Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - The Roman Emperors in Marble - 5. Nero
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138 ROMAN DAYS.
Vindex were forwarded to Nero whije he was looking on
at a gymnastic game in Naples, and seemed to make no
impression upon him. His thoughts were at that time
so filled with a new discovery in the domain of music
—
the water-organ—that once, in the middle of the night,
he called certain senators to him, that he might not keep
back until morning the news that he had discovered a
way to give the organ a stronger and clearer tone. Only
after renewed exhortations, did he return to Rome.
Fresh tidings from the west and north at last opened his
eyes to the extent of the danger. And now, hours of
terror alternated with hours of his accustomed levity.
Now he should go forth with his loyal Italian troops
against the rebels ; now his imagination bewitched him
with the idea that he might go alone and unarmed against
the rebellious legions, who at sight of Csesar would lay
down their arms and restore to him their affection ; now
he thought of living as a private man, by his art, without
longing after the lost power. At last he decided to move
forward, with the war material at his command. Armor
and equipments were made in all haste, though not with
speed so great that the statues, paintings and musical
instruments he took with him on all his journeys, could
not go with him now, also. But what he did not observe
in the smooth faces of those around him, in the submis-
sive bearing of the senators, or in the eyes of the soldiers,
was, that they had already given him up as lost. Galba’s
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