father, concealed the anguish of her soul, under the assumed smiles of hope and confidence; not even his solicitude and frequent enquiries disarmed her resolution, which his recovery, in this instance, rewarded; but which was soon to be put to still greater trials. Scribonius had excited a revolt in Illyria, the object of which was, to dethrone the imbecile Claudius; but was vanquished, and put to death. Pætus, one of his partizans, was also taken prisoner, and carried to Rome by sea. Arria entreated to be permitted to accompany him, alleging, that to a man of his rank, some attendants of course must be allowed, that these should be dispensed with, and she would fulfil all their duties, if permitted to come on board. On the refusal of the soldiers, she hired a small bark, and followed him. On her arrival at Rome, she was met in the place by the widow of Scribonius, who wished to speak to her. "I speak to thee!" returned Arria indignantly, " to thee, who hast been witness of thy husband's death, and yet survivest!" For she had herself determined, that, if all her endeavours to save Pætus failed, she would die with him. Her son-in-law, Thraseus, used every argument to persuade her to give up this design. "Were I," said she, "in his situation, would you have your daughter die with me?" "Certainly," answered she, " had she lived with you as long and as happily as I with Pætus." He was at length condemned to die; whether by his own hands, at that time no uncommon sentence, is uncertain; if it were not so, he wished to avoid the punishment allotted him by a voluntary death; but at the moment wanted courage. Seeing him staggered and hesitating, Arria seized the dagger, plunged it first into her own breast, and then presenting it to her husband, said, with a smile," It is not painful, Pætus." The wife of Thraseus, and her daughter, who married Helvidius Priscus, inherited the fate and sentiments of Arria.

PALLAS, a freedman of Claudius, celebrated for the power and the riches which he obtained. He advised the emperor to marry Agrippina, and to adopt her son Nero for his successor. It was through him and Agrippina, that the death of Claudius was hastened, and that Nero was raised to the throne. Nero, however, discarded Pallas, and some time after caused him to be put to death, that he might procure his great riches.

NARCISSUS, a freedman, and secretary of Claudius, who abused his trust, and the infirmities of his imperial master, and plundered the citizens of Rome to enrich himself. Messalina, the emperor's wife, endeavoured to remove him, but Narcissus sacrificed her to his avarice and resentment. Agrippina, who succeeded in the place of Messalina, was more successful. Narcissus was banished by her intrigues, and compelled to kill himself, A. D. 54. Nero greatly regretted his loss, as he

had found him subservient to his most criminal and extravagant pleasures.

VANNIUS, a king of the Suevi, banished under Claudius. AGRIPPA HERODES, a Jew, intimate with the emperor Caligula, &c.

AFRANIUS BURRUS, was a man of great merit, and worthy of a better age than that of Nero. Agrippina, that prince's mother, designing to engage Burrus in her interest, who had got a great reputation in the armies, persuaded the emperor Claudius, her husband, to remove the two commanders of the Prætorian cohorts, and to bestow that post upon Burrus alone. He was made afterwards governor of young Nero, and had Seneca for his assistant. The good understanding between these two governors, shews they were men of great probity, and that they aimed chiefly at the public good in their instruction of that young prince, who would have proved an accomplished emperor under such masters, had not his natural wickedness prevailed, and made all their care useless. Nero, being resolved to get rid of his mother, was about to take from Burrus his employ of colonel of the guards, remembering that he got it by Agrippina's favour, and fearing that such a benefit would engage him more in his mother's interest than in his; but whether it be that Seneca diverted the thing, or for some other means, Burrus kept his place, and approved of Agrippina's death, provided she was convicted of what was charged upon her. He represented to Nero, that the least thing he could do for his mother, was, to permit her to answer for herself. That expedient diverted the storm for the time. Burrus himself was accused some time after, and justified himself. At last Nero resolved to put off no longer the death of Agrippina, and Burrus, not being able to prevent it, refused, however, to give his order about it to any of the Prætorian soldiers. He was more than once obliged, to his great grief, to seem to approve Nero's infamous actions, for which he could find no remedy. He died in the sixty-second year of the first century, three years after Agrippina, not without suspicion of having been poisoned. His character was enhanced by the conduct of his infamous successors; and though not perfectly pure, it appears to have been as good as a high office under a vicious prince would admit. His death left Seneca without support, and the detestable inclinations of Nero were thenceforth uncontrolled.

