196
Conflageation of rome.
to which Nero was exposed, though from different motives.
All this is described by Tacitus. I will not speak of Nero’s dege-
neracy and his boundless profligacy; they are too well known,
and his name alone is sufficient. He resolved to murder his
mother, who had provoked him; and, after one attempt had
failed, he carried his plan into effect. In this Seneca is said
to have assisted him4, on account of the personal enmity exist-
ing between him and Agrippina ; and it is a fact that the
speech on her death, which Nero ordered to be read in the
senate, was the work of Seneca.5
It is well known that after the murder of Agrippina, Nero
abandoned himself more and more to bloodshed, and delighted
in it. Tacitus6 does not consider it a well attested fact that
Nero set fire to the city of Rome, and it may indeed have been
no more than a report. The fact of his ascending the tower of
Maecenas to look at the calamity, and, in tragic attire, singing
at the same time the ,Iλloυ a∖,ωσι<; to the accompaniment of
the lyre, merely shews his madness, but does not prove that he
was the author of the fire; at any rate, however, it gave him
pleasure to have an opportunity of rebuilding the city. This
conflagration, which raged for six days and seven nights, is an
important event in the history of Rome; for an immense
number of monuments of every description, historical docu-
ments, works of art, and libraries perished.7 More than half
of Rome was destroyed, or at least greatly damaged; and after
the catastrophe the city assumed an aspect totally different from
what it had worn before. The new streets which were now built
were made straight, and broader than before, and took differ-
ent directions from the old ones. After the fire was over, Nero,
with his usual unbounded extravagance, began restoring the
city, and extorted the means from all parts of the empire. He
built his so-called “ golden palace,” extending from the Pala-
tine, where Hadrian afterwards built the temple of Venus and
Roma8, to what are called the baths of Titus (more correctly
4 Tacitus, Annal, xiv. 7.
δ Tacitus, Annal, xiv ɪl ; Quinctilian, viii. 5, § 18.
6 Annal, xv. 38. Comp. Sueton. Neroi 38.
7 The great fire of Constantinople, under Leo Macellas (Basiliscus?), in the
fifteenth century of our era, was in like manner most injurious in its conse-
quences to Greek literature.—N.
8 Thisnamehasbeensuppliedherebyconjecture; the name not being legible
in the MS. notes. For the correctness of the conjecture, sec Reschreibung der
Stadt Rom, voL nɪ. i. p. 104.
BOADICEA.
197
of Trajan). Vespasian afterwards caused it to be destroyed, on
account of the recollections connected with it. Some of its
walls may yet exist in the substructions of the baths of Titus.
It was a magnificent piece of architecture, covered over with
the most beautiful marble. We must conceive it to have been
something like an oriental fairy palace. In the midst of the
city, on the site now occupied by the Colosseum, Nero had a
large pond dug out for the purpose of exhibiting naumachiae.9
Soon after this event, Nero ordered Senecato be executed; and
the manly death of the philosopher somewhat atones for his
former conduct. Bareas Soranus and Thrasea Paetus were like-
wise put to death. Arria, the wife of the latter, set her husband
an example of a courageous death. The conspiracy of Calpurn-
ius Piso, in which Seneca, perhaps with injustice, was said to
have been an accomplice, was undertaken without the support
of the army, and was merely a plot which had been concerted
at court.
During the reign of Nero, the frontiers of the empire were
no longer in the state of peace and tranquillity which they had
enjoyed under Claudius. The Romans had established them-
selves in Britain, and had constituted a part of the island as a
Roman province. This establishment of a province was the
more oppressive to the natives, as, the country being poor, it
was only by great extortions that anything of importance could
be gained. The oppression led to an insurrection under the
great British Queen Boadicea (according to Dion Cassius,
Bunduica), a woman of a truly heroic character, in which the
Roman armies were at first completely beaten. Their fortresses
were destroyed, two of their towns were taken, and many
Romans were taken prisoners: at last, however, the Britons
were with great difficulty defeated by Suetonius Paulinus, and
Boadicea put an end to her life. The Britons were compelled
to submit ; and preparations were now made for the conquest of
all England, of which the Romans were already masters, except
Yorkshire, Lancashire, and the northern counties. Anglesea
was Roman.
Another war which occurred in the reign of Nero, is that of
Corbulo against the Parthians in Armenia; where a younger
branch of the Arsacidae was on the throne. Corbulo conducted
it with uniform success; he took Artaxata and Tigranocerta;
9 Martial, De Sped. ii. 5.