rived safely at one of her
villas along the coast, with the help, it seems, of a vessel which she
had encountered as she swam, and that she immediately sent one of her
freedmen to apprise Nero of the danger from which she had escaped
through the kindness of the gods and his good fortune! Agrippina had
guessed the truth, but for this one time she gave up the struggle and
sent her messenger, that it might be understood, without her saying so,
that she forgot and pardoned. Indeed, what means were left her, a
lonely woman, of coping with an emperor who dared raise his hand
against his own mother?

However, fear prevented Nero from understanding. No sooner had he
learned that Agrippina had escaped than he lost his head. In his
imagination he saw her hastening to Rome and denouncing the horrible
matricide to the soldiers and the senate; and beside himself with
terror, he sent for Seneca and Burrhus in order to take counsel with
them. It is easy to imagine what the feelings of the two teachers of
the youth must have been as they listened to the terrible story. Even
they failed to understand that Agrippina recognized and declared
herself conquered. They, too, feared that she would provoke the most
frightful scandal which Rome had yet seen, and not knowing what advice
to give, or rather seeing only a single way out, which was, however,
too serious and horrible, they held their peace while Nero begged them
to save him. At last Seneca, the humanitarian philosopher, turned to
Burrhus and asked him what would happen if the pretorians should be
ordered to kill Agrippina. Burrhus understood that Seneca, though he
was the first to give the terrible advice, yet wished to leave to him
the more serious responsibility of carrying it into execution; for
Burrhus, as commander of the guards, would have had to give the order
for the murder. He therefore hastened to say that the pretorians would
never kill the daughter of Germanicus, and then added that if they
really wished to do away with Agrippina, the best plan would be for
Anicetus to carry out the work which he had begun. His advice was the
same as Seneca's, but he turned over to a third person the very grave
responsibility for its execution. He had, however, chosen this third
person more wisely than Seneca, for Anicetus could not refuse. If
Agrippina lived, it was he who ran the risk of becoming the scapegoat
for all this bloody and horrible adventure.

As a matter of fact