rm of which there is a lovely view over the wooded plains of
the Tiber and the Anio, the city, and the hills of the Vatican, and of
the Janiculum, which frame the panorama. The site is pleasant,
secluded, and quiet, so that it well fulfilled the wish for a
_secretior latetra_ expressed by Nero in his hopeless condition. The
fugitives dismounted at the turn of the Strada delle Vigne Nuove,
and let the horses loose among the brambles. Not wishing to be seen in
the open road, they followed the lower path on the banks of the
Cecchina, which was concealed by a thick growth of canes. It was
necessary to bore a hole in the rear wall of the villa, and while this
was being done, Nero quenched his thirst from a pond of stagnant
water, near the opening of the pozzolana quarries. Once inside the
villa, he was asked to lie down on a couch covered with a peasant's
mantle, and was offered a piece of stale bread, and a glass of tepid
water. Food he refused, but touched the rim of the cup with his
parched lips. It is curious to read in Suetonius of the many grimaces
the wretch made before he could determine to kill himself; he made up
his mind to do so only when he heard the tramping of the horsemen whom
the Senate had sent to arrest him. He then put the dagger into his
throat, aided in giving the last thrust by his freedman Epaphroditus.
The centurion sent to take him alive arrived before he expired. To him
Nero addressed these last words: "Too late! Is this your fidelity?" He
gradually sank, his countenance assuming such a frightful expression
that all who were present fled in horror. Icelus, freedman of Galba,
the newly elected emperor, gave his consent to a decent funeral.
Ecloge and Alexandra, his nurses, Acte his mistress, and the three
faithful men who had accompanied him in his flight, provided the
necessary funds, about five thousand dollars. The body was cremated,
wrapped in a sheet of white woven with gold, the same that he had used
on his bed New Year's night. The three women collected the ashes and
placed them in the tomb of the Domitian family, which stood on the
spur of the Pincian Hill which is behind the present church of S.
Maria del Popolo. The urn was of porphyry, the altar upon which it
stood of Carrara marble, and the tomb itself of Thesian marble. A
pathetic discovery has just been made in the Vigna Chiari, on the
exact spot of Nero's suicide, by my friend, Cav. Rodolfo Buti, that of
the tomb of Claudia Ecloge, the