THE CHILDHOOD OF NERO.
A.D. 39-53
Early history of Nero.--Character of his father.--Brutal character
of Brazenbeard.--Nero neglected.--Nero reappears at
court.--Britannicus.--The secular or centennial games.--Mode of
celebrating them.--Nero and Britannicus.--Nero applauded.--The
story of the serpents.--Advancement of Nero after the death of
Messalina.--Agrippina's treatment of Britannicus.--Nero assumes the
toga.--Britannicus secluded.--Agrippina's treatment of the two
boys.--Britannicus offends Nero.--Agrippina's anger.--The Fucine
lake.--Plan for draining it.--The canal.--Grand celebration at the
opening of the canal.--Naval conflict to take place on the lake.--End
of the naval battle.--The water will not flow.--Deepening the
canal.--New celebrations.--Influences under which Nero's character
was formed.--Agrippina's plan in respect to Octavia.--Tragical end
of Silanus.--Marriage of Nero.
During the time that Agrippina had been passing through the strange
and eventful vicissitudes of her history, described in the preceding
chapters, young Nero himself, as we shall henceforth call him, had
been growing up an active and intelligent, but an indulged and
ungoverned boy. His own father died when he was about three years
old. This, however, was an advantage probably, rather than a loss to
the boy, as Brazenbeard was an extremely coarse, cruel, and
unprincipled man. He once killed one of his slaves for not drinking
as much as he ordered him. Riding one day in his chariot through a
village, he drove wantonly and purposely over a boy, and killed him
on the spot. He defrauded all who dealt with him, and was repeatedly
prosecuted for the worst of crimes. He treated his wife with great
brutality. As has already been said, he received the announcement of
the birth of his son with derision, saying that nothing but what
was detestable could come from him and Agrippina; and when they
asked him what name they should give the child, he recommended to
them to name him Claudius. This was said in contempt, for Claudius
was at that time despised by every one, as a deformed and stupid
idiot, though he was subsequently made emperor in the manner that
has been already explained. The manifestation of such a spirit, at
such a time, on the part of her husband, pained Agrippina
exceedingly,--but the more it pained her, the more Brazenbeard was
gratified and amused. The death of such a father could, of course,
be no calamity.
When Agrippina, Nero's mother, was banished from Rome by the order
of Caligula, Nero himself did not accompany her, but remained behind
under the care of his aunt Lepida, with whom he lived for a time in
comparative neglect and obscurity. Though he belonged to one of the
most aristocratic families of Rome, his mother being a descendant
and heir of the Caesars, he spent some years in a situation of
poverty and disgrace. His education was neglected, as he received
no instruction at this time except from a dancing-master and a
barber, who were his only tutors. Of course, the formation of his
moral character was wholly neglected,--nor, in fact, considering the
character of those by whom he was surrounded, would it have been
possible that any favorable influence should have been exerted upon
him, if the attempt had been made.
At length when Caligula died and Agrippina was recalled from her
banishment by Claudius, and reinstated in her former position at
Rome, Nero emerged from his obscurity, and thenceforth lived with
his mother in luxury and splendor in the capital. Nero was a
handsome boy, and he soon became an object of great popular favor
and regard. He often appeared in public at entertainments and
celebrations, and when he did so he was always specially noticed and
caressed. His companion, and in some respects his rival and
competitor, at such times, was Britannicus, the son of Claudius and
Messalina. Britannicus was two or three years younger than Nero, and
being the son of the emperor was of course a very prominent and
conspicuous object of attention whenever he appeared. But the rank
of Nero was scarcely less high, since his mother was descended
directly from the imperial family, while in age and personal
appearance and bearing he was superior to his cousin.
One instance is specially noticed by the historians of those days,
in which young Nero was honored with an extraordinary degree of
public attention and regard. It was on the occasion of celebrating
what might be called the centennial games. These games were
generally supposed to be celebrated at each recurrence of a certain
astronomical period, of about one hundred years' duration, called an
age; but in reality it was at irregular though very distant
intervals that they were observed. Claudius instituted a celebration
of them early in his reign. There had been a celebration of them in
the reign of Augustus, not many years before,--but Claudius, wishing
to signalize his own reign by some great entertainment and display,
pretended that Augustus had made a miscalculation, and had observed
the festival at the wrong time; and he ordained, accordingly, that
the celebration should take place again.
