EXTREME DEPRAVITY.
A.D. 62-64
The atrocity of Nero's crime in murdering Agrippina.--Nero's messages
to the senate.--Action of the senate.--Nero divorces Octavia and
marries Poppaea.--Octavia banished from Rome.--Anicetus.--Octavia's
unhappy destiny.--Charges against her.--She is put to death.--Extreme
depravity.--Nero recovers from his remorse.--His various
crimes.--Public affairs neglected.--His performances on the
stage.--Musical training.--Nero's success.--His trained
applauders.--Rules and regulations at the theater.--Races and
games.--Nero generally the victor.--His private conduct and
character.--His midnight brawls.--Rioting and excess.--His great
feasts.--The artificial lake.--Immense sums of money expended by
Nero.--His favorites.--His excursions to Ostia.--The burning of
Rome.--Nero accused of being the incendiary.--His probable
motives.--He comes to see the fire.--He celebrates the occasion by a
song.
There was nothing in the attendant circumstances that were connected
with the act of Nero in murdering his mother, which could palliate
or extenuate the deed in the slightest degree. It was not an act of
self-defense. Agrippina was not doing him, or intending to do him
any injury. It was not an act of hasty violence, prompted by sudden
passion. It was not required by any political necessity as a means
for accomplishing some great and desirable public end. It was a
cool, deliberate, and well-considered crime, performed solely for
the purpose of removing from the path of the perpetrator of it an
obstacle to the commission of another crime. Nero murdered his
mother in cool blood, simply because she was in the way of his plans
for divorcing his innocent wife, and marrying adulterously another
woman.
For some time after the commission of this great crime, the mind of
Nero was haunted by dreadful fears, and he suffered continually, by
day and by night, all the pangs of remorse and horror. He did not
dare to return to Rome, not knowing to what height the popular
indignation, that would be naturally excited by so atrocious a deed,
might rise; or what might be the consequences to him if he were to
appear in the city. He accordingly remained for a time on the coast
at Neapolis, the town to which he had retired from Baiae. From this
place he sent various communications to the Roman Senate, explaining
and justifying what he called the execution of his mother. He
pretended that he had found her guilty of treasonable conspiracies
against him and against the state, and that her death had been
imperiously demanded, as the only means of securing the public
safety. The senators hated Nero and abhorred his crimes; but they
were overawed by the terrible power which he exercised over them
through the army, which they knew was entirely subservient to his
will, and by their dread of his ruthless and desperate character.
They passed resolves approving of what he had done. His officers and
favorites at Rome sent him word that the memory of Agrippina was
abhorred at the capital, and that in destroying her, he was
considered as having rendered a great service to the state. These
representations in some measure reassured his mind, and at length he
returned to the city.
In due time he divorced Octavia, and married Poppaea. Octavia,
however, still remained at Rome, residing in apartments assigned her
in one of the imperial palaces. Her high birth and distinguished
position, and, more than all, the sympathy that was felt for her in
her misfortunes, made her an object of great attention. The people
put garlands upon her statues in the public places in the city, and
pulled down those which were placed at Nero's command upon those of
Poppaea. These and other indications of the popular feeling, inflamed
Poppaea's hatred and jealousy to such a degree, that she suborned one
of Octavia's domestics to accuse her mistress of an ignominious
crime. When thus accused, other women in Octavia's service were put
to the rack to compel them to testify against her. They, however,
persevered, in the midst of their tortures, in asserting her
innocence. Poppaea, nevertheless, insisted that she should be
condemned, and at last, by way of compromising the case, Nero
consented to banish her from the city.
She was sent to a villa on the sea-coast, in the neighborhood of the
place where Anicetus was stationed with his fleet. But Poppaea would
not allow her to live in peace even as an exile. She soon brought a
charge against her of having formed a conspiracy against the
government of Nero, and of having corrupted Anicetus, with a view of
obtaining the co-operation of the fleet in the execution of
treasonable designs. Anicetus himself testified to the truth of this
charge. He said that Octavia had formed such a plan, and that she
had given herself up, in person, wholly to him, in order to induce
him to join in it. Octavia was accordingly condemned to die.
