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ii me the vase trealare test him by Tiberius. Accordingly, he was himself extravagant and profuse, beyond ali mea lare. He spent upori Tiridates eight hundred thousandsesterces a day, a sum almos incredibie ; and at his de- parture, presented him th upwards of a million. Helihewise bestowed upon Menecrates the harper, and Spi-cillus a gladiator, the estates and hous es of men who hadhad the honor of a triumph. He enriched the usurer Cercopithecus Panerotes with estates both in town and Country; and gave him a funerat, in pom p and magnificence litile infelior to that os princes. He never wOlethe fame garment twice. He would ga me for four hundred thous and sesterces for every spol that came up uponthe tali. He used to fissa with a goiden net, di a xvii bus1lken coriis of the finest scarlet-colour. It is suid, that
he never travelled With lese than a thous and caris attend-
horses in splendid trappings. XXXI. In nothing was he more prodiga than in huil ling. He erected a hous e that reache t from the PA-
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1ace to the Esquiliae, Which he at fit st called Trano toria; biit, after it was buriat down and rebulli, The Gol en mi e concerning the eXtent and furniture of which, it may belassicient to say thus much : the porch was so high that there sto od in it a monstro us statue of himself a hundredand twenty foot in height; and the extent of it lach, thatit had triple porticos a mile in tength, and a pond like asta, sui rounded with buit lings that had the appearance ofa city. Within the Compasse of it were corn-sields, vine-yariis, pastures and woods, with a vast number of animais
scattered flowei s ; and were hesides furnished with pipes for the di opping of uguenis iapon me guesis. The Chies banque ting-room was Circular, and perpetuallyturning about night and day, in imitation of the motion of the celes fiat hodies. The ballis urere provided M th water frona the sea and Albula. Upon the opening of the liouse aiater it was fi nistaed, his approbation os it was only In thesemords, that he had noui hcgun to have a loliging fit fora man. '' He began a ponit for the reception os ali thewarm rivuleis frona Baiae, Which he designed to have carri-ed on frona Misenum to the Averni an Lahe, under a Couer, en closed within porticos ; as also a canal fro in Avernumto Ostia, for the convenience of passing hct Yt thos et o places by shipping, and yet not by sea, a hundredand 11xty miles in tength; and of a b rea illi sufficient tolet sit ips witti sive bantis of Oars pase one another. Forthe exscution of these desigias, he Ordered ali prisoners, in every part of the empire, to be brought into Italy ; and
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NERO CLAUDIUS CISSAR. ψ 9 encouraged to ali this wild and enorinous profusion, notonly by the great revenue of the empire, but by the sud den hopes given him os an immense hidden treas ure, viZ. that twhicli queen Dido, upon her figlit stom Tyre, had brought with her into Africa . This, a Roman knight pretended to assure him, upon good insormation, was stillhid there in sonae lonely caves, and might with a litile labor be reco vel ed.
XXXII. But being dilappotnted in his expectations of
this res urce, and reduced to such dissiculties for want of money, that he was obliged to suspend the payment of his troops, and the adu ance of the premi unas due to the veterans ; he resolved upon supplying his necessities by means os false accusation and rapine. In the fit si place, he ordered, that is any freedmen, Without susscient reason, bore the name of any fami ly to which he was al-lied, at their decease, ins ead of the half, three fourilis of their estates siould be brought into the excitequer; as also that the estates of such as h ad not, in their wilis, been grate-ful to their prince, mould be ali confiscaled: and that thelawyers who had drawn or dictaled such wilis, mouid heliable to a fine. He orda ined likewise, that ait worti an laetions, upon which any informer could ground a prosecution, mould be deemed treason. He demanded an equivalent for the crowns Wmich the cities of Greece had atany time offered hi in in the solemn games in that Coun- try. Having forbid the use of the Amethystine and Tyrian scarlet, he privately sent a person to seli a few ounces of it upon the day of the nundinae, and then saut Dp allthe merchanis' stiops, upon the pretexi that his edict hadbeen violated. It is seid, that, as he was playing and sing ing in the theatre, observing a married lady di essed in that
Lind of scarlet which he had prohibited, he potnted her
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cloaths, but her estate. He never nominated a person to
any ossice without saying to him, You know what Iwant; and let his ta ke Care to leave nobody any thing. 'At last he rifled many temples of the ricli offerings.whichhad been deposited in them, and meited down ali me goldand silver statues, and amongst them those of the Penates , whicli asterwards Galba restore l. XXXIII. He began me practice of parricide and mur-der wim Claudius himself; of whose death though hewas not the contriver, he was privy to the desigia againsthim. Nor did he mahe any secret os it; but used after-wards to commend, by a GreCian proverb, mustia ooms asDod fit for the Gods, because he had been pol ned withone . He revi ted his memory both by word and deed in the grossest manner; one while traducing him for his folly, another while for his crueity. For he used to say by wayosjest, that he had gi ven o ver morari amongs men, PTO-no uncing the firs syllabie long ; and repealed many of his decrees and constitutions , as made by a doating old block-
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NERO CLAUDIUS CAESAR. 43Ιhead. He enclosed the place Where his body was burnimith only an ordinary low fence. He attempted to pol n
sent for the woman, and beat her With his own iliand,
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down iapon her. Accor lingly, under the Cover of a pretended reconciliation, he wrote her an extremely affectionate letter, inviting her to Baiae, to celebrate mith him the festival of Minerva. He had gi ven private ordei s to the captains of the galleys which were to attend her, to matter
uer as that the whole mould appear to be accidental. Heprolonged the enteria inment, for the more convenient
