Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

THE TRAGEDY OF BAIAE 95would argue with some justice, is nothing withoutan audience.^ But Phoebus was not only thegod of music, he was the charioteer of the sun ;and here also he was followed by the emperor.For Nero's second passion was the managementof horses in chariots ;his skill in which he wasalmost as anxious to exhibit to the public as thebeauty of his voice. While, however, his motherlived he shrank from degrading the majesty of theCaesars by the self-exposure involved in publicexhibitions. He hated Agrippina, but he dreadedher contempt.^After the death of Agrippina, Seneca andBurrhus found it impossible longer to resist theprince's inclinations. In the hope, therefore, thatby a compromise they might satisfy his vanitywhile averting a public scandal, they caused aspace of level ground at the foot of the Palatinehill to be enclosed on which Nero might exhibithis skill as a charioteer to a selected audience.But vanity, like jealousy, is a passion that makesthe meat it feeds on ;and the only effect on Neroof the applause of his friends was to make himhunger for a larger circle of spectators.Barrierswere cast aside and the Roman people invitedto the spectacle.The populace, delighted to see^'Suet. Nero, 20 :Jactans occultae musicae nullum esserespectum.'^It has been thought remarkable, and a proof of their hardnessof heart, that the Romans were more shocked by Nero's stageperformances than by his cruelties or debaucheries. But if weconsider what would have been the effect in modern times onthe minds of their subjects of the appearance of a German or aRussian emperor on the public stage of the opera in femalecostume we shall feel less surprise.