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them to death. There was at that time an Egyptian ofa most voraci ous appetite, who would digest ram fessi, or any thing et se iliat was gi ven him. It is credibiy re-POrted, that the em peror was eXtrem ely desii ous of furnishing him with living men to lear and devour. Being elated th his succese in the perpetration os crimes, he declare lupon it, that no prince besere himself ever knew theextent of his power.' ' He gave strong intimations thathe would not spare the Senators that rem ained; butwould quite extirpate that Order, and put the provincesand armies into the han is of the Roman knighis, and his freedmen. It is certa in that he never mouid, Cittier u pon his Coming to town, or deaving it, uouchsa se any one of them the civility of a hist, or the return of a salutation. And in entering upon his projeet os mali inga cut through the Isthmus, he with a lovd voice, a mi ista great conCourse of people, wismed that the bus1nes smight prove fortunate for himself und the Roman people, without tali ing the smallest notice of the Senate. XXXVIII. He spared, however, net ther the peOple, nor the city itself Somebody in conversation saying,
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and then set on fre, with the vie w of spreading the flames. During siX days and severa nighis this terribie devastation continued, the people being obliged to sy to the tombs and monuments for lodging and shelter. Upon this occasion, a prodigious number of stately bulldings, thehouses of generals celebrated in former times, and even
mised to bring off the bodies of such as had perimed in
the fire, and remore the rubbim at his own eXpence; suffering no person to come at rhe remains of their hous esor goods. Yet he not only received, but demanded contributions upon the account, uniit he had exhausted both
the provinces and private person S. XXXIX. These terribie and sitameful calamities broughtupon the public by their prince, were attended Mili sonae
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NERO CLAUDIUS CAESAR.space of one autumii, there died no tesse than thirty tho land pei sons, as appeared frona the registers of the temple of Libitina ; a great di sester in Britain, where two of the principat towns belonging to the Romans were plundered, and a dreadi ut havoc made both amongst our tro ops andallies; a s ametat disco nasiture of our arm y in the East, viZ. Armenia ; where our legions were obligζd to passunder the yche : and it was mitti great difficulty that we Lept Syria. Amidst ali these incidenis, it was strange, and indeed particularly remari able, that he bore nothingmore patiently than scurrilous language and railing ; and trealed none with more gentieness, than such as traducedhim by abusive reflections and lampoons. Many things of that hind were posted up in the town, or otherwisespi ad amongst the people, both in Greeli and Latin: fuch as these,
Nero, Orestes, and Alcmaeon, slewTheir mothers; Nero worsi os ali the cre . Quis neget aeneae magna de stirpe Neronem pSustulit hic matrem : sustulit ille patrem. That Nero froin the great ineas springs, Their filial merit proos suisicient brings. one bore through flames his aged si re : t'other, Lest she si1ould furvive, took off his mollier. Dum tendit citharam noster, dum cornua Parthus, Noster erit Paean, ille εκατηύελετης His unding lyre whilsi ours harmonicius strings, His arrows whilst the dext'rous Parthian Bings; urs Paean cali, the other iam 'd in war, De he furnam'd the God that fiocis frum far.
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Roma domus fiet; Vrios migrate, Quirites, Si non et V os occupat ista domus. Rome wiil be ali one hou se : to Veii ssy, Zf that houis move not thither by and by.
Aut he netther made any enquiry aster the authors, noragains me, Concerning whom information was givento the Senate, would he allow a severe sentence to pass.
