Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Ad

Poppaea.

The result of the death of Agrippina was the grow ing influence over Nero of Poppaea and her friends. In 62 Burrus died, it was said by poison, and Seneca retired from his post. Their place was filled by Poppaea, and the infamous Tigellinus, whose sympathy with Nero's sensual tastes had gained him the command of the praetorian guards in succession to Burrus. The fear of con spiracy was skilfully used by them to direct Nero's suspicions against possible opponents. Cornelius Sulla, who had been banished to Massilia in 58, was put to death on the ground that his resi dence in Gaul was likely to arouse disaffection in that province, and a similar charge proved fatal to Rubellius Plautus, who had for two years been living in retirement in Asia. Nero's taste for blood thus whetted, Octavia was divorced, banished to the island of Pandateria and murdered. Poppaea's triumph was now complete.

She was married to Nero ; her head appeared on the coins with his; and her statues were erected in the public places of Rome.

In the course of 61 occurred the rebellion of Boudicca (Boa dicea) and the Iceni in Britain, resulting in the sack of Colchester and the destruction of the ninth legion before it was suppressed by Suetonius Paulinus. Further disasters were the destruction of Pompeii and the evacuation of Armenia in 63.

The Burning of Rome.—A far deeper and more lasting im pression was produced by the great fire in Rome. The fire broke out on the night of July 18, 64, among the wooden booths at the south-east end of the Circus Maximus. Thence in one direction it rapidly spread over the Palatine and Velia up to the low cliffs of the Esquiline, and in another it laid waste the Aventine, the Forum Boarium and Velabrum till it reached the Tiber and the solid bar rier of the Servian wall. After burning fiercely for six days it started afresh and desolated the regions of the Circus Flaminius and the Via Lata, and after it was finally quenched only four of the 14 regions remained untouched ; three had been utterly de stroyed and seven reduced to ruins. The conflagration is said by all authorities later than Tacitus to have been deliberately caused by Nero himself. But Tacitus, though he mentions the rumours, declares that its origin was uncertain, and in spite of such works as Profumo's Le fonti ed i tempi dello incendio Neroniano (1905), there is no proof of his guilt. By Nero's orders, the open spaces in the Campus Martius were utilized to give shelter to the home less crowds, provisions were brought from Ostia and the price of corn lowered. In rebuilding the city every precaution was taken against the recurrence of such a calamity. Broad regular streets re placed the narrow winding alleys. The new houses were limited in height, built partly of hard stone and protected by open spaces.

This disaster undoubtedly told against Nero, being widely re garded as evidence of the wrath of the gods. The work of re building included the erection of Nero's famous palace, the "golden house," and the laying-out of its wonderful grounds.

To defray the enormous cost, Italy and the provinces, says Tacitus, were ransacked, and in Asia and Achaia especially the rapacity of the imperial commissioners recalled the days of Mum. mius and of Sulla. It was the first occasion on which the provin cials had suffered from Nero's rule, and the discontent it caused helped to weaken his hold over them at the very moment when the growing dissatisfaction in Rome was gathering to a head. Early in 65 Nero was panic-stricken by the discovery of a conspiracy in volving such men as Faenius Rufus, Tigellinus's colleague in the prefecture of the praetorian guards, Plautius Lateranus, one of the consuls elect, the poet Lucan, and, lastly, not a few of the tribunes and centurions of the praetorian guard itself. Their chosen leader, whom they destined to succeed Nero, was C. Calpurnius Piso (q.v.), a handsome, wealthy and popular noble, and a boon com panion of Nero. The plan to murder Nero was betrayed by a freedman Milichus. Piso, Faenius Rufus, Lucan and Seneca himself were executed.

In the next few months many more fell victims to his fear and resentment. Conspicuous among them was Paetus Thrasea, whose unbending virtue had long made him distasteful to Nero, and who was now suspected, possibly with reason, of sympathy with the conspirators. Poppaea died in the autumn of 65, and the general gloom was increased by a pestilence which followed the fire. Early in the summer of 66 the Parthian prince Tiridates came to Italy to receive the crown of Armenia at Nero's hands. It represented the final triumph of the arms and policy of Corbulo in the East, and at least a temporary solution of the Parthian problem.

Greece.—Towards the end of 66 Nero visited Greece with a retinue of soldiers, courtiers, musicians and dancers. The spec tacle presented by Nero's visit was unique. He went professedly as an enthusiastic worshipper of Greek art and a humble candidate for the suffrages of Greek judges. At each of the great festivals, which to please him were for once crowded into a single year, he entered in regular form for the various competitions, scrupulously conformed to the tradition and rules of the arena, and awaited in nervous suspense the verdict of the umpires. The dexterous Greeks humoured him to the top of his bent. He planned and commenced the cutting of a canal through the Isthmus of Corinth.