hurch of St. Agnese, where there
was a villa of the Spada family, belonging now, we believe, to Torlonia.]

[Footnote 628: This description is no less exact than vivid. It was easy
for Nero to gain the nearest gate, the Nomentan, from the Esquiline
quarter of the palace, without much observation; and on issuing from it
(after midnight, it appears), the fugitives would have the pretorian camp
so close on their right hand, that they might well hear the shouts of the
soldiers.]

[Footnote 629: Decocta. Pliny informs us that Nero had the water he
drank, boiled, to clear it from impurities, and then cooled with ice.]

[Footnote 630: Wood, to warm the water for washing the corpse, and for
the funeral pile,]

[Footnote 631: This burst of passion was uttered in Greek, the rest was
spoken in Latin. Both were in familiar use. The mixture, perhaps,
betrays the disturbed state of Nero's mind.]

[Footnote 632: II. x. 535.]

[Footnote 633: Collis Hortulorum; which was afterwards called the Pincian
Hill, from a family of that name, who flourished under the lower empire.
In the time of the Caesars it was occupied by the gardens and villas of
the wealthy and luxurious; among which those of Sallust are celebrated.
Some of the finest statues have been found in the ruins; among others,
that of the "Dying Gladiator." The situation was airy and healthful,
commanding fine views, and it is still the most agreeable neighbourhood in
Rome.]

[Footnote 634: Antiquarians suppose that some relics of the sepulchre of
the Domitian family, in which the ashes of Nero were deposited, are
preserved in the city wall which Aurelian, when he extended its circuit,
carried across the "Collis Hortulorum." Those ancient remains, declining
from the perpendicular, are called the Muro Torto.--The Lunan marble was
brought from quarries near a town of that name, in Etruria. It no longer
exists, but stood on the coast of what is now called the gulf of
Spezzia.--Thasos, an island in the Archipelago, was one of the Cyclades.
It produced a grey marble, much veined, but not in great repute.]

[Footnote 635: See c. x1i.]

[Footnote 636: The Syrian Goddess is supposed to have been Semiramis
deified. Her rites are mentioned by Florus, Apuleius, and Lucian.]

[Footnote 637: A.U.C. 821--A.D. 69.]

[Footnote 638: We have here one of the incidental notices which are so
valuable in an historian, as connecting him with the times of which he
writes.