Notwithstanding the testimony of Anicetus, Octavia was not at the
time generally believed to be guilty of the charge on which she was
condemned. It was supposed that Anicetus was induced, by promises
and bribes from Nero and Poppaea, to fabricate the story, in order
that they might have a pretext for putting Octavia to death. However
this may be, the unhappy princess was condemned, and the sentence
pronounced upon her was, that she must die.
The life of Octavia, lofty as her position was in respect to earthly
grandeur, had been one of uninterrupted suffering and sorrow. She
had been married to Nero when a mere child, and during the whole
period of her connection with her husband he had treated her with
continual unkindness and neglect. She had at length been cruelly
divorced from him, and banished from her native city on charges of
the most ignominious nature, though wholly false--and before this
last accusation was made against her there seemed to be nothing
before her but the prospect of spending the remainder of her days in
a miserable and hopeless exile. Still she clung to life, and when
the messengers of Nero came to tell her that she must die, she was
overwhelmed with agitation and terror.
She begged and implored them with tears and agony, to spare her
life. She would never, she said, give the emperor any trouble, or
interfere in any way with any of his plans. She gave up willingly
all claims to being his wife, and would always consider herself as
only his sister. She would live in retirement and seclusion in any
place where Nero might appoint her abode, and would never occasion
him the slightest uneasiness whatever. The executioners cut short
these entreaties by seizing the unhappy princess in the midst of
them, binding her limbs with thongs, and opening her veins. She
fainted, however, under this treatment, and when the veins were
opened the wretched victim lay passive and insensible in the hands
of her executioners, and the blood would not flow. So they carried
her to a steam-bath which happened to be in readiness near at hand,
and shutting her up in it, left her to be suffocated by the vapor.
Thus the great crowning crime of Nero's life,--for the murder of
Agrippina, the adulterous marriage with Poppaea, and the subsequent
murder of Octavia, are to be regarded as constituting one single
though complicated crime,--was consummate and complete. It was a
crime of the highest possible atrocity. To open the way to an
adulterous marriage by the deliberate and cruel murder of a mother,
and then to seal and secure it by murdering an innocent
wife,--blackening her memory at the same time with an ignominy
wholly undeserved, constitute a crime which for unnatural and
monstrous enormity must be considered as standing at the head of all
that human depravity has ever achieved.
Nero gradually recovered from the remorse and horror with which the
commission of these atrocities at first overwhelmed him; and in
order to hasten his relief he plunged recklessly into every species
of riot and excess, and in the end hardened himself so completely in
crime, that during the remainder of his life he perpetrated the most
abominable deeds without any apparent compunction whatever. He
killed Poppaea herself at last with a kick, which he gave her in a
fit of passion at a time when circumstances were such with her that
the violence brought on a premature and unnatural sickness. He
afterward ordered her son to be drowned in the sea, by his slaves,
when he was a-fishing, because he understood that the boy, in
playing with the other children, often acted the part of an emperor.
His general Burrus he poisoned. He sent him the poison under
pretense that it was a medical remedy for a swelling of the throat
under which Burrus was suffering. Burrus drank the draught under
that impression and died. He destroyed by similar means in the
course of his life great numbers of his relatives and officers of
state, so that there was scarcely a person who was brought into any
degree of intimate connection with him that did not sooner or later
come to a violent end.
During his whole reign Nero neglected the public affairs of the
empire almost altogether,--apparently regarding the vast power, and
the immense resources that were at his command, as only means for
the more complete gratification of his own personal propensities and
passions. The only ambition which ever appeared to animate him was a
desire for fame as a singer and actor on the stage.
