THE FATE OF AGRIPPINA.
A.D. 55-60
Situation of Agrippina.--Her state of mind.--Nero's views in respect
to his mother.--Plans and measures adopted by Agrippina.--Nero
establishes his mother as a private lady.--Agrippina finds herself
forsaken and friendless.--A plot discovered.--Statement of Paris.--Nero
is greatly alarmed.--A council called.--Burrus defends
Agrippina.--Agrippina's indignant answer to the charge.--Return of
the commissioners to Nero.--Nero is convinced of his mother's
innocence.--Nero's course of life.--Riots in the street.--Agrippina
lives in seclusion.--Poppaea.--Her influence over Nero.--Her taunts
and reproaches.--Effect of them on Nero's mind.--Nero begins to
desire the death of his mother.--Great naval celebration at
Misenum.--Anicetus.--Proposal of Anicetus.--Nero is pleased with
it.--Arrangements for carrying it into effect.--Agrippina goes
to Baiae.--Preparations for destroying Agrippina.--Nero bids his
mother an affectionate farewell.--Agrippina and her attendant
on board the barge.--The result of the attempt.--Narrow escape
of Agrippina.--Agrippina and Aceronia in the sea.--Agrippina
escapes.--Her message to Nero.--Nero's alarm on bearing of his
mother's escape.--Consultation with Seneca and Burrus.--Anicetus
undertakes to finish his work.--Anicetus goes to Agrippina's
villa.--Conversation.--Agrippina is murdered.--Nero is overwhelmed with
remorse and horror.--He becomes more calm.--The dead body.--Burning
of the body of Agrippina.
However it may have been with others, Agrippina herself was not
deceived by the false pretenses which Nero offered in explanation
of his brother's death. She understood the case too well, and the
event filled her mind with a tumult of conflicting emotions.
Notwithstanding the terrible quarrels which had disturbed her
intercourse with the emperor, he was still her son,--her first-born
son,--and she loved him as such, even in the midst of the resentment
and hostility which her disappointed ambition from time to time
awakened in her mind. Her ambition was now more bitterly
disappointed than ever. In the death of Britannicus the last link of
her power over Nero seemed to be forever sundered. The hand by which
he had fallen was still that of her son,--a son to whom she could
not but cling with maternal affection, while she felt deeply wounded
at what she considered his cruel ingratitude toward her, and vexed
and maddened at finding herself so hopelessly circumvented in all
her schemes.
As for Nero himself, he had no longer any hope or expectation of
being on good terms with his mother again. He saw clearly that her
schemes and plans were wholly incompatible with his, and that in
order to secure the prosperous accomplishment of his own designs he
must now finish the work that he had begun, and curtail and restrict
his mother's influence by every means in his power. Other persons he
attempted to conciliate. He made splendid presents to the leading
men of Rome, as bribes to prevent their instituting inquiries in
respect to the death of Britannicus. To some he gave landed estates,
to others sums of money, and others still he advanced to high
offices of civil or military command. Those whom he most feared he
removed from Rome, by giving them honorable and lucrative
appointments in distant provinces.
In the mean time Agrippina herself was not idle. As soon as she
recovered from the first shock which the death of Britannicus had
occasioned her, she began to think of revenge. Within the limits
and restrictions which the suspicion and vigilance of Nero imposed
upon her, she formed a small circle of friends and adherents, and
sought out, diligently, though secretly, all whom she supposed to be
disaffected to the government of Nero. She attached herself
particularly to Octavia, who, being the daughter of Claudius,
succeeded now, on the death of Britannicus, to whatever hereditary
rights had been vested in him. She collected money, so far as she
had power to do so, from all the resources which remained to her,
and she availed herself of every opportunity to cultivate the
acquaintance, and court the favor, of all such officers of the army
as were accessible to her influence. In a word, she seemed to be
meditating some secret scheme for retrieving her fallen
fortunes,--and Nero, who watched all her motions with a jealous and
suspicious eye, began to be alarmed, not knowing to what desperate
extremes her resentment and ambition might urge her.
