10. When he was told of the resolution of the senate, he asked
what was meant by being punished according to the rigour of the
ancient laws? To this it was answered, that the criminal was to be
stripped naked, his head fixed in a pillory, and in that posture he
was to be scourged to death. 11. Nero was so terrified at this, that
he seized two poniards, which he had brought with him: after examining
their points, he returned them, however, to their sheaths, pretending
that the fatal moment was not yet arrived. 12. He then desired Sporus
to begin the lamentations which were used at funerals; he next
entreated that one of his attendants would die, to give him courage by
his example, and afterwards began to reproach his own cowardice,
crying out, "Does this become Nero? Is this trifling well-timed?
No!--let me be courageous!" In fact, he had no time to spare; for the
soldiers who had been sent in pursuit of him, were just then
approaching the house. 13. Upon hearing, therefore, the sound of the
horses' feet, he set a dagger to his throat, with which, by the
assistance of Epaphrod'itus, his freedman and secretary, he gave
himself a mortal wound.
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