own advantage. His
palace had been destroyed, and he built a new and most magnificent one
on the Palatine Hill, the famous "golden house," which after-ages beheld
with unstinted admiration.

But he did not confine his ostentation to the palace itself. A great
space around it was converted into pleasure-grounds for his amusement,
in which, as Tacitus says, "expansive lakes and fields of vast extent
were intermixed with pleasing variety; woods and forests stretched to
an immeasurable length, presenting gloom and solitude amid scenes of
open space, where the eye wandered with surprise over an unbounded
prospect."

But nothing that Nero could do sufficed to remove from men's minds the
belief that on him rested the infamy of the fire. This public sentiment
troubled and frightened him, and to remove it he sought to lay the
burden of guilt on others. It was now the year 64 A.D., and for at least
thirty years the new sect of the Christians had been spreading in Rome,
where it had gained many adherents among the humbler and more moral
section of the population. The Christians were far from popular. They
were accused of secret and evil practices and debasing superstitions,
and on this despised sect Nero determined to turn the fury of the
populace.

[Illustration: THE TOMB OF HADRIAN.]

With his usual artifice he induced a number of abandoned wretches to
confess themselves guilty, and on their purchased evidence numbers of
the Christians were seized and convicted, mainly on the plea of their
sullen hatred of the whole human race. A frightful persecution followed,
Nero perhaps hoping, by an exhibition of human suffering, so dear to the
rabble of Rome, to turn the thoughts of the people from their own
losses.

The captives were put to death with every cruelty the emperor could
devise, and to their sufferings he added mockery and derision. Many were
nailed to the cross; others were covered with the skins of wild beasts,
and left to be devoured by dogs; numbers were burned alive, many of
these, covered with inflammable matter, being set on fire to serve as
torches during the night.

That the public might see this tragic spectacle with the more
satisfaction, it was given in the imperial gardens. The sports of the
circus were added to the tortures of the victims, Nero himself driving
his chariot in the races, or mingling with the rabble in his coachman's
dress. These cruel proceedings continued until even the hardened Roman
hea