The continuation under Nero of this severe regime displeased a great number of persons, who dreamed of seeing again the easy sway of Messalina.  From the moment they were satisfied that Agrippina, like Augustus and Tiberius, would not allow the public money to be stolen, many people found her insistent interference in public affairs unbearable.  In short, Agrippina became unpopular, and, as always happens, because of faults she did not have.  A noble deed, which she was trying to accomplish in defence of tradition, definitively compromised her situation.

Her son resembled neither Agrippina nor the great men of her family.  He had a most indocile temperament, rebellious to tradition, in no sense Roman.  Little by little, Agrippina saw the young Emperor develop into a precocious debauche, frightfully selfish, erratically vain, full of extravagant ideas, who, instead of setting the example of respect toward sumptuary laws, openly violated them all; and across whose mind from time to time flashed sinister lightnings of cruelty.  Nero’s youth—­the fact is not surprising—­did not resist the mortal seductions of immense power and immense riches; but Agrippina, the proud granddaughter of the conqueror of Germany, must have chafed at the idea of her son’s preferring musical entertainments to the sessions of the Senate, singing lessons to the study of tactics and strategy.

She applied herself, therefore, with all her energy to the work of tearing her son from his pleasures, and bringing about his return to the great traditions of his family.  Nero resisted:  the struggle between mother and son grew complicated; it excited the passion of the public, which felt that this conflict had a greater importance than any other family quarrel, that it was actually a struggle between traditional Romanism and Oriental customs.  Unfortunately, every one sided with Nero:  the sincere friends of tradition, because they did not want the rule of a woman, whoever she might be; those that longed for Messalina’s times, because they saw personified in Agrippina the austere and inflexible spirit of the gens Claudia.  The situation was soon without an issue.  The accord of Agrippina with Seneca and Burrhus was troubled, because the two teachers of the young Emperor, under the impression of public malcontent, had somewhat withdrawn from her.  Nero, who was sullen, cynical, and lazy, feared his mother too much to have the courage to oppose her openly, but he did not fear her enough to mend his ways.  The mother, on her side, was set to do her duty to the end.  Like all situations without an issue, this one was suddenly solved by an unexpected event.