At the time when he commenced his career it was considered wholly
beneath the dignity of any Roman of rank to appear in any public
performance of that nature; but Nero, having conceived in his youth
a high idea of his merit as a singer, devoted himself with great
assiduity to the cultivation of his voice, and, as he was encouraged
in what he did by the flatterers that of course were always around
him, his interest in the musical art became at length an extravagant
passion. He submitted with the greatest patience to the rigorous
training customary in those times for the development and
improvement of the voice; such as lying for long periods upon his
back, with a weight of lead upon his breast, in order to force the
muscles of the chest to extraordinary exertion, for the purpose of
strengthening them--and taking medicines of various kinds to clear
the voice and reduce the system. He was so much pleased with the
success of these efforts, that he began to feel a great desire to
perform in public upon the stage. He accordingly began to make
arrangements for doing this. He first appeared in private
exhibitions, in the imperial palaces and gardens, where only the
nobility of Rome and invited guests were present. He, however,
gradually extended his audiences, and at length came out upon the
public stage,--first, however, in order to prepare the public mind
for what they would have otherwise considered a great degradation,
inducing the sons of some of the principal nobility to come forward
in similar entertainments. He was so pleased with the success which
he imagined that he met with in this career that he devoted a large
part of his time during his whole life to such performances. Of
course, his love of applause in his theatrical career, increased
much too fast to be satisfied with the natural and ordinary means of
gratifying it, and he accordingly made arrangements, most absurdly,
to create for his performances a fictitious and counterfeit
celebrity. At one time he had a corps of five thousand men under pay
to applaud him, in the immense circuses and amphitheaters where he
performed. These men were regularly trained to the work of
applauding, as if it were an art to be acquired by study and
instruction. It _was_ an art, in fact, as they practiced
it,--different modes of applause being designated for different
species of merit, and the utmost precision being required on the
part of the performers, in the concert of their action, and in their
obedience to the signals. He used also to require on the days when
he was to perform, that the doors of the theater should be closed
when the audience had assembled, and no egress allowed on any
pretext whatever. Such regulations of course excited great
complaint, and much ridicule; especially as the sessions at these
spectacles were sometimes protracted and tiresome to the last
degree. Even sudden sickness was not a sufficient reason for
allowing a spectator to depart, and so it was said that the people
used sometimes to feign death, in order to be carried out to their
burial. In some cases, it was said, births took place in the
theaters, the mothers having come incautiously with the crowd to
witness the spectacles, without properly considering what might be
the effect of the excitement, and then afterward not being permitted
to retire.
Besides singing and acting on the stage, Nero took part in every
other species of public amusement. He entered as a competitor for
the prize in races and games of every kind. Of course he always came
off victor. This end was accomplished sometimes by the secret
connivance of the other competitors, and sometimes by open bribery
of the judges. Nero's ridiculous vanity and self-conceit seemed to
be fully gratified by receiving the prize, without any regard
whatever to the question of deserving it. He used to come back
sometimes from journeys to foreign cities, where he had been
performing on the stage at great public festivals, and enter Rome in
triumph, with the garlands, and crowns, and other decorations which
he had won, paraded before him in the procession, in the manner in
which distinguished commanders had been accustomed to display the
trophies of their military victories, when returning from foreign
campaigns.
In fact it was only in the perpetration of such miserable follies as
these that Nero appeared before the public at all, and in his
private conduct and character he sank very rapidly, after he came
into power, to the very lowest degree of profligacy and vice. After
having spent the evening in drinking and debauchery, he would sally
forth into the streets at midnight, as has already been stated, to
mingle there with the vilest men and women of the town in brawls and
riots. On these excursions he would attack such peaceable parties as
he chanced to meet in the streets, and if they made resistance, he
and his companions would beat them down and throw them into canals
or open sewers. Sometimes in these combats he was beaten himself,
and on one occasion he came very near losing his life, having been
almost killed by the blows dealt upon him by a certain Roman
senator, whose wife he insulted as she was walking with her husband
in the street. The senator, of course, did not know him. He used to
go to the theater in disguise, in company with a gang of companions
of similar character to himself, and watch for opportunities to
excite or encourage riots or tumults there. Whenever he could
succeed in urging these tumults on to actual violence he would
mingle in the fray, and throw stones and fragments of broken benches
and furniture among the people.
After a while, when he had grown more bold and desperate in his
wickedness, he began to lay aside all disguise, and at last he
actually seemed to take a pride and pleasure in exhibiting the
scenes of riot and excess in which he engaged, in the most impudent
manner before the public gaze. He used to celebrate great feasts in
the public amphitheaters, and on the arena of the circus, and
carouse there in company with the most dissolute men and women of
the city--a spectacle to the whole population. There was a large
artificial lake or reservoir in one part of the city, built for the
purpose of exhibiting mimic representations of the manoeuvers of
fleets, and naval battles, for the amusement of the people at great
public celebrations. There were, of course, numerous ranges of seats
around the margin of this lake for the accommodation of the
spectators. Nero took possession of this structure for some of his
carousals, in order to obtain greater scope for ostentation and
display. The water was drawn off on such occasions and the gates
shut, and then the bottom of the reservoir was floored over to make
space for the tables.
