tuted a celebration
of them early in his reign. There had been a celebration of them in
the reign of Augustus, not many years before,--but Claudius, wishing
to signalize his own reign by some great entertainment and display,
pretended that Augustus had made a miscalculation, and had observed
the festival at the wrong time; and he ordained, accordingly, that
the celebration should take place again.

The games and shows connected with this festival extended through
three successive days. They consisted of sacrifices and other
religious rites, dramatic spectacles, athletic games, and military
and gladiatorial shows. In the course of these diversions there was
celebrated on one of the days what was called the Trojan game, in
which young boys of leading and distinguished families appeared on
horseback in a circus or ring, where they performed certain
evolutions and feats of horsemanship, and mock conflicts, in the
midst of the tens of thousands of spectators who thronged the seats
around. Of course Britannicus and Nero were the most prominent and
conspicuous of the boys on this occasion. Nero, however, in the
estimation of the populace, bore off the palm. He was received with
the loudest acclamations by the whole assembly, while Britannicus
attracted far less attention. This triumph filled Agrippina's heart
with pride and pleasure, while it occasioned to Messalina the
greatest vexation and chagrin. It made Agrippina more than ever
before the object of Messalina's hatred and hostility, and the
empress would very probably before long have found some means of
destroying her rival had she not soon after this become involved
herself in the difficulties arising out of her connection with
Silius, which resulted so soon in her own destruction.

The people, however, were filled with admiration of Nero, and they
applauded his performance with the utmost enthusiasm. He was for a
time a subject of conversation in every circle throughout the city,
and many tales were told of his history and his doings. Among other
things which were related of him, the story was circulated that
Messalina became so excited against him in her jealousy and envy,
that she sent two assassins to murder him in his sleep; and that the
assassins, coming to him in a garden where he was lying asleep upon
a pillow, were just putting their cruel orders into execution when
they were driven away by a serpent that appeared miraculously at the
moment to defend the chil