[Sidenote:—­2—­] The following signs of dominion had been observed in his career.  At his birth just before dawn rays not cast by any beam of sunlight yet visible surrounded his form.  And a certain astrologer from this and from the motion of the stars at that time and their relation to one another divined two things in regard to him,—­that he would rule and that he would murder his mother.  Agrippina on hearing this became for the moment so beside herself as actually to cry out:  “Let him kill me, if only he shall rule.”  Later she was destined to repent bitterly of her prayer.  Some people become so steeped in folly that if they expect to obtain some blessing mingled with evil, they at once through their anxiety for the advantage pay no heed to the detriment.  When the time for the latter also comes, they are cast down and would choose not to have secured even the greatest good thing.  Yet Domitius, the father of Nero, had a sufficient previous intimation of his son’s coming baseness and licentiousness, not by any oracle but through the nature of his own and Agrippina’s characters.  And he declared:  “It is impossible for any good man to be born from me and from her.”  As time went on, the finding of a serpent skin around Nero’s neck when he was but a boy caused the seers to say:  “He shall acquire great power from the aged man.”  Serpents are thought to slough off their old age with their old skin, and so get power.

[Sidenote:—­3—­] Nero was seventeen years of age when he began to rule.  He first entered the camp, and, after reading to the soldiers all that Seneca had written, he promised them as much as Claudius had been accustomed to give.  Before the senate he read such a considerable document,—­this, too, written by Seneca,—­that it was voted the statements should be inscribed on a silver tablet and should be read every time the new consuls took up the duties of their office.  Consequently those who heard him made themselves ready to enjoy a good reign according to the letter of the compilation.  At first Agrippina [in company with Pallas, a vulgar and tiresome man,] managed all affairs pertaining to the empire, and she and her son went about together, often reclining in the same litter; usually, however, she would be carried and he would follow alongside.  It was she who transacted business with embassies and sent letters to peoples and governors and kings.  When this had gone on for a considerable time, it aroused the displeasure of Seneca and Burrus, who were both the most sensible and the most influential of the advisers of Nero.  The one was his teacher and the other was prefect of the Pretorians.  They took the following occasion to stop this method of procedure.  An embassy of Armenians had arrived and Agrippina wished to ascend the platform from which Nero was talking with them.  The two men, seeing her approach, persuaded the young man to go down before she could reach there and meet his mother, pretending some form of greeting.  After that was done they did not return again, making some excuse to prevent the foreigners from seeing the flaw in the empire.  Subsequently they labored to keep any public business from being again committed to her hands.