Acte.  But a marriage between Nero and Acte was not possible.  The Lex de maritandis ordinibus prohibited marriages between senators and freedwomen.  It was therefore natural that Agrippina should have opposed it with all her strength.  She, the great-granddaughter of Livia, the granddaughter of Drusus, the daughter of Germanicus, educated in the strictest ideas of the old Roman aristocracy, could not permit her son to compromise the prestige of the entire nobility in the eyes of the lower orders by so scandalous a mesalliance.  But on this occasion the youth, carried away by his passion, resisted.  If he did not actually repudiate Octavia, he disregarded her, and began to live with Acte as if she were his wife.  Agrippina insisted that he give up this scandalous relationship; but in vain.  The mother and son disagreed, and very shortly after having resisted his mother in the case of Acte, Nero began to resist her on other occasions.  With increasing energy he shook off maternal authority, which up to that time he had accepted with docility.

This, however, was a crisis which was sooner or later inevitable.  Agrippina had certainly made the mistake of attempting to treat Nero the emperor too much as she had treated Nero the child; but that the crisis should have been reached in this manner as the result of a love-affair, and that it should have provoked a misunderstanding between the mother and son that was soon to degenerate into hatred, was most unfortunate.  Agrippina, though she enjoyed great prestige, had also many hidden enemies.  Everybody knew that she represented in the government the old aristocratic, conservative, and economical tendency of the Claudii,—­of Tiberius and of Drusus,—­that she looked askance upon the development of luxurious habits, the relaxation of morals, and the increase of public and private expenditures.  They understood that she exerted all her influence to prevent wastefulness, the malversation of public moneys, and in general all outlays for pleasures either in the state or the imperial family.  Her virtues and her stand against Messalina had given her a great prestige, and the reverence which the emperor had shown for her had for a long time obliged her enemies to keep themselves hidden and to hold their peace.  But this ceased to be the case after the incipient discord between her and Nero had allowed many to foresee the possibility of using Nero against her.  In proportion as Nero became attached to Acte he drew away from his mother, and in proportion as he withdrew from his mother his capricious, fantastic, and rebellious temper was encouraged to show itself in its true light.  The party of the new nobility, with its modern and oriental tendencies, had for ten years been held in check by the preponderating influence of Agrippina.  But gradually, as the exotic and anti-Roman inclinations of the emperor declared themselves, this party again became bolder.  The memories of the scandals of Caligula and Messalina were becoming effaced by time, the rather severe and economical government of Agrippina was showing signs of weakening, and all minds were beginning to entertain a vague desire for something new.