CLAUDIUS DOMITIUS CÆSAR NERO, a very celebrated emperor of Rome, was the son of Caius Domitius Athenobarbus, and Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus. He was adopted by the emperor Claudius, A. D. 50, and four years after succeeded him. In the beginning of his reign he assumed the appearance of the greatest kindness, condescen

sion, affability, complaisance, and humanity; and he became highly popular. The object of his administration seemed to be the good of his people; and when he was desired to sign his name to a list of malefactors that were to be executed, he exclaimed, "would to heaven I had never learned to write!" When the senate had liberally commended the wisdom of his government, he desired them to keep their praises till he deserved them. These apparent virtues, however, proved to be artificial. Nero soon displayed the real propensities of his nature. He delivered himself from the sway of his mother, and at last ordered her to be murdered. Many of his courtiers shared her unhappy fate; and Nero sacrificed to his fury or caprice all who obstructed his pleasure or inclination. In the night he ge nerally went from his palace to visit the meanest taverns, and all the scenes of debauchery which Rome contained. In these nocturnal riots he insulted the people in the streets; and his attempts to offer violence to the wife of a Roman senator nearly cost him his life. He also turned actor, and appeared publicly on the Roman stage. To excel in music, and to conquer the disadvantages of a hoarse disagreeable voice, he moderated his meals, and often passed the day without eating. He next went into Greece, and presented himself a candidate at the Olympic games. He was defeated in wrestling, but the flattery of the spectators adjudged him the victory, and he returned to Rome with all the pomp and splendour of an eastern conqueror, drawn in a chariot of Augustus, and attended by a band of musicians, actors, and stage dancers. These amusements, however, were comparatively innocent; but his conduct soon became abominable. He disguised himself in the habit of a woman, and was publicly married to one of his eunuchs. This violence to nature and decency was soon exchanged for another; Nero resumed his sex, and celebrated his nuptials with one of his meanest catamites; and on this occasion a Roman wit observed, that the world would have been happy if Nero's father had had such a wife. His cruelty was now displayed in a still higher degree; for he sacrificed his wife Octavia Poppæa, and the celebrated writers, Seneca, Lucan, Petronius, &c. He had heard of the burning of Troy; to represent that dismal scene, he caused Rome to be set on fire in different places. The conflagration became soon universal, and during nine successive days the fire continued. All was desolation; nothing was heard but the lamentations of mothers, whose children had perished in the flames, the groans of the dying, and the continual fall of palaces and buildings. Nero was the only one who enjoyed the general consternation. He placed himself at the top of a high tower, and played on his lyre, while he sung the destruction of Troy; a dreadful scene which his barbarity had realized before his eyes. He attempted to avert the public

