NERO AN EMPEROR.
A.D. 54
Claudius is sick.--Agrippina's joy.--Her schemes.--Estimation in
which Nero was held.--Agrippina considers herself in danger.--Reasons
for her fears.--Claudius and Britannicus.--She forms plans for
hastening her husband's death.--Locusta.--Agrippina determines to
consult her.--Locusta's poison is administered to Claudius.--The
poison ineffectual.--A new plan.--The feather.--Poison administered by
the physician.--Claudius dies.--Agrippina conceals her husband's
death.--Agrippina's measures.--Her disimulation.--Agrippina's plans
for proclaiming Nero.--Seneca and Burrus.--History of Seneca.--Account
of Burrus.--His military rank.--The Praetorian cohorts.--Agrippina's
plans.--Nero brought forward.--His promises to the army.--He is
proclaimed.--General acquiescence in his elevation.--Agrippina's real
designs in the elevation of her son.--The funeral solemnities.--Nero's
oration.--The panegyric.--The senate is convened.--Nero's inaugural
address.--Nero's excellent promises.--Satisfaction of the
Senate.--Agrippina assumes the real power.--Discontent of the
ministers.--An incident.--Reception of Agrippina in the hall of
audience.
About one year after Nero's marriage to Octavia the emperor Claudius
was suddenly taken sick. On learning this, Agrippina was very much
excited and very much pleased. If the sickness should result in the
emperor's death, her son she thought would immediately succeed him.
Every thing had been long since fully arranged for such a result,
and all was now ready, she imagined, for the change.
It is true that Nero was still very young, but then he was
uncommonly mature both in mind and in person, for one of his years;
and the people had been accustomed for some time to look upon him as
a man. Among other means which Agrippina had resorted to for giving
an appearance of manliness and maturity to the character of her son,
she had brought him forward in the Roman Forum as a public advocate,
and he had made orations there in several instances, with great
success. He had been well instructed in those studies which were
connected with the art of oratory, and as his person and manners
were agreeable, and his countenance intelligent and prepossessing,
and especially as the confidence which he felt in his powers gave
him an air of great self-possession and composure, the impression
which he made was very favorable. The people were in fact
predisposed to be pleased with and to applaud the efforts of a young
orator so illustrious in rank and station--and the ability which he
displayed, although he was so young, was such as to justify,
unquestionably, in some degree, the honors that they paid him.
Agrippina, therefore, supposing that her son was now far enough
advanced in public consideration to make it in some degree certain
that he would be the emperor's successor, was ready at any time for
her husband to die. His sickness therefore filled her mind with
excitement and hope. There was another motive too, besides her
ambitious desires for the advancement of her son, that made her
desirous that Claudius should not live. She had been now for several
months somewhat solicitous and anxious about her own safety. Her
influence over Claudius, which was at first so absolute and supreme,
had afterward greatly declined, and within a few months she had
begun to fear that she might be losing it entirely. In fact she had
some reason for believing that Claudius regarded her with concealed
hostility and hate, and was secretly revolving plans for deposing
both her and her son from the high ascendency to which they had
raised themselves, and for bringing back his own son to his proper
prominence, in Nero's place. Agrippina, too, in the midst of her
ambitious projects and plans, led a life of secret vice and crime,
and feeling guilty and self-condemned, every trivial indication of
danger excited her fears. Some one informed her that Claudius one
day when speaking of a woman who had been convicted of crime, said
that it had always been _his_ misfortune to have profligate wives,
but that he always brought them in the end to the punishment that
they deserved. Agrippina was greatly terrified at this report. She
considered it a warning that Claudius was meditating some fatal
proceedings in respect to her.
Agrippina observed, too, as she thought, various indications that
Claudius was beginning to repent of having adopted Nero and thus
displaced his own son from the line of inheritance; and that he was
secretly intending to restore Britannicus to his true position. He
treated the boy with greater and greater attention every day, and at
one time, after having been conversing with him and expressing an
unusual interest in his health and welfare, he ended by saying, "Go
on improving, my son, and grow up as fast as you can to be a man. I
shall be able to give a good account of all that I have done in
regard to you in due time. Trust to me, and you will find that all
will come out right in the end." At another time he told Britannicus
that pretty soon he should give him the _toga_, and bring him
forward before the people as a man,--"and then at last," said he,
"the Romans will have a prince that is _genuine_."
