other. These were known to Jerome, and, although they are spurious, they indicate the

place that Seneca occupied in the world of moral philosophy. He utterly failed, however,

to curb the immoral tendencies in his pupil--demonstrating once again the utter necessity

of the grace of God, and the powerlessness of human wisdom. Seneca was accused by

Nero of treason, and died by opening his own veins. Don Cassius ascribes the revolt of

the Britons under Boadicea to the distress to which they were driven through the rapacity

of Seneca and his agents.

Nero poisoned Britannicus in the year following his own accession to the throne. He

was married to Octavia, the daughter of Claudius, a woman of singular virtue, whom he

accordingly detested, lived an immoral life with a courtesan named Acte, and in adultery

with Poppæa, whose two husbands were still living. He married Poppæa in A.D.62, a

year or two before the Apostle's release at the end of Acts 28: Strangely enough

Josephus tells us that Poppæa was a proselyte to the Jewish faith, and occasionally she

protected the Jews and conferred favours upon them. Even Nero himself was conversant

with the Jewish religion and was assured by his friends that the fates had destined him to

be King of Jerusalem* (Suet. Nero 40).

In A.D.59 Nero added to his series of crimes that of matricide. At the jealous

instigation of Poppæa, he was responsible for the murder of his mother Agrippina. After

this his nerves became frayed and, not daring to return to Rome, he retired to Naples.

The servile Senate, however, urged him to come back to Rome, and now that the

restraining power of Agrippina was removed, he gave free indulgence to his every whim.

He became charioteer, singer and player upon the guitar. Gallio, who is mentioned in

the Acts, had the degrading office of announcing "Nero Claudius is about to sing"

(Don Cass. 61: 20). Tears ran down the cheeks of the honest old soldier Burrhus, as he

saw his master thus disgrace the name of Cæsar.

Nero actually encouraged new forms of vice by payment, with appalling results. As

Lewin writes:

On the night of July 19th A.D.64, soon after Paul's release at the end of Acts 28:,

a fire broke out in Rome that raged for six days and seven nights. It was commonly

reported that Nero himself was the incendiary, and that his object was to obtain a clear

space in which to erect a magnificent palace. To provide a scape-goat for the multitude,

he started the calumny that the Christians were the culprits, and persecution on a large

scale began.

Tacitus, the Roman historian, writes as follows: