A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1.166 NERO. NERO.
palace at night with a few freedmen, and made his life are collecte& by Tillemont, I-Iistoire des Eraway to a house about four miles from Rome, which pereurs, vol. i.) f. L.]
belonged to Phaon, one of his freedmen, where he
passed the night and part of the following day in a
state of agonising terror. His hiding-place being
known, a centurion with some soldiers was sent to
seize him. Though a coward, Nero thought a
voluntary death better than the indignities which
he knew were preparing for him; and, after some
irresolution, and with the aid of his secretary Epaphroditus, he gave himself a mortal wound when COIN OF THE EMPEROR NERO
he heard the'trampling of the horses on which his
pursuers were mounted. The centurion on enter- NERO, the eldest son of Germanicus and Agriping attempted to stop the flow of blood, but Nero pina, was a youth of about twelve years of age at
saying, " It is too late. Is this your fidelity?" the death of his father in A. D. 19. In the followexpired with a horrid stare. ing year (A.D. 20) he was commended to the
The body of Nero received funeral honours suit- favour of the senate by the emperor Tiberius, who
able to his rank, and his ashes were placed in the went through the form of requesting that body to
sepulchre of the Domitii by two of his nurses and allow Nero to become a candidate for the quaestorhis concubine Acte, who had won Nero's affections ship five years before the legal age. He likewise had
from his wife Octavia at the beginning of his reign. the dignity of pontiff conferred upon him, and about
(Tac. Ann. xiii. 12; Suet. Ner. 50.) Suetonlius, the same time was married to Julia, the daughter
after his manner, gives a description of Nero's per- of Drusus, who was the son of the emperor Tison, which is not very flattering: the "cervix berius. Nero had been betrothed in the lifetime
obesa" of Suetonius is a characteristic of Nero's of his father to the daughter of Silanus (Tac. Ann.
bust. (Lib. of Entertaining Knowledge, Townley ii. 43), but it appears that this marriage never
Gallery, vol. ii. p. 28.) took effect. By the death of Drusus, the son of
In his youth Nero was instructed in all the libe- Tiberius, who was poisoned at the instigation of
ral knowledge of the time except philosophy; and Sejanus in A. D. 23, Nero became the heir to the
he was turned from the study of the old Roman imperial throne; and as Sejanus had compassed
orators by his master Seneca. Accordingly, he ap- the death of Drusus, in order that he might sucplied himself to poetry, and Suetonius says that ceed Tiberius, the same motives led him to plan
his verses were not made for him, as some suppose, the death of Nero, as well as of his younger brother
for the biographer had seen and examined some of Drusus. And this he found no difficulty in acNero's writing-tablets and small books, in which complishing, as the jealous temper of Tiberius had
the writing was in his own hand, with many era- already become alarmed at the marks of public
sures and cancellings and interlineations. He had favour which were exhibited to Nero and Drusus
also skill in painting and modelling. Though pro- as the sons of Germanicus, and he had expressed
fuse and fond of pomp and splendour, Nero had his displeasure in the senate, in A. D. 24, at the
apparently some taste. The Apollo Belvedere and public prayers which had been offered for their
the Fighting Gladiator, as it is called, by Agasias, health. Spies were placed about Nero, and every
were found in the ruins of a villa at Antium, which word and action of the unhappy young prince were
is conjectured to have belonged to Nero. (See eagerly caught up, misinterpreted and misrepreThiersch, Ueber die Epochen der Bildenden Kunst, sented, and then reported to the emperor. His
Wc. p. 312, 2d ed.) wife was also entirely in the interests of Sejanus,
Nero's progress in crime is easily traced, and the since her mother was the mistress of the all-powverlesson is worth reading. Without a good education, ful minister; and his brother Drusus, who was of
and with no talent for his high station, he was an unamiable disposition, and who did not stand so
placed in a position of danger from the first. He was high- in the favour of their mother Agrippina, was
sensual, and fond of idle display, and then he be- readily induced to second' the designs of Sejanus,
came greedy of money to satisfy his expenses; he in hopes that the death of Nero would secure him
was timid, and by consequence he became cruel the succession to the throne. At length, in A. D.
when he anticipated danger; and, like other mur- 29, Tiberius sent a letter to the senate in which he
derers, his first crime, the poisoning of Britannicus, accused Agrippina and Nero in the bitterest terms,
made him capable of another. But, contemptible but was unable to convict them of any attempt at
and cruel as he was, there are many persons who, rebellion; the haughtiness of the former and the
in the same situation, might run the same guilty licentiousness of the latter were the chief crimes
career. He was only in his thirty-first year when laid to their charge. The people, who loved
he died, and he had held the supreme power for Agrippina and hallowed the memory of Germanithirteen years and eight months. He was the last cus, surrounded the senate-house, exclaiming that
of the descendants of Julia, the sister of the dictator the letter was a forgery. On the first day the
Caesar. senate came to no resolution on the matter, and
There were a few writers in the time of Nero Tiberius found it necessary to repeat his charges.
who have been preserved-Persius the satirist, The obsequious body dared no longer resist; and
Lucan, the author of the Pharsalia, and Seneca, the the fate of Agrippina and Nero was sealed. Nero
preceptor of Nero. The jurists, C. Cassius Longi- was declared an enemy of the state, was removed
nus, after whom the Sabiniani were sometimes to the island of Pontia, and shortly afterwards was
called Cassiani, and Nerva, the father of the em- there starved to death. According to some accounts
peror Nerva, lived under Nero. (Tac. Ann. xiii.- he put an end to his own life, when the executioner
xvi.; Suet. Ner.; Dion Cass. lxi.-lxiii. ed. Rei- appeared before him with the instruments of death.
marus. All the authorities for the facts of Nero's (Tac. Ann. iii. 29, iv. 8, 17, 59, 60, 67, v. 3, 4;