Agrippina was not present, it is true, when these things were said
and done, but every thing was minutely reported to her, and she was
filled with anxiety and alarm. She began to be afraid that unless
something should speedily occur to enable her to realize her hopes
and expectations, they would end in nothing but bitter and cruel
disappointment after all.
Such being the state of things, Agrippina was greatly pleased at the
news, when she heard that her husband was sick. She most earnestly
hoped that he would die, and immediately began to consider what she
could do to insure or to hasten such a result. She thought of
poison, and began to debate the question in her mind whether she
should dare to administer it. Then if she were to decide to give her
husband poison, it was a very serious question what kind of poison
she should employ. If she were to administer one that was sudden and
violent in its operation, the effect which it would produce might
attract attention, and her crime be discovered. On the other hand,
if she were to choose one that was more moderate and gradual in its
power, so as to produce a slow and lingering death, time would be
allowed for Claudius to carry into effect any secret designs that he
might be forming for disavowing Nero as his son, and fixing the
succession upon Britannicus; and Agrippina well knew that if
Claudius were to die, leaving things in such a state that
Britannicus should succeed him, the downfall and ruin both of
herself and her son would immediately and inevitably follow.
There was at that time in Rome a celebrated mistress of the art of
poisoning, named Locusta. She was in prison, having been condemned
to death for her crimes. Though condemned she had been kept back
from execution by the influence of Agrippina, on account of the
skill which she possessed in her art, and which Agrippina thought it
possible that she might have occasion at some time to make use of.
This Locusta she now determined to consult. She accordingly went to
her, and asked her if she did not know of any poison which would
immediately take effect upon the brain and mind, so as to
incapacitate the patient at once from all mental action, while yet
it should be gradual and slow in its operations on the vital
functions of the body. Locusta answered in the affirmative. Such
characters were always prepared to furnish any species of
medicaments that their customers might call for. She compounded a
potion which she said possessed the properties which Agrippina
required, and Agrippina, receiving it from her hands, went away.
Agrippina then went to Halotus, the servant who waited upon the
emperor and gave him his food,--and contrived some means to induce
him to administer the dose. Halotus was the emperor's "taster," as
it was termed:--that is, it was his duty to taste first, himself,
every article of food or drink which he offered to his master, for
the express purpose of making it sure that nothing was poisoned. It
is obvious, however, that many ways might be devised for evading
such a precaution as this, and Halotus and Agrippina arranged it,
that the poison, in this case, should be put upon a dish of
mushrooms, and served to the emperor at his supper. The taster was
to avoid, by means of some dextrous management, the taking of any
portion of the fatal ingredients himself. The plan thus arranged was
put into execution. The emperor ate the mushrooms, and Agrippina
tremblingly awaited the result.
She was, however, disappointed in the effect that was produced.
Whether the mixture that Locusta had prepared was not sufficiently
powerful, or whether Halotus in his extreme anxiety not to get any
of the poisonous ingredients himself failed to administer them
effectually to his intended victim, the emperor seemed to continue
afterward much as he had been before,--still sick, but without any
new or more dangerous symptoms. Of course, Agrippina was in a state
of great solicitude and apprehension. Having incurred the terrible
guilt and danger necessarily involved in an attempt to poison her
husband, she could not draw back. The work that was begun must be
carried through now, she thought, at all hazards, to its
termination; and she immediately set herself at work to devise some
means of reaching her victim with poison, which would avoid the
taster altogether, and thus not be liable to any interference on his
part, dictated either by his fidelity to his master or his fears for
himself. She went, accordingly, to the emperor's physician and found
means to enlist him in her cause; and a plan was formed between them
which proved effectual in accomplishing her designs. The manner in
which they contrived it was this. The physician, at a time when the
emperor was lying sick and in distress upon his couch, came to him
and proposed that he should open his mouth and allow the physician
to touch his throat with the tip of a feather, to promote vomiting,
which he said he thought would relieve him. The emperor yielded to
this treatment, and the feather was applied. It had previously been
dipped in a very virulent and fatal poison. The poison thus
administered took effect, and Claudius, after passing the night in
agony, died early in the morning.
[Illustration: THE POISONING OF CLAUDIUS.]
