did not produce. It was because of that she fell.





V

NERO


"Save a monster, what can you expect from Agrippina and myself?"

It was Domitius, Nero's father, who made this ingenious remark. He
was not a good man; he was not even good-looking, merely vicious
and rich. But his viciousness was benign beside that of Agrippina,
who poisoned him when Nero's birth ensured the heritage of his
wealth.

In all its galleries history has no other portrait such as hers.
Caligula's sister, his mistress as well, exiled by him and
threatened with death, her eyes dazzled and her nerves unstrung by
the impossibilities of that fabulous reign, it was not until
Claud, her uncle, recalled her and Messalina disappeared, that the
empress awoke. She too, she determined, would rule, and the jus
osculi aiding, she married out of hand that imbecile uncle of
hers, on whose knee she had played as a child.

The day of the wedding a young patrician, expelled from the
senate, killed himself. Agrippina had accused him of something not