[Sidenote:—­4—­] When they had accomplished this, they themselves took charge of the entire empire and gave it the very best and fairest management that they could.  Nero was not in general fond of affairs and was glad to live at leisure. [The reason, indeed, that he had previously distrusted his mother and now was fond of her lay in the fact that now he was free to enjoy himself, and the government was being carried on no less well.  And his advisers after consultation made many changes in existing customs, abolishing some things altogether and passing a number of new laws.] They let Nero sow his wild oats with the intention of bringing about in him through the satisfaction of all his desires a changed attitude of mind, while in the meantime no great damage should be done to public interests.  Surely they must have known that a young and self-willed spirit, when reared in unreproved license and in absolute authority, so far from becoming satiated by the indulgence of its passions is ruined more and more by these very agencies.  Indeed, Nero at first gave but simple dinners; his revels, his drunkenness, his amours were moderate.  Afterward, as no one reproved him for them and public business was carried forward none the worse for all of it, he began to believe that what he did was right and that he could carry his practices to even greater lengths. [Consequently he began to indulge in each of these pursuits in a more open and precipitate fashion.  And in case his guardians gave him any warning or his mother any rebuke, he would appear abashed while they were present and promise to reform; but as soon as they were gone, he would again become the slave of his desire and yield to those who were dragging him in the other direction,—­a straight course down hill.] Next he came to despise instruction, inasmuch as he was always hearing from his associates, “Do you submit to this?” or “Do you fear these people?”, “Don’t you know that you are Caesar?”, “Have not you the authority over them rather than they over you?” He was also animated by obstinacy, not wishing to acknowledge his mother as superior and himself as inferior, nor to admit the greater good sense of Seneca and Burrus.

[Sidenote:—­5—­] Finally he passed the possibility of being shamed, dashed to the ground and trampled under foot all their suggestions, and began to follow in the steps of Gaius.  When he had once felt a desire to emulate him, he quite outdid him, for he believed that the imperial power must manifest itself among other ways by allowing no one to surpass it even in the vilest deeds. [As he was praised for this by the crowds, and received many pleasant compliments from them, he gave himself no rest.  His doings were at first confined to his home and associates, but were later on carried abroad.  Thus he attached a mighty disgrace to the whole Roman race and committed many outrages upon the individuals composing it.  Innumerable acts of violence and insult, of rape and murder, were committed both by