The games and shows connected with this festival extended through
three successive days. They consisted of sacrifices and other
religious rites, dramatic spectacles, athletic games, and military
and gladiatorial shows. In the course of these diversions there was
celebrated on one of the days what was called the Trojan game, in
which young boys of leading and distinguished families appeared on
horseback in a circus or ring, where they performed certain
evolutions and feats of horsemanship, and mock conflicts, in the
midst of the tens of thousands of spectators who thronged the seats
around. Of course Britannicus and Nero were the most prominent and
conspicuous of the boys on this occasion. Nero, however, in the
estimation of the populace, bore off the palm. He was received with
the loudest acclamations by the whole assembly, while Britannicus
attracted far less attention. This triumph filled Agrippina's heart
with pride and pleasure, while it occasioned to Messalina the
greatest vexation and chagrin. It made Agrippina more than ever
before the object of Messalina's hatred and hostility, and the
empress would very probably before long have found some means of
destroying her rival had she not soon after this become involved
herself in the difficulties arising out of her connection with
Silius, which resulted so soon in her own destruction.
The people, however, were filled with admiration of Nero, and they
applauded his performance with the utmost enthusiasm. He was for a
time a subject of conversation in every circle throughout the city,
and many tales were told of his history and his doings. Among other
things which were related of him, the story was circulated that
Messalina became so excited against him in her jealousy and envy,
that she sent two assassins to murder him in his sleep; and that the
assassins, coming to him in a garden where he was lying asleep upon
a pillow, were just putting their cruel orders into execution when
they were driven away by a serpent that appeared miraculously at the
moment to defend the child--darting out at the assassins from
beneath the pillow. Others said that it was in his infancy that this
occurrence took place, and that there were two serpents instead of
one, and that they guarded the life of their charge lying with him
in his cradle. One of the historians of the time states that neither
of these stories was really true, but that they both originated in
the fact that Nero was accustomed to wear, when a boy, a bracelet
made of a serpent's skin, small and of beautiful colors,--and
fastened, as they said, around the wearer's wrist with a clasp of
gold.
However the fact may be in respect to Messalina's allowing her
jealousy of Agrippina to carry her so far as to make direct attempts
upon his life, there is no doubt that she lived in continual fear of
the influence both of Nero and of his mother, on the mind of the
emperor; and Agrippina was consequently compelled to submit to many
indignities which the position and the power of Messalina enabled
her to impose upon her enemies and rivals. At length, however, the
fall of Messalina, and the entire revolution in the situation and
prospects of Agrippina which was consequent upon it, changed
altogether the position of Nero. It might have been expected, it is
true, even after the marriage of Claudius with Agrippina, that
Britannicus would have still maintained altogether the highest place
in the emperor's regard, since Britannicus was his own son, while
Nero was only the son of his wife. But Agrippina was artful enough
to manage her indolent and stupid husband just as she pleased; and
she soon found means to displace Britannicus, and to raise Nero in
his stead, to the highest place, in precedence and honor. She
persuaded Claudius to adopt Nero as his own son, as was stated in
the last chapter. She obtained a decree of the Senate, approving and
confirming this act. She then removed Britannicus from the court and
shut him up in seclusion, in a nursery, under pretense of tender
regard for his health and safety. In a word, she treated Britannicus
in all respects like a little child, and kept him wholly in the
background; while she brought her own son, though he was but little
older than the other, very prominently forward, as a young man.
In those ancient days as now, there was an appropriate dress for
youth, which was changed for that of a man when the subject arrived
at maturity. The garment which was most distinctively characteristic
of adult age among the Romans was called the toga; and it was
assumed by the Roman youth, not as the dress of a man is by young
persons now, in a private and informal manner, according as the
convenience or fancy of the individual may dictate,--but publicly
and with much ceremony, and always at the time when the party
arrived at the period of legal majority; so that assuming the toga
marked always a very important era of life. This distinction
Agrippina caused to be conferred upon Nero by a special edict when
he was only fourteen years of age, which was at a very much earlier
period than usual. On the occasion of thus advancing him to the
dress and to the legal capabilities of manhood, Agrippina brought
him out in a special manner before the people of Rome at a great
public celebration, and the more effectually to call public
attention to him as a young prince of the highest distinction in the
imperial family, she induced Claudius to bestow a largess upon the
people, and a donative upon the army, that is a public distribution
of money, to the citizens and to the soldiers, in Nero's name.
