his estate in Africa, there was a
large cavern, in which was stored an immense treasure. This treasure
consisted, he said, of vast heaps of golden ingots, rude and
shapeless in form, but composed of pure and precious metal. The
cavern, he said, which contained these stores, was very spacious,
and the gold lay piled in it in heaps, and sometimes in solid
columns, towering to a prodigious height. These treasures had been
deposited there, he said, by Dido, the ancient Carthaginian queen,
and they had remained there so long, that all knowledge of them had
been lost. They had been reserved, in a word, for Nero, and were all
now at his disposal, ready to be brought out and employed in
promoting the glory and magnificence of his reign.

Nero readily gave credit to this story, and inasmuch as in the
exuberance of his exultation he made known this wonderful discovery
to those around him, the tidings of it soon spread throughout the
city, and produced the most intense excitement among all classes.
Nero immediately began to fit out an expedition to proceed to
Africa, and bring the treasure home. Galleys were equipped to convey
it, and a body of troops was designated to escort it, and suitable
officers appointed to proceed with Bessus to Carthage, and
superintend the transportation of the metal. These preparations
necessarily required some time, and during the interval Bessus was
of course the object at Rome of universal attention and regard. Nero
himself, finding that he was about to enter upon the possession of
such inexhaustible treasures, dismissed all concern in respect to
his finances, and launched out into wilder extravagance than ever.
He raised money for the present moment, by assigning shares in the
treasure at exorbitant rates of discount, and thus borrowed and
expended with the most unbounded profusion.

At length the expedition sailed for Carthage, taking Bessus with
them,--but all search for the cavern, when they arrived, was
unavailing. It proved that all the evidence which Bessus had of the
existence of the cave, and of the heaps of gold contained in it, was
derived from certain remarkable dreams which he had had,--and though
Nero's commissioners dug into the ground most faithfully in every
place on the estate which the dreams had indicated, no treasure, and
not even the cavern, could ever be found.

CHAPTER XIII.

NERO'S END.

A.D. 66.

Galba.--His history.--His province.--Revolt of Vindex.--Embassa