ssion of these atrocities at first overwhelmed him; and in
order to hasten his relief he plunged recklessly into every species
of riot and excess, and in the end hardened himself so completely in
crime, that during the remainder of his life he perpetrated the most
abominable deeds without any apparent compunction whatever. He
killed Poppaea herself at last with a kick, which he gave her in a
fit of passion at a time when circumstances were such with her that
the violence brought on a premature and unnatural sickness. He
afterward ordered her son to be drowned in the sea, by his slaves,
when he was a-fishing, because he understood that the boy, in
playing with the other children, often acted the part of an emperor.
His general Burrus he poisoned. He sent him the poison under
pretense that it was a medical remedy for a swelling of the throat
under which Burrus was suffering. Burrus drank the draught under
that impression and died. He destroyed by similar means in the
course of his life great numbers of his relatives and officers of
state, so that there was scarcely a person who was brought into any
degree of intimate connection with him that did not sooner or later
come to a violent end.

During his whole reign Nero neglected the public affairs of the
empire almost altogether,--apparently regarding the vast power, and
the immense resources that were at his command, as only means for
the more complete gratification of his own personal propensities and
passions. The only ambition which ever appeared to animate him was a
desire for fame as a singer and actor on the stage.

At the time when he commenced his career it was considered wholly
beneath the dignity of any Roman of rank to appear in any public
performance of that nature; but Nero, having conceived in his youth
a high idea of his merit as a singer, devoted himself with great
assiduity to the cultivation of his voice, and, as he was encouraged
in what he did by the flatterers that of course were always around
him, his interest in the musical art became at length an extravagant
passion. He submitted with the greatest patience to the rigorous
training customary in those times for the development and
improvement of the voice; such as lying for long periods upon his
back, with a weight of lead upon his breast, in order to force the
muscles of the chest to extraordinary exertion, for the purpose of
strengthening them--and taking medicines of various kinds to clear
the vo