Up to this time Agrippina had lived in the imperial palace with
Nero, forming, with her retinue, a part of his household, and
sharing of course, in some sense, the official honors paid to him.
Nero now concluded, however, that he would remove her from this
position and give her a separate establishment of her own,--making
it correspond in its appointments with the secondary and subordinate
station to which he intended thenceforth to confine her. He
accordingly assigned to her a certain mansion in the city which had
formerly been occupied by some branch of the imperial family, and
removed her to it, with all her attendants. He dismissed, however,
from her service, under various pretexts, such officers and
adherents as he supposed were most devoted to her interests and most
disposed to join with her in plots and conspiracies against him. The
places of those whom he thus superseded were supplied by men on whom
he could rely for subserviency to him. He diminished too the number
of Agrippina's attendants and guards; he withdrew the sentinels that
had been accustomed to guard the gates of her apartments, and
dismissed a certain corps of German soldiers that had hitherto
served under her command, as a sort of life-guard. In a word he
removed her from the scenes of imperial pomp and splendor in which
she had been accustomed to move, and established her instead in the
position of a private Roman lady.
The unhappy Agrippina soon found that this change in her position
made a great change in respect to the degree of consideration and
regard which was bestowed upon her by the public. The circle of her
adherents and friends was gradually diminished. Her visitors were
few. The emperor himself went sometimes to see his mother, but he
came always attended with a retinue, and after a brief and formal
interview, he retired as ceremoniously as he came,--thus giving to
his visit the character simply of a duty of state etiquette. In a
word, Agrippina found herself forsaken and friendless, and her mind
gradually sank into a condition of hopeless despondency, vexation
and chagrin.
Things continued in this state for some time until at length one
night when Nero had been drinking and carousing at a banquet in his
palace, a well-known courtier named Paris, one of the principal of
Nero's companions and favorites, came into the apartment and
informed the emperor with a countenance expressive of great concern,
that he had tidings of the most serious moment to communicate to
him. Nero withdrew from the scene of festivity to receive the
communication, and was informed by Paris, that a discovery had been
made of a deep-laid and dangerous plot, which Agrippina and certain
accomplices of hers had formed. The object of the conspirators, as
Paris alledged, was to depose Nero, and raise a certain descendant
of Augustus Caesar, named Plautus, to the supreme command, in his
stead. This revolution being effected, Agrippina was to marry the
new emperor, and thus be restored to her former power.
The statement which Paris made was very full in all its details. The
names of the chief conspirators were given, and all the plans
explained. The chief witness on whose authority the charge was made,
was a celebrated woman of the court, an intimate acquaintance and
visitor of Agrippina, named Silana. Silana and Agrippina had been
very warm friends, but a terrible quarrel had recently broken out
between them, in consequence of some interference on the part of
Agrippina, to prevent a marriage, which had been partially arranged
between Silana and a distinguished Roman citizen, from being carried
into effect. Silana had been exasperated by this ill office, and
the revelation which she had made had been the result. Whether such
a conspiracy had really been formed, and Silana had been induced to
betray the secret in consequence of the injury which Agrippina had
inflicted upon her in preventing her marriage, or whether she wholly
invented the story under the impulse of a desperate revenge, was
never fully known. The historians of the time incline to the latter
opinion.
However this may be, Nero was greatly alarmed at the communication
which Paris made to him. He immediately abandoned his festivities
and carousals, dismissed his guests, and called a council of his
most confidential advisers, to consider what was to be done. He
stated the case to this council, and announced it as his
determination immediately to pronounce sentence of death upon his
mother and upon Plautus, and to send officers at once to execute the
decree, as the first step to be taken. Burrus, however, strongly
dissuaded him from so rash a proceeding. "These are only charges,"
said he, "at present. We have yet no proofs. An informer has come
to you at dead of night with this wild and improbable story, and if
we take it for granted at once that it is true, and allow ourselves
to act under the influence of excitement and alarm, we should
afterward regret our rashness when the consequences could not be
retrieved. Besides, Agrippina is your mother; and as it is the right
of the humblest person in the commonwealth, when accused of crime,
to be heard in answer to the accusation, it would be an atrocious
crime to deprive the mother of the emperor of that privilege.
