority which it had assumed and restoring the dominion to the roman senate and to the other civil authorities of the city as it had been exercised by them in former years of course the death of caligula was the commencement not the end of the great struggle the whole country was immediately divided into two parties there was the party of the senate and the party of the army and a long and bitter conflict ensued it was for some time doubtful which would win the day in fact immediately after caligula was killed and the tidings of his death began to spread about the palace and into the streets of the city a considerable tumult arose the precursor and earnest of the dissensions that were to follow upon the first alarm a body of the emperor's guards that had been accustomed to attend upon his person and whom he had strongly attached to himself by his lavish generosity in bestowing presence and rewards upon them rushed forward to defend him or if it should prove too late to defend him to avenge his death these soldiers ran toward the palace and when they found that the emperor had been killed they were furious with rage and fell upon all whom they met and actually slew several men tidings came to the theater and the word was spread from rank to rank among the people that the emperor was slain the people did not however at first believe the story they supposed that the report was a cunning contrivance of the emperor himself intended to entrap them into some expression of pleasure and gratification on their part at his death in order to give him an excuse for inflicting some cruel punishment upon them the noise and tumult in the streets soon convinced them however that something extraordinary had occurred they learned that the news of the emperor's death was really true and almost immediately afterward they found to their consternation that the furious guards were thundering at the gates of the theater and endeavoring to force their way in in order to wreak their vengeance on the assembly as if the spectators at the show were accomplices of the crime in the meantime sharia and the other chief conspirators had fled to a secret place of retreat where they now lay concealed as soon as they had found that the object of their vengeance was really dead and when they had satisfied themselves with the pleasure of cutting and stabbing the lifeless body they stole a way to the house of one of their friends in the neighborhood where they could lie for a time secreted in safety the lifeguards sought for them everywhere but could not find them the streets were filled with tumult and confusion rumors of every kind false and true spread in all directions and increased the excitement at length however the consuls who were the chief magistrates of the republic succeeded in organizing a force and in restoring order they took possession of the forum and of the capital and posted terminals and guards along the streets they compelled the emperor's guards to desist from their violence and retire they sent a herald clothed in mourning into the theater to announce officially to the people the event which had occurred and to direct them to repair quietly to their homes having taken these preliminary measures they immediately called the senate together to deliberate on the emergency which had occurred and to decide what should next be done in the meantime the emperor's guards having withdrawn from the streets of the city retired to their camp and joined their comrades thus there were two fast powers organized that of the army in the camp and that of the senate in the city each jealous of the other and resolute in its determination not to yield in the approaching conflict in times of sudden and violent revolution like that which attended the death of caligula the course which public affairs are to take and the question who is to rise and who is to fall seem often to be decided by utter accident it was strikingly so in this instance in respect to the selection of the part of the army of the man who was to take the post of supreme command in the place of the murdered emperor the choice fell on claudius agrippina's uncle it fell upon him too as it would seem by the nearest chance in the following very extraordinary manner claudius as has already been said was caligula's uncle and as caligula and agrippina were brother and sister he was of course agrippina's uncle too he was at this time about 50 years of age and he was universally ridiculed and contended on account of his great mental and personal inferiority he was weak and ill formed at his birth so that even his mother despised him she called him an unfinished little monster and whenever she wished to express her contempt for anyone in respect to his understanding she used to say you are as stupid as my son claudius in a word claudius was extremely unfortunate in every respect so far as natural endowments are concerned his countenance was very repulsive his figure was ungainly his manners were awkward his voice was disagreeable and he had an impediment in his speech in fact he was considered in his youth as almost an idiot he was not allowed to associate with the other roman boys of his age but was kept apart in some secluded portion of the palace with women and slaves where he was treated with so much cruelty and neglect that what little spirit nature had given him was crushed and destroyed in fact by common consent all seemed to take pleasure in teasing and tormenting him sometimes when he was coming to the table at an entertainment the other guests would combine to exclude him from the seats in order to enjoy his distress as he ran about from one part of the table to another endeavoring to find a place if they found him asleep they would pelt him with