e destroyed by their own
insignificance, some by fear, some by wealth, others by bravery. Caesar,
astonished at the very number of the conspirators, covered the walls
with soldiery and held the city as if by siege, sending out daily
centurions with sentences of death to suspected houses. The condemned
humiliated themselves in letters filled with flattery, thanking Caesar
for his sentences, and leaving him a part of their property, so as to
save the rest for their children. It seemed, at last, that Nero was
exceeding every measure on purpose to convince himself of the degree in
which men had grown abject, and how long they would endure bloody
rule. After the conspirators, their relatives were executed; then their
friends, and even simple acquaintances. Dwellers in lordly mansions
built after the fire, when they went out on the street, felt sure of
seeing a whole row of funerals. Pompeius, Cornelius, Martialis, Flavius
Nepos, and Statius Domitius died because accused of lack of love
for Caesar; Novius Priscus, as a friend of Seneca. Rufius Crispus was
deprived of the right of fire and water because on a time he had been
the husband of Poppaea. The great Thrasea was ruined by his virtue; many
paid with their lives for noble origin; even Poppaea fell a victim to the
momentary rage of Nero.

The Senate crouched before the dreadful ruler; it raised a temple in
his honor, made an offering in favor of his voice, crowned his statues,
appointed priests to him as to a divinity. Senators, trembling in their
souls, went to the Palatine to magnify the song of the "Periodonices,"
and go wild with him amid orgies of naked bodies, wine, and flowers.

But meanwhile from below, in the field soaked in blood and tears, rose
the sowing of Peter, stronger and stronger every moment.

Chapter LXXII

VINICIUS to PETRONIUS:

"We know, carissime, most of what is happening in Rome, and what we do
not know is told us in thy letters. When one casts a stone in the water,
the wave goes farther and farther in a circle; so the wave of madness
and malice has come from the Palatine to us. On the road to Greece,
Carinas was sent hither by Caesar, who plundered cities and temples to
fill the empty treasury. At the price of the sweat and tears of people,
he is building the 'golden house' in Rome. It is possible that the world
has not seen such a house, but it has not seen such injustice. Thou
knowest Carinas. Chilo was like him till he redeemed h