isfaction to all who heard
them. All opposition to the claims which he advanced, disappeared,
and the heart of Agrippina was filled with gladness and joy at
finding that all her plans had been so fully and successfully
realized.

The official authority of Nero being thus generally acknowledged,
Agrippina began immediately to pursue a system of policy designed to
secure the possession of all real power for herself, leaving only
the name and semblance of it to her son. She appeared in all public
places with him, sharing with him the pomp, and parade, and insignia
of office, as if she were associated with him in official power. She
received and opened the dispatches and sent answers to them. She
considered and decided questions of state, and issued her orders.
She caused several influential persons whom she supposed likely to
take part with Britannicus, or at least secretly to favor his
claims, to be put to death, either by violence or by poison; and she
would have caused the death of many others in this way, if Burrus
and Seneca had not interposed their influence to prevent it. She did
all these things in a somewhat covert and cautious manner, acting
generally in Nero's name, so as not to attract too much attention at
first to her measures. There was danger, she knew, of awakening
resistance and opposition, as public sentiment among the Romans had
always been entirely averse to the idea of the submission of men, in
any form, to the government of women. Agrippina accordingly did not
attempt openly to preside in the senate-chamber, but she made
arrangements for having the meetings of the Senate sometimes held in
an apartment of the palace where she could attend, during the
sitting, in an adjoining cabinet, concealed from view by a screen or
arras, and thus listen to the debate. Even this, however, was
strongly objected to by some of the senators. They considered this
arrangement of Agrippina's to be present at their debates as
intended to intimidate them into the support of such measures as she
might recommend, or be supposed to favor, and thus as seriously
interfering with the freedom of their discussions. On one occasion
Agrippina made a bolder experiment still, by coming into the hall
where a company of foreign embassadors were to have audience, as if
it were a part of her official duty to join in receiving them. Her
son, the emperor, and the government officers around him, were
confounded when they saw her coming, and