Postpone, therefore, pronouncing judgment in this case until we can
learn the facts more certainly. I pledge myself to execute sentence
of death on Agrippina, if after a fair hearing, this charge is
proved against her."
By such arguments and remonstrances as these Nero was in some degree
appeased, and it was determined to postpone taking any decisive
action in the emergency until the morning. As soon as it was day,
Burrus and Seneca, accompanied by several attendants, who were to
act as witnesses of the interview, were dispatched to the house of
Agrippina to lay the charge before her and to hear what she had to
say.
Agrippina was at first somewhat astonished at being summoned at so
early an hour to give audience to so formidable a commission; but
her proud spirit had become so fierce and desperate under the
treatment which she had received from her son, that she was very
slightly sensible to fear. She listened, therefore, to the heavy
charge which Burrus brought against her, undismayed; and when he
paused to hear her reply, instead of excusing and defending herself,
and deprecating the emperor's displeasure, she commenced the most
severe and angry invectives against her son, for listening for a
moment to calumnies against her so wild and improbable. That Silana,
who was, as she said, a dissolute and unprincipled woman, and who,
consequently, could have no idea of the strength and the fidelity of
maternal affection, should think it possible that a mother could
form plots and conspiracies against an only son, was not strange;
but that Nero himself, for whom she had made such exertions and
incurred such dangers, and to whose interests she had surrendered
and sacrificed every thing that could be dear to the heart of a
woman--could believe such tales, and actually conceive the design
of murdering his mother on the faith of them, was not to be endured.
"Does not he know well," said she, in a voice almost inarticulate
with excitement and indignation, "that, if by any means,
Britannicus, or Plautus, or any other man were to be raised to
power, my life would be immediately forfeited in consequence of what
I have already done for him? Can he imagine, after the deep and
desperate crimes which I have committed for his sake, in order that
I might raise him to his present power, that I could seal my own
destruction by bringing forward any one of his rivals and enemies to
his place? Go back and tell him this, and say, moreover, that I
demand an audience of him. I am his mother; and I have a right to
expect that he shall see me himself, and hear what I have to say."
The commissioners whom Nero had sent with the accusations, were
somewhat astonished at receiving these angry denunciations and
invectives in reply, instead of the meek and faltering defense which
they had expected. They were overawed, too, by the lofty and
passionate energy with which Agrippina had spoken. They answered her
with soothing and conciliatory words, and then went back to Nero,
and reported the result of their interview.
Nero consented to see his mother. In his presence she assumed the
same tone of proud and injured innocence, that had characterized her
interview with the messengers. She scorned to enter into any
vindication of herself; but _assumed_ that she was innocent, and
demanded that her accusers should be punished as persons guilty of
the most atrocious calumny. Nero was convinced of her innocence, and
yielded to her demands. Silana and two others of her accusers, were
banished from Rome. Another still was punished with death.
Thus a sort of temporary and imperfect peace was once more
established between Nero and his mother.
This state of things continued for about the space of three years.
During this time, the public affairs of the empire, as conducted by
the ministers of state and the military generals, to whom Nero
intrusted them, went on with tolerable prosperity and success, while
in every thing that related to personal conduct and character, the
condition of the emperor was becoming every day more and more
deplorable. He spent his days in sloth and sensual stupor, and his
nights in the wildest riot and debauchery. He used to disguise
himself as a slave, and sally forth at midnight with a party of his
companions similarly attired, into the streets of the city,
disturbing the night with riot and noise. Sometimes they would go
out at an earlier hour,--while the people were in the streets and
the shops were open,--and amuse themselves with seizing the goods
and merchandise that they found offered for sale, and assaulting all
that came in their way. In these frolics, the emperor and his party
were met sometimes by other parties; and in the brawls which ensued
Nero was frequently handled very roughly--his opponents not knowing
who he was. At one time he was knocked down and very seriously
wounded; and in consequence of this adventure, his face was for a
long time disfigured with a scar.