Isidorus, the Cynic philosopher, laid to him aloud, as hemas passing along the si recis, You sing the misiortunes of Nauplius well, but bellave badly youi self. V And Datus, an actor of farces, in repeating these wores of a song, Health attend you, fallier, Health attend you, mother,' 'represented by his gestati es one di inhing and Mimming, alluding to the de ths of Claudius and Agrippina. At ultering the last clause,
Orcus vobis ducit pedes You stalid illis moment on the brink of Orcus;
he plainly intimated his application of it to ille Senate. Yet Nero only bani med the player and philosopher stomme city and Italy ; either frona a contempt of in my, oran apprehension, that is he disco vered great uneas est, he should only more excite the wits of the time to exerttheir ingenuity against hi m. XL. ' The worid, after tolerating such an emperor littielesse than urteen years, at last sors ok him : and first the Gauis, headed by Julius Vindex, who at that time governed the Province as Pro-Praetor. Nero had been formet ly told by astrologers, that it would be his fortune to be at lasssoriaken by ali the world; and this occassioned that fa-mous saying of his, An artist may live in any country; ''designeq
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NERO CLAUDIUS CAESAR. 46 Iecsigned to ins1nuate se me fori os an excuse sor his practice of the musical ari, since it was entertaining to hi mno he was a prince, and would be necessary for hi mwhen reduced to a private station. Vet sonae of the astrologers promised him, after his fortoria Condition, the go-Vernment of the East, and sonae eXpres sty the hingdom ofJerusalem. But the greater part of them fallered himwith asiurances of his heing restored to his former fortune. And bding most inclined to belleve the lalter prediction, upon losing Britain and Armenia, he imagined he hadrun through ali me misfortunes, whicli the fates h ad decreed him. But When, upon consulting Apollo at Delphi, he was advised to beware of the seventy-third year, as is he was then to die, and never thinhing of Galba's age, heconceived such hopes, not only of living to old age, butos constant and uncommon good fortune, that has ing lostsome things of great value by flaipwrech, he scrupled notio say amongst his friends, that the fissi es would bring him them again. ' At Napies he heard of the insurrection in Gaul, upon the very day on which he hilled his mollier,
cion that he was reatly glad of it, since he had now a Diropportunity of plundering those wealthy provinces by the right of war. Immediately entering the Gymnasium, hebeheld the eκercise of the wresilers with great pleas tiro. Being in teirupted at supper with letters which brought yet
XLI. At last be ing roused by the many abusive declarations of Vindex, he in a iciter to t te Senate enti eated
ciem to stand by him and the public ; destring them to
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AEnobarbus: whicli nam e being that of his family, since hewas upbraided with it, he declared he would resume, and lay asside the name he had taken by adoption. In his en-
upon the road, by observing the frivolous omen os a Gallicsoldier deseated by a Roman knight, and dragged alongby the hair, carved iapon a monument, he leaped for j , at the sight of it, and adored the heavens. Even men hemade no personat appliCation ei ther to the Senate Or peo-ple, but calling together so me of the principat persons in the city to his own house, he held with them a morthasty conversation upon the present state of his affairs, and then, during the remaining part of the day, Carried thensabo ut with him to vi e v so me musical instruments, of anew invention, Which were played by water ; nae ingiliem every thing abolit them, and discoursing tapon thereason and dissiculty of the contriva iace; alt whicli, he tol lihem; he intended to produce in the illeatre, is Vinde κυ, ould give him leave. XLII. Soon aster he received advice that Galba and
Spa in had declared against him: iapon villicli, fallingdown in a violent agony of minii, he lay a long timus pecchi esse,
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XLIII. At the fit si breaking out of these troubles, it is
belleved that he had formed many projects, of a nature themost bloody, but conformabie enough to his disposition:
to is e neru commissions for the govertament of the provinces, and Command of the armies: to send asiassilis tobulcher ali the former go vernors and CommanderS, RS menali una1iimousty engaged in a conspiracy against him: tomassacre ali the exiles, and ait the Gauis in Rome; theformer test they should jo in the revolters ; the lalter asprivy to the destigias of their countrymen, and favorers of them : to deliver up Gaul to be wasted and pliandered by his armi es : to polson the whole Senate at a s east : to si rethe city, and then let loose the wild beasts upora the peOple, to divert them from stopping the progress of the fames. But being deterred fro in the e Xecution of thesedesigras, not so much by remorse of conscience, as des patr
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into Gaul necessary, he removed the Consuis stoin thes cssice, he re the time of iis expiration was arrived; and in their roo in bore me Consulmip himself alone; as is thentes had decreed that Gaul smould not be conquered, buthv a Consul. Upon assuming the Fastes, aster an enterta inment in the palace, he walhed out of the room, leaning upon sonae of his friends, and declared, that as seonas he arrived in the province, he would mahe his appear-anCe amongst the troops, Unarmed, and do nothing butueep: and that, after he had thus brought the rebeis torepentance, he would, the neXt day, at ine public rejoic-ing upon me occasion, sing songs of triumph; whichought immediately to be composed for that purposse.
