d
many pleasant compliments from them, he gave himself no rest. His doings
were at first confined to his home and associates, but were later on
carried abroad. Thus he attached a mighty disgrace to the whole Roman race
and committed many outrages upon the individuals composing it. Innumerable
acts of violence and insult, of rape and murder, were committed both by
the emperor himself and by those who at one time or another had influence
with him. And, as certainly and inevitably follows in all such practices],
great sums of money naturally were spent, great sums unjustly procured,
and great sums seized by force. For under no circumstances was Nero
niggardly. Here is an illustration. He had ordered no less than two
hundred and fifty myriads at one time to be given to Doryphorus, who
attended to the state documents of his empire. Agrippina had it all piled
in a heap, hoping by showing him the money all together to make him change
his mind. Instead, he asked how much the mass before him amounted to, and
when he was informed he doubled it, saying: "I was not aware that I had
allowed him so little." It can clearly be seen, then, that as a result of
the magnitude of his expenditures he would quickly exhaust the treasures
in the royal vaults and quickly need new revenues. Hence unusual taxes
were imposed and the property of the well-to-do was not left intact. Some
lost their possessions to spite him and others destroyed themselves with
their livelihoods. Similarly he hated and made away with some others who
had no considerable wealth; for, if they possessed any excellent trait or
were of a good family, he became suspicious that they disliked him.

[Sidenote:--6--] Such were the general characteristics of Nero. I shall
now proceed to details.

In the matter of horse-races Nero grew so enthusiastic that he adorned
famous race-horses that had passed their prime with the regular street
costume for men and honored them with money for their fodder. The
horsebreeders and charioteers, elated at this enthusiasm of his, proceeded
to abuse unjustifiably even the praetors and consuls. But Aulus Fabricius,
when praetor, finding that they refused to hold contests on fair terms,
dispensed with them entirely. He trained dogs to draw chariots and
introduced them in place of horses. When this was done, the wearers of the
white and of the red immediately entered their chariots: but, as the
Greens and the Blues would not even then participate, Ner