Although in these orgies Nero went generally in disguise, yet as he
and his companions were accustomed afterward to boast of their
exploits, it soon became generally known to the people of the city
that their young emperor was in the habit of mingling in these
midnight brawls. Of course every wild and dissolute young man in
Rome was fired with an ambition to imitate the example set him by so
exalted an authority. Midnight riots became the fashion. As the
parties grew larger, the brawls which occurred in the streets became
more and more serious, until at last Nero was accustomed to take
with him a gang of soldiers and gladiators in disguise, who were
instructed to follow him within call, so as to be ready to come up
instantly to his aid whenever he should require their assistance.
Year after year passed away in this manner, Nero abandoning himself
all the time to the grossest sensual pleasures, and growing more and
more reckless and desperate every day. His mother lived during this
period in comparative seclusion. She attempted to exercise some
little restraint over her son, but without success. She attached
herself strongly to Octavia, the wife of Nero, and would have
defended her, if she could, from the injuries and wrongs which the
conduct of Nero as a husband heaped upon her.
At length the young emperor, in following his round of vicious
indulgence, formed an intimacy with a certain lady of the court
named Poppaea, the wife of Otho, one of Nero's companions in
pleasure. Nero sent Otho away on some distant appointment, in order
that he might enjoy the society of Poppaea without restraint. At
length Poppaea gained so great an ascendency over the mind of the
emperor as to seduce him entirely away from his duty to his wife,
and she proposed that they should both be divorced and then marry
one another. Nero was inclined to accede to this proposal, but
Agrippina strongly opposed it. For a time Nero hesitated between the
influence of Agrippina and the sentiment of duty, on the one hand,
and the enticements of Poppaea on the other. In addition to the
influence of her blandishments and smiles, she attempted to act upon
Nero's boyish pride by taunting him with what she called his
degrading and unmanly subjection to his mother. How long, she asked,
was he to remain like a child under maternal tutelage? She wondered
how he could endure so ignoble a bondage. He was in name and
position, she said, a mighty monarch, reigning absolutely over half
the world,--but in actual fact he was a mere nursery boy, who could
do nothing without his mother's leave. She was ashamed, she said, to
see him in so humiliating a condition; and unless he would take some
vigorous measures to free himself from his chains, she declared that
she would leave him forever, and go with her husband to some distant
quarter of the world where she could no longer be a witness of his
disgrace.
The effect of these taunts upon the mind of Nero was very much
heightened by the proud and imperious spirit which his mother
manifested toward him, and which seemed to become more and more
stern and severe, through the growing desperation which the conduct
of her son and her own hopeless condition seemed to awaken in her
mind. The quarrel, in a word, between the emperor and his mother
grew more and more inveterate and hopeless every day. At length he
shunned her entirely, and finally, every remaining spark of filial
duty having become extinguished, he began to meditate some secret
plan of removing her out of his way.
He revolved various projects for accomplishing this purpose, in his
mind. He did not dare to employ open violence, as he had no charge
against his mother to justify a criminal sentence against her; and
he dreaded the effect upon the public mind which would be produced
by the spectacle of so unnatural a deed as the execution of a mother
by command of her son. He could not trust to poison. Agrippina was
perfectly familiar with every thing relating to the poisoning art,
and would doubtless be fully on her guard against any attempt of
that kind that he might make. Besides, he supposed, that by means of
certain antidotes which she was accustomed to use, her system was
permanently fortified against the action of every species of poison.
While Nero was revolving these things in his mind, the occasion
occurred for a great naval celebration at Baiae, a beautiful bay
south of Rome, near what is now the bay of Naples. Baiae was
celebrated in ancient times, as it is in fact now, for the beauty of
its situation, and it was a place of great resort for the Roman
nobility. There was a small, but well-built town at the head of the
bay, and the hills and valleys in the vicinity, as well as every
headland and promontory along the shore, were ornamented with villas
and country-seats, which were occupied as summer residences by the
wealthy people of the city. Baiae was also a great naval station, and
there was at this time a fleet stationed there,--or rather at the
promontory of Misenum, a few miles beyond,--under the command of one
of Nero's confidential servants, named Anicetus. The naval
celebration was to take place in connection with this fleet. It was
an annual festival, and was to continue five days.
