He was also terrified with manifest warnings, both old and new, arising from
					dreams, auspices, and omens. He had never been used to dream before the murder
					of his mother. After that event, he fancied in his sleep that he was steering a
					ship, and that the rudder was forced from him: that he was dragged by his wife
					Octavia into a prodigiously dark place; and was at one time covered over with a
					vast swarm of winged ants, and at another, surrounded by the national images
					which were set up near Pompey's theatre, and hindered from advancing farther;
					that a Spanish jennet he was fond of, had his hinder parts so changed, as to
					resemble those of an ape; and having his head only left unaltered, neighed very
					harmoniously. The doors of the mausoleum of Augustus flying open of themselves,
					there issued from it a voice, calling on him by name. The Lares being adorned
					with fresh garlands on the calends (the first) of January, fell down during the
					preparations for sacrificing to them. While he was taking the omens, Sporus
					presented him with a ring, the stone of which had carved upon it the Rape of
					Proserpine. When a great multitude of the several orders was assembled, to
					attend at the solemnity of making vows to the gods, it was a long time before
					the keys of the Capitol could be found. And when, in a speech of his to the
					senate against Vindex, these words were read, "that the miscreants should be
					punished and soon make the end they merited," they all cried out, "You will do
					it, Augustus." It was likewise remarked, that the last tragic piece which he
					sung, was Oedipus in Exile, and that he fell as he was repeating this verse:
						 θανεῖν μ' ἄνῳγε σύγγαμος, μήτηρ, 
					 Wife, mother, father, force me to my
					end. Meanwhile, on the arrival of the news, that the rest of the armies had declared
					against him, he tore to pieces the letters which were delivered to him at
					dinner, overthrew the table, and dashed with violence against the ground two
					favourite cups, which he called Homer's, because some of that poet's verses were
					cut upon them. Then taking from Locusta a dose of poison, which he put up in a
					golden box, he went into the Servilian gardens, and thence dispatching a trusty
					freedman to Ostia , with orders to
					make ready a fleet, he endeavoured to prevail with some tribunes and centurions
					of the pretorian guards to attend him in his flight; but part of them showing no
					great inclination to comply, others absolutely refusing; and one of them crying
					out aloud, Usque adeone mori miserum est? 
					 Say, is it then so sad a thing to die? 
					 Aen. xii. 646. he was in great perplexity whether
					he should submit himself to Galba, or apply to the Parthians for protection, or
					else appear before the people dressed in mourning, and, upon the rostra, in the
					most piteous manner, beg pardon for his past misdemeanors, and, if he could not
					prevail, request of them to grant him at least the government of Egypt . A speech to this purpose was afterwards
					found in his writing-case. But it is conjectured that he durst not venture upon
					this project, for fear of being torn to pieces, before he could get to the
					forum. Deferring, therefore, his resolution until the next day, he awoke about
					midnight, and finding the guards withdrawn, he leaped out of bed, and sent round
					for his friends. But none of them vouchsafing any message in reply, he went with
					a few attendants to their houses. The doors being every where shut, and no one
					giving him any answer, he returned to his bed-chamber; whence those who had the
					charge of it had all now eloped; some having gone one way, and some another,
					carrying off with them his bedding and box of poison. He then endeavoured to
					find Spicillus, the gladiator, or some one to kill him; but not being able to
					procure any one, "What!" said he, "have I then neither friend nor foe ?" and
					immediately ran out, as if he would throw himself into the Tiber . But this furious impulse subsiding, he wished for some place of privacy, where he
					might collect his thoughts; and his freedman Phaon offering him his
					country-house, between the Salarian The Via Salaria was so
						called from the Sabines using it to fetch salt from the coast. It led from
							 Rome to the northward, near
						the gardens' of Sallust, by a gate of the same name, called also Quirinalis,
						Agonalis, and Collina . It was here
						that Alaric entered. and Nomentan The Via
						Nomentana, so named because it led to the Sabine town of Nomentum, joined the Via Salara at Heretum
						on the Tiber . It was also called
						Ficulnensis. It entered Rome by
						the Porta Viminalis, now called Porta Pia. It was by this road that Hannibal
						approached the walls of Rome . The
						country-house of Nero's freedman, where he ended his days, stood near the
						Anio, beyond the present church of St. Agnese, where there was a villa of
						the Spada family, belonging now, we believe, to Torlonia. roads,
					about four miles from the city, he mounted a horse, barefoot as he was, and, in
					his tunic, only slipping over it an old soiled cloak; with his head muffled up,
					and an handkerchief before his face, and four persons only to attend him, of
					whom Sporus was one. He was suddenly struck with horror at an earthquake, and by
					a flash of lightning which darted full in his face, and heard from the
					neighbouring camp This description is no less exact than
						vivid. It was easy for Nero to gain the nearest gate, the Nomentan, from the
							 Esquiline quarter of the
						palace, without much observation; and on issuing from it (after midnight, it
						appears), the fugitives would have the pretorian camp so close on their
						right hand, that they might well hear the shouts of the soldiers. 
