In the matter of horse-races Nero grew so enthusiastic that he adorned famous race-horses that had passed their prime with the regular street costume for men and honored them with money for their fodder. The horsebreeders and charioteers, elated at this enthusiasm of his, proceeded to abuse unjustifiably even the praetors and consuls. But Aulus Fabricius, when praetor, finding that they refused to hold contests on fair terms, dispensed with them entirely. He trained dogs to draw chariots and introduced them in place of horses. When this was done, the wearers of the white and of the red immediately entered their chariots: but, as the Greens and the Blues would not even then participate, Nero at his own cost gave the prizes to the horses, and the regular program of the circus was carried out. Agrippina showed readiness to attack the greatest undertakings, as is evidenced by her causing the death of Marcus Julius Silanus, to whom she sent some of the poison with which she had treacherously murdered her husband. Silanus was governor of Asia, and was in no respect inferior to the general character of his family. It was for this, more than for anything else, she said, that she killed him, not wishing to have him preferred before Nero, by reason of the latter's manner of life. Moreover, she turned everything into trade and gathered money from the most insignificant and basest sources. Laelianus, who was despatched to Armenia in place of Pollio, had been assigned to the command of the night watch. And he was no better than Pollio, for, while surpassing him in reputation, he was all the more insatiable in respect to gain. [Sidenote: A.D. 55 (a.u. 808)] [Sidenote:--7--] Agrippina found a grievance in the fact that she was no longer supreme in affairs of the palace. It was chiefly because of Acte. Acte had been brought as a slave from Asia. She caught the fancy of Nero, was adopted into the family of Attalus, and was cherished much more carefully than was Nero's wife Octavia. Agrippina, indignant at this and at other matters, first attempted to rebuke him, and set herself to humiliating his associates, some by beatings and by getting rid of others. But when she accomplished nothing, she took it greatly to heart and remarked to him: "It was I who made you emperor," just as if she had the power to take away the authority from him again. She did not comprehend that every form of independent power given to any one by a private citizen immediately ceases to be the property of the giver and belongs to the one who receives it to use against his benefactor.