Anicetus had been a personal attendant upon Nero in his infancy, and
had lived always in habits of great intimacy with him. For some
reason or other, too, he was a great enemy to Agrippina, having been
always accustomed, when Nero was a child, to take his part in the
little contests which had arisen, from time to time, between him and
his mother. Anicetus was of course prepared to sympathize very
readily with Nero in the hatred which he now cherished toward
Agrippina, and when he learned that Nero was desirous of devising
some means of accomplishing her death, he formed a plan which he
said would effect the purpose very safely. He proposed to invite
Agrippina to Baiae, and then, in the course of the ceremonies and
manoeuvers connected with the naval spectacle, to take her out
upon the bay in a barge or galley. He would have the barge so
constructed, he said, that it should go to pieces at sea, making
arrangements beforehand for saving the lives of the others, but
leaving Agrippina to be drowned.
Nero was greatly pleased with this device, and determined at once to
adopt the plan. In order to open the way for carrying it into
effect, he pretended, when the time for the festival drew nigh, that
he desired to be reconciled to his mother, and that he was ready now
to fall in with her wishes and plans. He begged her to forget all
his past unkindness to her, and assuring her that his feelings
toward her were now wholly changed, he lavished upon her expressions
of the tenderest regard. A mother is always very easily deceived by
such protestations on the part of a wayward son, and Agrippina
believed all that Nero said to her. In a word, the reconciliation
seemed to be complete.
At length, when the time for the naval festival drew nigh, Nero, who
was then at Baiae, sent an invitation to his mother to come and join
him in witnessing the spectacle. Agrippina readily consented to
accept the invitation. She was at this time at Antium, the place,
it will be recollected, where Nero was born. She accordingly set
sail from this place in her own galley, and proceeded to the
southward. She landed at one of the villas in the neighborhood of
Baiae. Nero was ready upon the shore to meet her. He received her
with every demonstration of respect and affection. He had provided
quarters for her at Baiae, and there was a splendid barge ready to
convey her thither; the plan being that she should embark on board
this barge, and leave her own galley,--that is the one by which she
had come in from sea,--at anchor at the villa where she landed. The
barge in which Agrippina was thus invited to embark, was the
treacherous trap that Anicetus had contrived for her destruction. It
was, however, to all appearance, a very splendid vessel, being very
richly and beautifully decorated, as if expressly intended to do
honor to the distinguished passenger whom it was designed to convey.
Agrippina, however, did not seem inclined to go in the barge. She
preferred proceeding to Baiae by land. Perhaps, notwithstanding
Nero's apparent friendliness she felt still some misgivings, and
was afraid to trust herself entirely to his power,--or perhaps she
preferred to finish her journey by land only because, in making the
passage from Antium, she had become tired of the sea. However this
may have been, Nero acquiesced at once in her decision, and provided
a sort of sedan for conveying her to Baiae by land. In this sedan she
was carried accordingly, by bearers to Baiae, and there lodged in the
apartments provided for her.
No favorable opportunity occurred for taking Agrippina out upon the
water until the time arrived for her return to Antium. During the
time of her stay at Baiae, Nero devoted himself to her with the most
assiduous attention. He prepared magnificent banquets for her, and
entertained her with a great variety of amusements and diversions.
In his conversation he sometimes addressed her with a familiar
playfulness and gayety, and at other times he sought occasions to
discourse with her seriously on public affairs, in a private and
confidential manner. Agrippina was completely deceived by these
indications, and her heart was filled with pride and joy at the
thought that she had regained the affection and confidence of her
son.
Nero and Anicetus determined finally to put their plan into
execution by inducing Agrippina to embark on board their barge in
returning to Antium, when the time should arrive, instead of going
back in her own vessel. Their other attempts to induce her to go out
upon the water had failed, and this was the only opportunity that
now remained. It was desirable that this embarkation should take
place in the night, as the deed which they were contemplating could
be more effectually accomplished under the cover of the darkness.
