{397}
"_Apres moi le Deluge_" (Vol. iii, p. 299.).--This sentiment is to be found
in verse of a Greek tragedian, cited in Sueton. _Nero_, c. 38.:
"[Greek: Emou thanontos gaia michtheto puri.]"
Suetonius says that some one, at a convivial party, having quoted this
line, Nero outdid him by adding, _Immo_ [Greek: emou zontos]. Nero was not
contented that the conflagration of the world should occur after his death;
he wished that it should take place during his lifetime.
Dio Cassius (lviii. 23.) attributes this verse, not to Nero, but to
Tiberius, who, he says, used frequently to repeat it. See Prov. (app. ii.
56.), where other allusions to this verse are cited in the note of Leutsch.