All this time Britannicus was kept shut up in the private apartments
of the palace with nurses and children. The tutors and attendants
whom Messalina his mother provided for him were one by one removed,
and their places supplied by others whom Agrippina selected for the
purpose, and whom she could rely upon to second her views. When
inquired of in respect to Britannicus by those who had known him
before, during his mother's lifetime, she replied that he was a weak
and feeble child, subject to fits, and thus necessarily kept
secluded from society.
Sometimes, indeed, on great public occasions, both Nero and
Britannicus appeared together, but even in these cases the
arrangements were so made as to impress the public mind more
forcibly than ever with an idea of the vast superiority of Nero, in
respect to rank and position. On one such occasion, while
Britannicus was carried about clothed in the dress of a child, and
with attendants characteristic of the nursery, Nero rode on
horseback, richly appareled in the triumphal robes of a general
returning from a foreign campaign.
Agrippina was one day made very angry with Britannicus, for what
might seem a very trifling cause. It seems that Britannicus, though
young, was a very intelligent boy, and that he understood perfectly
the policy which his step-mother was pursuing toward him, and was
very unwilling to submit to be thus supplanted. One day, when he and
Nero were both abroad, attending some public spectacle or
celebration, they met, and Nero accosted his cousin, calling him
Britannicus. Britannicus, in returning the salutation, addressed
Nero familiarly by the name Domitius;--Domitius Ahenobarbus having
been his name before he was adopted by Claudius. Agrippina was very
indignant when she heard of this. She considered the using of this
name by Britannicus, as denoting, on his part, a refusal to
acknowledge his cousin as the adopted son of his father. She
immediately went to Claudius with earnest and angry complainings.
"Your own edict," said she, "sanctioned and confirmed by the Senate,
is disavowed and annulled, and my son is subjected to public insult
by the impertinence of this child." Agrippina farther represented to
Claudius, that Britannicus never would have thought of addressing
her son in such a manner, of his own accord. His doing it must have
arisen from the influence of some of the persons around him who were
hostile to her; and she made use of the occasion to induce Claudius
to give her authority to remove all that remained of the child's
instructors and governors, who could be suspected of a friendly
interest in his cause, and to subject him to new and more rigorous
restrictions than ever.
One of the most imposing of all the spectacles and celebrations
which Claudius instituted during his reign, was the one which
signalized the opening of the canal by which the Fucine lake was
drained. The Fucine lake was a large but shallow body of water, at
the foot of the Appenines, near the sources of the Tiber.[A] It was
subject to periodic inundations, by which the surrounding lands were
submerged. An engineer had offered to drain the lake, in
consideration of receiving for his pay the lands which would be laid
dry by the operation. But Claudius, who seemed to have quite a taste
for such undertakings, preferred to accomplish the work himself. The
canal by which the water should be conveyed away, was to be formed
in part by a deep cut, and partly by a tunnel through a mountain;
and inasmuch as in those days the power now chiefly relied upon for
making such excavations, namely, the explosive force of gunpowder,
was not known, any extensive working in solid rock was an operation
of immense labor. When the canal was finished, Claudius determined
to institute a grand celebration to signalize the opening of it for
drawing off the water; and as he could not safely rely on the
hydraulic interest of the spectacle for drawing such a concourse to
the spot as he wished to see there, he concluded to add to the
entertainment a show more suited to the taste and habits of the
times. He made arrangements accordingly for having a naval battle
fought upon the lake, for the amusement of the spectators, just
before the opening of the canal, which was to draw off the water.
Thus the battle was to be the closing scene, in which the history
and existence of the lake were to be terminated forever.
[Footnote A: See Map. Frontispiece.]
Ships were accordingly built, and an immense number of men were
designated and set apart for fighting the battle. These men
consisted of convicts and prisoners of war--men whom it was, in
those days, considered perfectly just and right to employ in killing
one another for the amusement of the emperor and his guests. A sort
of bulwark was built all around the shore, and the emperor's guards
were stationed upon it, to prevent the escape of the combatants, and
to turn them back to their duty if any of them should attempt, when
pressed hard in the battle, to escape to the land. The fleet of
galleys was divided into two antagonistic portions, and the men in
each were armed completely, as in a case of actual war. At the
appointed time, hundreds of thousands of people assembled from all
the surrounding country to see the sight. They lined the shores on
every side, and crowned all the neighboring heights. The contest, of
course, might be waged with all the fury and fatal effect of a real
battle without endangering the spectators at all, as there were in
those days no flying bullets, or other swift-winged missiles, like
those which in modern times take so wide a range beyond the limits
of the battle. The deadly effect of all that was done in an ancient
combat was confined of course to those immediately engaged. Then
there was, besides, nothing to intercept the vision. No smoke was
raised to obscure the view, but the atmosphere above and around the
combatants remained as pure and transparent at the end of the combat
as at the beginning.