olives and dates or awaken him with the blow of a rod or a whip and sometimes they would stealthily put his sandals upon his hands while he was asleep in order that when he awoke suddenly they might amuse themselves with seeing him rub his face and eyes with them after all however the inferiority of claudius was not really so great as it seemed he was awkward and ungainly no doubt to the last degree but he possessed some considerable capacity for intellectual pursuits and attainments and as he was pretty effectually driven away from society by the just and ridicule to which he was subjected he devoted a great deal of time in his retirement to study and to other useful pursuits he made considerable progress in the efforts which he thus made to cultivate his mind he however failed to acquire the respect of those around him and as he grew up he seemed to be considered utterly incapable of performing any useful function and during the time when his nephew caligula was emperor he remained at court among the other nobles but still neglected and despised by all of them it is said that he probably owed the preservation of his life to his insignificance as caligula would probably have found some pretext for destroying him if he had not thought him too spiritless and imbecile to form any ambitious plans in fact claudius said himself afterward when he became emperor that a great part of his apparent simplicity was feigned as a measure of prudence to protect himself from injury when claudius grew up he was married several times the wife who was living with him at the time of caligula's death was his third wife her name was valeria mesalina she was his cousin claudius and mesalina had one child a daughter named octavia claudius had been extremely unhappy in his connection with the wife's preceding mesalina he had quarreled with them and been divorced from them both he had had a daughter by one of these wives and a son by the other the son was suddenly killed by getting choked with a small pair he had been throwing it into the air and attempting to catch it in his mouth as it came down when at last it slipped down into his throat and strangled him as for the daughter claudius was so exasperated with her mother at the time of his divorce from her that he determined to disown and reject the child so he ordered the terrified girl to be stripped naked and to be sent and laid down in that condition at her wretched mother's door claudius as has already been stated was present with caligula at the theater on the last day of the spectacle and followed him into the palace when he went to look at the asiatic captives so that he was present or at least very near at the time of his nephew's assassination as might have been expected from what has been said of his character he was overwhelmed with consternation and terror at the scene and was utterly incapacitated from taking any part either for or against the conspirators he stole away in great fright and hid himself behind the hangings in a dark recess in the palace here he remained for some time listening in an agony of anxiety and suspense to the sounds which he heard around him he could hear the cries and the tumult in the streets and in the passages of the palace parties of the guards in going to and fro passed by the place of his retreat from time to time alarming him with the clanger of their weapons and their furious exclamations and outcries and one time peeping stealthfully out he saw a group of soldiers hurrying along with a bleeding head on the point of a pike it was the head of a prominent citizen of rome whom the guards had intercepted and killed supposing him to be one of the conspirators this spectacle greatly increased claudius's terror he was wholly in the dark in respect to the motives and the designs of the men who had thus revolted against his nephew and it was of course impossible for him to know how he himself would be regarded by either party he did not dare therefore to surrender himself to either but remained in his concealment suffering great anxiety and utterly unable to decide what to do at length while he was in this situation of uncertainty and terror a common soldier of the guards named apyrus who happened to pass that way accidentally saw his feet beneath the hangings and immediately pulling the hangings aside dragged him out to view claudius supposed now of course that his hour was come he fell on his knees in an agony of terror and begged the soldier to spare his life the soldier when he found that his prisoner was claudius the uncle of coligula raised him from the ground and saluted him emperor as coligula left no son apyrus considered claudius as his nearest relative and consequently as the heir apyrus immediately summoned others of the guard to the place saying that he had found the new emperor and calling upon them to assist in conveying him to the camp the soldiers thus summoned procured a chair and having placed the astonished claudius in it they raised the chair upon their shoulders and began to convey it away as they bore him thus along the streets the people who saw them supposed that they were taking him to execution and they lamented his unhappy fate claudius himself knew not what to believe he could not but hope that his life was to be saved but then he could not wholly dispel his fears in the meantime the soldiers went steadily forward with their burden when one set of bearers became fatigued they sat down the chair and others relieved them no one molested them or attempted to intercept them in their progress and at length they reached the camp claudius was well received by the whole body of the army the officers held a consultation that night and determined to make him emperor at first he was extremely