Of course, Agrippina, when her husband's dying struggles were over,
and she was satisfied that life was extinct, experienced for the
moment a feeling of gratification and relief. It might have been
expected, however, that the pangs of remorse, after the deed was
perpetrated, would have followed very hard upon the termination of
her suspense and anxiety. But it was not so. Much still remained to
be done, and Agrippina was fully prepared to meet all the
responsibilities of the crisis. The death of her husband took place
very early in the morning, the poisoning operations having been
performed in the night, and having accomplished their final effect
about the break of day. Agrippina immediately perceived that the
most effectual means of accomplishing the end which she had in view,
was not to allow of any interval to elapse between the announcement
of the emperor's death and the bringing forward of her son for
induction into office as his successor; since during such an
interval, if one were allowed, the Roman people would, of course,
discuss the question, whether Britannicus or Nero should succeed to
power, and a strong party might possibly organize itself to enforce
the claims of the former. She determined, therefore, to conceal the
death of her husband until noon, the hour most favorable for
publicly proclaiming any great event, and then to announce the
death of the father and the accession of the adopted son together.
She accordingly took prompt and decisive measures to prevent its
being known that the emperor was dead. The immediate attendants
at his bedside could not indeed be easily deceived, but they were
required to be silent in respect to what had occurred, and to go on
with all their services and ministrations just as if their patient
were still alive. Visitors were excluded from the room, and
messengers were kept coming to and fro with baths, medicaments, and
other appliances, such as a desperate crisis in a sick chamber might
be supposed to require. The Senate was convened, too, in the course
of the morning, and Agrippina, as if in great distress, sent a
message to them, informing them of her husband's dangerous
condition, and entreating them to join with the chief civil
and religious functionaries of the city, in offering vows,
supplications, and sacrifices for his recovery. She herself, in the
mean time, went from room to room about the palace, overwhelmed to
all appearance, with anxiety and grief. She kept Britannicus and his
sisters all the time with her, folding the boy in her arms with an
appearance of the fondest affection, and telling him how
heart-broken she was at the dangerous condition of his father. She
kept Britannicus thus constantly near to her, in order to prevent
the possibility of his being seized and carried away to the camp by
any party that might be disposed to make him emperor rather than
Nero, when it should be known that Claudius had ceased to reign. As
an additional defense against this danger, Agrippina brought up a
cohort of the life-guards around the palace, and caused them to be
stationed in such a manner that every avenue of approach to the
edifice was completely secured. The cohort which she selected was
one that she thought she could most safely rely upon, not only
for guarding the palace while she remained within it, but for
proclaiming Nero as emperor when she should at last be ready to come
forth and announce the death of her husband.
At length, about noon, she deemed that the hour had arrived, and
after placing Britannicus and his sisters in some safe custody
within the palace, she ordered the gates to be thrown open, and
prepared to come forth to announce the death of Claudius, and to
present Nero to the army and to the people of Rome, as his rightful
successor. She was aided and supported in these preparations by a
number of officers and attendants, among whom were the two whom she
had determined upon as the two principal ministers of her son's
government. These were Seneca and Burrus. Seneca was to be minister
of state, and Burrus the chief military commander.
Both these men had long been in the service of Agrippina and of
Nero. Seneca was now over fifty years of age. He was very highly
distinguished as a scholar and rhetorician while he lived, and his
numerous writings have given him great celebrity since, in every
age. He commenced his career in Rome as a public advocate in the
Forum, during the reign of Caligula. After Caligula's death he
incurred the displeasure of Claudius in the first year of that
emperor's reign, and he was banished to the island of Corsica, where
he remained in neglect and obscurity for about eight years. When at
length Messalina was put to death, and the emperor married
Agrippina, Seneca was pardoned and recalled through Agrippina's
influence, and after that he devoted himself very faithfully to the
service of the empress and of her son. Agrippina appointed him
Nero's preceptor, and gave him the direction of all the studies
which her son pursued in qualifying himself for the duties of a
public orator; and now that she was about attempting to advance her
son to the supreme command, she intended to make the philosopher his
principal secretary and minister of state.
Burrus was the commander of the life-guards, or as the office was
called in those days, prefect of the praetorium. The life-guards, or
body-guards, whose duty consisted exclusively in attending upon,
escorting and protecting the emperor, consisted of ten cohorts, each
containing about a thousand men. The soldiers designated for this
service were of course selected from the whole army, and as no
expense was spared in providing them with arms, accoutrements and
other appointments, they formed the finest body of troops in the
world. They received double pay, and enjoyed special privileges; and
every arrangement was made to secure their entire subserviency to
the will, and attachment to the person, of the reigning emperor. Of
course such a corps would be regarded by all the other divisions of
the army as entirely superior in rank and consideration, to the
ordinary service; and the general who commanded them would take
precedence of every other military commander, being second only
to the emperor himself. Agrippina had contrived to raise Burrus
to this post through her influence with Claudius. He was a friend
to her interests before, and he became still more devoted to
her after receiving such an appointment through her
instrumentality,--Agrippina now depended upon Burrus to carry
the Praetorian cohorts in favor of her son.
