Life in the Roman world of Nero and StPaul . gthe men and women Vvho had the misfortune tocome in his way with sufficient attraction of purseor beauty to awaken his cupidity. And these werethe Romans themselves, senators and knights, notthe populace, and in but a small degree, if at all, theprovincials in Spain or Greece or Palestine. Perhaps this is the time to look for a little whileat this Nero, whose name has deservedly passedinto a byWOrd for heartless bestiality. In the year64 he is 27 years of age, and has been seated on thethrone for ten years. Four years more are to elapsebefore he pe
Life in the Roman world of Nero and StPaul . gthe men and women Vvho had the misfortune tocome in his way with sufficient attraction of purseor beauty to awaken his cupidity. And these werethe Romans themselves, senators and knights, notthe populace, and in but a small degree, if at all, theprovincials in Spain or Greece or Palestine. Perhaps this is the time to look for a little whileat this Nero, whose name has deservedly passedinto a byWOrd for heartless bestiality. In the year64 he is 27 years of age, and has been seated on thethrone for ten years. Four years more are to elapsebefore he perishes with the crj^ WTiat an artist theworld is losing! In his early years his vicious NERO THE EMPEROR 75 propensities, inherited from an abominable father,had been kept in check partly by his preceptor,the philosopher Seneca, and by Burrus, the com-mander of the Imperial Guards, partly by his dom-ineering and furious-tempered mother, Agrippina,who seems to have so closely resembled the motherof Lord Byron. But at this date he had got rid. Fig. 13. — Bust of ZeituriK. of both his tutors. Burrus was dead, probablj^ bypoison, and Seneca was in forced retirement. Theemperor had also caused his own mother to bemurdered. Poisoning, strangling, drowning, or acommand — explicit or implied — to depart this life,were his ways of shaking off any incubus upon a freeindulgence of his will. His follies and vices hadrevealed themselves from the first, and had gone 76 LIFE IN THE ROMAN WORLD chap. to outrageous lengths, but now he is entirely un-hampered in exhibiting them. Educated slightly in philosophy, but better inmusic and letters, he could speak, like others of hisday, Greek as well as his native Latin. His aimwas to be an artist, but if the want of balance 5^ -^^^-s^H k :^H ^^^^^^^^H^IPV: -i^B ^^L ^^^M ^ ^^H Photo — Mansell i& 14. — Bust of Agbippina, Mother of Nero. which too often goes with what is called theartistic temperament ever manifes
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