odium from his head, by a pretended commiseration of the miseries of his subjects, and by throwing the blame of the fire on the Christians; which gave rise to the first dreadful persecution, wherein St. Peter and St. Paul suffered. Nero began to repair the streets and the public buildings at his own expense. He built a celebrated palace, which he called his golden house. It was liberally adorned with gold, with precious stones, and with every thing rare and exquisite. It contained spacious fields, artificial lakes, woods, gardens, orchards, and whatever exhibited a beautiful scene. The entrance of this edifice admitted a large colossus of the emperor, one hundred and twenty feet high, which Pliny says was afterwards destroyed by lightning; the galleries were each a mile long, and the whole was covered with gold. The roofs of the dining halls represented the firmament, in motion as well as in figure, and continually turned round night and day, showering down all sorts of perfumes and sweet waters. This grand edifice, according to Pliny, extended all round the city. When he went a fishing, his nets were of gold and silk. He never appeared twice in the same garment; and when he went a voyage, there were thousands of servants to take care of his wardrobe. This continuation of licentiousness, extravagance, and cruelty, at last roused the people. Many conspiracies were formed against him; but they were generally discovered, and the conspirators suffered the severest punishments. The most dangerous one was that of Piso, from which he was saved by the confession of a slave. The conspiracy of Galba proved more successful, who, when he knew that his plot was known to Nero, declared himself emperor. The unpopularity of Nero favoured his cause; he was acknowledged by all the Roman empire; and the senate condemned the tyrant to be dragged naked through the streets of Rome, whipped to death, and afterwards to be thrown down from the Tarpeian rock like the meanest malefactor. This, however, Nero prevented, by killing himself, A. D. 68, in the thirty-second year of his age, after a reign of thirteen years and eight months. Rome was filled with acclamations at his death; and the citizens, more strongly to indicate their joy, wore caps, such as were generally used by slaves who had received their freedom. The name of Nero has been ever since used emphatically to express a barbarous and bloody tyrant.

PÆTUS CESENNIUS, a Roman captain sent by Nero to command the army in Corbulo's place in Armenia. He afterwards made a shameful peace with the Parthians.

SERVIUS SULPICIUS GALBA, emperor of Rome, of the family of Sulpicii. He was gradually raised to the highest offices of the state, and exercised his power in the provinces with the greatest equity. He dedicated much of his time to solitary pursuits, to avoid the suspicions of Nero. Ex

pressing his disapprobation of the emperor's oppression in the provinces, Nero ordered him to be put to death; but he escaped from the executioner, and was publicly saluted emperor. When seated on the throne, he suffered himself to be governed by favourites, who oppressed the citizens. Exemptions were sold at a high price; and impunity even for murder was purchased with money. Such irregularities greatly displeased the people; and Galba, refusing to pay the soldiers the money he had promised them, they assassinated him in the seventy-third year of his age, and eighth month of his reign. The virtues which had shone so bright in Galba, when a private man, totally disappeared when he ascended the throne, and he who had shown himself the most impartial judge, forgot his duty when emperor.

CLAUDIUS CIVILIS, a famous Batavian general, who commanded a body of his countrymen in the Roman service. Being accused of treachery, he was sent in chains to Rome, but was pardoned by Galba. He was afterwards brought into danger on the same charge under Vitellius, and escaped with difficulty. This inflamed him with resentment against the Romans, and having roused his countrymen, he expelled them from Batavia; but, after various changes of fortune, he was obliged to enter into a treaty, and to submit to Vespasian.

MARIUS CELSUS, an eminent Roman commander, was legate of the fifteenth legion in Pannonia, in the reign of Nero. He was designated consul at the death of that emperor, and became one of the confidential friends of Galba. After having in vain attempted to conciliate the minds of the soldiery to him, and displayed his fidelity to the last, his life was demanded as a sacrifice by the soldiers of the new emperor Otho, who, desirous of saving him, but not possessing power sufficient to do it openly, ordered him to be put in irons, as if he was reserved for a more exquisite punishment. Otho afterwards sent for him to the capital; when Celsus pleaded his fidelity to Galba as a pledge of equally faithful attachment to himself, and was received by Otho among his intimate friends, and appointed to a command in the approaching war against Vitellius. Together with Suetonius Paulinus, he was the principal adviser of the military operations which ensued. At the first battle of Bebriacum he commanded the cavalry, and acted with great skill. He afterwards, with Paulinus, gave Otho the salutary advice of protracting the war; but the licentiousness of the soldiery, and the factious spirit of some of the leaders, precipitated the decision, and the Vitellian party were victors in a second engagement. Plutarch represents Celsus as the principal mover of the application made by the Othonian leaders to put an end to the mutual slaughter by an accommodation,