He then enriched his most
powerful friends with liberal presents. Some there were who reproached men
of austere professions with having on such an occasion divided houses and
estates among themselves, like so much spoil. It was the belief of others
that a pressure had been put on them
by the emperor, who, conscious as he was of guilt, hoped for
merciful consideration if he could secure the most important men by
wholesale bribery. But his mother's rage no lavish bounty could allay. She
would clasp Octavia to her arms, and have many a secret interview with her
friends; with more than her natural rapacity, she clutched at money
everywhere, seemingly for a reserve, and courteously received tribunes and
centurions. She honoured the names and virtues of the nobles who still were
left, seeking apparently a party and a leader. Of this Nero became aware,
and he ordered the departure of the military guard now kept for the
emperor's mother, as it had formerly been for the imperial consort, along
with some German troops, added as a further honour. He also gave her a
separate establishment, that throngs of visitors might no longer wait on
her, and removed her to what had been Antonia's house; and whenever he went
there himself, he was surrounded by a crowd of centurions, and used to leave
her after a hurried kiss.
