[Sidenote:—­17—­] [In spite of this he killed by poison also his aunt Domitia, whom likewise he used to say he revered like a mother.  He would not even wait a few days for her to die a natural death of old age, but was eager to destroy her also.  His haste to do this was inspired by her possessions at Baiae and Ravenna, which included magnificent amusement pavilions that she had erected and] are in fine condition even now.  In honor of his mother he celebrated a very great and costly festival, events taking place for several days in five or six theatres at once.  It was then that an elephant was led to the very top of the vault of the theatre and walked down from that point on ropes, carrying a rider.  There was another exhibition at once most disgraceful and shocking.  Men and women not only of equestrian but even of senatorial rank appeared in the orchestra, the hippodrome, and even the hunting-theatre, like the veriest outcasts.  Some of them played the flute and danced or acted tragedies and comedies or sang to the lyre.  They drove horses, killed beasts, fought as gladiators, some willingly, others with a very bad grace.  Men of that day beheld the great families,—­the Furii, the Horatii, the Fabii, Poreii, Valerii, and all the rest whose trophies, whose temples were to be seen,—­standing down below the level of the spectators and doing some things to which no common citizen even would stoop.  So they would point them out to one another and make remarks, Macedonians saying:  “That is the descendant of Paulus”; Greeks, “Yonder the offspring of Mummius”; Sicilians, “Look at Claudius”; the Epirots, “Look at Appius”; Asiatics, “There’s Lucius”; Iberians, “There’s Publius”; Carthaginians, “There’s Africanus”; Romans, “There they all are”.  Such was the expiation that the emperor chose to offer for his own indecency.

[Sidenote:—­18—­] All who had sense, likewise, bewailed the multitude of expenditures.  Every costliest viand that men eat, everything else, indeed, of the highest value,—­horses, slaves, teams, gold, silver, raiment of varied hues,—­was given away by tickets.  Nero would throw tiny balls, each one appropriately inscribed, among the populace and that article represented by the token received would be presented to the person who had seized it.  The sensible, I say, reflected that, when he spent so much to prevent molestation in his disgraceful course, he would not be restrained from any most outrageous proceedings through mere hope of profit.

Some portents had taken place about this time, which the seers declared imported destruction to him, and they advised him to divert the danger upon others.  So he would have immediately put numbers of men out of the way, had not Seneca said to him:  “No matter how many you may slay, you can not kill your successor.”