[Sidenote:—­28—­] The extremes of luxury indulged in by this Sabina I will indicate in the briefest possible terms.  She had gilded girths put upon the mules that carried her and caused five hundred asses that had recently foaled to be milked each day that she might bathe in their milk.  She devoted great thought to making her person appear youthful and lustrously beautiful,—­and with brilliant results; and this is why, not fancying her appearance in a mirror one day, she prayed that she might die before she passed her prime.  Nero missed her so that [after her death, at first, on learning that there was a woman resembling her he sent for and kept this female:  later] because a boy of the liberti class, named Sporus, resembled Sabina, he had him castrated and used him in every way like a woman; and in due time he formally married him though he [Nero] was already married to a freedman Pythagoras.  He assigned the boy a regular dowry according to contract, and Romans as well as others held a public celebration of their wedding.

While Nero had Sporus the eunuch as a wife, one of his associates in Rome, who had made a specialty of philosophy, on being asked whether the marriage and cohabitation in question met with his approval replied:  “You do well, Caesar, to seek the company of such wives.  If only your father had had the same ambition and had dwelt with a similar consort!”—­indicating that if this had been the case, Nero would not have been born, and the government would have been relieved of great evils.

This was, however, later.  At the time with which we are immediately concerned many, as I stated, were put to death and many who purchased their preservation with Tigillinus with a great price were released.

[Sidenote:—­29—­] Nero continued to commit many ridiculous acts, among which may be cited his descending at a kind of popular festival to the orchestra of the theatre, where he read some Trojan lays of his own:  and in honor of these there were offered numerous sacrifices, as there were over everything else that he did.  He was now making preparations to compile in verse a narration of all the achievements of the Romans:  before composing any of it, however, he began to consider the proper number of books, and took as his adviser Annaeus Cornutus, who at this time was famed for his learning.  This man he came very near putting to death and did deport to an island, because, while some were urging him to write four hundred books, Cornutus said that was too many and nobody would read them.  And when some one objected:  “Yet Chrysippus, whom you praise and imitate, has composed many more,” the savant retorted:  “But they are a help to the conduct of men’s lives.”  So Cornutus was punished with exile for this.  And Lucanus was enjoined from writing poetry because he was securing great praise for his work.

DIO’S ROMAN HISTORY 63

Nero, receiving Tiridates with imposing state, places a crown upon his head (chapters 1-7).