This guilty wretch, and draw his tainted breath?

O Jove, thou high-exalted father, why245

Dost thou so oft with thine imperial hand

Thy darts invincible at random hurl?

Why from his guilty head dost thou withhold

Thy hand of vengeance? Oh, that he might pay

For all his crimes the fitting penalty,

This son of deified Domitius,

This Nero, heartless tyrant of the world,250

Which he beneath the yoke of bondage holds,