Accordingly, on the afternoon of the day on which Agrippina was to
return, Nero prepared a banquet for her, and he protracted the
festivities and entertainments which attended it until late in the
evening, so that it was wholly dark before his mother could take her
leave. Anicetus then contrived to have one of the vessels of his
fleet run against the galley in which Agrippina had come from
Antium, as it lay at anchor near the shore at the place where she
had landed. The galley was broken down and disabled by the
collision. Anicetus came to Agrippina to report the accident, with
a countenance expressive of much concern; but added that the barge
which the emperor had prepared for her was at her service, and
proposed to substitute that in the place of the one which had been
injured. There seemed to be no other alternative, and Agrippina,
after taking a very affectionate leave of her son, went gayly, and
wholly unconscious of danger, on board the beautiful but treacherous
vessel.
It was observed that Nero exhibited an extreme degree of tender
regard for his mother in bidding her farewell on this occasion. He
hung upon her neck a long time, and kissed her again and again,
detaining her by these endearments on the shore, as if reluctant to
let her go. After Agrippina's death this scene was remembered by
those who witnessed it, but in reflecting upon it they could not
decide whether these tokens of affection were all assumed, as
belonging to the part which he was so hypocritically acting, or
whether he really felt at the last moment some filial relentings,
which led him to detain his mother for a time on the brink of the
pit which he had been preparing for her destruction. From all,
however, that we now know in respect to the personal character which
Nero had formed at this period, it is probable that the former is
the correct supposition.
The plot, dextrous as the contrivance of it had been, was not
destined to succeed. The vessel moved gently from the shore, rowed
by the mariners. It was a clear starlight night. The sea was smooth,
and the air was calm. Agrippina took her place upon a couch which
had been arranged for her, under a sort of canopy or awning, the
frame-work of which, above, had been secretly loaded with lead. She
was attended here by one of her ladies named Aceronia Polla, who lay
at her mistress's feet, and entertained her with conversation as the
boat glided along on its way. They talked of Nero--of the kind
attentions which he had been paying to Agrippina, and of the various
advantages which were to follow from the reconciliation which had
been so happily effected. In this manner the hours passed away, and
the barge went on until it reached the place which had been
determined upon for breaking it down and casting Agrippina into the
sea. The spot which had been chosen was so near the land as to allow
of the escape of the mariners by swimming, but yet remote enough,
as was supposed, to make Agrippina's destruction sure. A few of the
mariners were in the secret, and were in some degree prepared for
what was to come. Others knew nothing, and were expected to save
themselves as they best could, when they should find themselves cast
into the sea.
At a given signal the fastenings of the canopy were loosened, and
the loaded structure came down suddenly with a heavy crash, carrying
away with it other parts of the vessel. One man was crushed under
the weight of the falling ruins, and instantly killed. Agrippina and
the lady in waiting upon her were saved by the posts of the bed or
couch on which Agrippina was reclining, which happened to be in such
a position that they held up the impending mass sufficiently to
allow the ladies to creep out from beneath it. The breaking down,
too, of the deck and bulwarks of the barge was less extensive than
had been intended, so that Agrippina not only escaped being crushed
by the ruins but she also saved herself at first from being thrown
into the sea. The men then who were in the secret of the plot
immediately raised a great cry and confusion, and attempted to
upset the barge by climbing up upon one side of it--while the
others, who did not understand the case, did all they could to save
it. In the mean time the noise of the outcries reached the shore,
and fishermen's boats began to put off with a view of coming to the
rescue of the distressed vessel. Before they arrived, however, the
boat had been overturned, Agrippina and Aceronia had been thrown
into the sea, and the men who were in the secret of the plot, taking
advantage of the darkness and confusion, were endeavoring to seal
the fate of their victims, by beating them down with poles and oars
as they struggled in the water.
[Illustration: THE ATTEMPT OF ANICETUS.]
These efforts succeeded in the case of Aceronia, for she uttered
loud and continual outcries in her terror, and thus drew upon
herself the blows of the assassins. Agrippina, on the other hand,
had the presence of mind to keep silence. She received one heavy
blow upon the shoulder, which inflicted a serious wound. In other
respects she escaped uninjured, and succeeded, partly through the
buoyancy of her dress, and partly by the efforts that she made to
swim, in keeping herself afloat until she was taken up by the
fishermen and conveyed to the shore. She was taken to a villa
belonging to her, which was situated not far from the place where
the disaster had occurred.
