were called _Pythici_ after some of their ancestors they would not
abandon possession of this name, thus blaspheming Nero's Pythian victories
by the use of a similar title.--And when the Augustans offered to build a
shrine to the emperor worth a thousand librae, the whole equestrian order
was compelled to help defray the expense they had undertaken.--As for the
doings of the senate, it would be a task to describe them all in detail.
For so many sacrifices and days of thanksgiving were announced that the
whole year would not hold them all.

[Sidenote:--19--] Helius having for some time sent Nero repeated messages
urging him to return as quickly as possible, when he found that no
attention was paid to them, went himself to Greece on the seventh day and
frightened him by saying that a great conspiracy against him was on foot
in Rome. This news made him embark at double quick rate. There was some
hope of his perishing in a storm and many rejoiced, but to no purpose: he
came safely to land. And cause for destroying some few persons was found
in the very fact that they had prayed and hoped that he might perish.

[Sidenote: A.D. 68 (a.u. 821)] [Sidenote:--20--] So, when he marched into
Rome, a portion of the wall was torn down and a section of the gates
broken in, because some asserted that each of these ceremonies was
customary upon the return of garlanded victors from the games. First
entered men wearing the garlands which, had been won, and after them
others with boards borne aloft on spears, upon which were inscribed the
name of the set of games, the kind of contest, and a statement that "Nero
Caesar first of all the Romans from the beginning of the world has
conquered in it." Next came the victor himself on a triumphal car in which
Augustus once had celebrated his many victories: he wore a vesture of
purple sprinkled with gold and a garland of wild olive; he held in his
hand the Pythian laurel. By his side in the vehicle sat Diodorus the