click to read pdf file - The Preterist Archive

154 DARKNESS AND DAWN
when he went next morning to the Palace. In general he
was safe in attacking small and feeble parties of citizens ;
but not long afterwards he received another rebuff from the
senator Julius Montanus, whose wife he insulted as they were
returning from supper at a friend's house. Montanus, like
Pudens, had recognised the Emperor, but he had not the
prudence to conceal his knowledge. Alarmed that he should
have struck and wounded the sacrosanct person of a Caesar,
he was unwise enough to apologise. The consequence was
natural. Had he held his tongue he might have escaped.
Nero did not care to be detected in his escapades, and he
ordered Montanus to commit suicide.
Having, however, been hurt more than once in these
nocturnal encounters by men who had some courage, he made
assurance doubly sure by taking witli him some gladiators
who were always to be within call if required. He was thus
able to continue his pranks with impunity until they, too,
lost their novelty, and began to pall upon a mind in which
every spark of virility was dead, and which was rapidly
degenerating into a mass of sensuous egotism.