n the road from Naples to Rome he thrust a knife into my
body, and my wife, the beautiful and youthful Berenice, he sold to a
slave-merchant. If Sophocles knew my history--but what do I say? One
better than Sophocles is listening."

"Poor man!" said Poppaea.

"Whoso has seen the face of Aphrodite is not poor, lady; and I see it at
this moment. But then I sought consolation in philosophy. When I came
to Rome, I tried to meet Christian elders to obtain justice against
Glaucus. I thought that they would force him to yield up my wife. I
became acquainted with their chief priest; I became acquainted with
another, named Paul, who was in prison in this city, but was liberated
afterward; I became acquainted with the son of Zebedee, with Linus and
Clitus and many others. I know where they lived before the fire, I know
where they meet. I can point out one excavation in the Vatican Hill
and a cemetery beyond the Nomentan Gate, where they celebrate their
shameless ceremonies. I saw the Apostle Peter. I saw how Glaucus killed
children, so that the Apostle might have something to sprinkle on the
heads of those present; and I saw Lygia, the foster-child of Pomponia
Graecina, who boasted that though unable to bring the blood of an
infant, she brought the death of an infant, for she bewitched the little
Augusta, thy daughter, O Cyrus, and thine, O Isis!"

"Dost hear, Caesar?" asked Poppaea.

"Can that be!" exclaimed Nero.

"I could forgive wrongs done myself," continued Chilo, "but when I heard
of yours, I wanted to stab her. Unfortunately I was stopped by the noble
Vinicius, who loves her."

"Vinicius? But did she not flee from him?"

"She fled, but he made search for her; he could not exist without her.
For wretched pay I helped him in the search, and it was I who pointed
out to him the house in which she lived among the Christians in the
Trans-Tiber. We went there together, and with us thy wrestler Croton,
whom the noble Vinicius hired to protect him. But Ursus, Lygia's slave,
crushed Croton. That is a man of dreadful strength, O Lord, who can
break a bull's neck as easily as another might a poppy stalk. Aulus and
Pomponia loved him because of that."

"By Hercules," said Nero, "the mortal who crushed Croton deserves a
statue in the Forum. But, old man, thou art mistaken or art inventing,
for Vinicius killed Croton with a knife."

"That is how people calumniate the gods. O lord, I myself saw Croton's
ribs breaking in the ar