be succeeded not by his own son Britannicus, but by hers, Nero.

Meanwhile, there had been a great revolt in Britain against the
propraetor Ostorius. First the Iceni took up arms, then the Brigantes;
then--a still more serious matter--the Silures, led by the most
brilliant of British warriors, Caractacus. Even his skill and courage,
however, were of no avail against the superior armament of the Roman
legions; his forces were broken up, and he himself, escaping to the
Brigantes, was by them betrayed to the Romans. The famous warrior was
carried to Rome, where by his dignified demeanour he won pardon and
liberty. In the Far East, Mithridates was overthrown by his nephew
Rhadamistus, and Parthia and Armenia remained in wild confusion. The
reign of Claudius was brought to an end by poison--the notorious Locusta
was employed by Agrippina for the purpose--and he was succeeded by Nero,
to whom his mother's artifices gave the priority over Britannicus.

_IV.--The Infamies of Nero_

At the outset the young emperor was guided by Seneca and Burrus; his
first speech--put into his mouth by Seneca, for he was no orator--was
full of promise. But he was encouraged in a passion for Acte, a
freed-woman, by way of counterpoise to the influence of his mother,
Agrippina. The latter, enraged at the dismissal of Pallas, threatened
her son with the legitimate claims of Britannicus, son of Claudius; Nero
had the boy poisoned. In terror now of his mother, he would have
murdered her, but was checked by Burrus. Nero's private excesses and
debaucheries developed, while the horrible system of delation
flourished, and prosecutions for treason abounded.

About this time the emperor's passion for Poppaea Sabina, the wife of
Otho, became the source of later disaster. Beautiful, brilliant, utterly
immoral, but complete mistress of her passions, she had married Nero's
boon companion. Otho was dispatched to Lusitania, and Poppaea remained at
Rome. Poppaea was bent on the imperial crown for herself, and urged Nero
against his mother. A mock reconciliation took place, but it was only
the preliminary to a treacherous plot for murdering the former empress.
The plot failed; her barge was sunk, but she escaped to shore. Nero,
however, with the shameful assent of Burrus and Seneca, dispatched
assassins to carry out the work, and Agrippina was slaughtered.

For a moment remorse seized Nero, but it was soon soothed; Burrus headed
the cringing congratulatio