Now Nero called Sporus Sabina not merely on account of the fact that by reason of resemblance to her he had been made a eunuch, but because the boy like the mistress had been solemnly contracted to him in Greece, with Tigillinus to give the bride away, as the law ordained. All the Greeks held a festal celebration of their marriage, uttering all the customary good wishes (as they could not well help) even to the extent of praying that legitimate children might be born to them. After that Nero took to himself two bedfellows, Pythagoras to treat as a man and Sporus as a woman. The latter, in addition to other forms of address, was termed lady, queen, and mistress.
Yet why should one wonder at this, seeing that this monarch would fasten naked boys and girls to poles, and then putting on the hide of a wild beast would approach them and satisfy his brutal lust under the appearance of devouring parts of their bodies? Such were the indecencies of Nero.
When he received the senators he wore a short flowered tunic with muslin collar, for he had already begun to transgress precedent in wearing ungirt tunics in public. It is stated also that knights belonging to the army used in his reign for the first time saddle-cloths during their public review.
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At the Olympic games he fell from the chariot he was driving and came very near being crushed to death: yet he was crowned victor. In acknowledgment of this favor he gave to the Hellanodikai the twenty-five myriads which Galba later demanded back from them. [And to the Pythia he gave ten myriads for giving some responses to suit him: this money Galba recovered.] Again, whether from vexation at Apollo for making some unpleasant predictions to him or because he was merely crazy, he took away from the god the territory of Cirrha and gave it to the soldiers. In fact, he abolished the oracle, slaying men and throwing them into the rock fissure from which the divine
afflatus
arose. He contended in every single city that boasted any contest, and in all cases requiring the services of a herald he employed for that purpose Cluvius Rufus, an ex-consul. Athens and the Lacedaemonians were exceptions to this rule, being the only places that he did not visit at all. He avoided the second because of the laws of Lycurgus, which stood in the way of his designs, and the former because of the story about the Furies.--The proclamation ran: "Nero Caesar wins this contest and crowns the Roman people and his world." Possessing according to his own statement a world, he went on singing and playing, making proclamations, and acting tragedies.
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