Nero had a half-brother, Britannicus, the son of Claudius and his own mother Agrippina. Legitimately, he was entitled to the throne rather than Nero. The tyrant became jealous of Britannicus. He was invited, with his mother and his sister Octavia, to a supper in the palace of Nero. A goblet of poisoned wine was placed before him: he drank, fell into convulsions, and died in the arms of his mother. Nero reclined listlessly upon a sofa, and, as he witnessed his agonizing convulsions, said “he did not think much was the matter with Britannicus; that it was probably merely a fainting-fit.” When it appeared that the prince was really dead, he ordered the body to be immediately removed and burned; while the entertainment went on undisturbed. It was a tempestuous night. Floods of rain were falling, and a tornado swept the city, as the funeral-pyre of the young prince blazed in the Campus Martius. “The appointments for his burial,” writes Tacitus, “had been prepared beforehand. His ashes were entombed in the Campus Martius during such tempestuous rains, that the populace believed them to be denunciations of the wrath of the gods against the deed. Nero, by an edict, justified the hurrying of the obsequies, alleging that it was an institution of their ancestors to withdraw from the sight such as died prematurely, and not to lengthen the solemnity by encomiums and processions.” The vast estates of Britannicus, consisting of palaces, villas, and other property, were seized by Nero, and divided among his partisans to purchase their support. Agrippina understood full well that Britannicus had been poisoned by his brother Nero; but she feigned to be deceived, and to believe that he died accidentally in a fit. Agrippina was another Messalina. She hated Nero, and determined to secure his death. Nero hated her, and was plotting day and night how he might kill her, and yet not expose himself to the charge of being the murderer of his mother. They both affected the most cordial relations in their social intercourse, and addressed each other in the most endearing epithets. Agrippina was immensely rich, had numerous and powerful partisans, and had formed the plan of effecting the assassination of Nero, and of placing upon the throne one of her favorites, Rubellius Plautus. Nero, whose suspicions were ever active, received some intimations of this plan. The following ingenious device he adopted to rid himself of his mother: He caused a vessel to be constructed with more than regal splendor, but so arranged, that, by the withdrawal of a few bolts, the heavy canopy which overhung the royal couch would fall with a fatal crash; and at the same time planks would give way, which would cause the vessel immediately to founder.