opportunity os executing tiae plot in the night; and ather return for B itali, inste ad os an old stip in whicli siel, ad come, he offered that which he had Contrived for lier destruction. He attended her to the vesset in a verycheerfui mo od, and at parting with lier kissed her breasis :aster wlii ch he sat up very late in the niglit, watting mitti great anXiety to learn the i siue of his project. But receiving
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him. He then commanded the freedman to he ieiZed and Put in Chains, under preteiace of heing emplored by his mollier to asi assinate hina ; at the carne time ordei in; herto be put to death, and gi log o ut, that, o avo id punishment for her intended plot, stae had la id violene haniis .upon herself Willi regard to this tramaetion, other Ci cum stances are related, still more horribie, and upOn good authori ty; as that he went to vi e w her corpie, and hand linglier linilia, disparaged so me and commended othel S, and
was never after able to bear the scings of his own conscience for this atrocinus act, though enco uraged by the Congratulatory addi esses of the soldiery, Senate, and people ; frequently affirming that he was hau nted by his mollici 'sghost, and persecuted with the whips and burning torches of the Furies. Nay, he attempted by a magic sacrificeto bring up her ghost froni belo , to molli sy her vago
against him. When he was in Greece, he dui si not pre sume to attend at the celebration of the Eleusinian rites,upon hearing the crier discli arge ali implous and m ched persons frona approaching. To the muriter of his moth rhe joined that of his auiat. For being obliged to heep herbed upon account of a complaint in her bo eis, he paidher a visit, and sae, now advanced in years, stroahing his downy chin, in the tendernesse of affection, expressiud her-self thus lay I but live to see the fit si s having of this, I shali then he content to die. V He turned to thos e libout
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scians to give her more violent purgatives. He seiged
XXXV. He had, bessides Octavia, two other Wives: Poppaea Sabina, vitiose fallier had borne the ossice of Quaestor, and who had been married be re to a Roman knight: after her, Statilia Messalina, great-grand-daughterio Taurus, who was twice Consul, and had the honor os atriumph. To obta in possession of her, he put to death herhumand Atticus Vestinus, at that time Consul. Ηe seonbecame weary of Odi avia's bed, and being censured by his friends for it, he replied, The marks of distinctionbelonging to an empress ought to lassice her. V Soon after, he attempted severat times, but in vatia, to strangle her, and then divorced her as being barren. But the peopte expressing their dis approbation of that measure, and speakang freely upon the occasion, he lihewise banis hed her. At last he put her to death, upon a charge of adultery, soimpudent and apparently salse, iliat when ali thos e who mere examined by torture concerning it, absolutely de-nied their knowledge of any lach criminality, he suborn-ed his paedagogue Anicetus to assirin, that he had by a fraudulent stratagem prevalled upon her to submit to his lusi. He married Ρoppaea twelve days after the divorce of Octavia, and enteria ined a great affection for her ; butneverthel est hilled her with a Lich which he gave herwhen she was big with child and indisposed, only bec ausoia me took the liberty to chide him for coming late homesrom his exerci se of dri ving the charist. He had by liena daughter, Claudia Augusta, that died an infant. There
was no person Connected with him in any degree os consanguinity, who feli not the cruei esse sts of his violence,
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NERO CLAUDIUS CAESAR. 4ss Iaughter, who refused to marry him aster the death of Poppaea, under pretence of her being engaged in a plot
His s sep- n Rufinus Crispinus, Ρoppaea's son, though a minor, he ordered to be drowned in the sea, while he wassis hing, by his own flaves, because he was reported to actfrequently amongst his play-sellows the part os a generalor an emperor. He banished Tuscus, his nurse's son, for presuming, when he was procurator of Egypt, to Washin the ballis providod against his conting. His master, Seneca, he forced to kill himself, shough, upon his desin ing leave to thdraw from couri, and ostering to resignto hi in his estate, he solemnly More, that there Wasno foundation for his suspicion of him, and that he would peristi himself oner than huri him. V Having promised
Burrus the Commander of the guarti a remedy sor ius Nelling in his throni, he sent him pol n. Some old richfreedmen os Claudius', that had formet ly not only been the promoters of his adoption by that prince, but instrumental in his adu ancement to the empire, and were like
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menon, and being informed by one Babilus an astrologer, that princes used to avoid the danger threatened them bysuch prodigies, by meu ling the blood os illustriotis persons, and so divertithe fore-boded mischies Doni them- selves to their grandees, he resolvied upon the destructionos the principat nobility in Rome. He mas the moruplea sed with this project , because he hyd sonae plaiis1ble
pretence for Cari ying it into eXecution, seo in the discovery of two conspiracies against him ; the former and moredan gerous of which was that formed by Piso, and disco ver-ed at Rome ; ille other was that of Vinistus at Beneventum. The conspirators were brought to their trials loaded willi triple ii oris. Some ingenuous y consessed the charge; Others avowed that th y thought the design against his life an adi os favor for hich he was obliged to them,as it was impossibie in any other way than by death torei leve a pei lon rendered infamous by crimes of the great- est enormi ty. The child ren os such as were condemned, mere banished the city, and afterwariis either polsoned orstarved to death. It is certain that sonae, with their paedag gues, and faves who carried their bcohs, were alipollaned together at one dinner; and others not suffered
stinction or quarter, ait whom his caprice suggested as Objedis for his crueity, and upon the most frivolous pretences. To mention only a sew. Salvidienus Orfitus Was accused Os letting out three smops belonging to his house in the Forum to some cities for the use of their deputies at Rome. The charge against Casiius Longinus, a blind lawyer, was that he hept amongst the busts of his ancestors, thates C. Cassius who was concerned in the death of Julius Caesar. The only charge objected against Paetus Thrasea