mind? who was the intellectual agent? Was it the wily Seneca? the ductile Burrhus? the sordid army? the servile senate? the excitable people? or the consistent, concentrated Agrippina; who, actuated by one all-absorbing feeling, in the pursuit of one great object, put them all in motion? that feeling was maternal love; that object the empire of the world!
Nero was but eighteen years old when he ascended the throne; and, grateful to her whose genius had placed him there, he resigned the administration of affairs into her hands, and evinced an extraordinary tenderness and submission to his august mother. The senate vied with him in demonstrations of deference to her, and raised her to the priesthood, an assignment at once of power and respect.
The conscript fathers yielded to all her wishes; the Roman people had already been accustomed to seeing her on the imperial tribunal; and Seneca, Burrhus and Pallas became but the agents of her will. In reference to the repose and prosperity of the empire under her sway, Trajan, in after years, was wont to compare the first five years of Nero's reign with those of Rome's best emperors,
Agrippina must have early discovered Nero's deficiency in that physical sensibility, and those finer sympathies which raise man above the tiger and vulture. She is reported to have said, "The reign of Nero has begun as that of Augustus ended; but when I am gone, it will end as that of Augustus began:"—the awful prophecy was soon accomplished. The profound policy by which she endeavoured to prolong her own government, and her watchfulness over the young Britannicus, are sufficient evidences that the son so loved in the perversity of maternal instinct must have eventually laid bare the inherent egotism and cruelty of his nature.
When, on the occasion of a public reception given to an embassy from the East, Agrippina moved forward to take her usual place beside Nero, he, with officious courtesy and ironical respect, sprang forward and prevented the accomplishment of her intention. After this public insult, Agrippina lost all self-control, and uttered passionate and impolitic words that were soon conveyed to the emperor, and by awakening his fears, let loose his worst passions. After murdering Britannicus to frustrate her designs, imprisoning her in her own palace, and attempting to poison her, a reconciliation took place between Nero and Agrippina, of which the mother was the only dupe, for the world understood the hollowness of her son's professions of affection, and all abandoned her.
Nero was now resolved on the death of his mother, and took great pains in arranging an artful scheme to accomplish it—which was frustrated by Aceronia, who voluntarily received the blow intended for her mistress. Agrippina escaped then, but was soon afterwards murdered by Anicetus, who, commissioned by her son, entered her chamber with a band of soldiers, and put an end to her life, after a glorious reign of ten years; during which she was distinguished for her personal and intellectual endowments, and gave peace and prosperity to the empire she governed. Her faults belonged to the bad men and bad age in which she lived—the worst on record: her virtues and her genius were her own. She inherited them from Agrippa, the friend and counsellor of Augustus, and from Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus.
