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172 DARKNESS AND DAWN
You would make a fine tragedian, mother,' said Nero, with
'
a bitter sneer.
The excess of Agrippina's rage seemed to stifle her. One
'
hope, at least, the gods have left me,' she gasped forth, as soon
'
as she could find voice to speak. Britaunicus yet lives ;
I
will take him with me to the Praetorian camp. I will see
whether the soldiers will listen to the daughter of Germanicus,
or to Burrus with his mutilated hand and Seneca with his
professorial tongue.'
'
I am tired of all this,' answered Nero.
'
Only remember
that some day you may provoke me too far. There are such
persons as informers there is such a law as that of Icesa
;
ma jest as.'
He left her, as he almost always
left her now, in angry
displeasure, but he did not seriously fear her threats. He
had been trained to think himself incomparably superior to
Britannicus. Agrippina herself had encouraged the widespread
scandal that it was one thing to be a son of
Messalina, and quite another to be a son of Claudius.
Besides, he traced no steady ambition in the boy. So long
as he was left to amuse himself with Titus, he gave hardly
any trouble, nor had he, so far as Nero knew, a single partisan
who could for a moment withstand the combined
authority and popularity of such men as Seneca and the
Praetorian PrEefect. Still he disliked being threatened so
constantly with the claims of the son of Claudius. Tigellinus
was always hissing his name in his ears, and Agrippina
blazoning him as a resource wherewith to secure her vengeance.
If Britannicus were not so insignificant, it
might
be well to put him out of the way.
A few days afterwards, when his face had nearly resumed
its ordinary hue, he determined to celebrate the Saturnalia
with a party mainly composed of youthful nobles.
Otho of course was there, and the guests whom he had
invited to the villa in the Apennines. Among the others
were Nerva, now a young man of twenty-three, and Vespasian,
with his two sons, Titus and Domitian, who, with a
few other boys, were asked to meet Britannicus. Piso
Licinianus, a youth of seventeen, of high lineage and blameless
manners, was of a very different stamp from Nero's
favourite companions, but Nero chose to pay him the com-