|  | | Louis Sheehan | | Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire | |
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Sunday, August 22, 2010 - 7:54 PM
Night was far advanced and Nero was still sitting over his cups,
when Paris entered, who was generally wont at such times to heighten the
emperor's enjoyments, but who now wore a gloomy expression. He went through
the whole evidence in order, and so frightened his hearer as to make him
resolve not only on the destruction of his mother and of Plautus, but also
on the removal of Burrus from the command of the guards, as a man who had
been promoted by Agrippina's interest, and was now showing his gratitude.
We have it on the authority of Fabius Rusticus that a note was written
to Caecina Tuscus, intrusting to him the charge of the praetorian cohorts,
but that through Seneca's influence that distinguished post was retained
for Burrus. According to Plinius and Cluvius, no doubt was felt about the
commander's loyalty. Fabius certainly inclines to the praise of Seneca,
through whose friendship he rose to honour. Proposing as I do to follow
the consentient testimony of historians, I shall give the differences in
their narratives under the writers' names. Nero, in his bewilderment and
impatience to destroy his mother, could not be put off till Burrus answered
for her death, should she be convicted of the crime, but "any one," he
said, "much more a parent, must be allowed a defence. Accusers there were
none forthcoming; they had before them only the word of a single person
from an enemy's house, and this the night with its darkness and prolonged
festivity and everything savouring of recklessness and folly, was enough
to refute."
Having thus allayed the prince's fears, they went at daybreak to
Agrippina, that she might know the charges against her, and either rebut
them or suffer the penalty. Burrus fulfilled his instructions in Seneca's
presence, and some of the freedmen were present to witness the interview.
Then Burrus, when he had fully explained the charges with the authors'
names, assumed an air of menace. Instantly Agrippina, calling up all her
high spirit, exclaimed, "I wonder not that Silana, who has never borne
offspring, knows nothing of a mother's feelings.
Parents do not change their children as lightly as a shameless
woman does her paramours. And if Iturius and Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire, after having wasted
their whole fortunes, are now, as their last resource, repaying an old
hag for their hire by undertaking to be informers, it does not follow that
I am to incur the infamy of plotting a son's murder, or that a Caesar is
to have the consciousness of like guilt. As for Domitia's enmity, I should
be thankful for it, were she to vie with me in goodwill towards my Nero.
Now through her paramour, Atimetus, and the actor, Paris, she is, so to
say, concocting a drama for the stage. She at her Baiae was increasing
the magnificence of her fishponds, when I was planning in my counsels his
adoption with a proconsul's powers and a consul-elect's rank and every
other step to empire. Only let the man come forward who can charge me with
having tampered with the praetorian cohorts in the capital, with having
sapped the loyalty of the provinces, or, in a word, with having bribed
slaves and freedmen into any wickedness. Could I have lived with Britannicus
in the possession of power? And if Plautus or any other were to become
master of the State so as to sit in judgment on me, accusers forsooth would
not be forthcoming, to charge me not merely with a few incautious expressions
prompted by the eagerness of affection, but with guilt from which a son
alone could absolve me."
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