terrified, for he thought the vision implied that he would never get
beyond the third book of his work, and this actually proved to be the
case.

Nero, in fact, had a romantic charm about him, in spite of, or perhaps
because of, the wild recklessness of his life; and he possessed the
redeeming feature of artistic taste. Like Francis I. of France, or our
own Charles II., he was irresistible with the ladies, and must have been
the darling of all the housemaids of Rome. People long refused to
believe in his death, and for many years it was confidently affirmed
that he would appear again. His ghost was long believed to walk in Rome,
and the church of Santa Maria del Popolo is said to have been built as
late as 1099 by Pope Paschalis II. on the site of the tombs of the
Domitii, where Nero was buried, near the modern Porta del Popolo, where
the Via Flaminia entered the city, in order to lay his restless shade.

Caligula also appeared shortly after his death, and frequently disturbed
the keepers of the Lamian Gardens, for his body had been hastily buried
there without due ceremony. Not till his sisters, who really loved him,
in spite of his many faults, had returned from exile were the funeral
rites properly performed, after which his ghost gave no more
trouble.[83]

On the night of the day of Galba's murder, the Emperor Otho was heard
groaning in his room by his attendants. They rushed in, and found him
lying in front of his bed, endeavouring to propitiate Galba's ghost, by
whom he declared that he saw himself being driven out and expelled.[84]
Otho was a strange mixture of superstition and scepticism, for when he
started on his last fatal expedition he treated the unfavourable omens
with contempt. By this time, however, he may have become desperate.