A real battle was accordingly regarded by the Romans as the most
sublime and imposing of spectacles, and hundreds of thousands of
spectators flocked to witness the one which Claudius arranged for
them on the Fucine lake. He himself presided, dressed in a coat of
mail; and Agrippina sat by his side, clothed in a magnificent robe,
which the historian states was woven from threads of gold, without
the admixture of any other material. The signal was given, and the
battle was commenced. There was some difficulty experienced, as
usual in such cases, in getting the men to engage, but they became
sufficiently ferocious at last to satisfy all the spectators, and
thousands were slain. At length the emperor gave orders that the
battle should cease, and the survivors were informed that their
lives were spared.
It was fortunate, on the whole, for Claudius, that he did not rely
wholly on the simple drawing off of the water from the lake for the
amusement of the immense assemblage that he had convened, for it was
found, when, after the close of the battle, the canal was opened,
that the water would not run. The engineers had made some mistake in
their measurements or their calculations, and had left the bed of
the canal in some part of its course too high, so that the water,
when the sluices were opened, instead of flowing off into the river
to which the canal was intended to conduct it, remained quietly in
the lake as before.
The assembly dispersed, and the work on the canal was resumed with a
view of making it deeper. In the course of a year the excavation was
completed, and all was made ready for a new trial. Claudius summoned
a new assembly to witness the operation, and at this time, instead
of a naval conflict, he made provision for a great combat of
gladiators, to be fought on immense floating platforms which were
built upon the lake near the outlet which the engineers had made. In
the end, however, the second attempt to make the water flow, proved
more unfortunate than the first. The channel had been made very deep
and wide, so that the water was inclined to move, when once put in
motion, with the utmost impetuosity and force; and it so happened,
that in some way or other, the means which the engineer had relied
upon for controlling it were insufficient, and when the gates were
opened every thing suddenly gave way. The water rushed out in an
overwhelming torrent, as in an inundation--and undermined and
carried away the platforms and stagings which had been erected for
the seats of the spectators. A scene of indescribable tumult and
confusion ensued. The emperor and empress, with the guests and
spectators, fled precipitously together, and all narrowly escaped
being carried down into the canal.
It is by no means difficult to imagine what sort of a character a
boy must necessarily form, brought up under such influences and
surrounded by such scenes as those which thus prevailed at the court
of Claudius. It proved in the end that Nero experienced the full
effect of them. He became proud, vain, self-willed, cruel, and
accustomed to yield himself without restraint to all those wicked
propensities and passions which, under such circumstances, always
gain dominion over the human soul.
* * * * *
Besides Britannicus, it will be recollected that Messalina had left
another child,--a daughter named Octavia, who was two or three years
younger than her brother, and of course about five years younger
than Nero. Agrippina did not pursue the same course of opposition
and hostility toward her which she had adopted in regard to
Britannicus. She determined, at the outset, upon a very different
plan. Britannicus was necessarily a rival and competitor for Nero;
and every step in advance which he should make, could not operate
otherwise than as an impediment and obstacle to Nero's success. But
Octavia, as Agrippina thought, might be employed to further and aid
her designs, by being betrothed, and in due time married, to her
son.
The advantages of such a scheme were very obvious,--so obvious in
fact that the design was formed by Agrippina at the very
beginning,--even before her own marriage with the emperor was fully
effected. There was one serious obstacle in the way, and that was
that Octavia was already betrothed to a very distinguished young
nobleman named Lucius Silanus. Agrippina, after having, by various
skillful manoeuvers, succeeded in enlisting the public officers
who would act as judges in his case, caused Silanus to be accused of
infamous crimes. The historians say that the evidence which was
adduced against him was of the most trivial character. Still he was
condemned. He seems to have understood the nature and the cause of
the hostility which had suddenly developed itself against him, and
to have felt at once all the hopelessness of his condition. He
killed himself in his despair on the very night of the marriage of
Claudius with Agrippina.
The empress found afterward no serious difficulty in accomplishing
her design. She obtained the emperor's consent to a betrothal of
Nero to Octavia; but as they were yet too young to be married, the
ceremony was postponed for a short time. At length in about five
years after the marriage of Agrippina herself, Nero and Octavia were
married. Nero was at that time about sixteen years of age. His bride
of course was only eleven.