LIV. IN THE BURNING FIERY FURNACE LV. TWO MARTYRDOMS LVI. LIVING TORCHES LVII. A CONSPIRACY AND ITS COLLAPSE LVIII. THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF SENECA LIX. THE AGONY OF AN EMPRESS LX. THE DOOM OF VIRTUE LXI. BEFORE THE LION LXII. NERO IN GREECE LXIII. MUTTERING THUNDER LXIV. AT THE THREE FOUNTAINS LXV. IN THE CLUTCH OF NEMESIS LXVI. L’ENVOI FOOTNOTES NOTES TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES BOOK I * * * * * ‘_CLOTHO FERT FUSUM_’ CHAPTER I _THE SOLILOQUIES OF AGRIPPINA_ ‘Oramus, cave despuas, ocelle, Ne pœnas Nemesis reposcat a te: Est vehemens Dea; lædere hanc caveto.’ CATULL. _Carm._ L. 18-20. The Palace of the Cæsars was a building of extraordinary spaciousness and splendour, which had grown with the growing power of the emperors. The state entrance was in the Vicus Apollinis, which led into the Via Sacra. It was an Arch, twenty-nine feet high, surmounted by a statue of Apollo and Diana driving a chariot of four horses, the work of Lysias. Passing the Propylæa the visitor entered the sacred area, paved with white marble and surrounded by fifty-two fluted columns of Numidian giallo antico, with its soft tints of rose and gold. Between these stood statues of the Danaides, with their father Danaus brandishing a naked sword. In the open spaces before them were the statues of their miserable Egyptian husbands, each reining his haughty steed. Here, too, among other priceless works of art, stood the famous Hercules of Lysippus, clothed in his lion’s skin and leaning on his club. On one side was the Temple of Apollo, built of the marble of Luna, designed by Bupalos and Anthermos of Chios. On the top of its pediment was the chariot of Apollo in gilt bronze, and the great bronze valves were encrusted[*1] with ivory bas-reliefs of the triumph over Niobe, and the panic-stricken flight of the Gauls from Delphi. Behind this temple was the shrine of Vesta, and on the west side the famous Palatine Library, large enough to accommodate the whole Senate, and divided into two compartments, Greek and Latin. In its vestibule was a bronze statue, fifty feet high, which is said to have represented Augustus with the attributes of Apollo.[1]