As soon as Agrippina had recovered a little from the terror and
excitement of this scene, and had time to reflect upon the
circumstances of it, she was convinced that what had occurred was no
accident, but the result of a deep-laid design to destroy her life.
She, however, thought it most prudent to dissemble her opinion for a
time. As soon therefore as she had safely reached her villa, and her
wound had been dressed, she dispatched a messenger to Baiae to inform
Nero of what had occurred. The vessel in which she had embarked had
been wrecked at sea, she said, and she had narrowly escaped
destruction. She had received a severe hurt, by some falling spar,
but had at length safely reached her home at Antium. She begged,
however, that her son would not come to see her, as what she needed
most was repose. She had sent the messenger, she said, to inform him
of what had occurred only that he might rejoice with her in the
signal interposition of divine providence by which she had been
rescued from so imminent a danger.
In the mean time Nero was waiting impatiently and anxiously in his
palace at Baiae, for the arrival of a messenger from Anicetus to
inform him that his plot had been successful, and that his mother
was drowned. Instead of this a rumor of her escape reached him some
time before Agrippina's messenger arrived, and threw him into
consternation. People came from the coast and informed him that the
barge in which his mother had sailed had been wrecked, and that
Agrippina had narrowly escaped with her life. The particulars were
not fully given to him, but he presumed that Agrippina must have
learned that the occurrence was the result of a deliberate attempt
to destroy her, and he was consequently very much alarmed. He
dreaded the desperate spirit of resentment and revenge which he
presumed had been aroused in his mother's mind.
He forthwith sent for Burrus and Seneca, and revealed to them all
the circumstances of the case. He made the most bitter accusations
against his mother, in justification of his attempt to destroy her.
He had long been convinced, he said, that there could be no peace
or safety for him as long as she lived, and now, at all events,
since he had undertaken the work of destroying her and made the
attempt, no alternative was left to him but to go on and finish what
he had begun. "She must die now," said he, "or she will most
assuredly contrive some means to destroy me."
Seneca and Burrus were silent. They knew not what to say. They saw
very clearly that a crisis had arrived, the end of which would be,
that one or the other must perish, and consequently the only
question for them to decide was, whether the victim should be the
mother or the son. At length, after a long and solemn pause, Seneca
looked to Burrus, and inquired whether the soldiers under his
command could be relied upon to execute death upon Agrippina. Burrus
shook his head. The soldiers, he said, felt such a veneration for
the family of Germanicus, which was the family from which Agrippina
had sprung, that they would perform no such bloody work upon any
representative of it. "Besides," said he, "Anicetus has undertaken
this duty. It devolves on him to finish what he has begun."
Anicetus readily undertook the task. He had, in fact, a personal
interest in it, for, after what had passed, he knew well that there
could be no safety for him while Agrippina lived. Nero seemed
overjoyed at finding Anicetus so ready to meet his wishes. "Be
prompt," said he, "in doing what you have to do. Take with you whom
you please to assist you. If you accomplish the work, I shall
consider that I owe my empire to your fidelity."
Anicetus, having thus received his commission, ordered a small
detachment from the fleet to accompany him, and proceeded to the
villa where Agrippina had taken refuge. He found a crowd of country
people assembled around the gates of the villa. They had been drawn
thither by the tidings of the disaster which had happened to
Agrippina, curious to learn all the particulars of the occurrence,
or desirous, perhaps, to congratulate Agrippina on her escape. When
these peasantry saw the armed band of Anicetus approaching, they
know not what it meant, but were greatly alarmed, and fled in all
directions.
The guards at the gates of Agrippina's villa made some resistance
to the entrance of the soldiers, but they were soon knocked down and
overpowered; the gates were burst open, and Anicetus entered at the
head of his party of marines. Agrippina, who was upon her bed in an
inner chamber at the time, heard the noise and tumult, and was
greatly alarmed. A number of friends who were with her, hearing the
footsteps of the armed men on the stairs, fled from the chamber in
dismay, by a private door, leaving Agrippina alone with her maid.
