The arts of the magician are said to have been called into action by
Nero upon occasion of the assassination of his mother, Agrippina. He
was visited with occasional fits of the deepest remorse in the
recollection of his enormity. Notwithstanding all the ostentatious
applauses and congratulations which he obtained from the senate, the
army and the people, he complained that he was perpetually haunted
with the ghost of his mother, and pursued by the furies with flaming
torches and whips. He therefore caused himself to be attended by
magicians, who employed their arts to conjure up the shade of
Agrippina, and to endeavour to obtain her forgiveness for the crime
perpetrated by her son. [124] We are not informed of the success of
their evocations.