stake, he was so
terrified that he took up two daggers which he had brought with him,
and after feeling the points of both, put them up again, saying, "The
fatal hour is not yet come." One while, he begged of Sporus to begin
to wail and lament; another while, he entreated that one of them would
set him an example by killing himself; and then again, he condemned
his own want of resolution in these words: "I yet live to my shame and
disgrace: this is not becoming for Nero: it is not becoming. Thou
oughtest in such circumstances to have a good heart: Come then:
courage, man!" The horsemen who had received orders to bring him away
alive, were now approaching the house. As soon as he heard them
coming, he uttered with a trembling voice the following verse,

"The noise of swift-heel'd steeds assails my ears";

he drove a dagger into his throat, being assisted in the act by
Epaphroditus,[157] his secretary. A centurion bursting in just as he
was half-dead, and applying his cloak to the wound, pretending that he
was come to his assistance, he made no other reply but this, "'Tis too
late"; and "Is this your loyalty?" Immediately after pronouncing these
words, he expired, with his eyes fixt and starting out of his head, to
the terror of all who beheld him....

In stature he was a little below the common height; his skin was foul
and spotted; his hair inclined to yellow; his features were agreeable,
rather than handsome; his eyes gray and dull, his neck was thick, his
belly prominent, his legs very slender, his constitution sound. For,
tho excessively luxurious in his mode of living, he had, in the course
of fourteen years, only three fits of sickness; which were so slight,
that he neither forbore the use of wine, nor made any alteration in
his usual diet. In his dress, and the care of his person, he was so
careless, that he had his hair cut in rings, one above another; and
when in Achaia, he let it grow long behind; and he generally appeared
in public in the loose dress which he used at table, with a
handkerchief about his neck and without either a girdle or shoes.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 146: From the translation by Alexander Thomson, revised by
T. Forester.]

[Footnote 147: Now Pozzuoli, which fronts on the bay, seven miles west
of Naples. It still has ruins of an amphitheater, 482 feet by 384 in
size. In Roman times it was as important commercial city.]

[Footnote 148: Bovillae is now known as Frattochio. It stands