unwilling to accept the proffered honor but they urged it upon him and he was at length induced to accept it thus the army was once more provided with a head and prepared to engage anew in its conflict with the civil authorities of the city the particulars of the conflict that ensued we cannot hear describe it is sufficient to say that the army prevailed and that claudius soon found himself in full possession of the power from which his nephew had been so suddenly deposed one of the first measures which the new emperor adopted was to recall agrippina from her banishment at panthea where caligula had confined her and restore her to her former position in rome her husband brazen beard died about this time and young brazen beard her son afterward called nero the subject of this history was three years old octavia the daughter of claudius and meselina was a little younger meselina the wife of claudius hated agrippina considering her as she did her rival and enemy the favor which claudius showed to agrippina in recalling her from her banishment and treating her with consideration and favor at rome only inflamed still more meselina's hatred she could not however succeed in inducing claudius to withdraw his protection from his niece for claudius though almost entirely subject to the influence and control of his wife in most things seemed fully determined not to yield to her wishes in this agrippina continued therefore to live at rome in high favor with the court for several years her little son advancing all the time in age and in maturity until at length he became 12 years old at this time another great change took place in his own and his mother's condition meselina became herself by her wickedness and infatuation the means of racing her rival into her own place as wife of the emperor the result was accomplished in the following manner meselina had long been a very disillute and wicked woman having been accustomed to give herself up to criminal indulgences and pleasures of every kind in company with favorites whom she selected from time to time among the courtiers around her for a time she managed these intrigues with some degree of caution and secrecy in order to conceal her conduct from her husband she gradually however became more and more open and bold she possessed a great ascendancy over the mind of her husband and could easily deceive him or induce him to do whatever she pleased she persuaded him to confer honors and rewards in a very liberal manner upon those whom she favored and to degrade and sometimes even to destroy those who displeased her she would occasionally resort to very cunning artifices to accomplish her ends for example she conceived at one time a violent hatred against the husband of her mother his name was selenus he was not the father of meselina but a second husband of meselina's mother and being young and attractive in person meselina at first loved him and intended to make him one of her favorites and companions selenus however would not accede to her wishes and her love for him was then changed into hatred and thirst for revenge she accordingly determined on his destruction but as she knew that it would be difficult to induce claudius to proceed to extremities against him on account of his intimate relationship to the family she contrived a very artful plot to accomplish her ends it was this she sent word to selenus on a certain evening that the emperor wished him to come to the palace to his private apartment the next morning at a very early hour the emperor wished to see him the messenger said on business of importance just before the time which had been appointed for selenus to appear a certain officer of the household named narcissus whom meselina had engaged to assist her in her plot came into the emperor's apartment with an anxious countenance and in a very hurried manner and said to claudius whom he waked out of sleep by his coming that he had had a very frightful dream one which he deemed it his duty to make known to his master without any delay he dreamed he said that a plot had been forming for assassinating the emperor that selenus was the contriver of it and that he was coming early that morning to carry his design into effect meselina who was present with her husband at the time listened to this story with well-famed anxiety and agitation and then declared with accountants of great mysteriousness and solemnity that she had had precisely the same dream for two or three nights in succession but that not being willing to do selenus an injury or to raise any unjust suspicions against him she had thus far foreborn to speak of the subject to her husband she was however now convinced she said that selenus was really entertaining some treasonable designs and that the dreams were tokens sent from heaven to warn the emperor of his danger claudius who was of an extremely timid and nervous temperament was very much alarmed by these communications and his terrors were greatly increased by the appearance of a servant who announced to him at the moment that selenus was then coming in the coming of selenus to the palace at that unseasonable hour was considered by the emperor as full confirmation of the dreams which had been related to him and as proof of the guilt of the accused and under the impulse of the sudden passion and fear which this conviction awakened in his mind he ordered selenus to be seized and led away to immediate execution these commands were obeyed selenus was hurried away and dispatched by the swords of the soldiers without ever knowing what the accusation was that had been made against him thus meselina succeeded by artifice and cunning in accomplishing her ends in cases where she could not rely on her direct influence upon the