ine from Homer which the noise of hoofs recalled to his mind. At
length, driven to desperation, he seized his dagger and stabbed himself
in the throat,--but cowardice made the stroke too feeble. Epaphroditus
now lent his aid, and the next thrust was a mortal one.

It was time. The horses were those of pursuers. The senate, informed of
his probable place of refuge, had sent soldiers in haste to bring him
back to Rome, there to suffer the punishment decreed. In a minute
afterwards a centurion entered the room, and, seeing Nero prostrate and
bleeding, ran to his aid, saying that he would bind the wound and save
his life.

Nero looked up languidly, and said, in faint tones, "You come too late.
Is this your fidelity?" In a moment more he expired.

In the words of Tacitus, "The ferocity of his nature was still visible
in his countenance. His eyes fixed and glaring, and every feature
swelled with warring passions, he looked more stern, more grim, more
terrible than ever."

Nero was in his thirty-second year. He had reigned nearly fourteen
years. Tacitus says of him, "The race of Caesars ended with Nero; he was
the last, and perhaps the worst, of that illustrious house."

The tidings of his death filled Rome with joy. Men ran wildly about the
streets, their heads covered with liberty caps. Acclamations of gladness
resounded in the Forum. Icelus, Galba's freedman and agent in Rome, whom
Nero had thrown into prison, was released and took control of affairs.
He ordered that Nero's body should be burned where he had died, and this
was done so quickly and secretly that many would not believe that he was
dead. The report got abroad that he had escaped to Asia or Egypt, and
from time to time impostors appeared claiming to be Nero. The Parthians
were deluded by one of these impostors and offered to defend his cause.
Another made trouble in the Greek islands. Nero's profligate companions
in Rome, who alone mourned his death, while affecting to believe him
still alive raised a tomb to his memory, which for several years they
annually dressed with the flowers of spring and summer. But the world at
large rejoiced in its delivery from the rule of a monster of iniquity.

_THE SPORTS OF THE AMPHITHEATRE._

In no other nation upon the earth and no other period of history has
enjoyment taken so cruel and brutal a shape as in the Roman empire. The
fierce people of the imperial city seemed to have a native thirst for
blood and mise