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mowing no great inclination to Comply, others absolutet 'resisting, and one of them Crying out aloud,
Usque adeone mori miserum est '
he was in great perplexi ty whether he mould submit hi m. self to Galba, or apply to the Parthians for protection,
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his face, he heard sto in the contiguous camp the shouis
of the soldiers, wishing his destruction, and prosperi ty
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save himself froin the indignities which were ready tobesali him, he ordered a grave to be made be re hiseyes, sultable to the 11Zer of his body, and the bottom tobe covered with pieces of marble put together, is any could be found abolit the liouse, and water and wood likewi se to be provided for his funerat; meeping at everything that was done, and frequently saying, What an artist is now to peristi J V In the mean time letters vrerebrought in by a servant belonging to Phaon. Ηe snatch-
ed them out of his hand, and there fouiad, That he lhad been declared an enemy by the Senate, and was i lsought for, that he might be punished according to the ,
ancient practice amongst the Romans.V Upon this, he
gin a walling lamentation ; another while he erat realed that s me of them would set him an example to kill hiiD-self; metimes again he condemned his o vn want of resolution in these words : I live basely and sh a me l-ly : this does not become Nero: this does not hecomethee. Thou oughtest in sucti circumstances to have thy
perceived it, ultering with a trembling voice the following Verse,
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he ran a dagger into his throat, being assisted in the actby Epaphroditus, his master os reques s. A Centurionbreahing in when he was now half dead, and clappingliis cloah to the wound, protending that he was Come tollis assistance, he made no other reply but this, 'Tistoo late. Is this your loyalty i '' Immedia tely aster prono uncing these words, he die J, with his cyes standing out of his head , to the terror os ali that beheld him. Hebad requested of his attendanis, as the most essentiat fa-Vor, that they would let nobody have his head, but thathis body might be burnt entire by ali means. And this Iulus the freedman os Galba granted, who h ad but alitile before been dis charged froni the confinement he hadbeen put under at the commenCement of the troubles. L. The expences of his funerat amo unted to two hundred thousand sesterces ; the bed upon whicli his body was carried to the pile and burni, being overtaid with a white overtet, interwoven with gold ; which he had made use of upon the Calends of January preceding. His nurses loge and Alexandra, with his concubine Acte, deposited his relics in the monument belonging to the fami lyof the Domitii, whicli stands upon the top of the hillover-looking the gardens, and is to be sten froin the Field of Mars. In that monument, a Cossin, with an altar of porphyretic marbie of Luna ovor it, is enclosed with in a wali os Thasian stone. LI. His staturo was a litile beJow the common si Ze;
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Os living, he had, in the Coui se of s urteen years, Onlythree sits of sic kness, which were so si glit, that he ne i ther fortiore the υ se of mine, nor made any alteration in his usual diei. In his di esse, and the Care of his person, he was indecent, that he had his hair cui in rings oneabove another ; and when he was in Achaia, let it gro long belli nil ; and appeared abro ad for the mosi partin the dress which he hi sed at table, with a liandi erchie fabout his nech, his coat lo ose upon him, and without
LII. He was entered, v. hen a boy, in almosf ali the liberat sciences ; but his mollier diverted hi in from the studyos philosophy, as uias uitable to One Mao was to be an em- peror ; and his master Seneca disco uraged hi in frona read-ing the old orators, that he might hees hi in the longer in admiration of himself. He was naucli addicted to poeti y, and composed verses both with pleas ure and ease : nor didhe, as s me illinii, publisti those of other authors for hisown. I have had in my han is sonae litile pocket- books
dent froin the biotting and interlining, that they had notbeen transcribed from a copy, nor dictaled by another, but written by the composer of them. LIIL PIe had likewi se a great iaste for patiating, and moulding of images, but of ali things an extravagant de-fire os popular applause, being a rival of every man whowaS UPon any account admired by the people. It was thegenerat belles, that, after the prires he won by his peri Ormances upon the stage, he would the neXt lustrum have entered amongii the wrestiers at the Olympic games.
Tor he Was continuat ly practi sing in that way: nor did
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he attend in Greece that hirid of solemnity any otherwise, than as the judges used to do, sitiing upon the ground in the Stadium. And is a pair of wrestters happened to get without the limiis assigned them, he would with his ownhands bring them back into their proper place. Becausehe was thought to euual Apollo in mussic, and the Sun in chariot-driving, he resolved to imitate the actions os Hercules likewise. And they say a lion was prepared forhim to hili, either with a club, or with a close hug, in the view of the peopte in the amphitheatre ; which he wasto perform naked. LIV. Towards the end of his life, he made a publicvo w, that is he continued in the peaceable ei oyment of the empire, he would, in the games which he intended togive for his successe against the insurgenis, appear UPonthe stage, to manage the water-organ, as also to playupon the flutes and bag-pipe, and upon the day Conclud-ing those diversons, would adt his part in a play, and dance to the uory of Turnus in Virgil. And there aresome who say, that he put to death the player Paris as d
ing ages. He theres ore took from severat things and places their former appellations, and gave them ne Dames derived fro in his own. He called the monili os April, too, Neroneus, and had a design to change thena me of Rome into that of Neropolis. LVI. He was a despiser of ali religious Worsiip, eX-
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NERO CLAUDIUS CAESAR. 473gaged in another superstition, in which he invariably pe sisted. For having received froni some obscure plebeian alitile image of a giri, as a preservative against plois, and discovering a conspiracy immediately after, he constantly worsiaipped, and with three sacrifices a day, his imagina-Ty protectrest, as the greatest amongst the Gods. He was lihewise desii ous to have it thought, that he had fro in the information of that deity a knowledge of future evenis. Afe monilis be re he dieit, he offered severat sacrifices, to Consuli the elitratis of the victims ; but could never obtainany favorabie intimations froin them. LVII. He died in the thirty-second year of his age, Upison the same day on which he had formerly put Octavia todeath ; and the public jov was so great upon the occasion,
limed proclamations in his name, as is he was yet alive, and would shortly come to Rome again, with a Verageanceto ali his enemies. Vologesus, hing of the Parthians, when he sent ambasi adors to the Senate, to rene the alliance belwiXt that nation and the Romans, earnesilvrequested that due honor should be paid to the memoryos Nero: and to conclude, When twenty years after, at whicli time I was a young man, sonae person os obscure birili gave himself out for Nero, he met with so favorabie a reception from the Parthians, that he was very power-
fully supported by that nation, and it was With much difficulty that they surrendered him.
