[Seekers after God by Frederic William Farrar]@TWC D-Link book
Seekers after God

CHAPTER XIII
5/17

Some raw recruits--for Nero dared not intrust any veterans with the duty--brought the mandate to Piso, who proceeded to make a will full of disgraceful adulation towards Nero, opened his veins, and died.

Plautius Lateranus was not even allowed the poor privilege of choosing his own death, but, without time even to embrace his children, was hurried off to a place set apart for the punishment of slaves, and there died, without a word, by the sword of a tribune whom he knew to be one his own accomplices.
Lucan, in the prime of his life and the full bloom of his genius, was believed to have joined the plot from his indignation at the manner in which Nero's jealousy had repressed his poetic fame, and forbidden him the opportunity of public rectitations.

He too opened his veins; and as he felt the deathful chill creeping upwards from the extremities of his limbs, he recited some verses from his own "Pharsalia," in which he had described the similar death of the soldier Lycidas.

They were his last words.

His mother Atilla, whom to his everlasting infamy, he had betrayed, was passed over as a victim too insignificant for notice, and was neither pardoned nor punished.
But, of all the many deaths which were brought about by this unhappy and ill-managed conspiracy, none caused more delight to Nero than that of Seneca, whom he was now able to dispatch by the sword, since he had been unable to do so by secret poison.


<<Back  Index  Next>>

D-Link book Top

TWC mobile books