him: "Well, then, give her back her dowry" (by which he meant the
sovereignty). Indeed, Burrus used such unmitigated frankness that on one
occasion, when he was asked by the emperor a second time for an opinion on
matters regarding which he had already made clear his attitude, he
answered bluntly: "When I have once had my say about anything, don't ask
me again." So Nero disposed of him by poison. He also appointed to command
the Pretorians a certain Ofonius Tigillinus, who outstripped all his
contemporaries in licentiousness and bloodiness. [It was he who won Nero
away from them and made light of his colleague Rufus.] [Footnote:
_Foenius Rufus._] To him the famous sentence of Pythias is said to have
been directed. She had proved the only exception when all the other
attendants of Octavia had joined Sabina in attacking their mistress,
despising the one because she was in misfortune and toadying to the other
because her influence was strong. Pythias alone had refused though cruelly
tortured to utter lies against Octavia, and finally, as Tigillinus
continued to urge her, she spat in his face, saying:

"My mistress's privy parts are cleaner, Tigillinus, than your mouth."

[Sidenote:--14--] The troubles of his relatives Nero turned into laughter
and jest. For instance, after killing Plautus [Footnote: _Rubellirs
Plautus_.] he took a look at his head when it was brought to him and
remarked: "I didn't know he had such a big nose," as much as to say that
he would have spared him, had he been aware of this fact beforehand. And
though he spent practically his whole existence in tavern life, he forbade
others to sell in taverns anything boiled save vegetables and pea-soup. He
put Pallas out of the way because the latter had accumulated great wealth
that could be counted by the ten thousand myriads. Likewise he was very
liable to peevishness that showed in his behavior, and at such times he
would not speak a word to his servants or freedmen but write on tablets