speech which he caused to be read on that subject in the senate, was composed by Seneca, is an undoubted fact. Though Nero now raged without restraint, and every day steeped his hands more and more in bloodshed, Tacitus does not look upon it as certain, that he had the city set on fire: on the contrary, he takes it for an idle rumour. It looks like Nero’s madness, that during the fire he got up upon the tower of Mæcenas, and in the attire of a tragedian sang the Ἰλίου ἅλωσις to the lyre: at all events, it may have been a welcome thing to him to be now able to build Rome anew. This fire, which lasted six whole days, is of very great importance in history: an immense number of monuments of every kind, historical records, works of art, and libraries, utterly perished; the larger half of Rome was destroyed, or at least very much damaged; the streets were all laid out in straight lines, and made broader, and they were built up in a new style, which gave the city quite a different appearance. The great fire at Constantinople, under Leo Macellas[41] in the fifth century of our era, has likewise had a most ruinous effect on Greek literature. After this fire, Nero gave loose to his boundless prodigality and love of building; and for this purpose he extorted money from the whole of the Roman world. He built, what is called his “Golden Palace,” which extended from the Palatine, where afterwards the temple of Venus and Roma[42] was erected by Hadrian, to the baths of Titus, which, to speak more correctly, are those of Trajan: Vespasian had it destroyed for the sake of the remembrances connected with it. Some parts of the walls may still be found in the substructions of the baths of Titus: it was a most beautiful pile of masonry, with a coating of the finest marble: we are to imagine it to have been like a fairy palace in an eastern dream. After this, Nero also had Seneca executed, whose manly end somewhat redeems the weakness of his life. Bareas Soranus and Thrasea Pætus were likewise made to die: the latter was preceded by his wife Arria, who gave him the example of a courageous death.