So kind a ruler should not cause such tortures to his subjects.

"Be not cruel, O Caesar!" "Be not cruel!" repeated all who were sitting near.
Nero spread his hands in sign that he had to yield.

All faces assumed then an expression of gratitude, and all eyes were turned to him; but he gave command first to announce to Poppaea that he would sing; he informed those present that she had not come to the feast, because she did not feel in good health; but since no medicine gave her such relief as his singing, he would be sorry to deprive her of this opportunity.
In fact, Poppaea came soon.

Hitherto she had ruled Nero as if he had been her subject, but she knew that when his vanity as a singer, a charioteer, or a poet was involved, there was danger in provoking it.
She came in therefore, beautiful as a divinity, arrayed, like Nero, in robes of amethyst color, and wearing a necklace of immense pearls, stolen on a time from Massinissa; she was golden-haired, sweet, and though divorced from two husbands she had the face and the look of a virgin.
She was greeted with shouts, and the appellation "Divine Augusta." Lygia had never seen any one so beautiful, and she could not believe her own eyes, for she knew that Poppaea Sabina was one of the vilest women on earth.

She knew from Pomponia that she had brought Caesar to murder his mother and his wife; she knew her from accounts given by Aulus's guests and the servants; she had heard that statues to her had been thrown down at night in the city; she had heard of inscriptions, the writers of which had been condemned to severest punishment, but which still appeared on the city walls every morning.