e and there they fought hand to
hand; but the pretorians conquered the weaponless multitude easily.
After they had ridden with difficulty across the Viae Latina, Numitia,
Ardea, Lavinia, and Ostia, and passed around villas, gardens,
cemeteries, and temples, Vinicius reached at last a village called Vicus
Alexandri, beyond which he crossed the Tiber. There was more open space
at this spot, and less smoke. From fugitives, of whom there was no lack
even there, he learned that only certain alleys of the Trans-Tiber
were burning, but that surely nothing could resist the fury of the
conflagration, since people were spreading the fire purposely, and
permitted no one to quench it, declaring that they acted at command. The
young tribune had not the least doubt then that Caesar had given command
to burn Rome; and the vengeance which people demanded seemed to him just
and proper. What more could Mithridates or any of Rome's most inveterate
enemies have done? The measure had been exceeded; his madness had grown
to be too enormous, and the existence of people too difficult because
of him. Vinicius believed that Nero's hour had struck, that those ruins
into which the city was falling should and must overwhelm the monstrous
buffoon together with all those crimes of his. Should a man be found of
courage sufficient to stand at the head of the despairing people, that
might happen in a few hours. Here vengeful and daring thoughts began to
fly through his head. But if he should do that? The house of Vinicius,
which till recent times counted a whole series of consuls, was known
throughout Rome. The crowds needed only a name. Once, when four hundred
slaves of the prefect Pedanius Secundus were sentenced, Rome reached the
verge of rebellion and civil war. What would happen to-day in view of a
dreadful calamity surpassing almost everything which Rome had undergone
in the course of eight centuries? Whoso calls the Quirites to arms,
thought Vinicius, will overthrow Nero undoubtedly, and clothe himself
in purple. And why should he not do this? He was firmer, more active,
younger than other Augustians. True, Nero commanded thirty legions
stationed on the borders of the Empire; but would not those legions and
their leaders rise up at news of the burning of Rome and its temples?
And in that case Vinicius might become Caesar. It was even whispered
among the Augustians that a soothsayer had predicted the purple to Otho.
In what way was he inferior to Ot