n the circus where
the games were to be exhibited, Piso was to station himself in a
certain temple not far distant, to await the result; while Fenius,
the officer of the guard, who has already been mentioned as the
chief military reliance of the conspirators, was to be posted in
another part of the city, with a military cavalcade in array, ready
to proceed through the streets and bring Piso forth to be proclaimed
emperor as soon as he should receive the tidings that Nero had been
slain. It is said that in order to give additional eclat and
popularity to the proceeding, it was arranged that Octavia, a
daughter of Claudius, the former emperor, was to be brought forward
with Piso in the cavalcade, as if to combine the influence of her
hereditary claims, whatever they might be, with the personal
popularity of Piso in favor of the new government about to be
established.

Thus every thing was arranged. To each conspirator, his own
particular duty was assigned, and, as the day approached for the
execution of the scheme, every thing seemed to promise success. It
is obvious, however, that, as the affair had been arranged, all
would depend upon the resolution and fidelity of those who had been
designated to stab the emperor with their daggers, when Lateranus
should have grasped his feet. The slightest faltering or fear at
this point, would be fatal to the whole scheme. The man on whom the
conspirators chiefly relied for this part of their work, was a
certain desperate profligate, named Scevinus, who had been one of
the earliest originators of the conspiracy, and one of the most
dauntless and determined of the promoters of it, so far as words and
professions could go. He particularly desired that the privilege of
plunging the first dagger into Nero's heart should be granted to
him. He had a knife, he said, which he had found in a certain temple
a long time before, and which he had preserved and carried about his
person constantly ever since, for some such deed. So it was arranged
that Scevinus should strike the fatal blow.

As the time drew nigh, Scevinus seemed to grow more and more excited
with the thoughts of what was before him. He attracted the attention
of the domestics at his house, by his strange and mysterious
demeanor. He held a long and secret consultation with Natalis,
another conspirator, on the day before the one appointed for the
execution of the plot, under such circumstances as to increase still
more the wonde