The maid, after a moment's pause, fled too, Agrippina saying to her
as she disappeared, "Are you, too, going to forsake me?" At the same
moment, Anicetus forced open the door of entrance, and came in
accompanied by two of his officers. The three armed men, with an
expression of fierce and relentless determination upon their
countenances, advanced to Agrippina's bedside.
Agrippina was greatly terrified, but she preserved some degree of
outward composure, and raising herself in her bed, she looked
steadily upon her assassins.
"Do you come from my son?" said she.
They did not answer.
"If you came to inquire how I am," said she, "tell him that I am
better, and shall soon be entirely well. I can not believe that he
can possibly have sent you to do me any violence or harm."
At this instant one of the assassins struck at the wretched mother
with his club. The arm, however, of the most hardened and
unrelenting monster, usually falters somewhat at the beginning, in
doing such work as this, and the blow gave Agrippina only an
inconsiderable wound. She saw at once, however, that all was
lost--that the bitter moment of death had come,--but instead of
yielding to the emotions of terror and despair which might have been
expected to overwhelm the heart of a woman in such a scene, her
fierce and indomitable spirit aroused itself to new life and vigor
in the terrible emergency. As the assassins approached her with
their swords brandished in the air, preparing to strike her, she
threw the bed-clothes off, so as to uncover her person, and called
upon her murderers to strike her in the womb. "It is there," said
she, "that the stab should be given when a mother is to be murdered
by her son." She was instantly thrust through with a multitude of
wounds in every part of her body, and died weltering in the blood
that flowed out upon the couch on which she lay.
Anicetus and his comrades, when the deed was done, gazed for a
moment on the lifeless body, and then gathering together again the
soldiers that they had left at the gates, they went back to Baiae
with the tidings. The first emotion which Nero experienced, on
hearing that all was over, was that of relief. He soon found,
however, that monster as he was, his conscience was not yet so
stupefied, that he could perpetrate such a deed as this without
bringing out her scourge. As soon as he began to reflect upon what
he had done, his soul was overwhelmed with remorse and horror. He
passed the remainder of the night in dreadful agony, sometimes
sitting silent and motionless--gazing into vacancy, as if his
faculties were bewildered and lost, and then suddenly starting up,
amazed and trembling, and staring wildly about, as if seized with a
sudden frenzy. His wild and ghastly looks, his convulsive
gesticulations, and his incoherent ravings and groans, indicated the
horror that he endured, and were so frightful that his officers and
attendants shrunk away from his presence, and knew not what to do.
At length they sent in one after another to attempt to calm and
console him. Their efforts, however, were attended with little
success. When the morning came, it brought with it some degree of
composure; but the dreadful burden of guilt which pressed upon
Nero's mind made him still unutterably wretched. He said that he
could not endure any longer to remain on the spot, as every thing
that he saw, the villas, the ships, the sea, the shore, and all the
other objects around him, were so associated in his mind with the
thought of his mother, and with the remembrance of his dreadful
crime, that he could not endure them.
In the mean time, as soon as the servants and attendants at
Agrippina's villa found that Anicetus and his troop had gone, they
returned to the chamber of their mistress and gazed upon the
spectacle which awaited them there, with inexpressible horror.
Anicetus had left some of his men behind to attend to the disposal
of the body, as it was important that it should be removed from
sight without delay, since it might be expected that all who should
look upon it would be excited to a high pitch of indignation against
the perpetrators of such a crime. The countenance, in the condition
of repose which it assumed after death, appeared extremely
beautiful, and seemed to address a mute but touching appeal to the
commiseration of every beholder. It was necessary, therefore, to
hurry it away. Besides, the soldiers themselves were impatient. They
wished to get through with their horrid work and be gone.
They accordingly built a funeral pile in the garden of the
villa,--using such materials for the purpose as came most readily to
hand--and then took up the body of Agrippina on the bed upon which
it lay, and placed all together upon the pile. The fires were
lighted. The soldiers watched by the side of it until the pile was
nearly consumed, and then went away, leaving the heart-broken
domestics of Agrippina around the smoldering embers.