mind of the emperor in one way or the other she almost always affected whatever she undertook and gradually came to exercise almost supreme control whom she would she raised up and whom she would she put down in the meantime she lived herself a life of the most guilty indulgence and pleasure for a long time she concealed her wickedness from the emperor he was very easily deceived and though meselina's character was perfectly well known to others he himself continued blind to her guilt at length however she began to grow more and more bold she became satiated as one of her historians says of her with the common and ordinary forms of vice and wished for something new and unusual to give frequency and life to her sensations at length however she went one step too far and brought upon herself in consequence of it a terrible destruction it was about seven years after the accession of claudius that the event occurred the favorite of meselina at this time was a young roman senator named caes cilius cilius was a very distinguished young nobleman and a man of handsome person and a very graceful and accomplished manners and address he was in fact a very general favorite and meselina when she first saw him conceived a very strong affection for him he was however already married to a beautiful roman lady named junia selana selana had been and was still at this time an intimate friend of agrippina nero's mother though in subsequent times they became bitter enemies meselina made no secret of her love for cilius she visited him freely at his house and received his visits in return she accompanied him to public places even seeing everywhere her strong regard for him in the most undisguised and open manner at length she proposed to him to divorce his wife in order that she herself might enjoy his society without any limitation or restraint cilius hesitated for a time about complying with these proposals he was well aware that he must necessarily incur great danger either by complying or by refusing to comply with them to accede to the empress's proposals would be of course to place himself in a position of extreme peril and the fate of selena's was a warning to him of what he had to fear from her wrath in case of a refusal he concluded that the former danger was on the whole the least to be apprehended and he accordingly divorced his wife and gave himself up wholly to meselina's will this arrangement being made all things for a time went on smoothly and well cladius himself lived a very secluded life and paid very little attention to his wife's pursuits or pleasures he lived sometimes in retirement in his palace devoting his time to his studies or to the plans and measures of government he seemed to have honestly desired to promote the welfare and prosperity of the republic and he made many useful regulations and laws which promised to be conducive to this end sometimes he was absent for a season from the city visiting fortresses and encampments or inspecting the public works such as aqueducts and canals which were in progress of construction he was particularly interested in certain operations which he planned and conducted at the melds of the tiber for forming a harbor there the place was called austia that word in the latin tongue denoting mouths to form a port there he built two long piers extending them in a curvilinear form into the sea so as to enclose a large area of water between them where ships could lie at anchor in safety lighthouses were built at the extremities of these piers it is a curious circumstance that informing the foundation of one of these piers the engineers whom claudius employed sunk an immense ship which caligula had formerly caused to be built for the purpose of transporting an obelisk from egypt to rome the obelisk which now stands in front of st peter's church and is the admiration and wonder of all visitors to rome as the obelisk was formed of a single stone a vessel of a very large size and of an unusual construction was necessary for the conveyance of it and when this ship had once delivered its monstrous burden it had no longer any useful function to perform on the surface of the sea and the engineers accordingly filled it with stones and gravel and sunk it at the mouth of the tiber to form part of the foundation of one of claudius's piers as it is found that there is no perceptible decay even for centuries in timber that is kept constantly submerged in the water of the sea it is not impossible that the vast hulk unless marine insects have devoured it and carried it away lies embedded where claudius placed it still while the emperor was engaged in these and similar pursuits and occupations mesalina went on in her career of dissipation and indulgence from bad to worse growing more and more bold and open every day she lived in a constant round of entertainments and of gaiety sometimes receiving companies of guests at her own palace and sometimes making visits with a large retinue of attendance and friends at the house of cilius of course everyone paid court to cilius and assumed in their intercourse with him every appearance that they entertained for him the most friendly regard it is always so with the favorites of the great while in heart they are hated and despised in form and appearance they are caressed and applauded cilius was intoxicated with the emotions that the giddy elevation to which he had arrived so naturally inspired he was not however holy at his ease he could not but be aware that lofty as his position was it was the brink of a precipice that he stood upon still he shut his eyes in a great measure to his danger and went blindly on the catastrophe which came very suddenly at last will form the subject of the next chapter end of chapter three