n 'painful tunics.' That is true also. But hear me! Ye have
authority, ye have pretorians, ye have power; then be sincere, at
least, when no one is listening! Deceive the people, but deceive not
one another. Give the Christians to the populace, condemn them to any
torture ye like; but have courage to say to yourselves that it was not
they who burnt Rome. Phy! Ye call me 'arbiter elegantiarum'; hence I
declare to you that I cannot endure wretched comedies! Phy! how all this
reminds me of the theatrical booths near the Porta Asinaria, in which
actors play the parts of gods and kings to amuse the suburban rabble,
and when the play is over wash down onions with sour wine, or get blows
of clubs! Be gods and kings in reality; for I say that ye can permit
yourselves the position! As to thee, O Caesar, thou hast threatened
us with the sentence of coming ages; but think, those ages will utter
judgment concerning thee also. By the divine Clio! Nero, ruler of the
world, Nero, a god, burnt Rome, because he was as powerful on earth as
Zeus on Olympus,--Nero the poet loved poetry so much that he sacrificed
to it his country! From the beginning of the world no one did the
like, no one ventured on the like. I beseech thee in the name of the
double-crowned Libethrides, renounce not such glory, for songs of thee
will sound to the end of ages! What will Priam be when compared with
thee; what Agamenmon; what Achilles; what the gods themselves? We need
not say that the burning of Rome was good, but it was colossal and
uncommon. I tell thee, besides, that the people will raise no hand
against thee! It is not true that they will. Have courage; guard thyself
against acts unworthy of thee,--for this alone threatens thee, that
future ages may say, 'Nero burned Rome; but as a timid Caesar and a timid
poet he denied the great deed out of fear, and cast the blame of it on
the innocent!'"

The arbiter's words produced the usual deep impression on Nero; but
Petronius was not deceived as to this, that what he had said was a
desperate means which in a fortunate event might save the Christians,
it is true, but might still more easily destroy himself. He had not
hesitated, however, for it was a question at once of Vinicius whom
he loved, and of hazard with which he amused himself. "The dice are
thrown," said he to himself, "and we shall see how far fear for his own
life outweighs in the monkey his love of glory."

And in his soul he had no doubt that fe