[Date and place of birth unknown. Died A.D. 65.]
“She possessed,” says Tacitus, “everything but a virtuous mind.” She became the wife of the Emperor Nero, after having been his mistress; at her instigation Nero’s mother was killed by him, and his former wife, Octavia, divorced and put to death. She was herself destroyed by a brutal blow from Nero, who pronounced her eulogium at the tomb. “As he could not,” says Tacitus, “speak of her virtues, he enlarged upon her beauty.” She was deified, and honoured with a temple. Her luxurious tastes were extravagant. It is related that her mules were shod with gold; and that when she travelled, she was followed by five hundred asses, whose milk furnished a bath to preserve her complexion.
[From the marble in the Capitoline Museum, at Rome.]
COURT OF ROMAN GENERALS AND POETS.
ADJOINING THE COURT OF ROMAN LADIES.
(Numbers commencing on the right.)
107. Lucius Junius Brutus. Roman Consul.
[Date and place of birth unknown.]