not yield it in any case. Pure comedy! So we have decided on war.
Corbulo will receive power such as Pompeius Magnus received in the war
with pirates. There was a moment, however, when Nero hesitated. He
seems afraid of the glory which Corbulo will win in case of victory. It
was even thought to offer the chief command to our Aulus. This was
opposed by Poppæa, for whom evidently Pomponia's virtue is as salt in
the eye.

"Vatinius described to us a remarkable fight of gladiators, which is to
take place in Beneventum. See to what cobblers rise in our time, in
spite of the saying, 'Ne sutor ultra crepidam!' Vitelius is the
descendant of a cobbler; but Vatinius is the son of one! Perhaps he
drew thread himself! The actor Aliturus represented Œdipus yesterday
wonderfully. I asked him, by the way, as a Jew, if Christians and Jews
were the same. He answered that the Jews have an eternal religion, but
that Christians are a new sect risen recently in Judea; that in the time
of Tiberius the Jews crucified a certain man, whose adherents increase
daily, and that the Christians consider him as God. They refuse, it
seems, to recognize other gods, ours especially. I cannot understand
what harm it would do them to recognize these gods.

"Tigellinus shows me open enmity now. So far he is unequal to me; but
he is, superior in this, that he cares more for life, and is at the same
time a greater scoundrel, which brings him nearer Ahenobarbus. These
two will understand each other earlier or later, and then my turn will
come. I know not when it will come; but I know this, that as things are
it must come; hence let time pass. Meanwhile we must amuse ourselves.
Life of itself would not be bad were it not for Bronzebeard. Thanks to
him, a man at times is disgusted with himself. It is not correct to
consider the struggle for his favor as a kind of rivalry in a circus,--