The sums of money which Nero spent in the pursuit of sensual
pleasures were incalculable. In fact there were no bounds to his
extravagance and profusion. He had command, of course, of all the
treasure of the empire, and he procured immense sums besides, by
fines, confiscations, and despotic exactions of various kinds; and
as he undertook no public enterprises--being seldom engaged in
foreign wars, and seldom attempting any useful constructions in the
city--the vast resources at his command were wholly devoted to the
purposes of ostentatious personal display, and sensual
gratifications. The pomp and splendor of his feasts, his
processions, his journeys of pleasure, and the sums that he is said
to have lavished sometimes in money and jewels, and sometimes in
villas, gardens, and equipages, upon his favorites, both male and
female, are almost incredible. On some of the pleasure excursions
which he took to the mouth of the Tiber, he would have the banks of
the river lined with booths and costly tents all the way from the
river to the sea. These tents were provided with sumptuous
entertainments, and with beds and couches for repose; and they were
all attended by beautiful girls who stood at the doors of them
inviting Nero and his party to land, as they passed along the river
in their barges. He used to fish with a golden net, which was drawn
by silken cords of a rich scarlet color. Occasionally he made grand
excursions of pleasure through Italy or into Greece, in the style of
royal progresses. In these expeditions he sometimes had no less than
a thousand carts to convey his baggage--the mules that drew them
being all shod with silver, and their drivers dressed in scarlet
clothes of the most costly character. He was attended, also, on
these excursions, by a numerous train of footmen, and of African
servants, who wore rich bracelets upon their arms, and were mounted
on horses splendidly caparisoned.
One of the most remarkable of the events which occurred during
Nero's reign was what was called the burning of Rome,--a great
conflagration, by which a large part of the city was destroyed. It
was very generally believed at the time that this destruction was
the work of Nero himself,--the fruit of his reckless and willful
depravity. There is, it is true, no very positive proof that the
fire was set by Nero's orders, though one of the historians of the
time states that confidential servants belonging to Nero's household
were seen, when the fire commenced, going from house to house with
combustibles and torches, spreading the flames. He was himself at
Antium at the time, and did not come to Rome until the fire had been
raging for many days. If it is true that the fire was Nero's work,
it is not supposed that he designed to cause so extensive a
conflagration. He intended, perhaps, only to destroy a few buildings
that covered ground which he wished to occupy for the enlargement of
his palaces; though it was said by some writers that he really
designed to destroy a great part of the city, with a view to
immortalize his name by rebuilding it in a new and more splendid
form. With these motives, if these indeed were his motives, there
was doubtless mingled a feeling of malicious gratification at any
thing that would terrify and torment the miserable subjects of his
power. When he came to Rome from Antium at the time that the
conflagration was at its height, he found the whole city a scene of
indescribable terror and distress. Thousands of the people had been
burned to death or crushed beneath the ruins of the fallen houses.
The streets were filled with piles of goods and furniture burnt and
broken. Multitudes of men, though nearly exhausted with fatigue,
were desperately toiling on, in hopeless endeavors to extinguish the
flames, or to save some small remnant of their property,--and
distracted mothers, wild and haggard from terror and despair, were
roaming to and fro, seeking their children,--some moaning in
anguish, and some piercing the air with loud and frantic outcries.
Nero was entertained by the scene as if it had been a great dramatic
spectacle. He went to one of the theaters, and taking his place upon
the stage he amused himself there with singing and playing a
celebrated composition on the subject of the burning of Troy. At
least it was said and generally believed in the city that he did so,
and the minds of the people were excited against the inhuman monster
to the highest pitch of indignation. In fact, Nero seems to have
thought at last that he had gone too far, and he began to make
efforts in earnest to relieve the people from some portion of their
distress. He caused great numbers of tents to be erected in the
parade-ground for temporary shelter, and brought fresh supplies of
corn into the city to save the people from famine. These measures of
mercy, however, came too late to retrieve his character. The people
attributed the miseries of this dreadful calamity to his desperate
maliciousness, and he became the object of universal execration.
[Illustration: BURNING OF ROME.]