Nero was born at Antium , nine months
					after the death of Tiberius, A.U.C. 791; A.D. 39 upon the eighteenth of the calends of January
					[15th December], just as the sun rose, so that its beams touched him before they
					could well reach the earth. While many fearful conjectures, in respect to his
					future fortune, were formed by different persons, from the circumstances of his
					nativity, a saying of his father, Domitius, was regarded as an ill presage, who
					told his friends who were congratulating him upon the occasion, "That nothing
					but what was detestable and pernicious to the public, could ever be produced of
					him and Agrippina." Another manifest prognostic of his future infelicity
					occurred upon his lustration day. The purification, and
						giving the name, took place, among the Romans, in the case of boys, on the
						ninth, and of girls, on the tenth day. The customs of the Judaical law were
						similar. See Matt. i. 59-63. Luke iii. 21, 22. For Caius Caesar being
					requested by his sister to give the child what name he thought proper—looking
					at his uncle, Claudius, who afterwards, when emperor, adopted Nero , he gave his: and this not seriously, but
					only in jest; Agrippina treating it with contempt, because Claudius at that time
					was a mere laughing-stock at the palace. He lost his father when he was three
					years old, being left heir to a third part of his estate; of which he never got
					possession, the whole being seized by his co-heir, Caius. His mother being soon
					after banished, he lived with his aunt Lepida, in a very necessitous condition,
					under the care of two tutors, a dancing-master and a barber. After Claudius came
					to the empire, he not only recovered his father's estate, but was enriched with
					the additional inheritance of that of his step-father, Crispus Passienus. Upon
					his mother's recall from banishment, he ,vas advanced to such favour, through
						 Nero 's powerful /terest with the
					emperor, that it was reported, assassins were employed by Messalina, Claudius's
					wife, to strangle him, as Britannicus's rival, whilst he was taking his noon-day
					repose. In addition to the story, it was said that they were frightened by a
					serpent, which crept from under his cushion, and ran away. The tale was
					occasioned by finding on his couch, near the pillow, the skin of a snake, which,
					by his mother's order, he wore for some time upon his right arm, inclosed in a
					bracelet of gold. This amulet, at last, he laid aside, from aversion to her
					memory; but he sought for it again in vain, in the time of his extremity. When he was yet a mere boy, before he arrived at the age of puberty, during the
					celebration of the Circensian Games, A.U.C. 806 he
					performed his part in the Trojan play with a degree of firmness which gained him
					great applause. In the eleventh year of his age, he was adopted by Claudius, and
					placed under the tuition of Anneus Seneca , Seneca. the celebrated
						philosophical writer. had been released from exile in Corsica , shortly before the death of
						Tiberius. He afterwards fell a sacrifice to the jealousy and cruelty of his
						former pupil, Nero . who had
					been made a senator. It is said, that Seneca dreamt the night after, that he was giving a lesson to
					Caius Caesar. Caligula Nero soon verified his dream,
					betraying the cruelty of his disposition in every way he could. For he attempted
					to persuade his father that his brother, Britannicus, was nothing but a
					changeling, because the latter had saluted him, notwithstanding his adoption, by
					the name of ,Enobarbus, as usual. When his aunt, Lepida, was brought to trial,
					he appeared in court as a witness against her, to gratify his mother, who
					persecuted the accused. On his introduction into the Forum, at the age of
					manhood, he gave a largess to the people and a donative to the soldiers; for the
					pretorian cohorts, he appointed a solemn procession under arms, and marched at
					the head of them with a shield in his hand; after which he went to return thanks
					to his father in the senate. Before Claudius, likewise, at the time he was
					consul, he made a speech for the Bolognese, in Latin, and for the Rhodians and
					people of Ilium , in Greek. He had the
					jurisdiction of praefect of the city, for the first time, during the Latin
					festival; during which the most celebrated advocates brought before him, not
					short and trifling causes, as is usual in that case, but trials of importance,
					notwithstanding they had instructions from Claudius himself to the contrary.
					Sooa afterwards, he married Octavia, and exhibited the Circensian games, and
					hunting of wild beasts, in honour of Claudius. He was seventeen years of age at the death of that prince, A. U. C. 809— A. D. 87 . and as soon as
					that event was made public, he went out to the cohort on guard between the hours
					of six and seven; for the omens were so disastrous, that no earlier time of the
					day was judged proper. On the steps before the palace gate, he was unanimously
					saluted by the soldiers as their emperor, and then carried in a litter to the
					camp; thence, after making a short speech to the troops, into the senate-house,
					where he continued until the evening; of all the immense honours which were
					heaped upon him, refusing but the title of FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY, on account of
					his youth. He began his reign with an ostentation of dutiful regard to the memory of
					Claudius, whom he buried with the utmost pomp and magnificence, pronouncing the
					funeral oration himself, and then had him enrolled amongst the gods. He paid
					likewise the highest honours to the memory of his father Domitius. He left the
					management of affairs, both public and private, to his mother. The word which he
					gave the first day of his reign to the tribune on guard, was, "The Best of
					Mothers," and afterwards he frequently appeared with her in the streets of
						 Rome in her litter. He settled a
					colony at Antium , in which he placed
					the veteran soldiers belonging to the guards; and obliged several of the richest
					centurions of the first rank to transfer their residence to that place; where he
					likewise made a noble harbour at a prodigious expense. Antium , the birth-place of
						Nero, an ancient city of the Volscians, stood on a rocky promontory of the
						coast, now called Capo d' Anzo, about thirty-eight miles from Rome . Though always a place of some naval
						importance, it was indebted to Nero for its noble harbour. The ruins of the
						moles yet remain; and there are vestiges of the temples and villas of the
						town, which was the resort of the wealthy Romans, it being a most delightful
						winter residence. The Apollo Belvidere was discovered among these ruins.
					 To establish still further his character, he declared, "that he designed to
					govern according to the model of Augustus;" and omitted no opportunity of
					showing his generosity, clemency, and complaisance. The more burthensome taxes
					he either entirely took off, or diminished. The rewards appointed for informers
					by the Papian law, he reduced to a fourth part, and distributed to the people
					four hundred sesterces a man. To the noblest of the senators who were much
					reduced in their circumstances, he granted annual allowances, in some cases as
					much as five hundred thousand sesterces; and to the pretorian cohorts a monthly
					allowance of corn gratis. When called upon to subscribe the sentence, according
					to custom, of a criminal condemned to die, "I wish," said he, "I had never
					learnt to read and write." He continually saluted people of the several orders
					by name, without a prompter. When the senate returned him their thanks for his
					good government, he replied to them, " It will be time enough to do so when I
					shall have deserved it." He admitted the common people to see him perform his
					exercises in the Campus Martius . He
					frequently declaimed in public, and recited verses of his own composing, not
					only at home, but in the theatre; so much to the joy of all the people,'that
					public prayers were appointed to be put to the gods upon that account; and the
					verses which had been publicly read, were, after being written in gold letters,
					consecrated to Jupiter Capitolinus.