					the shouts of the soldiers, wishing his destruction, and prosperity to Galba. He
					also heard a traveller they met on the road say, "They are in pursuit of Nero:"
					and another ask, "Is there any news in the city about Nero?" Uncovering his face
					when his horse was started by the scent of a carcase which lay in the road, he
					was recognized and saluted by an old soldier who had been discharged from the
					guards. When they came to the lane which turned up to the house, they quitted
					their horses, and with much difficulty he wound among bushes and briars, and
					along a track through a bed of rushes, over which they spread their cloaks for
					him to walk on. Having reached a wall at the back of the villa, .Phaon advised
					him to hide himself awhile in a sand-pit; when he replied, "I will not go
					under-ground alive." Staying there some little time, while preparations were
					made for bringing him privately into the villa, he took some water out of a
					neighbouring tank in his hand, to drink, saying, "This is Nero's distilled
						water." Decocta. Pliny informs us that Nero had the
						water he drank, boiled, to clear it from impurities, and then cooled with
						ice. Then his cloak having been torn by the brambles, he pulled out
					the thorns which stuck in it. At last, being admitted, creeping upon his hands
					and knees, through a hole made for him in the wall, he lay down in the first
					closet he came to, upon a miserable pallet, with an old coverlet thrown over it;
					and being both hungry and thirsty, though he refused some coarse bread that was
					brought him, he drank a little warm water. All who surrounded him now pressing him to save himself from the indignities
					which were 'ready to befall him, he ordered a pit to be sunk before his eyes, of
					the size of his body, and the bottom to be covered with pieces of marble put
					together, if any could be found about the house; and water and wood, Wood, to warm the water for washing the corpse, and for the
						funeral pile. to be got ready for immediate use about his corpse;
					weeping at every thing that was done, and frequently saying, "What an artist is
					now about to perish!" Meanwhile, letters being brought in by a servant belonging
					to Phaon, he snatched them out of his hand, and there read, "That he had been
					declared an enemy by the senate, and that search was making for him, that he
					might be punished according to the ancient custom of the Romans." He then
					inquired what kind of punishment that was; and being told, that the practice was
					to strip the criminal naked, and scourge him to death, while his neck was
					fastened within a forked stake, he was so terrified that he took up two daggers
					which he had brought with him, and after feeling the points of both, put them up
					again, saying, " The fatal hour is not yet come." One while, he begged of Sporus
					to begin to wail and lament; another while, he entreated that one of them would,
					set him an example by killing himself; and then again, he condemned his own want
					of resolution in these words: " I yet live to my shame and disgrace: this is not
					becoming for Nero: it is not becoming. Thou oughtest in such circumstances to
					have a good heart: Come, then: courage, man!" This burst of
						passion was uttered in Greek, the rest was spoken in Latin. Both were in
						familiar use. The mixture, perhaps, betrays the disturbed state of Nero's
						mind. The horsemen who had received orders to bring him away alive,
					were now approaching the house. As soon as he heard them coming, he uttered with
					a trembling voice the following verse, ἵππων μ' ὠκυπόδων ἀμφὶ κτύποσ οὔατα Il. x. 535. 
					 The noise of swift-heel'd steeds assails my
						ears; he drove a dagger into his throat, being assisted in the
					act by Epaphroditus, his secretary. A centurion bursting in just as he was
					half-dead, and applying his cloak to the wound, pretending that he was come to
					his assistance, he made no other reply but this, "'Tis too late; and "Is this
					your loyalty ?" Immediately after pronouncing these words, he expired, with his
					eyes fixed and starting out of his head, to the terror of all who beheld him. He
					had requested of his attendants, as the most essential favour, that they would
					let no one have his head, but that by all means his body might be burnt entire.
					And this, Icelus, Galba's freedman, granted. He had but a little before been
					discharged from the prison into which he had been thrown, when the disturbances
					first broke out. The expenses of his funeral amounted to two hundred thousand sesterces; the bed
					upon which his body was carried to the pile and burnt, being covered with the
					white robes, interwoven with gold, which he had worn upon the calends of January
					preceding. His nurses, Ecloge and Alexandra, with his concubine Acte, deposited his remains in
					the tomb belonging to the family of the Domitii, which stands upon the top of
					the Hill of the Gardens, Collis Hortulorum; which was
						afterwards called the Pincian Hill, from a family of that name, who
						flourished under the lower empire. In the time of the Caesars it was
						occupied by the gardens and villas of the wealthy and luxurious; amongst
						which those of Sallust are celebrated. Some of the finest statues have been
						found in the ruins; among others, that of the " Dying Gladiator." The
						situation was airy and healthful, commanding fine views, and it is still the
						most agreeable neighbourhood in Rome . and is to be seen from the Campus Martius . In that monument, a coffin of
					porphyry, with an altar of marble of Luna over it, is enclosed by a wall built of stone brought from
						 Thasos . Antiquarians suppose that some relics of the sepulchre of the Domitian
						family, in which the ashes of Nero were deposited, are preserved in the city
						wall which Aurelian, when he extended its circuit, carried across the
						"Collis Hortulorum." Those ancient remains, declining from the
						perpendicular, are called the Muro Torto.-The Lunan marble was brought from
						quarries near a town of that name, in Etruria. It no longer exists, but
						stood on the coast of what is now called the gulf of Spezzia.- Thasos , an island in the Archipelago, was
						one of the Cyclades . It produced a
						grey marble much veined, but not in great repute.