now destined for the throne. Nero was educated
by the philosopher Seneca, together with Burrus Afranius, praefect of the
Praetorians. Claudius, however, becoming suspicious of the designs of his
wife, she resolved upon his death. Locusta, a noted poisoner, was hired
to prepare a dish of poisoned mushrooms, of which Claudius ate: but the
poison not proving fatal, the physician Xenophon forced a larger
quantity into his throat, and he died October 13, A.D. 54.

Claudius was fond of letters, and wrote memoirs of his own time and
histories in Greek of Etruria and of Carthage. He also made various
useful laws, and carried out several public works of importance. He
completed the Claudian aqueduct, begun by Caligula, and built a fort and
light-house at Ostia, and a tunnel from Lake Lucinus to the River Liris.
_Colonia Agrippina_ (Cologne) was raised by his orders to the most
important military station in Lower Germany.

In A.D. 43 a Roman army invaded Britain. Claudius himself entered that
country soon after, and returned to Rome to triumph. But Vespasian,
afterward emperor, together with his son Titus, overran Britain,
defeated Caractacus, the brave British chieftain, and sent him and his
family prisoners to Rome. Claudius, pleased with his manly conduct, gave
him his liberty.

NERO, A.D. 54-68.--The first five years of the reign of Nero were marked
by the mildness and equity of his government. He discouraged luxury,
reduced the taxes, and increased the authority of the Senate. His two
preceptors, Seneca and Burrus, controlled his mind, and restrained for a
time the constitutional insanity of the Claudian race. At length,
however, he sank into licentiousness, and from licentiousness to its
necessary attendants, cruelty and crime. From a modest and philosophic
youth, Nero became the most cruel and dissolute of tyrants. He quarreled
with his mother Agrippina, who for his sake had murdered the feeble
Claudius; and when she threatened to restore Britannicus to the throne,
he ordered that young prince to be poisoned at an entertainment. In
order to marry Poppaea Sabina, a beautiful and dissolute woman, wife of
Salvius Otho, he resolved to divorce his wife Octavia, and also to
murder his mother Agrippina. Under the pretense of a reconciliation, he
invited Agrippina to meet him at Baiae, where she was placed in a boat,
which fell to pieces as she entered it. Agrippina swam to the shore, but
was there assassinated by the orders of