XLIV. In preparing for this expedition, his first caro
was to provide carriages for his musical instruments to beused upon the stage ; to dressi in the attire of men the Concubines that he carried with him; and to fui nisti themmith batile-axes, and AmaZonian largets. He summon ed the city-tribes to erilis: ; but no person of any aCcount appearing, he ordei ed ali masters to senil a certain num . ber of saves, and the best they had, not eXcepting their sie wards and secretaries. He commanded ali the severat Orders of the peopte to bring in a certa in proportion Oftheir estates, as they stood in the Censor's books: ali t nanis of houses, great or smali, to pay one year's rent formwida into the excitequer; and with a nicenesi and stridinesse bevonil ali example, xvould receive only ne coin of the choicest silver and the finest gold; insoni uchthat most peopte openly refused to paV, Crying OUt unani- mousy that he ought to squeeZe the informet s, and obligestem to surrender their premium S.
XLV. The public halred os him was enereased by the
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great scarcity of Coria, and an accident which happenedin consequence. For, just at that time, there arrived DomAlexandria a stip, which was salil to be fi eighted withdust for the wrestiers about Couri. This so much inflam-ed the public rage, that he was trealed with the ulmost abuse and scurrili ty. Upon the top of a statue of him, was placed a chariot with a Greeli inscription, that Now he had a race to ruri indeed ; now he ought tobetake himself away. V A budget was lied abo ut another, and an inscription in these words ; What could I do λ butthou hast deserved a sack . V Some person likewise wroteupon the pillars in the Forum, that he had wahened thecocks with his singing. V And many, in the night time, pretending to quari et with their servanis, frequently cal- led for a Vindex. XLVI. He was bessides terrifed with mani sest preseges, both old and ne , arising from dreams, auspices, andoniens. He had never been used to dream besore themur ter of his mollier. Aster that event, he fancied in his fleep that he was steering a sta ip, and that the rvddermas sol ced froni him : that he was di agged by his wi se Octavia into a prodigious dark place ; and waS one While
other, surrounded by the gentiliti otis imagery displayed near
paris so changeli, as to resemble those of an ape; and This alludes to the puntihment due to him on account of his parricide. By the Roman la , a person who had mur tereda parent or any near relation, after being severely scourged, was seu ed up in a sach, With a dog, a Coch, a Viper, and anape, and then thrown in to the sea, or a deep river.
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having his head only lest unal tered, neighed very han. moniously. The doors of the mausoleum flying opera ofthemselves, there isiued frona it a voice, calling upontii in by his name. The Lares being trim med up with fresa gariands iapon the first of January, feli down during the preparations for a sacrifice to them. While licvras taking omens, Sporus presented hina with a ring, thesione of which had carved iapon it the Rape of Proserpine. When a great multitude of the severat Orders was asiembled, to attend at the solemnity of mahing vo wsto the Gods, it was a long time be re the keys of the Capitol could be found . And when, in a speech of his to the Senate against VindeX, these mords were read that the villains sinould be punistaed, and in a s hortlime meet with a death sultable to their deseris, V they allcried out upon it, You will est est it, Augustus.' ' It was likewise remarhed, that the last tragic piece whicli helang, was indipus in Eκile, and that he feli as he was repeating this verse :