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THOUGH no law had ever passed, sor regula ting the transmission of the imperiat power, 3 et the design os con-ueying it by lineal descent was implied in the praetice of
adoption. By the rule of hereditary succession, Britannicus, the son os Claudius, was the natural heir to thethrone but he was supplanted by the artifices of his stel)iDother, who h ad me addi esse to procure it for her o wnson Nero. Froni the time of Augustus it had heen thecus om of each of the ne vereigias to commence his rei gn in such a manner as tended to acquire popularity, howe ver much they ali aster ards degeneraled frona thos speciolas beginnings. Whether this proceeded enti relysiom poticy, or that nature mas not yet vitiated by the in toxication Os uncontroled power, is uia certain ; but suci, Maere ille eYcesses into whicli they asterwards plunged, that we s Carcely Can eXemPl any of them, eXcept pe haps Claudius, stoin the imputation of great original depravitu. The vici ous temper of Tiberius was known tollis own mollier Livia ; that of Caligula had been obviousto iliose a bout him from his infancy; Claudius scenis toliave had naturalty a stronger disposition to weah nesi thanto vice : but the inherent michediaesis of Nero vias disco vered at an early peri Od by his preceptor Seneca. Yet
even this emperor CommenCed his rei gn in a manner
Whicli procured hi in approbation. Os ali the Romanem perors Who had hitherio rei gned, he seemsito have been most corrupted by profligate favorites, io flatteredhis sollies and vices, to promote their oraria aggrandis ement. In the number of these was Tigellinus, who
The severat rei gns froin the death of Augustus presentus with uncommon scenes of Cruelty and horror: but it Was reserved for that of Nero, to eXhibit to the worid ille
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NERO CLAUDIUS CAESAR. 473 atrocious adi os an emperor deliberalely procuring the death of his mollier. Julia Agrippina was the daughter of Germanicus, and married Domitius. AEnobarbus, by whom stae had Nero. At the death of Mes istina stie was a Widow ; and Claudius. her unCle, enici taining a desigia os entering again into thema rvied state, si1e aspired to an incestuous alli ance withhim, in competition with Lollia Paulina, a woman os beau ty and intrigue, Who had been mari ted lo C. Caesar. The two rivals were strongly supported by their respeciive parties ; but Agrippina, by her superior interesset Withthe em peror's favorites, and the familiari ty to whicli hernear relation gave her a Claim, obta ined the preference ;and the portento us nuptials of the em peror and his niecewere publicly solemnised in the palace. Whether sie was prompted to this flagrant indecency by personat ambitionalone, or by the desi re os procuring the succession to theem piro for her son, is uncertain ; but there rem ains nodo ubi of her having removed Claudius by poison, With a vie to the object now mentioned. Besides Claudius,1he projected the dea th of L. Silanus, and sitie accompli sta-ed that of his brother Junius Silanus, by means likewi se of
poison. She appears to have been richly cndoured with thegis is of nature, but in her disposition intriguing, violent, imperious, and ready to sacrifice every principi e of vir- tue, in the pursuit os ita preme power or sensitat gratification. As sie resembled Livia in the ambition os a mo-ther, and the means by whicli stae indulge i it, so the morellian equalied her in the ingratitude of an lannatural folia nil a parricide. Slie is se id to have lest heliind her sonae me moirs, of whicli Tacitus availed hi inteis in the composition Oi his Annals . In this rei gn, the conquest of the Britons stili continued
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to be the principat object os military pursuit, and Suetonius Paulinus was invested with the command of the Roman arm y employed in the reduction of that people. The issand of Mona, now Anglesey, being the clites feat
of the Druids, he resolved to commence his operationSwith attaching a place which was the centre os superstition, and to whicli the vanquished Britons retrealed as thelast asylum os liberty. The inhabitanis endeavored, both by force of arm s and the terrors of religion, to obstructhis Ianding on this sacred is and . The women and Druidsassembled promiscuousy with the soldiers upon the shore ;Where running about, in wild dis ordei , with flamingtorches in theia' hands, and potiring fortii the most hideous exclamations, they struch ille Romans with consternation. But Suetonius animating his tro ops, they boldlyattached the inhabitanis, routed them in the field, and hurn-ed the Druids in the fame fires which had been prepared by thos e priesis for the catastrophe of the invaders ; destroying at the fame time ali the consecrated groveS and altars in the is and . Suetonius having thus triumphed overthe religion of the Britons, flattered himself with the liopes of soon essecting the reduction of the people. But they, en coui aged by his absence, had ali taken arnas ; and Under the conduet os Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, whohad been treated in the most ignominious manner by the Roman Tribunes, had atready driven the haughty invaders froin their severat fetilements. Suetonius hastenedio the protection of London, which was by this time a Bourishing Roman colony ; but he found upon his arrivat, that any attempt to preserve it Would be attended with the
duced to ames; and the Romans, and ali strangers, to thonumber of severity thousanii, were put to ille Mord without distinction ; the Britons steming determine i to Convince