Accordingly at noon of the day on which Claudius died, when all
things were ready, the palace gates were thrown open and Agrippina
came forth with her son, accompanied by Burrus and by other
attendants. The cohort on duty was drawn up under arms at the palace
gates. Burrus presented Nero to them as the successor of Claudius,
and at a signal from him they all responded with shouts and
acclamations. Some few of the soldiers did not join in this
cheering, but looked on in silence, and then inquired of one
another what had become of Britannicus. But there were none to
answer this question, and as no one appeared to proclaim Britannicus
or to speak in his name, the whole cohort finally acquiesced in the
decision to which the majority, at the instigation of Burrus, seemed
inclined. A sort of chair or open palanquin was provided, and Nero
was mounted upon it. He was borne in this way by the soldiers
through the streets of the city, escorted by the cohort on the way,
till he reached the camp. As the procession moved along, the air was
filled with the shouts and acclamations of the soldiers and of the
people.
When the party arrived at the camp Nero was presented to the army,
and the officers and soldiers being drawn up before him he delivered
a brief speech which Seneca had prepared for the occasion. The
principal point in this speech, and the one on which its effect was
expected to depend, was a promise of a large distribution of money.
The soldiers always expected such a donative on the accession of any
new emperor,--but Nero, in order to suppress any latent opposition
which might be felt against his claims, made his proposed
distribution unusually large. The soldiers readily yielded to the
influence of this promise, and with one accord proclaimed Nero
emperor. The Senate was soon afterward convened, and partly through
the influence of certain prominent members whom Agrippina had taken
measures to secure in her interest, and partly through the general
conviction that as things were the claims of Britannicus could not
be successfully maintained, the choice of the army was confirmed.
And as the tidings of what had taken place at the capital gradually
spread through Italy and to the remoter portions of the empire, the
provinces, and the various legions at their encampments, one after
another acquiesced in the result, both because on the one hand they
had no strong motive for dissenting, and on the other, they had
individually no power to make any effectual resistance. Thus Nero,
at the age of seventeen became emperor of Rome, and as such the
almost absolute monarch of nearly half the world.
It was, however, by no means the design of Agrippina that her son
should actually wield, himself, all this power. Her motive, in all
her manoeuvers for bringing Nero to this lofty position, was a
personal, not a maternal ambition. She was herself to reign, not he;
and she had brought him forward as the nominal sovereign only, in
order that she might herself exercise the power by acting in his
name. Her plan was to secure her own ascendency, by so arranging and
directing the course of affairs that the young emperor himself
should have as little as possible to do with the duties of his
office; and that instead of direct action on his part, all the
functions of the government should be fulfilled by officers of
various grades, whom she was herself to appoint and to sustain, and
who, since they would know that they were dependent on Agrippina's
influence for their elevation, would naturally be subservient to her
will. Nero being so young, she thought that he could easily be led
to acquiesce in such management as this, especially if he were
indulged in the full enjoyment of the luxuries and pleasures,
innocent or otherwise, which his high station would enable him to
command, and which are usually so tempting to one of his character
and years.
The first of Agrippina's measures was to make arrangement for a most
imposing and magnificent funeral, as the testimonial of the deep
conjugal affection which she entertained for her husband, and the
profound grief with which she was affected by his death! The most
extensive preparations were made for this funeral; and the pomp and
parade which were displayed in Rome on the day of the ceremony, had
never been surpassed, it was said, by any similar spectacle on any
former occasion. In the course of the services that were performed,
a funeral oration was delivered by Nero to the immense concourse of
people that were convened. The oration was written by Seneca. It was
a high panegyric upon the virtues and the renown of the deceased,
and it represented in the brightest colors, and with great
magnificence of diction, his illustrious birth, the high offices to
which he had attained, his taste for the liberal arts, and the peace
and tranquillity which had prevailed throughout the empire during
his reign. To write a panegyric upon such a man as Claudius had
been, must surely have proved a somewhat difficult task; but Seneca
accomplished it very adroitly, and the people, aided by the
solemnity of the occasion, listened with proper gravity, until at
length the orator began to speak of the judgment and the political
wisdom of Claudius, and then the listeners found that they could
preserve their decorum no longer. The audience looked at each other,
and there was a general laugh. The young orator, though for the
moment somewhat disconcerted at this interruption, soon recovered
himself, and went on to the end of his discourse.
After these funeral ceremonies had been performed, the Senate was
convened, and Nero appeared before them to make his inaugural
address. This address also, was of course prepared for him by
Seneca, under directions from Agrippina, who, after revolving the
subject fully in her mind, had determined what it would be most
politic to say. She knew very well that until the power of her son
became consolidated and settled, it became him to be modest in his
pretensions and claims, and to profess great deference and respect
for the powers and prerogatives of the Senate. In the speech,
therefore, which Nero delivered in the senate-chamber, he said that
in assuming the imperial dignity, which he had consented to do in
obedience to the will of his father the late emperor, to the general
voice of the army, and the universal suffrages of the people, he
did not intend to usurp the civil powers of the state, but to leave
to the Senate, and to the various civil functionaries of the city,
their rightful and proper jurisdiction. He considered himself as
merely the commander-in-chief of the armies of the commonwealth, and
as such, his duty would be simply to execute the national will. He
promised, moreover, a great variety of reforms in the
administration, all tending to diminish the authority of the prince,
and to protect the people from danger of oppression by military
power. In a word, it was his settled purpose, he said, to restore
the government to its pristine simplicity and purity, and to
administer it in strict accordance with the true principles of the
Roman Constitution, as originally established by the founders of the
commonwealth. The professions and promises which Nero thus made to
the Senate, or rather which he recited to them at the dictation of
his mother and of Seneca, gave great satisfaction to all who heard
them. All opposition to the claims which he advanced, disappeared,
and the heart of Agrippina was filled with gladness and joy at
finding that all her plans had been so fully and successfully
realized.
The official authority of Nero being thus generally acknowledged,
Agrippina began immediately to pursue a system of policy designed to
secure the possession of all real power for herself, leaving only
the name and semblance of it to her son. She appeared in all public
places with him, sharing with him the pomp, and parade, and insignia
of office, as if she were associated with him in official power. She
received and opened the dispatches and sent answers to them. She
considered and decided questions of state, and issued her orders.
She caused several influential persons whom she supposed likely to
take part with Britannicus, or at least secretly to favor his
claims, to be put to death, either by violence or by poison; and she
would have caused the death of many others in this way, if Burrus
and Seneca had not interposed their influence to prevent it. She did
all these things in a somewhat covert and cautious manner, acting
generally in Nero's name, so as not to attract too much attention at
first to her measures. There was danger, she knew, of awakening
resistance and opposition, as public sentiment among the Romans had
always been entirely averse to the idea of the submission of men, in
any form, to the government of women. Agrippina accordingly did not
attempt openly to preside in the senate-chamber, but she made
arrangements for having the meetings of the Senate sometimes held in
an apartment of the palace where she could attend, during the
sitting, in an adjoining cabinet, concealed from view by a screen or
arras, and thus listen to the debate. Even this, however, was
strongly objected to by some of the senators. They considered this
arrangement of Agrippina's to be present at their debates as
intended to intimidate them into the support of such measures as she
might recommend, or be supposed to favor, and thus as seriously
interfering with the freedom of their discussions. On one occasion
Agrippina made a bolder experiment still, by coming into the hall
where a company of foreign embassadors were to have audience, as if
it were a part of her official duty to join in receiving them. Her
son, the emperor, and the government officers around him, were
confounded when they saw her coming, and at first did not know what
to do. Seneca however, with great presence of mind, said to Nero,
"Your mother is entering, go and receive her." Hereupon, Nero left
his chair of state, and accompanied by his ministers, went to meet
his mother, and received her with great deference and respect; and
the attention of all present was wholly devoted to Agrippina while
she remained, as to a very distinguished and highly honored
guest,--the business which had called them together being suspended
on her account until she withdrew.
Notwithstanding some occasional difficulties and embarrassments of
this kind, every thing went on for a time very prosperously, in
accordance with Agrippina's wishes and plans. Nero was very young,
and little disposed at first to thwart or to resist his mother's
measures. He was, however, all the time growing older, and he soon
began to grow restive under the domination which Agrippina exercised
over him, and to form plans and determinations of his own. There
followed, as might have been expected, a terrible conflict for the
possession of power between him and his mother. The history and the
termination of this struggle will form the subject of the two
following chapters.